Chantha Nguon's memoir, coming 2/20/2024
“I’ve never read a book that made me weep, wince, laugh out loud, and rejoice like Slow Noodles. In Chantha Nguon’s harrowing, wise, and fiercely feminist memoir, cooking is a language—of love, remembrance, and rebellion—and stories are nourishment."
―Maggie Smith, New York Times bestselling author of "You Could Make This Place Beautiful"
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In Slow Noodles, Chantha Nguon recounts her life as a Cambodian refugee who loses everything and everyone—home, family, and country—all but the remembered tastes and aromas of her mother’s kitchen. She takes us back to the quiet rhythms of 1960s Battambang, her provincial hometown, before the dictator Pol Pot tore her country apart and exterminated more than a million Cambodians, including ethnic Vietnamese like Nguon and her family. Then, as an emigrant in Saigon, the author loses her mother, brothers, and sister and eventually flees to a refugee camp in Thailand. For two decades in exile, she survives by cooking in a brothel, serving drinks in a nightclub, making and selling street food, becoming a suture nurse, and weaving silk.
Nguon’s irrepressible spirit and determination come through in this lyrical and inspirational memoir that includes more than twenty family recipes for dishes like chicken lime soup, green papaya pickles, and pâté de foie, as well as Khmer curries, stir-fries, and handmade bánh canh noodles. Through it all, recreating the dishes from her childhood becomes an act of resistance, of reclaiming her place in the world, of upholding the values the Khmer Rouge sought to destroy, and of honoring the memory of her beloved mother, whose “slow noodles” approach to healing and to cooking prioritized time and care over expediency.
For readers who devoured Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner and The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya and Elizabeth Weil, Slow Noodles is a testament to the power of food to keep alive a refugee’s connection to her past and spark hope for a beautiful life.
About Chantha Nguon
Author. Social entrepreneur. Khmer cooking expert.
Chantha Nguon
Survivor & Social Entrepreneur
In 1970, nine-year-old Chantha Nguon fled Cambodia, leaving behind a happy childhood, spent mostly in her mother’s kitchen. As her homeland plunged into the darkness of Pol Pot’s “Year Zero,” Chantha and her mother and sister resettled in war-torn Saigon and used their culinary artistry to eke out nourishing meals from garbage rations.
By age 24, Chantha was alone in the world, with no family or savings. She spent ten hungry years in squalid Thai refugee camps, hoping to begin a new life in America. When that hope died, she went home to Cambodia and rebuilt a life amidst the ruins—in part, by resurrecting her mother's recipes.
SLOW NOODLES is Chantha's upcoming memoir of losing everything and fighting to get it back, a reflection on strength and survival, and a love-letter to the mother who gave her the recipes for both.
Mekong Blue
A Social Enterprise in Stung Treng, Cambodia
In 2001, Chantha and her husband Chan created a successful social enterprise for women in remote Stung Treng province. At the Stung Treng Women’s Development Center, women weave shimmering “Mekong Blue” silk scarves on hand-built looms, bring their children to an on-site kindergarten, and make a living wage.
Having made her own way out of poverty, Chantha has found happiness and purpose in lighting the path for others.
Click here to learn more about Mekong Blue silk and the social services at SWDC.
Images from Mekong Blue & SWDC
In a remote Cambodian village, women learn to weave exquisite silk scarves and new lives of economic independence.
Stung Treng Women's Development Center:
A day in the life of a Cambodian social enterprise
Interview with Chantha Nguon:
The SWDC co-founder, on finding a life's work by offering women a way out of poverty
Sample Dishes
Dive into Khmer home cooking, from simple dinners & finger food to holiday feasts.
No-Brainer Meal
Easy recipes, familiar ingredients
Stir-fried noodles (w/ meat or veg)
Coconut sticky rice dessert
Khmer Favorites
Popular & defining dishes
Khor tamarind—a Battambang-style stew with pork and chicken
Coconut sticky rice dessert
For Special Occasions
Fancy food that's worth the effort
Amok: Khmer-style fish curry
Stir-fried morning glory with rice
Bánh flan
Cambodian Breakfast
Noodle soup for breakfast? YES!
Kuy Teav—noodle soup with fun toppings
Vietnamese iced coffee
Homemade Noodle Soup
Chantha's mom's slowest noodles
Bánh canh—chicken soup w/ homemade rice noodles
Vietnamese iced coffee
Vietnamese Specialties
Dishes from next door
Bánh xeo—crepe with pork & shrimp
Vietnamese iced coffee
Vegetarian Friendly
Dishes for veggie lovers
Green curry with tofu, long beans, & eggplant
Tofu fried with lemongrass & garlic
Green papaya pickles
Scroll down & choose the class you want.
Click purchase button to go to EventBrite, where you can reserve and pay.
We'll teach you to cook a meal, then sit down & eat it together.
FAQ
An introduction to Khmer cuisine
What is Khmer cooking like?
Cambodian food resembles the cuisines of Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand, but with a few defining tastes that set it apart—including sour-tasting soups with tamarind or lime, and prahok, our famous fermented fish paste.
Can I find the ingredients?
Although some supplies might play hard to get, most U.S. cities have specialty markets that carry things like rice paper wrappers, lemongrass, Thai basil, glutinous rice, tamarind, coconut milk, palm sugar, and a wide variety of noodles. And most of the ingredients—such as pork, rice, eggs, shallots, garlic, or fish—are available in any grocery.
Cooking Videos
Starring Chantha and Clara
Fried Spring Rolls
Chantha Nguon
Prepared on a Khmer-style charcoal grill in her Phnom Penh courtyard
Mee Chha
Clara Kim
A delicious egg noodle stir-fry with chicken and bok choy
Bobor Sam Jok
Clara Kim
A favorite Khmer comfort food: rice porridge with pork
Lemongrass Fried Tofu
Chantha Nguon
An easy way to make tofu exciting and tasty
Bánh Flan
Clara Kim
A Southeast Asian take on the classic crème caramel
Num Kruok
Chantha & Clara
A Khmer coconut/rice pancake and popular street food
Beef & Jiacama Spring Rolls
Chantha & Clara
Fresh rolls 2 ways—for vegetarians and meat lovers
Bánh Xèo
Chantha Nguon
The how and why of cooking Vietnamese crepes. Hint: It's about togetherness.
Fried Spring Rolls
Chantha Nguon
Chantha demonstrates her mother's famous recipe for pork spring rolls, fried over a Khmer charcoal grill
Press for Slow Noodles & Mekong Blue
The Gradual Extinction of Softness (Hippocampus Magazine: Nov. 2021)
Chosen as a top story of the week by Longreads, The Browser, FERN, HackerNews, and BMoreArt.
(Chapter 16, Jan. 2022)
The story of how Chantha and Kim became accidental food writers together—and learned from fellow writers.
Doors Open, the World Enters In (Nashville Lifestyles, Fall/Winter 2019)
The Slow Noodles Tour of Nashville (The Line, Fall 2018)
She Despised the Flavor of Short Cuts (Roads & Kingdoms, 2016)
An "Improper Woman," by Clara Kim (Nashville Scene, 2015)
Won a national AAN award in 2016.
Fashion Reigns at International Folk Art Market (Santa Fe New Mexican, 2018)
A Recipe for Happiness: Inspiring New Year's Resolutions (parade.com, 2015)
‘Social’ businesses pursue profit with a cause (Nashville Business Journal, 2011)
Silk Scarves Combat Sex Trade (NPR's Morning Edition, 2009)
'I am sunlight, not moonlight.' (Marketplace 2007)
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