Preserving Cambodian Culture Through Cuisine with Chef Mona Sang of Khmai Fine Dining

Preserving Cambodian Culture Through Cuisine with Chef Mona Sang of Khmai Fine Dining

[00:00:00] Aaron: Welcome to the Chicagoland Guide and I'm your host Aaron Masliansky and today I am joined here by Chef Mona Sang. Mona is the chef over at Khmai Cambodian Fine Dining and she has a wonderful story to tell. And, we're really excited to hear about it and had a great experience there last night.

[00:00:22] Ready to share it with the audience, but Mona, thank you so much for joining us today.

[00:00:27] Thank you for having me. Appreciate it.

[00:00:30] Oh, it's a pleasure. Really, I, it was a lot of fun to be able to come in and see what you're doing over there. And it gives me a lot more context to this conversation.

[00:00:40] And it's a beautiful restaurant for those who don't know. And, I'll be sharing things on my social media. So if you go onto the Chicagoland guide on Instagram, you'll see different video of The types of dishes and really the ambience, one of the things that I was struck with walking in there is it's not just a restaurant, but you have, murals painted on the walls [00:01:00] of, with Cambodian cultural experiences.

[00:01:03] And you talk about the history of the people of Cambodia and just different types of things. It's not your typical restaurant. So tell us a little bit about that. What, how did you come into this space And create such a place.

[00:01:17] Mona: I wanted to create something different. Like a different restaurant experience.

[00:01:22] To me, food wasn't just the food. I wanted to make them feel like once they walk into the restaurant, that they're in a different place, different atmosphere. Like one of my great thing about going to different restaurant is that, Chicago is huge. But when I walk into a certain restaurant, I want to feel like maybe I'm in like Thailand or Mexico or somewhere else different.

[00:01:43] So I wanted to bring that Cambodian feeling here in Rogers Park, and I wanted to educate people a little bit more about our culture. So the mural is our Apsara dancer, which is plays a huge role in our culture. And also [00:02:00] the greeting and being able to speak my and teaching that to our employees is important.

[00:02:06] So that way again, they feel like they're somewhere different. And there's a lot of history with our culture, and I feel like it comes out with people talking about our service, talking about it, and it comes out through the food. Through the painting, through everything that we put in the restaurant there's always a story to tell.

[00:02:25] So if you walk around the restaurant, there's two different parts to it. Everything kind of signifies, like, how the restaurant came about what it means, the painting on the walls, even stuff in the bathroom, it tells a story of our family, our journey, and our culture, and everything all together.

[00:02:46] I wanted to feel like it's more than just a restaurant that you're coming to eat, but a place that you can enjoy, learn about our culture and then taste our cuisine.

[00:02:59] [00:03:00] Yeah, I think that food is such a way to understand cultures. And you certainly see that and by the way like going into the bathroom even there like you just said like it's different than what you typically experience.

[00:03:13] Aaron: There's beautiful artwork in there and you have candles burning that just, it's the whole place is a whole experience. It's really incredible. What's this, why is it so significant to you? Tell us a little bit about your background, your history, how you got here today.

[00:03:28] Mona: My mom she is a survivor of the genocide that happened in Cambodia.

[00:03:32] Yeah. She was born and grew up living in Cambodia. And then when the war happened she basically lost everything. She was taken from her home. She was captured. She lived in the camp and she was like tortured. She went through a lot. And she her story is like another journey.

[00:03:57] But. Coming here in America, [00:04:00] like after she had lost like her kids, her husband being here, I never understood like my culture. I never understood like where I was from because my mom never talked about it. Cause back then after the war her generation never wanted to talk about it, never wanted to tell the kids what happened.

[00:04:18] So I grew up being like embarrassed and about my culture. Not understanding where I was from. And so I steer away from my culture and not wanting to learn about the food or any of that. And, we were a poor family came coming into America. And my mom did whatever she can to survive.

[00:04:39] She would like work odd jobs to feed us. And she would cook. She would get the money from cleaning people's houses, and she would go buy the food that she remember making in Cambodia. And then she would, um, cook it for us again. I'm so sorry. There is like [00:05:00] stuff in the background.

