Premier screening movie "Lost Loves" in Seattle

“LOST LOVES” USA SCEENING TOUR

SEPTEMBER 28, 2012

in Seattle

SCREENING & DISCUSSION W/ DIRECTOR CHHAY BORA

Seattle-Sihanoukville Sister City Association and Studio Revolt invites you to a public film screening of the highly-acclaimed

“Lost Loves”

(based on a true story)

Produced and directed by Chhay Bora, “Lost Loves”, retells the plight of a young mother under a genocidal regime.

The Cambodia Oscar Selection Committee has submitted Chhay Bora’s Lost Loves to the best foreign-language film category of the Academy Awards, marking the first time in 18 years that the country has sent a film to the Oscars.

$7 per person donation

Seating is limited to 150 people. Get your advance tickets today! Make a donation and present your receipt for admission.

For details visit: www.seasih.org/events.html

Reminder: NSP reception in Tacoma, Washington on 24 August 2012

Cambodian Cultural Celebration 2012 in Des Moines, Washington State on 25 August 2012

Mr. Kem Sokha's visit to Washington State

HRP and NSP reception in Tacoma, Washington, on Friday 24 August 2012

SeaTac couple plead guilty to running theft ring

October 31, 2011
By John de Leon
The Seattle Times

A SeaTac couple has pleaded guilty to several charges stemming from an organized theft ring in South King County in which they paid others to steal items, which the defendants later resold.

Sara Kong, 41, and Chanthou Rim, 39, each pleaded guilty last week to six counts of first-degree attempted trafficking in stolen property and one count of first-degree conspiracy to commit organized retail theft. The couple is accused of directing others to steal items from retail stores and reselling some of the items to local markets and sending other goods to Cambodia, which prompted a parallel investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

According to the charges, Rim and Kong used “thieves to enter retail grocery and other stores to steal merchandise.” Among the thieves was a mother-daughter duo that shoplifted nearly $1,000 worth of items each day, prosecutors said. The mother and daughter told police they did it because they needed money to support their heroin addictions, according to the charges.

Cambodian-Americans' protest against Thai invasion in Seattle, Washington

Click here to see the entire no. 1 photo album

Click here to see the entire no. 2 photo album

Family that lost 4 members in West Seattle shooting needs help

October 27, 2010
West Seattle Blog

Just received from Cara Kroenke at Southwest Youth and Family Services, a little over one month after the quadruple murder-suicide in West Seattle:

I’d like to share with you an experience that I just had. At 11:00 this morning, I met with the surviving members of the family that was massacred in West Seattle. … To summarize, the grandmother of the Phan/Harm family, who lived through the genocidal Khmer Rouge attacks of Cambodia PTSD, went off of her medication that helped her deal with her PTSD and fatally shot five members of her family in West Seattle. Her youngest grandchild, Nivia, age 7, was home from school day with a 101 degree fever and witnessed the killings of her father, two sisters(one of whom was pregnant) and the shooting of her mother,Thyda. Grandmother then tried to shoot Nivia, but she ran out of bullets and while she was reloading, Nivia’s 17 year old brother, Kevin, grabbed Nivia and threw her out the window, he then fled himself. As this was happening, grandfather was coming home and heard the final shots as he opened the door, he saw the grandmother take her own life.

They were here at the agency today because they need help. They need counseling, community, love and financial support.

Please join me in contributing what you can; the family is in desperate need of $1800 to pay for the repairs that their landlord is charging them for the damages. Because most of their furniture was bloodstained, or worse, they need furniture and mattresses. The missed shots destroyed many household items as well, so glasses, pots, pillows, etc. would be greatly appreciated too.

The mother is still healing from her gunshot wounds and cannot work. The surviving family is in great need of emotional support, which they will receive from counselors at SWYFS, but they need the basics taken care of, including the $1800 debt, in order to start the healing process, so please if you can donate any money, do. If you would rather support the family with a Safeway or Albertson’s gift card, they greatly need money for food as well. Or, if you have any gently used household items, they would be appreciated as well.

The Phan/Harm family are currently living in temporary housing, but we are working with them to find permanent housing near the children’s schools.

I was able to spend time with Nivia today and we were able to talk about some of her favorite things; stuffed animals, Barbie, movies and books. She would very much like to read the The Magic Treehouse series and is going to be a cat for Halloween. I looked into her eyes and saw joy there; she is very resilient. She was even able to laugh a bit, but told me she can not sleep because she has nightmares; and wasn’t at school today because when she is able to sleep it is on the floor and that that is very uncomfortable and her mother wanted her to get her rest today.

Please keep her and her family in your prayers or thoughts.

Below is a link where you can make a donation. My goal is to raise/have pledges for the whole $1800 by end of day tomorrow. Please work with me so that this can happen for the family. Feel free to call me with questions, or come by the agency to drop off any donations. If you would like to send in a check, a gift card to the grocery store or a letter of encouragement/support, please mail it to:

SWYFS

Attention: Phan/Harm family support

4555 Delridge Way SW

Seattle, WA 98106

Many thanks for rallying with us for the Phan/Harm Family.

