[soft music playing]
[Nite] Once upon a time in Cambodia,
food culture was thriving.
Music was thriving.
The art scene was thriving.
But then the war broke out…
and all that was taken away.
[people praying]
[Nite] During the genocide,
one to two million people died.
Music was lost.
History was lost.
Recipes were lost.
So what exists with food now
came from moms and aunties
who hold recipes in their heart.
Every time I'm cooking food,
I feel a connection to the past.
I wanted to celebrate Cambodia and transport people to the golden era…
when it was this beautiful country,
where the people were happy.
[theme music playing]
[music ends]
[woman] In California,
there's so many Asian cultures that come here,
and different noodle soups.
Thai food and Vietnamese food tend to take over that scene.
[mellow music playing]
[Reem] People think, "There's fish sauce in there. That must be Thai."
Or, "Oh, that's a clear broth with a little bit of anise."
"That's Vietnamese."
And then when you dig a little deeper,
there's this whole other culture and history that I wasn't familiar with.
[woman] Nite Yun is a poet.
She's telling the story of Cambodian people,
bringing people into something that they have looked away from.
And she's trying to do it through the food.
[music continues]
[Reem] At first glance, Nite's this shy girl.
But when you see her in the kitchen,
she's bold.
She's determined.
She's a force to be reckoned with.
[Samin] When you look at her food, it looks so humble.
When you take a bite, the thing is hitting every pleasure center in your mouth.
There are so many layers of flavor.
Galangal, lemongrass…
It's somehow both deep and fresh,
crunchy and soft,
rich and light.
It's pure joy.
The reason why she's doing this isn't about her own self.
She has a motivation to tell a larger story.
She wants to bring people into her culture,
give people a curiosity
and a desire to learn about what happened to her country.
[music continues]
[music fades]
[women grunting]
-[in Khmer] Put it in like this. -Put in…
Put it in.
-Yeah, then we squeeze it. -Squeeze it.
Put in… We get one bunch of Num Banh Chok.
I started making this with my mom when I was 15.
It's been passed through generations.
We can work while protecting our tradition.
Squeeze it and put it like this.
-It'll have a longer edge. -Long edge.
[Nite in English] When I started out,
there wasn't a lot of people cooking Cambodian food in the States.
There was a few mom-and-pop Cambodian restaurants,
but they would have Vietnamese and Thai food on the menu.
It's a way to pull people in,
because they had no other way to make money.
[indistinct chattering]
[Nite] If you don't cook Cambodian food, it could be lost forever.
[soft music playing]
[Nite] Growing up, we celebrated being Khmer.
My dad listened to Cambodian rock and roll.
We ate Khmer food.
My first language was Khmer…
learned how to read and write Khmer.
So I've always been connected to being Khmer.
When I started to learn how to cook,
I didn't care if I didn't have pad thai on the menu.
I wanted to inspire others to learn about their history…
to understand Cambodian food.
My goal was to celebrate Cambodian culture in its truest form.
[music fades]
[Nite's mom in Khmer] When I first arrived here,
I missed this soup so much.
Phnom Penh?
Yeah, I missed it. I would ask, "Where can I buy Phnom Penh noodle soup?"
I was looking for markets where Phnom Penh ingredients were available.
When I ate Phnom Penh, I missed my homeland
and thought of my family.
-It's not good if we wait too long. -Yes, eat it while it's hot.
[Nite in English] Growing up,
there was this soup that my mom would make.
It's called Kuy Teav Phnom Penh.
[soft music playing]
[Nite] The broth is made with pork bones.
You simmer them for hours.
You have it with rice noodles…
sliced pork,
shrimp,
and different toppings.
It's our version of a noodle soup.
When I was growing up, my parents never got along.
My brothers were never really around.
When my mom made this soup,
I'd be in the kitchen, helping her out.
It's the one time everyone in the family would be so happy.
There's no fights between my parents.
We're all just sitting at the table, slurping this bowl of soup.