[00:05:01] And she would cook for us. And then my room was like next into the kitchen. It wasn't really a bedroom. It was more like a pantry, but we have to share our household with everyone else. So there wasn't enough room for everyone to sleep. So I had to be in the pantry. And so when she cooks in the morning, My clothes, everything, which just smells like the hook, which is what a lot of the Cambodian people use.

[00:05:25] So I always say that I'm Harry Potter without the magic. I just, I was that smelly kid going to school. So I hate it going to school. I despise just being around anywhere because I Smell so bad, and I didn't know why my food things that my mom cooks smell that bad and I just didn't even want to eat it.

[00:05:44] I didn't even want to care for it. I was like, this is just horrible, fast forward, became

[00:05:49] a chef.

[00:05:51] Yeah. And then fast forward, I started working for lettuce and a teen you and I always had a passion for cooking, but wasn't yeah, Passion enough to cook my [00:06:00] culture. So again, I wanted to get away with that.

[00:06:02] I just didn't understand. So I worked with lettuce and it's in you for a little bit. And I came from catering. My mom does catering at church, for the church people, the community. Sometimes I would help her here and there. And then about a year before the pandemic, my oldest brother had passed away and she's the one who found him in his sleep.

[00:06:22] So like that just. tore her whole world apart, I don't know how to explain it, even to now when I talk about it with my mom, she doesn't, we don't even really talk about it. She just Pretend that it doesn't exist right now, so her whole world shut down.

[00:06:37] She didn't want to talk to anybody, but she always continued because her cooking was part of what she knew growing up and what helped her through the war, what helped her when she was captured and tortured, it was like cooking. She's always loved cooking, and so she would still continue.

[00:06:55] Continue to cook after my brother had passed away. And that's how she was healed from [00:07:00] it. And I was still continuing to work at lettuce and a teen you. And then when the pandemic shut down, she was isolated from everyone else. So cooking for the community, cooking for the church was no longer exists.

[00:07:12] Like she was now alone, she had just lost her son. She had nightmares. She would scream in her sleep.

[00:07:21] Aaron: Oh man.

[00:07:22] Mona: Yeah. And then she came to stay with me for a little bit because I didn't want her to be alone and every day, that goes by, she just shut down more and eventually she just.

[00:07:33] Kind of like you see it in her face. Like she just gave up. What's the point? I don't know what's happening. I've lost everything already in my life and this is where I am right now with nothing, and I'm sure a lot of people felt that way during the pandemic, so things got worse for her.

[00:07:48] And then eventually she just didn't want to talk to anybody. She didn't want to eat. And she just went into this coma, like she would sit there and you wouldn't be able to talk to her or connect with her. She [00:08:00] just. Gone, and it had happened in the past before, but not like this severe and basically the doctor was like, it's a mental thing that she's gonna have to snap out of it and either she snapped out of this, my son one day was like, I miss my cooking.

[00:08:14] And the one thing that my mom used to make for him is my child, which is like a Cambodian crate, and I was like, I don't know how to cook it, but I'm going to try. So I went to Argyle and I start grabbing a whole bunch of stuff, and start cooking here and there. I remember she taught me how to make bahokti, which is also one of Okabodan staple food.

[00:08:32] So I would try to bring her into the kitchen. She wouldn't talk. She would just sit there. A lot of times she just cries. She, again, no one would, Couldn't wake her up, but every day I would start cooking still. I could, I remember hok tee. I could look a lot. And and I never gave up, and I know that she smells it and I know that she knows what I'm doing.

[00:08:52] And then one day, I think I was cooking in the kitchen and then I was cooking, I don't, I think I was still cooking bahokti, and then she [00:09:00] literally was like, You doing it wrong, . And I'm like, the back. I was like, and I was like, okay. Like she literally just woke up from it and then she pushed me to the side and start like adding all these like ingredients from like my cabinet and and I'm standing to the side.

[00:09:16] I was like, I'll let you do what you need to do.

[00:09:20] Yeah. She's

[00:09:20] And I could hear her mumbling and she's oh, she's doing it wrong. How could you not know how to do this and dah. And then every day from then on we just cook together. And bond through stories that I would ask her through everything, and then I would post the things that her and I were doing together and people were like, what's Cambodian food?

