Here’s the vibrant scene whenever my parents host a family gathering at their San Gabriel Valley home: They set down bowls and platters of their tried-and-true dishes — from red pungent shrimp to green fish curry noodles — in a steady stream onto the same glossy dining table they’ve had for 30 years. Their grandchildren zip around them like tornadoes.
When I was a child, there were times I’d be fascinated by these stories. But my mother would repeat them so often, I’d inevitably get annoyed hearing them for the umpteenth time and zone out. Now, I realize the humble Chinese doughnut was a storytelling vehicle for so much of my family’s history and their transnational migration to America.“In Cambodia, we’d only see Chinese doughnuts in coffee shops,” my mother recalled.
For two months, my family wandered between Cambodia and Vietnam, sleeping on the streets and taking refuge where they could. They wondered if they could ever return home as they saw dead bodies on the roadsides and families torn apart. Eventually, my parents were able to buy woks, stoves and flour to make their own doughnuts. It took them a while to get it right.
My mother stands by the wok with a pair of foot-long wooden chopsticks, nimbly dropping the dough into the bubbling oil, flipping and lifting it out when it’s a sun-kissed pillowy cruller. “The salary people made in a month, we made in a day,” my mother said. “We had enough to pay the rent and for our livelihood.”Working out of their 500-square-foot studio, with the walls covered in soot from all the deep frying, they perfected their recipe. Almost every family member had a job. They’d get started at midnight and work through the night so my father could deliver the doughnuts to cafes in the morning.
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