For your records, our tax ID # is:911-17862

Donate here link: http://swyfs.org/support_us/

Meet opposition leader Sam Rainsy and Mr. Sean Pengse in the US West Coast

Sunday 30 May in San Jose, California (mid-morning and afternoon)
Sunday 30 May in San Jose, California

Click on each announcement to zoom in

Earthy and aromatic Cambodian flavors top their Thai counterparts

Fried tilapia (All photos: Hugo Kugiya)
Num banh chuk

Tola Kruy behind the counter at Queen's Deli

May 20, 2010
By Hugo Kugiya
Crosscut.com

Eating on the Edge: At the family-owned Queen's Deli in White Center, let trust and curiosity be your guides.

The day I ate Cambodian food for the first time also happened to be the day of White Center Spring Clean 2010. Volunteers wearing purple T-shirts spent a Saturday in May cleaning and beautifying the streets and public spaces in the transforming, unincorporated neighborhood on a hilltop south of downtown Seattle.

Part of neither Seattle nor Burien, the two cities that border it, White Center is the petri dish of our civic aspirations, a somewhat isolated, urban community plotted with the best intentions, the kind of place many who live in Seattle probably wish the city was like: still small enough to allow for the effort of the individual, but big enough to stand for something.

King County spent $15 million here over the last five years to repair storefronts, restore a park, install wireless Internet, build new sidewalks and a community center, and finance the construction of the Greenbridge project, a mixed-income housing complex that replaced distressed and dangerous public housing originally built to temporarily shelter Boeing workers.

Beset by poverty for decades, White Center was that invisible, avoided place, of interest to few with political or cultural power. As it often happens in places like White Center, immigrants to the city settled here: Somalis, Ethiopians, Mexicans, El Salvadorans, Vietnamese, Russians, and Cambodians. Block for block, it is undoubtedly one of the most diverse places in King County, and a great bet for eating.

The spiritual and cultural heart of the Seattle area’s Cambodian community is in White Center, one of many places across the country where Cambodian immigrants have landed since 1979, when the Khmer Rouge regime fell from power, the country’s genocide ended, and its refugees started settling in the U.S.

According to U.S. Census data, most Cambodian Americans live in California and Massachusetts, followed by Washington state. One of the few museums in the world devoted to the history of Cambodia’s “killing fields,” (referring to the genocide of 1 million to 2 million Cambodians following the end of the Vietnam War) started in White Center, although it has been temporarily relocated to the Wing Luke museum in Seattle's Chinatown.

None of this was on my mind the weekend afternoon I visited the Queen’s Deli, one of the few Cambodian restaurants in the Seattle area. I was preoccupied with the dearth of Cambodian dining options (despite the number of immigrants in the area), a curious circumstance given the number of Vietnamese and Thai restaurants in the city — Cambodia shares borders as well as plenty of cultural DNA with Thailand and Vietnam. Thai food in particular is so ubiquitous, it is nearly as emblematic of Seattle as salmon and teriyaki.

The Kirirom Restaurant & Bakery in Lynnwood recently closed, and a pho restaurant replaced it. That leaves the Phnom Penh Noodle House in Chinatown as the only other option around here, although Phnom Penh is more of a hybrid of Cambodian, Thai and Chinese.

Queen’s Deli has the distinction of being surrounded by other Cambodian businesses and being patronized mostly by Cambodian immigrants. A few blocks away, the largest grocery in the neighborhood, the Samway market, is owned by the Yim family, from Cambodia by way of Louisiana. The Queen’s Deli is owned by the Kruy family — husband Chengtay, wife Chamtong and their adult son Tola, 23, who grew up near Phnom Penh but attended high school in Kent and is now a student at Highline Community College. The Kruys opened Queen’s Deli less than two years ago.

Tola said the restaurant's name refers to his mom, who does all the cooking and runs the kitchen. "My parents wanted to give the restaurant a Cambodian name, but I didn't want to do that," he said. "I didn't want people to think the food was just for Cambodian people."

While tables are abundant, the restaurant is more of a takeout joint. Women come to buy bags of sweet rolls and other baked goods. Families order ahead for trays of fried noodles for birthday parties. Men grab sandwiches made with grilled pork and baguettes — Cambodia or Kampuchea (an older, more faithful English transliteration) was formerly a French protectorate — wrapped in butcher paper. The restaurant has plenty of pre-made food to go: hot-out-of-the-oil rice-flour donuts; colorful, gelatinous sweets; a Cambodian version of a hambao, stuffed with mushrooms, onions, and pork; and various noodles and sautéed dishes kept in hot trays behind the counter.

But for those with a little time, the most rewarding dishes are those made to order. Dishes are constructed from scratch and take some time in the small kitchen. The best among them are soups and stews that share hints of similarity with Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese and Indian food. Bright aromatics like ginger and lemongrass are part of the cuisine as are peppery herbs, rice noodles and curries. Cambodian food is less spicy and sweet than Thai food. But if the difference between Cambodian food and other Asian food can be reduced to one ingredient, it would be prahok.