[Nite] Mmm.
[Nite] I would always crave that calmness.
[in Khmer] Tastes good.
[giggling]
It tastes good. Is it good?
Oh, Mom, you want bean sprouts?
Oh yeah.
[Nite in English] That's why this soup brings back loving, tender memories.
Mmm.
[both chuckle]
[music ends]
[indistinct chattering]
[Nite] I was born in a refugee camp.
After the war, my family fled to the States.
In Stockton,
there was a group of people who were ashamed of being Khmer.
[soft music playing]
I was the weird one that totally embraced my Khmer-ness. [laughing]
My dad struggled a lot.
He never assimilated,
never learned how to speak English.
He wasn't able to keep a job.
Mom was the one that provided for my brothers and I.
My parents were the complete opposite.
Being survivors of a genocide,
I think they were with each other because it's all they had.
I was curious about my parents' life.
How could someone be so strong after seeing death?
It made me wonder what life was like before I was born.
So, I gravitated towards being around my mom,
hanging out in the kitchen.
I would ask her questions about life in Cambodia…
what it was before the war,
and how was it during the war?
How did she survive?
But she was never able to answer.
Her eyes would get really watery.
And I would stop because I could see how uncomfortable she would get.
I felt like so much of who I am is shaped by my parents.
If I don't know what they went through…
it will be difficult for me to understand myself.
[music fades]
[Nite] In Cambodia, there's this big lake
called the Tonlé Sap, or the Great Lake.
During the rainy season, that whole lake would get flooded,
and during the dry season, the water level would go down,
and what's left is all these fish.
[soft music playing]
[Nite] They would scale the fish…
rub it with a lot of salt…
and letting it dry out.
And it's basically rotting.
Eventually, it turns into this magical fish paste.
When you look at it, it's this pungent, funky brown paste,
but once you start learning how to cook with it,
you can do so much with it.
When people ask what's the difference between Vietnamese and Thai food,
I immediately say prahok.
It gives Cambodian food that depth, that funk, that umami flavor.
It's what makes Cambodian food delicious.
[music continues]
[monk speaking in Khmer]
[Nite] The neighborhood I grew up in was pretty rough.
Meth was on the streets…
a lot of gang activities.
I was hearing drive-by shootings...
[monk continues speaking in Khmer]
[Nite] ...hearing so-and-so's son got shot.
My senior year, I ran into all these problems.
It freaked out my mom.
She wanted to protect me.
-[dramatic music playing] -[monk continues speaking Khmer]
[Nite] So my mom decided to take me to go see a monk.
The monk told my mom, "Your daughter is cursed with bad luck."
He performed this ritual where I had to lay on a bed of rice…
with white cloth over me.
And as the monk's chanting to remove my bad luck,
he's slowly pulling the sheet off me.
[music continues]
[Nite] I felt different.
I felt lighter.
After that, I realized I couldn't be in that environment anymore.
I knew I had to leave Stockton. I just knew there was so much more.
[music ends]
-[car honking] -[trolley bells ringing]
[Nite] When I had the chance, I made my move to San Francisco.
I decided to do nursing,
because it was, like, a practical job.
When I finally did my rotation at a hospital,
I realized that nursing wasn't for me.
[soft music playing]
[Nite] One day, a credit card came in the mail.
I decided, "I'm buying a flight to Cambodia."
[upbeat music playing]
[Nite] Once I landed, my cousin came to pick me up.
When we went to the market, there was freshly cut butchered meat,
the smell of blood…
soup going on at the same time.
Like, sensory overload.
It was overwhelming.
Everyone was speaking Khmer.
[woman speaking in Khmer]
[Nite] Everyone looked very familiar.
I just felt like I belonged.
[music fading]
[Nite] My main purpose of going to Cambodia
was to learn more about my parents…
how they met,
the family history.
[soft music playing]
[in Khmer] MSG and also this one?
