If there is one egregious gap in Long Beach’s food events scene, it is the lack of a Cambodian food festival. Thanks to the leadership of Chef Chad Phuong of Battambong BBQ, that’s about to finally change.
The Long Beach Cambodian Food Festival kicks off its inaugural year at Ten Mile Brewing on Saturday, Oct. 19 from noon to 8PM. And yes, it echoes his annual Cambodian New Year celebration at the brewery—this will just have way more vendors.
“We’ve been celebrating Khmer culture within our community for a long time—I think there’s no better time than now to continue to showcase the beauty of our flavors to a wider audience,” said co-organizer and food influencer James Tir (aka LB Food Coma). “That’s the intent behind this festival. A place where Khmer and non-Khmer alike can enjoy good food and good beer. The stuff that we enjoyed at home growing up.”
The road to the Long Beach Cambodian Food Festival has been a long one.
The Cambodian community has taught and brought to Long Beach a truly unmeasurable amount of perspective and culture. For one, it showed citizens the dark difference between an immigrant and a refugee, with the latter having forced to come here because of trauma, war, and in the case of our Cambodian elders and refugees, escaping genocide. This weight cannot be dismissed whenever discussing Cambodian food. As I have repeatedly said, whenever you eat a bowl of noodles at Noodle Shack or barbecue from the Cambodian Cowboy himself, what you’re eating isn’t just a dish but a bit of cultural resilience.
And for Chef Chad, this festival is a reflection of not just that resilience but the talent of the Cambodian community as well.
“The Long Beach Cambodian Food Festival is a collection of local Cambodian eateries that have paved the way for Cambodians to express their culinary roots,” Phuong said. “Whether it’s through smoked BBQ, chicken wings, tacos, or even more traditional dishes—this festival will offer a wide range for everyone wanting to try the flavors of Cambodian cuisine. We hope to uplift each other and the community by sharing our unique dishes with everyone.”
The Long Beach Cambodian Food Festival features some of our best reps.
The lineup for the festival includes some of our best. Check it:
- Battambong BBQ – Battambong has reached national attention with Chef Chad’s Cambodian-Long Beach-infused take on Texan BBQ.
- Lady Khmer Chef aka Pov’s Kitchen – Home chef SreyPov Bin has long been teaching people how to create Khmer dishes, from her famed sundry clams to tirk kreung.
- Chinitos Tacos – Chef Beeline Krouch has seamlessly merged the world of tacos and Cambodian flavors, becoming locally famous for his lemongrass carne asada and five-spice barbacoa.
- The Golden Skewer – Sharing Smorgaburg space in DTLA with Battambong, Golden Skewer owner Johnny Chhom has built up name for Cambodian beef skewers on a level few have.
- Sweet Grass – This sugarcane juice joint is the sister to Golden Skewer. Together? The perfect pair.
- Cowboy Pepper Chips – Literally one of my favorite snacks. Get them. Period.
- Feed Me Right Mau – Chef Chanda Mau’s take on classic dishes like Kathew Phnom Penh and Cambodian chicken curry have turned her into a beautiful Cambodian representative.
- Kreung Kitchen – Kreung Kitchen, the popup growing in popularity in Culver City, will be on hand with their plates.
- Sophy’s – A Long Beach classic, this restaurant is one of the legacy Cambodian spaces serving up a ton of offerings.
- Shlap Muan – Chef Hawk Tea and wife Sophia serve up the city’s best chicken wings—period—and does so by melding Cambodian flavors into distinct offerings.
- House of Nom – House of Nom serves up nom krok, a rice coconut pancake filled with green onions.
- Ida’s Sweets – Vera, the woman behind Ida’s Sweets, will be offering her masterful creations.
- Shady Jerky – Simply put: bomb jerky.
And the food will go beyond what these masters serve up on the regular.
Steak with teuk prohok, a spicy AF, wondrous, funky, fermented fish sauce wonder of a sauce. Banh chao, the Cambodian take on the classic Vietnamese bánh xèo. Nom pang, the Cambodian sandwich. Khmer sauces. Khmer desserts like nom ansom, a Khmer sticky rice cake. Kuytier, sometimes spelled kuy teav, a traditional Cambodian noodle soup. Bok lahong, a papaya salad. Egg rolls. Spring rolls. Sour fruit stand.
The offerings at the Long Beach Cambodian Festival are incredibly awesome—and definitively worth visiting the festival for.
“This is such an amazing event that everyone should attend,” said Chef Hawk Tea of Shlap Muan. “Long Beach has an amazing, eclectic culture; with that, the Cambodian community is the largest outside of Cambodia. Come out and experience amazing food from amazing chefs, who are revitalizing traditional and reinventing modern Khmer cuisine.”
Even more? Chef Chad will finally be offering his take on one of the most respected Cambodian culinary creations, nom p’jok or sometimes spelled nom banh chok. a bowl of thick, vermicelli noodles topped with an assortment of herbal leaves and a separate bowl filled with a turmeric-tinged broth that uses muddled catfish as its base and then, through some culinary alchemy, results in a umami-meets-citrus bomb that is as light as it is addictive. Add some fresh squeezed Keffir lime and Thai chile and you have one of my favorite bowls of noodles. Actually, scratch that: You have my favorite bowl of noodles.
The Long Beach Cambodian Food Festival takes place on Saturday, Oct. 19, from noon to 8PM at Ten Mile Brewing, located at 1136 E. Willow St. in Signal Hill.