Prahok is to Khmer cooking — Khmer also refers to the language of Cambodia and to its people — what fish sauce is to Thai cooking. It is fish paste, made from the gutted, scaled, salted, fermented remains of various freshwater fish. It is a pale, pinkish grey in color and possesses a pungent aroma that gives Khmer food a deep, earthy flavor. The flavors of the Thai food we consume locally seem elementary by comparison. Prahok is used in most Khmer dishes, as a base of flavor to build on.

The dishes at Queen’s Deli cost $7 or less. The menu contains some photographs that are of some help to those new to Cambodian food. Otherwise, a certain trust and sense of curiosity are the best guides. Friendly and helpful, Tola is also happy to explain the menu and inform your choices.

He is likely to suggest num banh chuk ($6), ribbons of thin rice noodles served in a pale-colored sauce, made with prahok, ground lemongrass and spices that impart a subtle, curry-like flavor. The sauce is soupy in consistency but dense with flavor. Mixed into the sauce is ground pork, chopped long beans, cucumbers, mint leaves, and bean sprouts.

Another idiosyncratic dish is samloh kako ($7), referred to on the menu as Cambodian ratatouille. The designation is a bit misleading, as the dish is more of a savory stew. It too possesses a pale, somewhat unappetizing, green-gray color thanks to the prahok. The flavor, however, does not disappoint. The dish is traditionally made with fish, but on Tola’s suggestion, I ordered it with pork rib on the bone. The stew contains bits of pumpkin, eggplant, and leafy herbs. Like the num banh chuk, it is not spicy, allowing you to take in and appreciate the depth of its flavors.

To oversimplify, Cambodian food is rustic compared to Thai food. The preparation is elegant but basic. Take the fried tilapia ($6), skin-on, deep-fried cross sections of fish tossed with onions sliced longitudinally with small slabs of ginger and whole, fermented beans. Served with plain rice, the dish is slightly sweet, mostly salty, and funky in the best possible way. You can imagine it cooked at home. That is the overall effect of the Queen’s Deli. It feels like a home kitchen, somewhere far away.

So much of White Center feels that way, a world apart from the city most of us know. With the streets now shiny and less threatening, the mainstream is finding its way here too. The Dubsea coffee shop in the Greenbridge development is a bright, airy hangout as sleek and cool as any in Capitol Hill. It serves Stumptown coffee beans, and baked goods from Macrina and Le Fournil. Full Tilt serves its gourmet ice cream here — it operates two other stores in Columbia City and the University District.

The beauty of White Center is that it contains, in equal parts, the familiar and the unfamiliar. Starting in June, the Kruys are proud to report, the Queen’s Deli will start serving Cambodian hot pot, which the owners found difficult to describe, saying only that it is not like any other kind of hot pot you have eaten, a claim I would bet on with confidence.

If you go: Queen’s Deli, 9808 14th Ave. S.W., Seattle, 206-767-8363. Open daily from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.

A former national reporter for Newsday and The Associated Press, journalist and author Hugo Kugiya writes about the Northwest for several publications, including his former employer, The Seattle Times. He has covered sports, crime, transportation, legal affairs, and music. His book 58 Degrees North was a finalist for the 2006 Washington State Book Award. You can reach him at hkugiya@yahoo.com.

Dancing in the New Year

Dancers toss flower petals toward the crowd during last year’s Cambodian New Year Celebration at Clark College. (Photo by Steven Lane)
The Cambodian New Year Celebration at Clark College this weekend will feature elaborate costumes. (By Troy Wayrynen, The Columbian)
Jennifer Kourn, then 6, from Vancouver, peeked through the stage curtain to check the crowd before dancing at last year’s Cambodian New Year Celebration. This year Jennifer, now 7, will dance again. (By Steven Lane, The Columbian)

If you go

• What: Cambodian New Year Celebration, feting the year of the tiger with traditional dance and music.
• When: 6:30-11:30 p.m. April 10. 6:30-7:30 p.m. is a social hour, followed by a performance by the Khmer Angkor Dance Troupe from 7:30-8:45 and a social dance from 8:45-11:30.
• Where: Clark College’s Gaiser Student Center, 1933 Fort Vancouver Way, Vancouver.
• Cost: $14, free for children 12 and younger. Refreshments will be available for purchase.
• Information: 360-944-9025 or 360-882-3646.

Cambodian-American troupe continues local celebration

Friday, April 9, 2010
By Mary Ann Albright
Columbian staff writer (Washington State, USA)

Organizing the community’s Cambodian New Year festivities runs in the family for Connie Mom-Chhing. Her late mother, Vann Hem, once a member of the Cambodian Royal Ballet and founder of the Khmer Angkor Dance Troupe in Vancouver, began putting together local Cambodian New Year events in 1987. Now, oversight for the annual celebration, as well as the dance troupe, has fallen to Mom-Chhing. It’s a way of helping the area’s small but growing Cambodian-American community keep traditions alive.

This weekend will mark the third year Mom-Chhing’s volunteer-run Cambodian New Year Celebration has taken place at Clark College. The Khmer Angkor Dance Troupe will perform a new routine, as well as revive a dance shelved for the past two decades. The event will feature classical and folk Cambodian dance demonstrations, social dance time, music and traditional Cambodian foods as it celebrates the year of the tiger.

