Daily_Shows Movie
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All rights reserved @Dailymotion.com - Daily_Shows
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00:00In California, there's so many Asian cultures that come here and different noodle soups.
00:10Thai food and Vietnamese food tend to take over that scene.
00:18People think there's fish sauce in there, that must be Thai.
00:21Or, oh, that's a clear broth with a little bit of anise, that's Vietnamese.
00:27And then when you dig a little deeper, there's this whole other culture and history that
00:32I wasn't familiar with.
00:39Ngai Yuen is a poet.
00:41She's telling the story of Cambodian people, bringing people into something that they have
00:47looked away from.
00:51And she's trying to do it through the food.
00:55At first glance, Ngai's this shy girl, but when you see her in the kitchen, she's bold.
01:07She's determined.
01:09She's a force to be reckoned with.
01:13When you look at her food, it looks so humble.
01:18When you take a bite, the thing is hitting every pleasure center in your mouth.
01:24There are so many layers of flavor.
01:27Galangal, lemongrass.
01:30It's somehow both deep and fresh, crunchy and soft, rich and light.
01:37It's pure joy.
01:42The reason why she's doing this isn't about her own self.
01:48She has a motivation to tell a larger story.
01:54She wants to bring people into her culture, give people a curiosity and desire to learn
02:01about what happened to her country.
02:24Put it in.
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02:53There wasn't a lot of people cooking Cambodian food in the States.
02:59There was a few mom-and-pop Cambodian restaurants, but they would have Vietnamese and Thai food
03:05on the menu.
03:07It's a way to pull people in because they had no other way to make money.
03:12If you don't cook Cambodian food, it could be lost forever.
03:24Growing up, we celebrated being Khmer.
03:29My dad listened to Cambodian rock and roll.
03:34We ate Khmer food.
03:39My first language was Khmer.
03:44Learned how to read and write Khmer.
03:48So I've always been connected to being Khmer.
03:53When I started to learn how to cook, I didn't care if I didn't have pad thai on the menu.
04:01I wanted to inspire others to learn about their history.
04:08To understand Cambodian food.
04:13My goal was to celebrate Cambodian culture in its truest form.
04:44Growing up, there's this soup that my mom would make.
04:49She would make this soup.
04:52She would make this soup.
04:55She would make this soup.
04:58She would make this soup.
05:01She would make this soup.
05:04She would make this soup.
05:07She would make this soup.
05:10Growing up, there's this soup that my mom would make.
05:15It's called kutio prompen.
05:19The broth is made with pork bones.
05:23You simmer them for hours.
05:27You have it with rice noodles.
05:33Sliced pork.
05:35Shrimp.
05:38And different toppings.
05:42It's our version of a noodle soup.
05:46When I was growing up, my parents never got along.
05:51My brothers were never really around.
05:54When my mom made the soup, I would be there in the kitchen helping her out.
06:03If it's the one time, everyone in the family would be so happy.
06:14There's no fights between my parents.
06:16We're all just sitting at the table slurping this bowl of soup.
06:24I would always crave that calmness.
06:30Is it good?
06:34Is it good?
06:35It's good, yeah.
06:38Oh, I forgot the steak.
06:40That's why this soup brings back loving tender memories.
07:01I was born in a refugee camp.
07:07After the war, my family fled to the States.
07:14In Stockton, there was a group of people who were ashamed of being Khmer.
07:23I was the weird one that totally embraced my Khmer-ness.
07:31My dad struggled a lot.
07:34He never assimilated.
07:37Never learned how to speak English.
07:41He wasn't able to keep a job.
07:44Mom was the one that provided for my brothers and I.
07:50My parents were the complete opposite, being survivors of a genocide.
07:58I think they were with each other because that's all they had.
08:02I was curious about my parents' life.
08:06How could someone be so strong after seeing death?
08:13Made me wonder what life was like before I was born.
08:18So I gravitated towards being around my mom, hanging out in the kitchen.
08:25I would ask her questions about life in Cambodia.
08:31What it was before the war and how was it during the war.
08:37How did she survive?
08:40But she was never able to answer.
08:43Her eyes would get really watery.
08:46I would stop because I could see how uncomfortable she would get.
08:51I felt like so much of who I am is shaped by my parents.
08:55If I don't know what they went through,
09:00it would be difficult for me to understand myself.
09:17In Cambodia, there's this big lake called the Than Lay Sap, or the Great Lake.
09:28During the rainy season, that whole lake would get flooded.
09:33It would be like a giant lake.
09:36It would be full of water.
09:40During the rainy season, that whole lake would get flooded.