[Nite in English] When I asked my cousins…
-[in Khmer] The water boils first. -Add a bit of sugar.
[Nite in English] …they would get quiet.
They didn't really say much.
That went back and forth.
-[in Khmer] The prahok? -The prahok and salt.
-That's all? I'll just put it now. -Yeah.
[Nite in English] Wanting answers, but no one saying much.
I could tell it made them feel uncomfortable.
And then one cousin said, "One thing you need to know about your mom,
she's one of the strongest persons we've ever met."
[in Khmer] Add a bit of fish. Pick its cheek.
[Nite in English] And that just made me more curious.
"Why?"
"What made you say that?"
And she said, "It's too difficult for me to talk about."
I needed to know more.
What happened?
What did she go through?
Why can't they tell me?
It's always been a puzzle.
-[music fading] -[birds chirping]
[Nite] The houses that I stayed in, there's no refrigeration system,
so whatever they want to cook, they have to go to the market.
[woman and Nite speaking Khmer]
[Nite in English] It was such a scene.
People waking up early to buy produce…
[soft music playing]
[Nite] ...chicken that's been butchered that second…
and then cook it over the wood fire.
[indistinct chattering in Khmer]
[Nite] It's what I imagine it was like hundreds and hundreds of years ago.
[upbeat music playing]
[Nite] Every time I eat food there,
every single dish is like, "This is so good."
I could not stop eating.
I could find Kuy Teav Phnom Penh in every food stall,
but done in a way that I've never had before.
And I felt so lucky to experience this food.
As I'm, like, scarfing it down, slurping the broth,
I thought, "How come people don't know about this back home?"
People are so familiar with Vietnamese pho, with Japanese ramen,
pad thai,
but Khmer food is not represented enough.
And that's when the idea just came to me
of opening up a Cambodian restaurant in San Francisco.
And everything was so crystal clear.
Without having any experience working in a restaurant,
I said "Fuck it. I'm just gonna open a Cambodian restaurant." [laughing]
I knew this was the right path.
[music fading]
[Nite] When I came back from Cambodia,
I was so obsessed with this idea, I just could not let it go.
And so my first step was, "Okay, how do I cook?" [laughing]
"How do I make this soup that I love so much?"
[soft music plays]
[Nite] I thought, "I know the flavors."
"I know what ingredients go into it."
So I felt like I should know how to make this dish.
When I tried to put it together, I destroyed it. It was just so nasty.
I called my mom and said, "I want to learn how to make this soup."
Having her voice over the phone,
guiding me through the kitchen, provided comfort.
She said that you have to make sure it's at a low simmer.
And when I made the second batch, I was literally hovering over the pot,
looking at it, talking to it. [laughs]
I stood there for an hour or so, watching it simmer…
collected all my ingredients,
called my mom again, and I asked, "Does it sound right?"
She said, "Yeah, that's fine."
"Now taste it."
"Does it taste like what you remember?" I'm like, "Almost there."
And then she's like, "Okay, that's good." And then she hung up. [laughs]
[music continues]
-[music ends] -[women speaking in Khmer]
[Nite] Throughout this whole trial process,
I would recruit friends to come eat the soup.
And then their friends would bring their friends.
[soft music playing]
[Nite] With feedback, the broth got better and better.
From there on, I had pop-ups, underground dinner…
And then I joined this incubator program, La Cocina.
La Cocina is this nonprofit organization
that helps women of color pursue their business.
When I started at La Cocina,
I had to learn how to make more than just one soup.
I was in the kitchen a lot, making phone calls with my mom,
learning how to cook new dishes.
And then I was doing pop-ups.
[in Khmer] Auntie, please sit here as well.
We should eat together.
[Nite in English] I'm schlepping things around,
putting up a tent, putting up tables…
trying to find a way to educate people about what Cambodian food was.
Everyone kept comparing it to Thai food and Vietnamese food.
I thought, "Who am I to do this?"