The Chinese New Year goes by the lunisolar calendar, so the date varies from year to year. The Cambodian, Thai and Laotian New Years are always celebrated for three days on April 13, 14 and 15, said Mom-Chhing. But really, the entire month of April is a celebratory time, added the 40-year-old Vancouver resident, administrator for the Clark County Regional Support Network.

Dance is an important part of the celebration. Khmer, or Cambodian, classical dance is an art form dating back 2,000 years and was traditionally performed in the royal court and at sacred rituals as a sacrifice to gods, goddesses and spirits of dance teachers departed. The dance uses highly stylized hand movements to tell a story.

Women perform classical Cambodian dances, taking on the male and female roles. Both men and women participate in Cambodian folk dances.

Mom-Chhing’s been dancing since age 9 and teaches Cambodian dance at Firstenburg Community Center through Vancouver-Clark Parks and Recreation.

She will solo Saturday in Robam Apsara, or Celestial Dance, which she hasn’t performed in more than 20 years. The dance, which also features four of Mom-Chhing’s advanced students, is a classical routine inspired by the more than 1,500 apsara, or celestial dancers, carved throughout Angkor Wat, a Cambodian temple complex built in the 12th century.

Another classical dance the Khmer Angkor Dance Troupe will perform is Robam Boung Soung, or Pray Dance.

“It’s asking for peace, happiness and prosperity for the upcoming New Year,” Mom-Chhing said.

Five of Mom-Chhing’s young students, including her 7-year-old daughter, Charmony Chhing, will perform Robam Chhma — Cat Dance — for the first time this weekend.

“It’s depicting a group of cats chasing a mouse, and at the end, they catch it,” Mom-Chhing said.

In addition to children’s and classical dances, the New Year Celebration will include the Cambodian folk dance Robam Koah Trah Lauk, the Coconut Shell Dance.

This playful, flirtatious dance features 10 performers and “is very fast-paced, very rhythmic,” Mom-Chhing said.

The dance makes use of actual coconut shells, which the troupe imported from Cambodia.

Beyond dance, the April 10 event will feature traditional Cambodian wedding songs, both sung and played on the tro sau, a two-stringed instrument.

After the performances, a disc jockey from All-Star Music & Events will kick off the social dance portion of the evening. There will be karaoke, as well as several different styles of Cambodian social dance.

Continuing the immersion into various aspects of Cambodian culture, volunteers are preparing traditional dishes for sale at the event. Items available will include papaya salad, beef satay, egg rolls, a Cambodian version of pad Thai and a dessert made from sweetened sticky rice, Mom-Chhing said.

Mary Ann Albright: maryann.albright@columbian.com, 360-735-4507.

Help for Seattle family who lost everything in fire

February 6, 2010
By TONYA MOSLEY
KING 5 News (Seattle, Washington, USA)

SEATTLE - The leader of the Sahak Khemararam Buddhist Temple chants, the monks eat, and the members collect money, as Sean Phoung weeps for his only son Prackserth.

"I think about him all the time every minute, every second," he said.

It's Buddhist tradition, the food is eaten so that Prackserth (also known as Patrick) may be full on his journey to the next life. The clothing will give him warmth and the money will be burned, so that Prackserth may prosper.

So many sacrifices for their beloved son, as the Phoung family is left here with almost nothing.

"When I heard that they found my son in there I was so shocked. I lost my life," said his mother Sody.

Eight members of the Phoung family now sleep on the floor of the temple, relying on their friends for food and donated clothing. Their house was destroyed in a fire on Monday, Prackserth's body was discovered inside.

But Sean assures his family that they will endure. Thirty years ago he survived the killing fields of Cambodia and he says they will surely survive this. Tonight they're starting over and looking forward to seeing Prackserth again, in the next life.

Fire officials say they don't expect to know the cause of the fire until next week.

Contact the Cambodia Women's Health Organization for more information on how to help the family. Contact Klaudia Snguon at 206-372-0752 koltida@yahoo.com

Welcome to Teedah from Snohomish County, she was born in a parking lot

A firefighter carries the baby girl to the waiting ambulance.
The baby's mom is wheeled into the ambulance after her ordeal.

It's a girl! Mom gives birth at mini-mart

Apr 24, 2009
By Mark Miller KOMO News (Lynwood, Washington, USA)

LYNNWOOD, Wash. - A local baby girl couldn't wait to be delivered at the hospital this morning in Snohomish County - she made her surprise debut at an AM-PM mini-mart in Lynnwood.

Her mom and dad were driving down the road - on their way to the hospital - when everything started happening at once.

Dad pulled over into the mini-mart parking lot - between the gas pumps and the corn dogs inside. And that's where the baby was delivered - right there in the car.

Dad then ran inside the mini-mart and called 911.

Firefighters say the newborn was lying in her mother's lap when they ran up to the parked car minutes later, and that the mother stayed calm.

The baby was having a little trouble breathing when firefighters arrived. But everything settled down - the little girl is full term and doing fine.

Paramedics bundled her up in a white blanket. Then they took the baby and mom - who was understandably exhausted after the ordeal - to the hospital via ambulance.

Firefighters say mom was in the front seat of the car when the baby just delivered itself - as dad desperately tried to make it to the emergency room.

