After countless hours working in his parents’ North Long Beach restaurant, Hak Tea never thought he would one day serve his own food out of the same storefront.
But three years ago, his parents were planning to sell their space near the intersection of Cherry Avenue and South Street. It was a shop they’d operated out of for more than two decades.
Instead of letting the longtime family business disappear, Hak Tea decided to transform it into something new. He told his parents he would take over the space and move his wing restaurant from San Francisco back to Southern California, where he had grown up.
Hak Tea and his wife — who was 8 months pregnant — packed up their lives in the family car and a 26-foot U-Haul and set off for Long Beach.
Three years later, you can still see a hint of the old family business: the faded lettering of its name, “Golden Chinese Express,” remain on the shopping plaza’s sign, but nearby, the name of Hak Tea’s reborn restaurant, Shlap Muan (which means chicken wings in Khmer), is emblazoned over the storefront.
Echoes of his parents’ cooking also remain. Golden Chinese Express served a mix of Chinese food and “Cambodian breakfast staples,” Hak Tea said, but his dad also had a wing recipe that was well-liked, although the wings were grilled, not fried.
Hak Tea is now pushing wings to new heights by getting creative with the fry recipe and the flavors he remembers growing up eating. Most of them start with some variation of Kreung, a base spice paste used throughout Cambodian cuisine.
“He had a fairly good recipe, and then I kind of took that idea, played with it, did it up … ” Hak Tea said.
That creativity has earned the restaurant a No. 11 ranking on Yelp among U.S. restaurants this year, and last month, Shlap Muan served hungry music festival attendees at Coachella and Stagecoach in the Coachella Valley.
A customer who does solar power work for the Coachella festival helped connect Hak Tea with the festival organizer, who told him he was familiar with the wings.
Other than 30 mph wind gusts putting a damper on business on one of the days, Hak Tea said the experience was flawless. One of his favorite parts was getting to see country star Luke Combs perform.
Cooking and serving wings was ideal for scaling up to meet the customers’ demand and get them orders quickly, Hak Tea said.
“The busier we get, the faster we are,” he said.
Shlap Muan prides itself on wings that aren’t too oily or too dry.
Crowd favorites are the Dirty Elvis and Tamarind Tiger, which are both sauced by a quick toss in the wok to coat the wings.
Those wok-tossed wings come 10 for $15, 20 for $27 or 30 for $38.
Dry rubs include Cambodian Dirt, Spicy Cambodian Dirt, Pekang and Jalapeno M.S.G.
Wet wings come in Sweet Spicy Garlic, Water Buffalo, Orange Habanero and Spicy Elephant — one uniquely coated in peanut sauce.
Those come in increments of 4 for $6, 8 for $11.50, 16 for $22, 24 for $31 or 48 for $59, respectively.
Shlap Muan’s shrimp fried rice for $15 is a top seller as a side, Hak Tea said.
Customer’s orders are called by name, not number, something that makes the experience feel more welcoming, Hak Tea said. He encourages his staff to talk to customers and joke around with them.
Come February, Hak Tea does have one request for customers: Please put your Super Bowl orders in early.
Shlap Muan, 2150 E South Street, is open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.