‘Slow Noodles’ Details Resilience, Family Recipes and a Cambodian Connection

Twelve years ago Chantha Nguon and Kim Green sat together in the Cambodian countryside, sharing a beer, discussing writing a book together. Nguon — a Cambodian refugee, a cook, a mother and a social entrepreneur — wasn’t sure anyone would want to hear her story of trauma and loss. But Green was sure. People would want to hear about Nguon’s resilience and how daily acts like sewing and cooking helped her persevere.

A dozen years may seem like a long time to work on a project, particularly without certainty that it would be published. But that was just a blip compared to the lifetime of experiences Nguon had lived, the many times she recalibrated and overcame adversity. Now Nguon, Green and Nguon’s daughter Clara Kim are readying the Feb. 20 publication of .

There were cultural reasons for Nguon to be hesitant about writing a memoir that includes tales of mass murder, land mines, malaria and piracy. Nguon was just 9 when she fled Cambodia for Vietnam, and life there was not easy. In the two decades she spent as a refugee, she cooked in a brothel, worked as a suture nurse in a refugee camp, and suffered from hunger and grief. She lost loved ones to all manner of causes — some horrible and known, some horrible and unknown.

Telling her story, she says, “was like running around naked. It was like lifting my shirt to show my skin, and that’s not a good thing to do, especially for a woman. But I wanted to tell the world what happened in Cambodia, and I want my children to know what I have been through.”

Nguon was forced from Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge regime. Many Cambodians refer to this period from 1975 to 1979 as the “Pol Pot Time,” named for the brutal dictator who killed more than a million Cambodians during his reign of genocide. Part of what Nguon wanted from Slow Noodles is for people to read a more nuanced tale of Cambodia and appreciate that the country and its people are more than its worst time.

Green was introduced to Nguon by Nashville philanthropist and retired Episcopal priest Ann Walling. Green wrote an article about Nguon’s social enterprise work helping Cambodian women make Mekong Blue silk scarves on hand looms, selling them to build financial independence. Walling’s family foundation had provided seed money for the project, and she encouraged Green to work with Nguon. Once the women decided to write a book together, Green helped Nguon organize the stories chronologically and sort the most important details. The results contain poignant specifics, such as Nguon’s disappointment in her first taste of Cambodian food after being away for decades, because ingredients like coconut were unavailable to street vendors who survived Pol Pot Time. Nguon’s late mother’s philosophy was that the best dishes take time and patience to prepare — a sentiment that helped shape both Nguon’s life and the book. 

“[Green] suggested we should make recipes, because that’s what saved my life,” Nguon says. “When I was hungry in the jungle, when I was hungry in Vietnam, all I could think of was the time when I was younger — before I was 9 and was hit with everything — and that saved my life. I would just think about the best food I ever had. And that’s how I survived, so reading the work with a recipe is to relive it in my mind.”

“When we were sitting and having formal interviews, both of us found that difficult and painful,” Green explains. “But when we were eating together, and especially when she was cooking, the stories flowed out much more smoothly and happily. … Maybe ‘happily’ is the wrong word. But they just came naturally.”

The book can be read as a memoir, with the recipes as part of the story; some recipes, like eggplant three ways, may feel more like a narrative instrument. But the team worked on developing recipes — with many testers — to include ingredients widely available to American readers and to present replicable techniques. Over the years, Kim says, Green has become masterful in Cambodian cooking (a compliment Green demurs to).

Green suggests the chicken-lime soup (like matzo ball soup, chicken noodle soup and similar soups the world over, Kim says this recipe cures what ails you) as a good starting recipe for those who are beginners to cooking the cuisine, but recipes are designed for cooks of any level.

Once the book was written, acquired by Algonquin Books and edited, Clara Kim took on the difficult task of narrating the audiobook, which meant perfecting the pronunciation of Vietnamese words, saying things the way her mom would say them, and recounting, aloud, the traumatic experiences her mother endured and retold. “I will usually say yes to anything related to Slow Noodles, but I did not realize what was required of me when I said yes to this,” Kim says. Now that the work is completed, she cherishes the marked-up and annotated copy of the book she used to record the audiobook.

Green, a Nashville radio producer and writer (and ) is known around town as a supporter of creative projects and an all-around connector of like-minded people. So when she started working with Nguon and Kim to support Nguon’s Stung Treng Women’s Development Center, the social enterprise enabling women to make Mekong Blue silk scarves, people showed up. And when there were dinner parties with Cambodian menus? Folks were enthusiastic about being there too. After more than a decade of seeing the women working together on the book, selling silk scarves, cooking, revising and testing recipes, Nashville was ready to support and celebrate them and the book’s launch. As such, there are four launch-week events scheduled in Nashville (see box).

Green counts working on Slow Noodles as “one of the best experiences of [her] life. I was in awe of [Nguon] and her energy and resilience. She has been through so much horror, and instead of giving up, she made a beautiful life.”

“At first I didn’t think people would be interested in my story,” Nguon says. “I am not the only refugee. It is me, and it is my country and every country in the world. Now I think the message is that losing everything is not the end of life. It is how you build your life after loss.”

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Where to Meet the Authors

Julia Martin first met Chantha Nguon 10 years ago — the same year she opened her eponymous Julia Martin Gallery. “I have fantasized about this for a decade, that I get to do this for [Nguon],” Martin says. “I am deeply honored that I get to be a part of getting this book out in the world.” 

Martin organized an exhibition of work by 21 female artists (including Martin herself), exploring the role of resilience and perseverance of women, that will open the day the book is published. Some artists will be working with Mekong Blue silks, others in ceramics, shaping bowls that one might imagine holding noodles.

Martin is not the only person with a desire to help spread the story behind this book.  is an international story, but thanks to its Nashville connections, there are several local events around the book’s launch. Chantha Nguon, her daughter Clara Kim and Kim Green will all be in town for that first week. These events are designed to offer access to the many facets of the book, through women and art, through storytelling and, of course, through food.

6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 20: show at . The exhibition will be on display until March 30. Books will be available for sale through Parnassus Books.

6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 21: Reading, conversation and book signings at and the adjacent Hannah Bee Coffee. Books will be available for sale. Attendance is free, but advance registration is requested.

5 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 25: Walk-up pop-up at . This is the chance to taste some of the recipes from the book. A limited number of books will be available for sale.

3 p.m. Monday, Feb. 26: Book club discussion and reading at . A limited number of books and silk scarves will be available for sale.