The father, whose first name is "Aut," told KOMO News that the baby was on its own schedule.

"Try to make it on time but couldn't do it," he said. "Baby came out right in the middle of the road."

The little girl was named Teedah, which means "daughter of God" in Cambodian.

Paramedics said the parents did a great job, and dad kept his cool.

After making sure his wife was OK, he walked into the AM-PM and asked for the address so he could tell 911 where to come and pick up his new little girl.

Mom and baby made it safely to Stevens Hospital, where the little girl weighed in at 7 pounds, 4 ounces.

And she'll have quite a story to tell for the rest of her life.

Sweet success [for Cambodian-American couple]

Server Elishia Stefanowski of Pioneer Bakery has a full restaurant on Saturday during Meeker Days. (Photo: Colleen Carroll)

Puyallup’s bakeries offer sweet treats, a cozy corner and a happy atmosphere

June 27th, 2008
Joan Cronk
for The Herald (Puyallup, Washington State, USA)

Sey-Po and Coye Ung arrived in Akron, Ohio 28, years ago from Cambodia, and after 13 years in Akron, they had an opportunity to come to Puyallup and buy a donut shop. “We wrapped up everything and moved 2600 miles from Ohio to Puyallup,” said Sey-Po, who moved here with his wife and three children to run Happy Donuts.

“We felt happy and so we named it Happy Donuts,” Ung said. “We make a very good living out of it. We put three kids through college.”

Happy Donuts is a cozy spot. As you pull into the parking lot, geraniums spill out of window boxes to greet you. Inside the business, retirees, moms with kids and folks on their way to work drink coffee and eat donuts the size of dinner plates.

The selection of donuts is endless. Ung said he learned how to make donuts from his supplier when he first bought the business. Now he employs a baker who comes in at midnight and Ung and his wife start at 3 a.m., working until about 9 or 10 in the morning.

They have a regular crew that enjoys their jobs and feel like family. Ung exhibits a real sense of responsibility for his employees.

Julie Brusseau, who has worked at Happy Donuts for 12 years, is one of those employees.

“The Ungs are amazing people,” she said. “They are another set of parents to me.”

Brusseau began working at Happy Donuts when she was in high school and the Ungs have helped her emotionally and financially throughout the years. She is married now, has three children and works as an ER tech at night. She still works for the Ungs though, saying it is a fun place to be because people are always happy.

“People who come into the ER aren’t usually happy,” she said.

Right down the street on Meridian sits Pioneer Bakery. The bakery, which is a true scratch bakery, has been a staple in downtown Puyallup, having started in business in 1926.

Jake and Patti Bostwick, who are lifetime Puyallup residents, bought the business three years ago. Patti was working as an accountant and looking for something new to capture her interest. She found she had a real passion for the bakery business. She worked with the previous owners for a few months to learn all the ins and outs of running a bakery and hit the ground running. She hasn’t stopped since.

Four of the Bostwicks’ seven children are working at the business, in addition to Clare Taylor, whom they call Grandma Clare.

Taylor started in the baking business 50 years ago when she went to work at Frederick and Nelson, helping in the Frango Mint department. She retired once, and after five years grew tired of that lifestyle, saw Patti’s sign in the window and applied for the job.

Taylor, who works five days a week, eight hours a day, said she “loves the customers. Everyone is different.” In addition to waiting on customers, she makes the soups and salads for lunch.

“The family is good to work for,” she said. “They make you part of the family.”

Pioneer Bakery is a full service bakery, making special order cakes and wedding cakes, all of which Patti decorates. Custom shaped cakes have become popular; some are shaped like guitars, skateboards or dragons. They do them all.

The restaurant is warm and comfortable, with brightly colored tablecloths welcoming the customers, soup bubbling in the back room and cookies the size of Texas.

Pioneer Bakery has a booth this year at the Farmers’ Market, run by the kids and their dad Jake, who Patti says is “quality control. He samples everything.”

The Safeway store on Meridian also has a bakery, and Barb Heins is department manager there. She said their bakery is also a full service bakery.

“We still take pride in making our own breads fresh,” she said, on a day they were busy getting ready for graduation and Father’s Day with cakes lined up as neatly as buttons, waiting to be picked up.

Heins has worked at the Safeway bakery for 15 years and said they are busy all the time. They have a very close relationship with their customers and worry if they don’t see them for a while.

Heins arrives daily at 4 a.m. and even when she isn’t at work baking, she is baking at home.

Wendy Wilkins is the cake decorator on staff. Her aunt bought her a cake decorating kit when she was in the 5th grade and Wilkins discovered she had a real talent for the art of cake decorating.

Wilkins said she loves being creative and especially working with the customers.

The Safeway Bakery has been there since the ‘60s and is still going strong, with customers coming in so often that many are on a first name basis.

All three bakeries have the family feel and a real sense of unity.

Sey-Po summed it up by saying, “My employees help me out and I help them out. We are a team. We make Happy Donuts to be a successful business.”