[00:09:39] And I said, how do you, how do people not know what Cambodian food is? We started sharing our culture and our food. And sharing it to Chicago. And then people were like, Oh, can I order some or can I get some? And then my mom and I would like, just start taking small orders for people, and then when the pandemic died down a little bit, [00:10:00] we went back to her catering kitchen and we started taking bigger orders for parties and events.

[00:10:06] We did a wedding together. And. Through cooking, I was able to learn a lot of things about her through her trauma that she went through from losing my father and my two brothers even, and losing her monkey. She had she had a monkey that had died and she was lucky. So we start, so I learned a lot through my, through her cooking.

[00:10:30] I. Started to discover who I was, who I am, that I was the refugee child. And I came here to America, trying to stay away from my culture. But I knew that my culture is who I am. It defines who I am going to be growing up, like my background. And I started to learn about more about the war and how much she suffer, how much my dad and, Everyone went through and how my oldest brother who passed away fought [00:11:00] his way to America, but to lose his life so soon, I understand what my mom meant that, how sad she got about losing my brother at such a young age.

[00:11:11] He was very young.

[00:11:12] Aaron: How

[00:11:13] old was he?

[00:11:14] It was

[00:11:16] Mona: 42.

[00:11:18] So yeah, so she so through that, I was able to learn a lot about her, about just how she came, how much passion that she had for cooking and that's what kept her going through all these times, like she said, one time in the camp, she had to find scraps on the view on the ground, just to cook, just to make herself something to eat, and for her to still retain some of these values.

[00:11:42] recipe that she used to cook before the war. It's amazing to me. And I wanted to share that with the world. And I wanted to let people know that, hey, this woman went through a lot, and she's, and what kept her alive was, Through cooking, through remembering what she used to do. And I [00:12:00] wanted to continue that journey for her.

[00:12:02] And that's why so then, when Lettuce and the team offered me my job back, I was like I was like, hesitant. And then in the end, I was like, no I don't want to leave my mom. I don't want to do it again. So I told my mom hey, do you want to open up a restaurant? And she was like, it's really hard.

[00:12:18] I was like, no. It's our chance. It's now or never,

[00:12:20] it

[00:12:21] isn't really a traditional Cambodian restaurant here in Chicago. Either we do it now, we do it together, don't do it at all. She's okay. And so then I took my partner and I took all of our savings that we were going to that we save up for the kids and the house.

[00:12:36] We were gonna buy, told the kids that they're gonna go to college later, it's fine. , they're gonna have to get scholarship. And so we put all our hard earned money into getting this small little place at Howard. And then we built from there. And at first

[00:12:50] Aaron: you were at Howard

[00:12:50] by the train station over there

[00:12:52] before but

[00:12:52] Mona: on Howard and Rich.

[00:12:54] Aaron: Oh, okay. Sure.

[00:12:55] Mona: Yeah. And it was a small little space, little really small kitchen too. And [00:13:00] but at that point I. Didn't care if it was like, fabulous or big or like fine dining. It was to tell my mom's story and it was to keep her journey going to keep her alive, and to continue what she lost and what was.

[00:13:15] taken from her. And every day that we work together I learn more and more about my culture. I learn more and more about her. And I realized that, five, 10 years from now, her generation will be gone. And there's no one to tell the story or teach other, like the future, how to cook traditional Cambodian food.

[00:13:35] There's not a lot of. Her out there that know how to cook the food that were fed to the Kings and Queens. And that, that tastes that traditional taste, I've traveled in the United States to try the Cambodian, some Cambodian restaurant, and some can, people can get close to it, but my mom's food, I will say is always on point.

[00:13:55] That's the tradition of my food and each. food that she puts out there [00:14:00] and taught me how to cook tell a story of what happened to her and how she and how each dish like kept her alive. So I wanted to share that to Chicago to register.

[00:14:12] Aaron: I think it's wonderful that you've done that. Yeah, you've done that.

[00:14:15] You certainly have. And you've expanded where you have your fine dining portion, then you have more of your a la carte type of side of the restaurant as well. So it's like whatever you're looking for, but you go in and you have the experience throughout both places. And, a lot of times, when people move from another place and I had a previous show called inside the scab, which is all about Skokie and Evanson.