09:48And during the dry season, the water level would go down.
09:53And what's left is all these fish.
09:58They would scale the fish.
10:02Rub it with a lot of salt.
10:09And letting it dry out.
10:13And it's basically rotting.
10:19Eventually, the fish would die.
10:24Eventually, it turns into this magical fish paste.
10:29When you look at it, it's this pungent, funky, brown paste.
10:34But once you start learning how to cook with it, you can do so much with it.
10:40When people ask what's the difference between Vietnamese and Thai food,
10:45I immediately say Rahok.
10:50It gives Cambodian food that depth, that funk, that umami flavor.
10:57It's what makes Cambodian food delicious.
11:03The neighborhood I grew up in was pretty rough.
11:08Meth was on the streets.
11:12A lot of gang activities.
11:17I was hearing drive-by shootings.
11:22I was hearing gunshots.
11:27I was hearing police.
11:32I was hearing drive-by shootings.
11:37Hearing so-and-so son got shot my senior year,
11:42I ran into all those problems.
11:47It freaked out my mom.
11:52She wanted to protect me.
11:57So my mom decided to take me to go see a monk.
12:02The monk told my mom,
12:07Your daughter is cursed with bad luck.
12:12He performed this ritual where I had to lay on a bed of rice
12:18with white cloth over me.
12:23And as the monk is chanting to remove my bad luck,
12:28he's slowly pulling the sheet off me.
12:33I felt different.
12:38I felt lighter.
12:43After that, I realized I couldn't be in that environment anymore.
12:51I knew I had to leave Stockton.
12:56I just knew there was so much more.
13:14When I had the chance, I made my move to San Francisco.
13:22I decided to do nursing because it was like a practical job.
13:29When I finally did my rotation at a hospital,
13:34I realized that nursing wasn't for me.
13:39I decided on buying a flight to Cambodia.
13:47Once I landed, my cousin came to pick me up.
13:52When we went to the market,
13:57there was freshly cut butchered meat,
14:02the smell of blood,
14:07and I felt like I had sensory overload.
14:12It was overwhelming.
14:17Everyone was speaking Khmer.
14:22Everyone looked very familiar.
14:27I just felt like I belonged.
14:37My purpose of going to Cambodia
14:42was to learn more about my parents,
14:47how they met, the family history.
15:00When I asked my cousins,
15:05they didn't really say much.
15:10That went back and forth.
15:15Wanting answers, but no one saying much.
15:20I could tell it made them feel uncomfortable.
15:25And then one cousin said,
15:30She's one of the strongest person we've ever met.
15:35And that just made me more curious.
15:40Why? What made you say that?
15:45She said it's too difficult for me to talk about.
15:50I needed to know more.
15:55What did she go through?
16:00Why can't they tell me?
16:05It's always been a puzzle.
16:10The houses that I stayed in,
16:15there's no refrigeration system,
16:20no electricity.
16:25It was such a scene.
16:30People waking up early to buy produce.
16:35Chicken that's been butchered that second.
16:40And cooked over the wood fire.
16:45It's what I imagined it was like
16:50hundreds and hundreds of years ago.
16:53Every time I eat food there,
16:56every single dish is like, this is so good.
17:01I could not stop eating.
17:06I could find kitthiopong pai in every food stall,
17:11but done in a way that I've never had before.
17:16And felt so lucky to experience this food.
17:21As I'm like scarfing it down, slurping the broth,
17:26I thought, how come people don't know about this back home?
17:31People are so familiar with Vietnamese pho,
17:36but my food is not represented enough.
17:41That's when the idea just came to me
17:45of opening up a Cambodian restaurant in San Francisco.
17:48And everything was so crystal clear.
17:51Without having any experience working in a restaurant,
17:54I said, fuck it, I'm just going to open a Cambodian restaurant.
17:59I knew this was the right path.
18:06piano plays softly
18:19When I came back from Cambodia,
18:22I was so obsessed with this idea, I just could not let it go.
18:26And so my first step was, okay, how do I cook?
18:30How do I make this soup that I love so much?
18:33I thought I know the flavors, I know what ingredients go into it,
18:39so I felt like I should know how to make this dish.
18:52When I tried to put it together, I destroyed it.
18:56It was so nasty.
19:00I called my mom and said, I want to learn how to make this soup.
19:07Having her voice over the phone guiding me through the kitchen provided comfort.
19:15She said, you have to make sure it's at a low simmer.
19:22When I made the second batch, I was literally hovering over the pot,
19:27looking at it, talking to it.
19:32I stood there for an hour or so, watching it simmer.