Reach freelance reporter Joan Cronk by e-mail at editor@puyallupherald.com

Cambodia takes spotlight Asia comes to Tacoma

Denise Yin peeks through the curtain as Daravy Oum, Melinda Oum and Amie Yin, from left, wait for their troupe, Cambodian Classical and Folk Dance of Tacoma, to be called to the stage Saturday at the Asia Pacific Cultural Center’s annual New Year Celebration at the Tacoma Dome. (PHOTOS BY PETER HALEY/THE NEWS TRIBUNE)

February 10th, 2008
STEVE MAYNARD; steve.maynard@thenewstribune.com
The News Tribune (Tacoma, Washington, USA)

Pat Walton enjoyed a plate of Korean kimchee and fried pork Saturday and watched Indian dancing, surrounded by hundreds of other people celebrating the Asian New Year in Tacoma.

Taking in the celebration for the first time, the 48-year-old Tacoman called it “spectacular.”

“I really enjoy the culture – and the food,” he said. “That’s part of the culture.”

A multicultural array of food, dance and music was among the attractions at the 10th annual New Year Celebration, organized by the Asia Pacific Cultural Center.

At least 4,000 people attended the all-day celebration at the Tacoma Dome Exhibition Hall, said Phil Chang, executive director of the Asia Pacific Cultural Center in Tacoma.

They helped celebrate the new year, which began Thursday. This Asian New Year, based on the Chinese zodiac cycle, is the Year of the Rat.

Before sampling the Korean cuisine, Walton tried pot stickers and noodles prepared by members of the Chinese Christian Church of Tacoma.

Church member Ming Alwin of Fircrest watched the dancing with her 2-year-old daughter, Danni. Alwin said the celebration is a way for non-Asians and Asians to get to know the diversity of Asian cultures. Youths from her church demonstrated tai chi.

“We want to export our Chinese culture to the society,” Alwin said.

Asians make up 5.9 percent of Pierce County’s population, according to data from the U.S. Census and a 2006 survey cited in the celebration’s program.

The exhibition hall was lined with booths for non-Asian and Asian businesses. Up front, the backdrop for the stage was a giant image of Angkor Wat, the ancient temple in Cambodia.

Each year’s celebration highlights a different culture, and Cambodians enjoyed the spotlight this year.

At least 500 Cambodians attended from as far away as Everett, said Rong By of Olympia. The celebration included Cambodian bands and Cambodian folk and classical dances.

Cambodians want to make themselves known to the general population, said By, who helped emcee.

“The most important thing is that people over here know Cambodians exist as part of the melting pot,” he said.

That ethnic diversity was demonstrated when the Samoana Dancers from Stafford Elementary School in Tacoma took the stage.

The 45 girls, ages 5 to 11, include Cambodian, Russian, Korean, Latino, black and Samoan dancers, said teacher Ala Talo, who started the group four years ago.

They wore Samoan dresses with bright pink and blue flower prints. In four lines on stage, they swayed and stepped, performing Samoan dances and singing in Samoan before their largest crowd ever and for the first time at New Year Celebration.

Nadia Yun, a 9-year-old third-grader, said she likes Samoan dance.

“It’s nice and graceful,” she said.

Talo said the dance is “teaching them how to respect somebody else’s culture.” It also instills positive messages, “empowering the girls that they can do anything if they put their hearts into it,” she said.

“We are so nervous because this is our first year,” Talo said. “But they did good.”

Earlier, Mary Ohno presented Japanese dance and music from her Kabuki Academy for the 10th straight year.

Ohno’s seen the event expand and grow.

“The people start understanding,” she said, “and they’re more interested in other cultures.”

Steve Maynard: 253-597-8647

First Bites: Cambodian restaurant opens in East Tacoma

February 8th, 2008
ED MURRIETA
ed.murrieta@thenewstribune.com
The News Tribune (Tacoma, Washington, USA)

Tacoma’s melting pot has a new culinary adjective: Khmer, the indigenous food of Cambodia.

“It’s between Chinese and Thai food,” said Sovanna Eang, who, with her husband, Tharath “Bro” Eang, opened Mitapeap Khmer Restaurant on Dec. 21 in a former Vietnamese eatery in the K-mart shopping center at the corner of East 72nd Street and Portland Avenue in Tacoma.

Sovanna Eang said her 40-seat restaurant is “the first true Khmer-owned restaurant in Tacoma.” It’s the first restaurant for both Sovanna and Bro Eang, both natives of Cambodia, both of whom share the cooking.

As I encountered the Eangs’ home-style cooking, chewy Chinese-style flat noodles and leafy Chinese broccoli stood out in mee katang stir-fry ($7.95). Familiar Southeast Asian ingredients such as lime leaf, galanga and lemon grass anchored samlah kako ($8.95), a smooth and mild green curry soup textured by seeds of bulbous Thai eggplant and accented with prahoc, the Cambodian fermented fish paste. I ordered my soup with sweet and tender pork ribs (fish and chicken are other options); green papaya, green beans and pumpkin filled out the bowl.

Star anise, a seed used in both Chinese and Thai cuisine, added sultry depth to beef stew ($6.95, on the specials board). This was a fantastic bowl of stew. Beef short ribs were spoon-tender, meaty and flavorful in deep-brown broth thickened with potatoes and chopped peanuts. Melt-in-my-mouth beef tendon was the stew’s tastiest surprise. Get the toasted baguette to soak up all the stew.