[00:14:37] pretty similar to this, just a little bit more localized. And I interviewed several people who came from other locations around the world and have moved here. So Kamari Kuhn who, from she has a strong Cambodian background and very involved at the Cambodian Heritage Museum. And, that's been great to be able to show, the history of Cambodia, bring the culture, the [00:15:00] music I've interviewed people from Tibet from the Tibetan Alliance of Chicago and trying, and they try to bring their culture and heritage and be able to sustain it because the next generations just don't know it.

[00:15:12] And I feel by bringing the food and everything here it's really important to be able to share that story with other Cambodian people, but you're doing it with a lot of people throughout Chicago. So one of the questions I have is when you started doing these, you started cooking during the pandemic with your mother, the people who were ordering, was it people from Cambodia through the Cambodian community in Chicago, or was it general public?

[00:15:37] Because When I saw when I was there last night, you have everybody from every culture coming to enjoy the food.

[00:15:44] Mona: Yeah. It was actually people who were curious about what our cuisine was all about people who wanted to know our story. There were just basically it was just everyone, and then also a lot of our own community reached out because or my generation because their parents.[00:16:00]

[00:16:00] Either got killed during the Khmer Rouge time, or they lost their parents, some along the way, so they never were able to experience that traditional Khmer cooking, so then when they come here, or when they order the food, they're like, this is what I remember. It's like their childhood, it's bringing them back their childhood memories this is what my mom used to make, or this is what my dad used to make.

[00:16:22] I had a lady who came in about a month ago. And I'm sorry about, yeah, a few weeks ago, she came in and she just started crying because she saw all the things, the murals and the traditional clothing. And then she, I found out that she had lost her mom just like a month ago. And then right away I was like, Give her bahukti and then my server was like, it's really?

[00:16:50] He's you sure? I was like, yeah. And right as the bahukti was coming out, she was the server. The other server that would take care of her was putting an order for bahukti. They're like, how did you know? [00:17:00] I was like, because growing up, she's my age. That means that's what her mom cooked for her. And I'm pretty sure that's going to bring her back a lot of memory.

[00:17:08] And so she ate it, took one bite, and she, like the whole restaurant hear it, but she was just balding out, she was just so happy and so overjoyed that, just that one bite can bring a lot of memories of her mom that she lost, so a lot of the Cambodians that were kids that went through a lot of trauma is, It's the food, it's what heals them, I know it sounds crazy, but it does.

[00:17:32] It helps a lot of our community and remind us of what our generation and my mom's generation went through.

[00:17:41] Aaron: Yeah, absolutely. Cooking, tastes, smells, everything brings back those memories. It's very strong. I was having a conversation with my daughter about something with the smell the other day You know I asked her like about something with the smell and she's like, how do you, how does that relate to what you're like?

[00:17:58] How do you remember that? I'm [00:18:00] like, smells, they go back far. It's just for some reason it hits you. And if it could be your culture of something, back from, when did you leave Cambodia? Yeah. Were you in Cambodia, actually?

[00:18:11] Mona: I was born in the refugee camp.

[00:18:13] In Thailand, border of Thailand.

[00:18:15] I have no memories. My brother and sister, all of us, my oldest brother passed away. And my sister who's. Still here went through the war also. None of us have any memory. I think a part of us just shut it down. We don't, I couldn't tell you what memory I had as a child. Same thing for I think a lot of people in my generation.

[00:18:36] It's like we shut it all down. I think that we choose not to remember just because we don't want to remember the trauma. I remember my sister talked about like when she was walking along with my mom, she, they had to step on human skulls,

[00:18:53] a whole bunch

[00:18:53] of, she saw people hanging from trees.

[00:18:57] And that was the last time I ever heard her talk about it. She [00:19:00] doesn't talk about it anymore. And a lot of them don't, my mom don't really talk about it unless we're cooking. I remember one time she was cooking and she was chopping something and then I said, Hey mom, I was like, I know that you said that, we had, I had two brothers, and they died.

[00:19:15] When did you bury them? And she's I didn't bury them. I had to leave them on the side of the road. And then that was it. She just continued. And then I realized, I was like, if she was not cooking and prepping, I don't think she would have been able to talk about it, and she would have just broken down.

