By Hanna Raskin
Seattle Weekly (Washington, USA)
Every restaurant owner has a tale of the obstacles he overcame to become a small business owner. But Seng "Sam" Ung's story is far more harrowing than most.
Ung, owner of the tremendously popular Phnom Penh Noodle House in the International District, a few weeks ago released his memoir, I Survived the Killing Fields: The True Life Story of a Cambodian Refugee. With the help of writer Thomas McElroy, Ung shares his account of his Cambodian childhood and its upending by the relentlessly brutal Khmer Rouge regime.
Ung, an average motorcycle-riding, Westerns-loving teenager, grew up working in his parents' restaurant. He was 20 years old when his hometown fell to the Khmer Rouge, igniting a horrific era of suffering and death that enveloped Ung's family. Ung fills chapters with unspeakable memories of watching his relatives starve.
"Hunger compels a person to do anything to stop the pain of it," writes Ung, who remembers trying to trap field rats and coax snakes out of their holes.
"I skinned him out, made a fire and roasted him right there," Ung writes of an encounter with a blue snake. "No salt, no seasoning, nothing. It had been a long time since I had any meat, and I remember thinking at the time that it was the best meat I had ever tasted."
Surrounded by violence, Ung fixated on his plans for the future.
"To keep myself from going crazy, I started a recipe book," he writes. "It was my thinking if and when this phase of my life ever ended, I could start a restaurant using all of the old recipes. I talked with elders in our village about their best recipes."
Later, after the Khmer Rouge's rule ended, a fellow Cambodian intercepted Ung on the road back to his hometown and offered to hire him as a cook. Ung agreed, "although there was no soy sauce in Cambodia" since fighters had destroyed the manufacturing plants.
Ung improvised a "pat lo" with water, salt, MSG, mung beans, tamarind, chili, and pork. His dish--and the cart from which he sold it--became enormously successful.
After Ung and his wife were given permission to emigrate to Seattle, Ung took a job at a downtown restaurant, cooking hamburgers, pancakes, and fried chicken. Despite a few linguistic hurdles--"I thought to myself: Hold the onion? How can I cook and hold an onion?"--Ung went on to a series of kitchen jobs at Ivar's and the Rainier Club, where he learned to sculpt fruit.
Ung opened Seattle's first Cambodian restaurant in 1987.
"On opening day, I thought back to my ESL class where my teacher asked me what I wanted to do in the future," Ung writes. "I told her my dream was to open a small café someday. And here I was, on this day with my dream coming true."
Autographed copies of Ung's book are available at the Wing Luke Museum and Phnom Penh Noodle House.
Location Info:
Phnom Penh Noodle House
660 S. King St., Seattle, WA
5 comments:
Dear Seng Sam,
Congratulations for your book publishing and also for your Phnom Penh noodle House where I enjoyed so much while I was on holiday in Seattle.
Ung Bun Heang,
your friend
from Battambang town
Koh Tral was a Cambodian island, and technically and legally, remained a Cambodian island until today.
Ms Keo,
Koh Tral Island must not be forgotten
By Ms. Rattana Keo
Why do Koh Tral Island, known in Vietnam as Phu Quoc, a sea and land area covering proximately over 30,000 km2 [Note: the actual land size of Koh Tral itself is 574 square kilometres (222 sq miles)] have been lost to Vietnam by whose treaty? Why don’t Cambodia government be transparent and explain to Cambodia army at front line and the whole nation about this? Why don't they include this into education system? Why?
Cambodian armies are fighting at front line for 4.6 km2 on the Thai border and what's about over 30,000km2 of Cambodia to Vietnam. Nobody dare to talk about it! Why? Cambodian armies you are decide the fate of your nation, Cambodian army as well as Cambodian people must rethink about this again and again. Is it fair?
Koh Tral Island, the sea and land area of over 30,000 square kilometres have been lost to Vietnam by the 1979 to 1985 treaties. The Cambodian army at front line as well as all Cambodian people must rethink again about these issues. Are Cambodian army fighting to protect the Cambodia Nation or protecting a very small group that own big lands, big properties or only protecting a small group but disguising as protecting the Khmer nation?
The Cambodian army at front lines suffer under rain, wind, bullets, bombs, lack of foods, lack of nutrition and their families have no health care assistance, no securities after they died but a very small group eat well, sleep well, sleep in first class hotel with air conditioning system with message from young girls, have first class medical care from oversea medical treatments, they are billionaires, millionaires who sell out the country to be rich and make the Cambodian people suffer every day.
Who signed the treaty 1979-1985 that resulted in the loss over 30,000 km2 of Cambodia??? Why they are not being transparent and brave enough to inform all Cambodians and Cambodian army at front line about these issues? Why don't they include Koh Tral (Koh Tral size is bigger than the whole Phom Phen and bigger than Singapore [Note: Singapore's present land size is 704 km2 (271.8 sq mi)]) with heap of great natural resources, in the Cambodian education system?
Look at Hun Sen's families, relatives and friends- they are billionaires, millionaires. Where did they get the money from when we all just got out of war with empty hands [in 1979]? Hun Sen always say in his speeches that Cambodia had just risen up from the ashes of war, just got up from Year Zero with empty hands and how come they are billionaires, millionaires but 90% of innocent Cambodian people are so poor and struggling with their livelihood every day?
Koh Tral was a Cambodian island, and technically and legally, remained a Cambodian island until today.
Smart Khmer girl Ms. Rattana Keo,
is the gentleman related to Luong Ung?
all theses stories are from new people yes they sufered but now have a good life
the base people still suffer today and the the new people do nothing to help
somethings never change
Post a Comment