Whole fried tilapia ($10.95) was crispy outside, moist and flaky inside. Noodle soups, papaya, mango and seafood salads, deep-fried hot wings, and fresh spring rolls round out the menu.

MITAPEAP KHMER RESTAURANT

1314 72nd St. E; Suite A3, Tacoma; 253-414-2262. Hours: 10:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays; 10:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Sundays.

Man gets 1 1/2 years for 3 slayings [2 of whom are Cambodian-Americans]

Plea deal comes after 2 trials and 2 hung juries in Skyway shootings

January 24, 2008
By CLAUDIA ROWE
Seattle P-I REPORTER (Washington, USA)

A man who once faced more than eight decades in prison for shooting three people to death and seriously injuring three more, will walk free Friday after spending a year and a half in jail.

Dimitri Sidorchuk, 24, kept his head bowed and declined to speak in a King County courtroom, where he was sentenced Thursday for second-degree manslaughter and third-degree assault.

In the gallery behind him, the friends and family of his victims, most of them Cambodian-Americans, shook their heads and sobbed.

Initially, Sidorchuk was charged with murder for the deaths of Sovintha Nhem, 23, and Sophea Sun, 20; manslaughter for the accidental death of his friend, William Shane Belk, 28; and assault for injuring three other young men in a confrontation in July 2006.

But two juries in two separate trials -- considering arguments that Sidorchuk had acted in self-defense -- were unable to come to a verdict, and last month prosecutors agreed to a plea bargain on much-reduced charges.

Superior Court Judge Paris Kallas imposed the recommended 26-month sentence but under the guidelines could have added another eight months.

"It's over; it's done," said Deputy Prosecutor Don Raz, at the conclusion of a case that had frustrated attorneys on both sides, as well as the judge. Raz said that ultimately, the plea deal was preferable to risking another hung jury.

With credit for time served and "good time" figured in, Sidorchuk will walk free, said his attorney, Peter Friedman.

"He feels a sense of relief now that this is over," Friedman said. "The whole incident, he feels, is a tragedy."

The shooting stemmed from a confrontation that began when Nhem, who had been asked to leave a Skyway bowling alley and casino with his friends, wandered into the yard of Sidorchuk's nearby rental home. The two exchanged increasingly heated words -- with Sidorchuk and Belk hurling racial slurs and Nhem's group shouting threats in return -- until Nhem and his four friends backed a car into Sidorchuk's driveway.

At that, Sidorchuk and Belk opened fire with semiautomatic weapons, shooting more than 20 rounds into the car. None of the young men inside were armed.

Deputies who later rushed to the scene discovered a marijuana-growing operation inside Sidorchuk's home, but no testimony about that was allowed at trial. This omission, as well as the double hung juries and the final agreement that Sidorchuk would be given little more than a two-year sentence, infuriated supporters of the victims.

"I'd get longer than that for shoplifting! No justice was served," shouted a man in the gallery, who was promptly removed from the courtroom.

Court officers had prepared for such outbursts and warned the audience against them, but Savoeun Keo, the mother of Sun, was unable to control her rage.

"This justice system is not just," the Cambodia immigrant sobbed. "Killed -- and nothing. It's not fair."

Many of those watching the proceedings said they believed that the courts had discriminated against the Cambodian youths in favor of a white defendant.

"If you're a dark-skinned person trying to live in a white-skinned world, justice is not on your side," said Nan Chot, a cousin. "I have learned that from this trial."

But justice, said Sidorchuk's attorney, is about more than "the primal desire for revenge."

P-I reporter Claudia Rowe can be reached at 206-448-8320 or claudiarowe@seattlepi.com.

Shooting victim’s parents try to cope

January 20th, 2008
KRIS SHERMAN; kris.sherman@thenewstribune.com
The News Tribune (Tacoma, Washington, USA)

Tears flow easily, and dreams remain unfulfilled in the East Side Tacoma home of Ry Sou and Rorth Kok.

Sometimes, when she can no longer tolerate the soul-deep ache, Sou walks up the stairs to her son’s bedroom, sits on his sleigh bed, and talks to him.

She thinks about opening the closet but does not.

The memories of her son, Samnang Kok, are too strong there, she says. They lie in the look and feel and smell of the clothing he wore as a student at Foss High School. They hide in his shoes. They lurk in his belongings.

Samnang Kok, a 17-year-old junior, was shot and killed a year ago in a school hallway, minutes before classes were to resume following winter break. He died there, next to a bank of lockers, on Jan. 3, 2007.

He was shot three times with a 9 mm handgun.

Douglas S. Chanthabouly, then an 18-year-old junior, is charged with first-degree murder in Sam Kok’s death. He has pleaded not guilty and remains in Pierce County Jail awaiting trial.

Sou and Kok miss their son every day, their grief perhaps scabbed over a bit but still raw.

“It’s hard,” Sou says, balancing her 3-year-old grandson, Makhai – Sam’s son – on her lap. She speaks in halting English, thick with the accent of her native Cambodia, but her pain needs no translation.

“He say every day, ‘Is Daddy gone?’” Sou says, retrieving the small, pink plastic clock her grandson pushed off the table in play. “‘Daddy go heaven, now,’ he say. ‘I hate someone kill my daddy.’”