[00:19:29] There were times I tried to talk to her without her cooking, and other people wanted to interview her. And it was always hard. Even myself, like when people were like, Hey, tell us a little bit about the stories and stuff. And then I always say it's very hard. I my mom and I don't do a lot of interviews because it's hard to hear the story.

[00:19:47] Yeah.

[00:19:47] Yeah.

[00:19:48] It brings it all back.

[00:19:51] Aaron: Does she still

[00:19:52] Mona: cook with you though? Is she in the kitchen?

[00:19:53] She's still She's still tell me all the things that I'm doing wrong.

[00:19:57] Aaron: She's a mother.

[00:19:58] Mona: She

[00:19:59] [00:20:00] is. She sits there and rolls the egg roll. She does the beef skewers. She's a huge part of my life and a part of this kitchen.

[00:20:07] And everyone loved her, loves her. And it keeps her going. Keeps her mind fresh, keeps her happy. And it keeps her to continue to have good memories. Instead of the bad memories flooding, it's now she's enjoying the good memories that she's having, cooking in the kitchen, her grandchildren and the employees who says, good morning, Mai.

[00:20:31] And they're all happy to see her. They bring her food, she's enjoying the life that she should have had.

[00:20:38] Aaron: Yeah. And she's creating new memories. And I feel like there's a lot of respect from your employees who are not Cambodian, but have respect for the culture. Which is it's unique for a restaurant.

[00:20:51] A lot of times in restaurants, I'm sure there's things that go on in your restaurant and, you're trying to get a lot of orders out. There's stress, but there's a sense of respect [00:21:00] throughout throughout the staff. And even just the fact that one of your staff members painted the mural on the wall of the woman is just beautiful.

[00:21:08] You're very lucky, I think, to be able to, and I'm lucky, and all of us in Chicago are lucky.

[00:21:14] So one of the cool things about your restaurant is you're getting a lot of recognition. You were a James Beard semi finalist. That's Yeah. That's a huge deal for owning a restaurant and being a chef. What does that mean to you? How's that helped you?

[00:21:29] Mona: It helped a great deal because like when I opened up my first location the first couple of weeks or the first couple of months, few months, like nobody came, like we had maybe two, three people came a day, and so some of them were just curious. And then my mom was like, nobody's coming. And I said, It doesn't matter mom, let's continue to cook and then more and more people started to come and they start sharing their story and their experience at the restaurant and then more and more started coming and then three months later I was sitting at the bar with my front of the house [00:22:00] manager and then it was like a Tuesday and then We saw, and it was just me and her, it was just me and my mom cooking.

[00:22:05] We had no dishwasher. We had no other chef. We had no server. It was just three people in that restaurant, cause we had nobody. Then the next thing we know, we had I believe we served 50 people that night. And I was like, Oh my God. My front of the house manager is like, Oh, maybe it was just luck.

[00:22:22] And then from then on we were always booked out, and it was crazy. And I was like, where's all these people coming from? And then we would. People would tell us like, Hey, we heard your story and we wanted it and we had such a great experience and your food is different and it's nothing like we ever had before.

[00:22:38] So we told our friends and their friends start telling friends and, someone was like, even my dentist knew about you. I was like, Oh, that's great. And to just share that. And for people that just share our culture was beautiful. And then. Being nominated was great because I don't think that there was a lot of, I don't think there's any Cambodian restaurant, like traditional Cambodian restaurant that like, [00:23:00] ever won a James Beard or got a Michelin star or any of that.

[00:23:05] And I would say, I'm not here to chase stars. At all. Not here to chase any kind of recognition. I'm just here to spread the words and experience my culture and to keep my mom going. But being recognized on it, it's great. I love it. I'm glad that really

[00:23:26] cool

[00:23:27] Aaron: people are sharing it, which is great.

[00:23:29] Mona: Yeah.

[00:23:30] Aaron: And also just like to go from that small shop that you're on and Howard to where you are now, just to give people a, an idea of what we're talking about. You have a, it's a pretty good size. Restaurant for fine dining. The other side where it's Marla cart is also pretty good size.