[women speaking in Khmer]
[Nite] I was upset.
I felt so defeated.
There should never just be one person representing a whole culture.
That's not fair to Nite.
It's a lot to shoulder.
[women continue speaking in Khmer]
[music fading]
So, Ariel, come check these out.
-[Ariel] What else do we have? -Yeah.
[Ariel] Are they takeaways for the end of the party?
Um, I don't think I have enough for everyone, but it's like, wow,
I really went all-out with this pop-up.
Why don't you take some of these?
How about this?
-What is that? -More cool stuff.
You can just dangle that somewhere. [laughing]
[Nite] Learning everything from scratch, I was dealing with doubts.
-Utensils are on the table, okay? -Okay.
[soft music playing]
[Nite] When I didn't believe in myself,
La Cocina told me just to keep on going, trust the process.
[Reem] In those early days, she would be in that kitchen for 12 hours straight.
As soon as I tried her broth,
I was like, "Oh, they got a winner here."
[music continues]
Every successful pop-up would lead to another successful pop-up.
More and more people were asking me questions about Cambodia.
That got me very excited.
My food, for the first time, was very popular.
Places would offer their restaurants for pop-up locations.
And then I had this incredible opportunity to open a restaurant.
When I saw the space, it just felt right.
I just knew in my gut, this was the spot.
[music fading]
I know we're kind of, um, testing things out,
but I think with this, if it's over ice, it might work better.
Yeah.
I do love this kind, because you break down and take it out.
-But yeah, we'll definitely work with it. -Okay, cool. All right.
-Let's fire the Kuy Teav Phnom Penh. -Okay.
[Samin] She opened the restaurant. She got national acclaim.
Top 10 Restaurants from Bon Appétit, Eater Young Gun.
One time, I was sitting at a table
with, truly, some of the best chefs in the state.
I was watching these guys just being like, "Oh my God!" "Oh my God!" "Oh my God!"
She brought everyone to their knees.
[soft music playing]
[Nite] It was a lot of attention all at once.
People were asking me questions about Cambodia,
what it is that they were eating…
I was getting all these awards, all this success.
And I felt like I was bringing visibility to the Khmer community.
That was the one thing I wanted.
[Samin] Nyum Bai blew up because it was freaking delicious.
And it was this new experience
in a time and in a place where we'd have very few new experiences.
Nite Yun put Cambodian cuisine on the map in this country.
[Nite] I've been cooking Cambodian food for so many years,
but my mom and my dad never tried my cooking.
They knew what I was doing, but they didn't really understand it.
Or they didn't take what I was doing seriously.
The first week of the restaurant,
my mom calls me, like, "Your dad really wants to try your food."
When they showed up for the restaurant…
I went out to say hi to them.
I remember spying on them from the kitchen, looking out the window
to see if they were actually eating their food or not.
I was very nervous.
And then my dad asked for a second bowl to take home.
That's when I relaxed.
Later that day, my mom told me,
"Your dad really wanted you to know that he really loved your soup…
and he's proud of you."
"He didn't know that it was gonna be that good."
Just to hear that made me so happy.
It was a very special moment.
[music fading]
[Nite] Nyum Bai earned accolades, and we had all these amazing write-ups.
And then I got a call from my brother,
and he told me Dad had passed away.
He took his life.
[somber music playing]
[Nite] It was just such a shock to me.
And then I realized,
when my parents came to the restaurant, my dad was who initiated the visit.
He knew that he wasn't gonna be around.
That was the last time I saw my dad.
When I thought about his death and the way he passed away…
I didn't know how to process it.
I was working 14 hours a day, every single day…
numbing myself from everything.
From the outside, people saw all the awards,
people saw the success…
but behind all that, they didn't know what was going on.
It was just so lonely.
I remember thinking to myself, "If only you knew."
[music fading]
[Nite] For three years, the restaurant was busy every single day.
I was putting a face out there, trying to make everyone around me happy.