19:39Collected all my ingredients, called my mom again, and I asked, does it sound right?
19:48She said, yeah, that's fine. Now taste it.
19:54Does it taste like what you remembered?
19:56I'm like, almost there.
19:58And then she's like, okay, that's good. And then she hung up.
20:16Throughout this whole trial process, I would recruit friends to come eat the soup.
20:24And then their friends would bring their friends.
20:30With feedback, the broth got better and better.
20:34From there on, I have pop-ups, underground dinners.
20:39And then I joined this incubator program, La Cocina.
20:45La Cocina is this non-profit organization that helps women of color pursue their business.
20:54When I started La Cocina, I had to learn how to make more than just one soup.
21:01I was in the kitchen a lot, making phone calls with my mom, learning how to cook new dishes.
21:10And then I was doing pop-ups.
21:17I'm slopping things around, putting up a tent, putting up tables.
21:23Trying to find a way to educate people about what Cambodian food was.
21:27Everyone kept comparing it to Thai food and Vietnamese food.
21:32I thought, who am I to do this?
21:36I was upset.
21:40I felt so defeated.
21:44There should never just be one person representing a whole culture.
21:49That's not fair tonight.
21:53It's a lot to shoulder.
22:06It's a lot.
22:07It's a lot.
22:08You can eat as much as you want.
22:18Ariel, come check these out.
22:20Yeah.
22:21Do you have little takeaways for the end of the party?
22:23I don't think I have enough for everyone, but it's just like, wow, I really went all out with this pop-up.
22:28Why don't you take some of these?
22:31How about this?
22:33More cool stuff.
22:34You can just dangle it somewhere.
22:38Learning everything from scratch.
22:40I was dealing with doubts.
22:47When I didn't believe in myself,
22:49Loxina told me just to keep on going, trust the process.
22:55In those early days, she would be in that kitchen for 12 hours straight.
23:00As soon as I tried her broth,
23:03I was like, oh, they got a winner here.
23:11Every successful pop-up would lead to another successful pop-up.
23:18More and more people were asking me questions about Cambodia.
23:22That got me very excited.
23:24My food for the first time was very popular.
23:28Places would offer their restaurants for pop-up locations.
23:33And then I had this incredible opportunity to open a restaurant.
23:43When I saw the space, it just felt right.
23:49I just knew that this was the space for me.
23:54This was the spot.
24:00I know we're kind of testing things out,
24:03but I think with this, if it's over ice, it might work better.
24:08I do love these kind, though, because you break down and take it out.
24:11Yeah.
24:12We'll definitely work with it.
24:13Okay, cool. All right.
24:14Let's fire Keteo Prompen.
24:15When Nay opened the restaurant, she got national acclaim.
24:21Top 10 restaurants from Bon Appetit.
24:23Eater young gun.
24:25One time, I was sitting at a table with truly some of the best chefs in the state.
24:31I was watching these guys just being like,
24:33oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God.
24:36She brought everyone to their knees.
24:41It was a lot of attention all at once.
24:44People were asking me questions about Cambodia,
24:48what it is that they were eating.
24:53I was getting all these awards, all this success.
24:57And I felt like I was bringing visibility to the Khmer community.
25:02That was the one thing I wanted.
25:07Nyum Bai blew up because it was freaking delicious.
25:12And it was this new experience in a time and in a place
25:15where we'd have very few new experiences.
25:21Nay Yun put Cambodian cuisine on the map in this country.
25:34I've been cooking Cambodian food for so many years.
25:39But my mom and my dad never tried my cooking.
25:41They knew what I was doing, but they didn't really understand it.
25:51Or they didn't take what I was doing seriously.
26:00The first week of the restaurant,
26:05my mom calls me, it's like, your dad really wants to try your food.
26:12When they showed up for the restaurant,
26:17I went out to say hi to them.
26:24I remember spying on them from the kitchen,
26:27looking out the window to see if they were actually eating their food or not.
26:34I was very nervous.
26:36And then my dad asked for a second bowl to take home.
26:43That's when I relaxed.
26:48Later that day, my mom told me,
26:51your dad really wanted you to know that he really loved your soup.
26:58And he's proud of you.
27:01He didn't know.
27:04He didn't know that it was going to be that good.
27:14Just to hear that made me so happy
27:19was a very special moment.
27:45Ngan Bai earned accolades, and we had all these amazing write-ups.
27:50And then I got a call from my brother,
27:53and he told me that dad had passed away.
27:56But he took his life.
28:00It was such a shock to me.
28:04And then I realized,
28:07when my parents came to the restaurant,
28:10my dad was who initiated the visit.