[00:23:47] So you've grown tremendously. And then, I made a reservation. I can never really see this where I had to put a deposit down for each person because you don't want to have any no shows. And I think that really says something like [00:24:00] you've got you have such demand that, you know Hey, you better show up

[00:24:04] because

[00:24:05] we have a line of people who want to get in.

[00:24:07] Mona: Because we also make everything fresh the day of too. And my mom, I do get up early in the morning and everyone's prepping and working really hard to put these dishes on the table, and we. We care about the quality of the food. We literally do not freeze anything, we try to make sure that we cut all our fruit and vegetables that day.

[00:24:29] She makes the curry every single day, fresh every single day. She hates it. He's again, I'm like, I love the curry, and then with the two restaurants the two different experience is I would say it's. Me divorcing my mom just because she wants to keep everything traditional. She does not let me use like micro greens.

[00:24:48] She does not let me alter anything. So the Khmer side, which is the original side, is more of like my mom take on like Cambodian, keeping everything traditional, very funky, [00:25:00] whatever it is, like very traditional. And then the Khon Khmer, Khon means, children of, of Cambodia. It's more of like the fun side.

[00:25:10] It's more of my side a little bit that I can add Michael Green's that I can infuse some of the stuff and play around with a lot of things. So I would say, yep, one side is my mom. The other side is mine. And then the bar side, cause she was, she does not drink, sometime I'm like, I'll have a glass of wine and she'll just call me an alcoholic.

[00:25:29] And I was like that's why I have to go.

[00:25:31] Aaron: Yeah. You need a separate

[00:25:32] side away from

[00:25:34] Mona: one time. I took something traditional of hers. I think it was the goodie, the curry. And I wanted to add some like nice micro green basil. And she was like, what the hell is this? I was like, Michael Greene, she's we don't put that in Cambodia.

[00:25:47] I was like people eat with their food. They don't. They have to look at it, have to be nice first. She's nonsense. She's don't put on there. So I was like, all right, so that I don't, I put just one basil [00:26:00] leaf and just call it a day, but here on the side, I actually get to play around with it and make my dish come alive and more beautiful and all that.

[00:26:08] Aaron: So that's awesome. It's your experimental side.

[00:26:10] Mona: Yeah. She does not know that I am doing the tasting menu. So we are doing a tasting menu. And basically, each month, we're going to take them on a different journey. So this month, we're doing semrip, and it's all the flavor and tasting of semrip. And next month, I think we're going to do penang pen.

[00:26:27] So she doesn't know that I'm doing that yet, but I basically took all the traditional food, and I make it, made it a little bit smaller. And, fancier, I guess you can say. Yeah. But if she saw what I was doing, she'd be like, what the ,

[00:26:40] Aaron: you gotta send her on the trip. Maybe she's gotta go visit Cambodia.

[00:26:44] Mona: But she would

[00:26:44] not. She's gonna look at it and be like, this isn't my food. I'm like, it is your food. It is your recipe. It's just smaller and prettier. That is all I'm doing.

[00:26:54] just a little bit altered. Yeah. Man, that's, it's a lot of fun, a lot of drama, [00:27:00] I'm sure, between the two of you in the kitchen.

[00:27:02] Yeah, it is. We're

[00:27:04] always bickering in the kitchen here and there, and then our staff is always like laughing. They're like, what did she say to you? I'm like, I don't know. I don't care.

[00:27:12] Yeah. She does not

[00:27:14] make me. So I cooked rice one time, and I think that I undercooked it. And ever since then, I have never cooked rice.

[00:27:21] Aaron: Really?

[00:27:22] I

[00:27:22] Mona: always cooked it. She is the only one that cooks rice in that kitchen. She would not allow anyone else to cook it. Just because she says that we all suck and don't know how to cook

[00:27:32] rice. Oh my God.

[00:27:34] Aaron: Oh yeah. Yeah,

[00:27:36] pretty soon you're going to need another location just, so she could be there or you could be at the other kitchen.

[00:27:40] Please.

[00:27:41] Mona: Oh yeah. Everybody know not That's Separat right there. Yeah. And

[00:27:43] you interview or you talk to any of my staff. You would, they would tell you all the stories about her. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. .