[somber music playing]
[Nite] I was carrying everyone's expectation…
and not processing the death of my dad.
And everything, it just came down on me.
[Reem] There was all this pressure to have the big, flashy restaurant…
and Nite was never like that.
She just wanted a small little noodle shop.
[Nite] One day,
I couldn't physically get up to go to the restaurant.
I just crashed.
When the lease came up,
something in my gut told me to close down the restaurant.
As soon as I made the announcement, the phone started to ring.
A lot of people told me,
"Why would you close down such a successful restaurant?"
It just didn't feel right.
I felt this is the time to move on.
[music fading]
[indistinct chattering in Khmer]
[woman speaking in Khmer]
[Nite] After the closing of Nyum Bai, I was ready to grieve the death of my dad.
[woman] Good morning!
Cilantro, daikon…
Oh, how about this one?
Okay. This is nice. Okay.
Thank you!
[Nite] During that time, I got closer with my mom.
We talked quite often.
And then my mom told me she wanted to go to Cambodia.
[soft music playing]
[Nite] I wanted to be a part of that.
Hello!
[in Khmer] Hello, hi!
[woman] Hi! How are you?
[Nite] Great, thanks!
[Nite in English] Told you I'd be back. [laughs]
-With more people. -[man] Yeah!
[Nite] When I was in Cambodia,
I remember seeing my mom with her friends and the relatives back home.
She morphed into this little girl. In her element.
To experience that was very, very special.
I learned that before I was born,
my dad fixed motorcycles,
had really cool hair…
He was into rock and roll.
My mom was studious.
She had really long, black hair.
People called her the beauty queen of the village.
Knowing how my parents were back then…
it gave me life.
[music fading]
[Nite] One day, my mom opened up about the war.
[somber music playing]
[Nite] She was fleeing on foot.
She was seeing people dying left and right.
There was body pieces scattered everywhere.
She was pregnant,
and it was just too much to take.
And then she thought of killing herself by walking into the landmines.
As she walked in, they didn't go off.
She kept on going.
And she was like, "Why am I still alive?"
And then she looked down at her belly,
and she's like, "I need to stay alive for my child."
From that day on, she just kept on going.
That's how she was able to survive the war.
And when I heard that story,
I understood why my mom was the way that she was.
[music continues]
[Nite] This is someone who faced death
and still is able to carry on.
She's a huge inspiration to me.
[Nite in Khmer] All of my friends, when they see you, they all recognize you.
-They say you and I look alike. -[Nite] That's right.
They're like, "Wow, exactly the same." Take a bite, kid.
[Nite laughing]
[Nite in English] I love her so much.
[both giggling]
[in Khmer] Wow, really tasty, Mom.
[pensive music playing]
[music intensifies]
[music continues]
[music fading]
-Walter, para ti. -Thank you.
[Nite] Thank you, everyone. Again, I appreciate everyone so much.
Thank you for pulling this off.
Everything tastes great, looks great.
It's beautiful. Cheers, guys!
-[all] Cheers! -Salut!
[Nite] When I closed down Nyum Bai,
I really thought that I was done operating a restaurant.
It broke me, and I just didn't want to go through that again.
But the letters and postcards that I received
from the Cambodian community,
expressing that they're proud of being Khmer because of Nyum Bai,
those were what kept me going.
[soft music playing]
[Nite] After getting closer with my mom, coming to terms with my dad's death,
I realized that I was ready to go back.
Lunette is like an older sister of Nyum Bai.
It's matured.
It's gone through some stuff.
And now it's ready to take over and celebrate in a big way.
[uplifting music playing]
Nite has created a sense of responsibility
for herself that is so much bigger
than the noodles she's cooking or the soup that she's making.
She's telling a larger story.
And she's doing it in the most delicious way possible.
My hope for Nite is that she really steps into her power.
She is destined for great things.
I think that Nite can move mountains.
[music continues]
[upbeat music playing]
[music continues]
[music fading]