"For chef Nite Yun, a 2018 Eater Young Gun and the author of the just-released cookbook, My Cambodia, an ingredient as simple as corn can be transportive. "When we would go out to barbecues or have family gatherings, grilled corn with coconut milk was the highlight," she says. Not only does this style of corn - bathed in a potion of coconut milk, sugar, green onion, and fish sauce - make Yun nostalgic, it also served as a stepping stone to better understanding her heritage."
""When I went to Cambodia and had [the corn] in the motherland, that was so special," Yun says. It tasted familiar, yes, but it also spoke to her about the possibilities of learning more about her family's past, retracing their steps through the foods they once ate. It's a part of the reason why Yun wanted to write a cookbook. Food has been the driving force behind getting to know her parents, and subsequently, Cambodia better."
""I grew up with this void of not knowing who my parents were, but having a deep curiosity about them," Yun explains. "I wanted to use food as a way to put this puzzle and this mystery - my family's history - together." Food, even something as simple as corn, "is a way to talk about certain memories that can eventually lead to bigger storytelling," Yun says."
Nite Yun is a 2018 Eater Young Gun who released the cookbook My Cambodia. Her family's grilled corn prepared with coconut milk, sugar, green onion, and fish sauce evoked summer gatherings and became a touchstone for heritage. Eating that corn in Cambodia deepened her connection to family past and motivated exploration of ancestry. Refugees who fled the Khmer Rouge often repress memories, creating a void that complicated family storytelling. Food served as a tool to assemble family history and to document her life, including growing up in Stockton and opening Nyum Bai in Oakland. Her family used charcoal at public park grills.
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