Angkor Cambodian Cafe in Eugene, Oregon

The menu offers the silhouette you'd expect. 

If you long for the tastes of Cambodia, there's a slightly closer option if you live in Oregon. Angkor Cambodian Cafe is located in Eugene, Oregon, and serves several nice Khmer dishes. 

Eating at the Riverside of Long Beach

Cambodiatown in Long Beach, Calif., is a neighborhood lined with Khmer-owned businesses. My wife and I had a chance to stop in and have lunch — but it was not a particularly great meal, though dessert was excellent.

We ate at one of the big, lavishly decorated restaurants near MacArthur Park. It had vast murals of Angkor Wat, a karaoke stage, great sound equipment and space for an epic wedding feast. It also had indifferent cooks, befuddled wait staff and a distracted manager (but this was only one visit, so I'm not naming the restaurant).

Overall, it was a disappointment for my wife, who was expecting a taste sensation straight out of Phnom Penh. But on the way out, we asked the waitress where she liked to eat.

Success!

It says "riverside" in Khmer, too.

Just a few blocks down Anaheim and around the corner was a market selling every kind of street food legal in America. Riverside Supermarket had barbecued beef kebabs, fried bananas, papaya salad and anything else a homesick Cambodian could wish for. All at incredibly cheap prices. Even the cafe across the parking lot had a better selection of Khmer meals than the upscale restaurant.

It's a phenomenon that economist Tyler Cowen examines in his book "An Economist Gets Lunch." Restaurants that invest in "nice" atmosphere are selling just that: a venue for impressing people. The rundown place off the main street has to compete on taste and price — things your average Cambodian-American very much cares about when no one is getting married.