Makhai lives with his mother, Tiari Johnson, but frequently spends time with his grandparents.

The family hasn’t filed a claim against the Tacoma School District, and Sam Kok’s parents don’t seem interested in one.

They’re more concerned, they say, with the welfare of their grandson and of their daughter, Lisa, a freshman at Lincoln High School. The couple also has two grown sons.

Sou, a cashier at the Emerald Queen Casino, says she’s talked to administrators at Lincoln about the need to keep her daughter safe.

“I want all the students to be good,” she adds. “I don’t want trouble.”

Sou was pregnant with Sam when she emigrated to the United States. She gave him a name that means good luck.

“I come from Cambodia, and I find freedom,” she says, pausing to pluck a napkin from the table and use it to blot tears. Kok does the same, wadding the napkin up and wiping it across his lined face.

“I take care of my son,” Sou continues. “I go to work. My son go to school. … When I am old, I plan my son take care of me.”

“He’s a good son,” Kok says quietly, his small frame quaking with the effort. “He help a lot. He good kid. He really smart.”

The couple expected Sam to watch his own boy grow to manhood, too.

When Sam wasn’t studying or helping his parents around the house, he watched cartoons with Makhai or played simple games with his son, an exuberant, small moving object.

“He like a small car,” Sou says, pointing at her grandson. “Zoom, zoom, zoom. … He look like his daddy,” she adds, pointing to Makhai’s dark, shining eyes.

It is those same eyes, in the larger Sam version, that peer at the world from above a teenage smirk in the life-size photo that hangs on the wall in the bedroom that was Sam’s. Below it rests a mini shrine – candles; an ornate cross; a vase of pink, orange and yellow flowers; incense; a pack of cigarettes and a lighter awaiting their owner.

“I look at the pictures. I cry,” Sou says. “I talk. I say, ‘Why? Why? My son go to school. Why my son die?’”

Kris Sherman: 253-597-8659

Gimme a dozen doughnuts sprinkled with good cheer

(Photo: KEN LAMBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES)

Sunday, January 13, 2008
By Marc Ramirez
Seattle Times staff reporter (Washington, USA)

If the proliferation of fancy-schmancy doughnut shops — and names such as Top Pot, Krispy Kreme and Mighty-O — have made your eyes glaze over in the last five years, don't blame Tony Oeung. He's been quietly producing many a regular's holey grail at North Seattle's Family Donut for the past 14 years.

From as far away as Queen Anne and Capitol Hill, they step into his breath-mint-sized shop in the Northgate neighborhood and ask: How's life?

Can't complain, he'll say with a smile. It wouldn't do any good. And anyway, it beats soldering printed-circuit boards for minimum wage, which was what he did when he first came to the U.S. from Cambodia in 1980.

Faithfully, they face down his armadas of jelly-filled, frosted or sugar-topped pastries, baked fresh every morning by his brother-in-law, who starts work at 1 a.m. "I'd like a dozen," they'll say.

"For here or to go?" he'll cackle, and that's Oeung: Amid a breakfast buffet of newfangled hipsters, a dependable taste of old-fashioned cheer.

Q: Ever fritter away your off-hours doing doughnuts in the parking lot?

A: Never. If I get away from here, I want to get away and not think about doughnuts.

Q: What makes a good doughnut?

A: You gotta know how much water to add. If the dough does not expand, it will look bad. And it will taste bad.

Q: Which doughnut is most popular?

A: I think they like maple bars. They'll say, give me two dozen — but I want at least two maple bars.

Q: Your personal favorite?

A: I like the bear claw, the five-fingered thing. Sometimes I take it home, leave it aside until the morning and then put it in the microwave, then I cut it and put ice cream inside. Those are killer.

Q: So why doughnuts? Why not flowers or shoes?

A: I remember when I first came to the U.S., people were like, oh, let's go have coffee and a doughnut. I always stopped by 7-Eleven and got the powdered doughnut in the plastic wrap. Then, one time, I stopped by Dunkin' Donuts and thought, wow, this is a pretty good business.

Q: Remember the famous Dunkin' Donuts commercial where the guy gets up 3 in the morning and says, "Time to make the doughnuts"?

A: Hmmm. (He frowns, as if in thought.) No. But I think that's not enough time to make the doughnuts.

Q: Do you cook at home?

A: No. (He busts up laughing.) That's funny.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Other businesses, like 7-Eleven, you have all the paperwork. Here we only have doughnuts and coffee, and that's it ... . The only problem is, you gotta get up early and make the doughnuts.

Marc Ramirez: 206-464-8102 or mramirez@seattletimes.com

Cantwell to visit Cambodia to talk about global poverty

November 19, 2007
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell will travel to Cambodia Friday to discuss ways to combat poverty in that country, one of the world's poorest.

Cantwell, a Democrat and member of the Senate Finance Committee, is expected to return Nov. 30.

Cantwell's office says the trip will also address the impact of poverty on women, global health and Cambodia's challenges with human trafficking.

Cantwell is co-sponsor of a bill to give preferential duty treatment to exports from the world's least-developed countries, including Cambodia.