Serendipitous Southeast Asian culinary cuisine to go | Arts & Entertainment

Talk about serendipity. 

I was looking online for new restaurants in the Inland Empire which serve Thai, Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian cuisine. 

While Thai and Vietnamese places are plentiful, and some Thai places offer Laotian dishes, I’ve never encountered an Asian restaurant that offers Cambodian specialties in this area, until we came across Southeast Asian Food To Go.

You would most likely find Khmer cuisine in the Long Beach area or perhaps the San Gabriel valley.

Fermented fish sauces or fish paste in Cambodia are commonly used as flavoring agents for assorted meats. 

Though you might expect these flavoring agents to be rather overpowering, it’s not the case. 

Here, where owners Lily Send and Sidney Lot and Chef Senon Seng (who hail from Cambodia) use these flavoring agents in tandem with other items such as herb paste, rice powder, lemongrass, ginger, galangal and kefir lime leaves to create a myriad of sauces with ingredients of varying proportions, resulting in flavors which leap off the plate. 

An array of chilis are also used to accentuate the flavors. 

I’d start with mild spice levels to see how your palate handles the heat.

We decided to try one Thai, one Vietnamese, two Laotian and three Cambodian dishes. 

We began with neua nam tok from Thailand, grilled beef mixed with toasted rice powder, onions, chili, mint and lemongrass. It was pungently aromatic, with overtones of nuttiness from the toasted rice powder. 

This was a complex and delicious dish.

From Vietnam came bo luc lac with sautéed melt-in-your-mouth tender cubes of beef with rice, onions, tomatoes, lettuce and cucumber slices.

Moving into more exotic fare, we ordered two Laotian items: nam Kao tod and pad keemao. 

The nam kao tod consisted of a bed of crunchy, deep fried rice blended with fermented pork, herbs and red curry paste. 

You spoon the mixture onto a romaine lettuce leaf and roll it around the contents before digging in. 

It’s a bit sour with rich umami-like flavors and a complex texture. 

The pad keemao contained spicy flat noodles with green chilis, Chinese broccoli, onions, mint leaves and your choice of protein. 

We opted for the shrimp which were both succulent and plentiful.

And now, getting into uncharted territory: the Khmer cuisine of Cambodia. 

First off was a chicken curry cooked in a yellow curry paste with potatoes, carrots, bamboo shoots, onions and coconut milk. 

It was sweet with an undercurrent of heat in the finish.

Prahok Gthis was a delicious blend of minced pork cooked together with fermented fish sauce( somewhat sour and rich with umami like flavors), peas, eggplant, chilis, coconut milk and herb paste accompanied by rice and veggies. 

We were also fortunate to have a taste of steak with Prahok. 

Thin sliced marinated grilled skirt steak was served with a side of fermented fish sauce as an extra added attraction.

The final item was an off the menu special known as slar machu kreung, a thick beef soup flavored with kfir lime leaves, turmeric, eggplant and thin threads of some of the best tripe (cow stomach) I’ve ever encountered. 

It was both filling and delicious and my favorite amongst the bevy of winning items we tried. 

Don’t miss this venture into the culinary wonders of Southeast Asia, especially the Cambodian and Laotian selections.