[00:27:50] Aaron: That's the book. You gotta write a book about your mom's stories, .

[00:27:55] Mona: Oh yeah. Oh absolutely. She'll be like, this is how you do it.

[00:27:58] And then we do it [00:28:00] exactly what, how she showed us and then we do it. It's still wrong. Yeah.

[00:28:03] She

[00:28:04] never, she's never wrong. She's always right. So everybody knows that.

[00:28:08] Aaron: By the way, do you have like plans to expand and open up new locations or anything over the years or I do

[00:28:16] Mona: eventually, I want right now my mom's Happiness is important.

[00:28:22] She's turned 81 this year, and I want to give her the most comfortable, happy life as much as I can right now, she's not going to be around forever. So I want to learn and I want to be able to teach everyone else comes here and learn. And then eventually I want to be able to expand that and teach that to everyone else.

[00:28:43] And so that our traditional flavor. We'll never go away. It will always be here. And I can teach that to the kids, my children, my grandchildren, and it all started with her. So right now, I think that even all of our employees that come and work here, they [00:29:00] love her. And a lot of them, I'm like, Hey, what do you like about working here?

[00:29:03] And they're like, I like working with mine. I was like, you want to make her happy. And I think that my staff is, They're great. Great staff because they're all here to help me educate people about our culture, about what we all went through and to give my mom the best possible happy life as she has it right now.

[00:29:24] Aaron: That's really beautiful of you. And also do you see other people in the community? Like I'm sure you give back a lot to the Cambodian community. So how do you interact with them? And are there other people that come up to you and say, Hey, I want to open up a restaurant too. Do I, what advice would you give to them?

[00:29:39] Mona: I would say have a lot of patience, patient to open up a restaurant, and take your time. Don't rush it, take your time to learn about the recipe and to learn the story, learn your background, learn the history, all our bar server here. I tell them, learn the history, know what you're talking about.

[00:29:58] When you're talking about your boat and cuisine. [00:30:00] Where the Pahok is from, what Nomachuk is all about, what any of our dishes, like where they originated from, it's important to learn the history, to learn, to know what you're putting out there on the table, because if you give them the wrong information, then they're not going to have that good experience and you're not, and then Opening up a restaurant.

[00:30:20] It's really Cambodian restaurant. I guess opening up a Cambodian restaurant. It's important because it comes with a lot of history, a lot of trauma and a lot of history that you're going to have to learn and that you're going to have to go through this journey on your own first. And then you be able to, take everyone else on that journey.

[00:30:37] I had to go through my mom's journey first to know, to see it through everything through her eyes first before I can walk my own journey. As right now, I'm walking it on my own a little bit, but sometimes when I work in the kitchen night and she's not there, I feel a part of something is just missing and I don't know what it is.

[00:30:57] And sometimes she gets on my nerve. Don't get me wrong, , .

[00:30:59] Aaron: That's [00:31:00] why you open the second side. I thought this is nice.

[00:31:01] Mona: I have no one yelling at me. I have no one pointing the fingers at me or telling me how much I suck right now. This is nice.

[00:31:07] Aaron: Hope she doesn't listen to

[00:31:08] this .

[00:31:10] Mona: And then a part of me feels this isn't right, and not having her next to me. Sometime I feel self conscious am I doing this right? This tastes right. So that's why I gotta finish this journey with her first before I can start walking on my own completely because I don't think I could. So open the restaurant follow your journey, know where it starts and where you want it to end.

[00:31:33] Aaron: And would you recommend that people go to Cambodia if they haven't been there to learn more? Have you been there?

[00:31:39] Mona: I have not. I have not come back for lots of reasons. It's really hard. So when I was born, there was no doctor, there's no nothing around. There's no paper. We don't, I don't even know what the year I was born.

[00:31:53] None of my family does. It was all just hazy for my mom, so it's hard for me to get up [00:32:00] even though I'm a a resident alien, but it's still hard for me to a citizen. So yeah.

[00:32:06] Aaron: Wow.

[00:32:06] Mona: There's no paperwork So I've talked to multiple lawyers I've talked to multiple lawyers at lawyers and they all just like we need this document to know that you were born I was like either they got killed Or I don't know who they are.