28:15He knew that he wasn't going to be around.
28:22That was the last time I saw my dad.
28:25When I thought about his death and the way he passed away,
28:31I didn't know how to process it.
28:35I was working 14 hours a day,
28:38every single day,
28:45numbing myself from everything.
28:55From the outside, people saw all the awards.
28:59People saw the success.
29:04But behind all that,
29:07they didn't know what was going on.
29:12It was just so lonely.
29:17I remember thinking to myself,
29:20if only he knew.
29:24If only he knew.
29:40For three years,
29:43the restaurant was busy every single day.
29:46I was putting a face out there,
29:49trying to make everyone around me happy.
29:55I was carrying everyone's expectation.
30:01And not processing the death of my dad.
30:06And everything, it just came down on me.
30:11There was all this pressure to have this big, flashy restaurant.
30:17And night was never like that.
30:20She just wanted a small little noodle shop.
30:23One day, I couldn't physically get up to go to the restaurant.
30:27It just crashed.
30:32When the lease came up,
30:36something in my gut told me to close down the restaurant.
30:42As soon as I made the announcement,
30:45the phone started to ring.
30:47A lot of people told me,
30:50why would you close down such a successful restaurant?
30:57Just didn't feel right.
31:00I felt, this is the time to move on.
31:18After the closing of Yan Bai,
31:21I was ready to grieve the death of my dad.
31:24Good morning.
31:27Cilantro, daikon.
31:30Oh, how about this one?
31:33This is nice? Okay, thank you.
31:36During that time,
31:39I felt like,
31:42this is the time to move on.
31:47During that time, I got closer with my mom.
31:50We talked quite often.
31:57And then my mom told me she wanted to go to Cambodia.
32:02I wanted to be a part of that.
32:05Hello.
32:10Hello.
32:14I'll be back.
32:17With more people.
32:20When I was in Cambodia,
32:23I remember seeing my mom with her friends and the relatives back home.
32:28She morphed into this little girl.
32:31In her element.
32:35To experience that was very, very special.
32:40I learned that before I was born.
32:43My dad fixed motorcycles.
32:47Had really cool hair.
32:50He was into rock and roll.
32:56My mom was studious.
33:01She had really long black hair.
33:04People called her the beauty queen of the village.
33:12Knowing how my parents were back then,
33:17it gave me life.
33:42One day, my mom opened up about the war.
34:01She was fleeing on foot.
34:07She was seeing people dying left and right.
34:10There was body pieces scattered everywhere.
34:15She was pregnant.
34:18And it was just too much to take.
34:24And then she thought of killing herself
34:27by walking into the landmines.
34:30As she walked in,
34:33it didn't go off.
34:36She kept on going.
34:39And she's like, why am I still alive?
34:43And then she looked down on her belly.
34:46And she's like, I need to stay alive for my child.
34:50And then she died.
34:53And then she died.
34:56And then she died.
35:00From that day on,
35:03she just kept on going.
35:07That's how she was able to survive the war.
35:12When I heard that story,
35:15I understood why my mom was the way that she was.
35:20This is someone who faced death
35:25and still is able to carry on.
35:30She's a huge inspiration to me.
35:49I love her so much.
35:59She's so good.
36:29She's so good.
36:59She's so good.
37:29She's so good.
37:59She's so good.
38:29Walter, Bharathi.
38:32Thank you, everyone.
38:35Again, I appreciate everyone so much.
38:38Thank you for pulling this off.
38:41Everything tastes great, looks great.
38:44It's beautiful.
38:47Cheers, guys.
38:50When I closed down Yanbai,
38:53I really thought that I was done operating a restaurant.
38:56It broke me,
38:59but the letters and postcards that I received
39:02from the Cambodian community
39:05expressing that they're proud of being Khmer
39:08because of Yanbai,
39:11those were what kept me going.
39:16After getting closer with my mom,
39:19coming to terms with my dad's death,
39:22I realized that I was ready to go back.
39:24Lynette is like an older sister of Yanbai.
39:27It's matured.
39:30It's gone through some stuff.
39:33And now it's ready to take over
39:36and celebrate in a big way.
39:45Knight has created a sense of responsibility for herself
39:48that is so much bigger
39:51than the noodles she's cooked for herself.
39:54Or the soup that she's making.
39:57She's telling a larger story.
40:00And she's doing it
40:03in the most delicious way possible.
40:06My hope for Knight
40:09is that she really steps into her power.
40:12She is destined for great things.
40:16I think that Knight can move mountains.
40:24I think that Knight can move mountains.