[00:32:23] It's just a lot To go through so I want to but I'm still trying to figure it out right now.

[00:32:28] Aaron: Yeah, no, I can. Yeah, that's it's almost it's a bigger risk to leave and then come back. I think what's beautiful, though, is that, you could experience what Cambodia is by going to your restaurant by tasting your foods by seeing the story by seeing the artwork.

[00:32:44] You're doing such a great service to the community and everybody here. And for me I love to learn about the people that are here in the Chicagoland area. And one of the focuses of this podcast is to teach people about all the wonderful things about the Chicagoland area. [00:33:00] And it could be an ice cream shop, it could be a restaurant, but it's the people, it's the people and, the flavors of the, where we all come from and come together into a wonderful community here which makes this place great.

[00:33:13] So you're certainly part of that and we appreciate that. And I recommend that everybody come and enjoy your food. Come, I don't know if they're going to meet you but they will taste your food because you'll be in the kitchen cooking and where should people go to be able to learn about your restaurant and to make reservations and where you're located.

[00:33:33] Mona: They can find us on our website or our Instagram, Facebook, our menu is on there. Our story is on there. We have, we now have like breakfast and lunch coming. We are, not coming, but it's already happening right now. So if people want to enjoy like Cambodian breakfast, like traditional Cambodian breakfast we do have it on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

[00:33:56] from 930 until two. So if they want [00:34:00] to skip the whole dinner rush, because we do get a little bit busy, they can always come in the morning and enjoy some of the stuff that we do serve a little bit in dinnertime. And they can find all that information on our website, too.

[00:34:12] Aaron: Okay. And what type of food is that, by the way, for breakfast?

[00:34:16] And is it on the fancy side or the other side?

[00:34:18] Mona: My

[00:34:19] side. My side.

[00:34:21] Aaron: Okay.

[00:34:22] Mona: My side. It's we have number Chuck, which is a Cambodian staple food. And it's a little bit funky, but I add that as a Cambodian did in the morning is because that's what a lot of Cambodian people eat in the morning.

[00:34:36] We have like my site, Mon bicycle, which is like, Grilled chicken breasts, I'm sorry, grilled chicken thighs, and it's packed with like lemongrass, galangal, and then it's dipped in our cocoon sauce, which is like a spicy fish sauce, and has cilantro, garlic, and shallots. We have steak, we have bai twako, which is also Cambodian favorite [00:35:00] breakfast dish, it's like a fermented beef sausage.

[00:35:05] So we have all sorts of stuff. I'm not a baker. So right now I'm learning how to cook, to bake some stuff. But when you do come for breakfast, you'll see more of what you'll find at a Cambodian small mom and pop shop, down the street somewhere. So it's no pastry, really just a few here and there.

[00:35:23] But hopefully in the next couple of months I can, Learn how to cook .

[00:35:27] Aaron: Yeah. If you want something different than cereal and milk Yep. Certainly come to you. Yes. Yes. And the website by the way is khmai-fine-dining.com. I'll have it in the show notes so everyone, and the links to all your social media and everything will be there too.

[00:35:43] And then, please follow the Chicagoland guide. I have you Go to thechicagolandguide.com. And it's got the links to everything, but on Instagram, I'm going to be posting videos from when I was there last night it'll be past last night from when I actually published this, but it's pretty cool.

[00:35:59] And [00:36:00] no it's fantastic. What are, what's something you want to leave us with?

[00:36:04] Mona: That if you don't know about Cambodian culture and about Cambodian cuisine, definitely come and check us out, here is, I know that there's a lot of like issues happening around the world, but what we want to create is that the moment you step here at Khmer, or go in Khmer, is that leave all those worries behind.

[00:36:23] Come here, enjoy with your friends and family. Enjoy really good service, good food. laugh and create memories, and help and let us help you create new memories, and our menu is always changing. So it's never going to be the same. Every time you come, it's always going to be different.

[00:36:40] There's so many things on this menu and we can't wait to like share with everybody, and yeah, sure. Help us share culture and our story and our cuisine. I think it's important to keep it going.

[00:36:54] Aaron: Love it. Thank you so much for joining us today Mona.

[00:36:57] Mona: Thank [00:37:00] you