Back from NYC!

I can’t believe I skipped the entire month of June without writing a blog post! Where did the time go?! After returning from a month long trip to Boston to test out recipes with my mom, I was in LA for a week before I had to fly back out to the east coast again to NYC to see family. Family from Boston, NYC, and Paris with 4 toddlers in tow. It has been an exhausting last 2 months! You have no idea how happy I am to be home! I love my space. I love my alone time. I love my home. I love LA.

I feel really behind on work that I need to do for myself. Just because I have a flexible schedule, doesn’t mean I don’t have work. Just because not all the work I do involves a paycheck, doesn’t mean it’s any less important. Just because my work doesn’t immediately produce an output doesn’t mean it’s not working towards something. Sometimes, I feel like it’s hard for people to understand that. And I just don’t want to constantly have to explain myself or remind people that. Even though the east coast was productive, I feel like I lost a little bit of the momentum I have worked hard to build to get myself motivated and committed to my journey.

Anyways, I am happy to be back home. Happy to return to my routine. Happy to get back to my schedule. Happy to be in my own kitchen cooking again on my terms. I don’t think I will be going anywhere for awhile. Here are a few shots from my trip.

Interview with VoyageLA Mag

I am so excited to share with you my interview with VoyageLA Mag! They asked me to be a part of their Trailblazers series, Rewriting the Narrative. Here is a link to my full interview.

When VoyageLA first reached out to me, I wasn’t exactly sure what story I had to tell. My entire journey has been up and down, full of highs and lows, as well as self-doubt. My initial thought was that I didn’t have a perfect or fluid story to tell. And where does my story even begin? Sometimes we get caught up in this idea of perfection. But it’s the flaws and mistakes that actually help us grow and learn. I have many stories and they are all intertwined into my current journey of creating a cookbook of my mother’s Cambodian recipes—my parents survival from the Cambodian genocide, my birth at a refugee camp, our escape from my abusive father, growing up poor, feeling like an outsider growing up, etc. These stories have all led me to where I am today. I am not only writing a cookbook, I am writing my story.

During my interview with VoyageLA, I realized I have so much to share and a lot more to say than I had thought. I hope you enjoy my interview and can relate to my journey and feel inspired. There is beauty in all of our imperfections. I need to remind myself that. Everyone has a story. What’s yours?

New Year, New Challenges, More Recipes

In my last post, I wrote about how in February, I challenged myself to work every single day of the month, including weekends, sticking to a strict schedule. I stuck to the promise I made to myself and survived February! How do I feel? I feel pretty damn proud of myself! I tackled some pretty tough recipes and it was a lot of work! I have no idea how my mom was able to make some of these complex dishes as a single, working mother of 3 young girls. I also don’t know how she remembers the ingredients in all of these dishes. It’s so easy to confuse similar recipes. Good thing I’m documenting everything and creating a cookbook! I hope my sisters and my cousins appreciate all of this!

Even though February has ended, I’m still committed to working everyday. I mean, I need to. I want to. And I don’t really have a stable income. I need to keep it moving. After a month of working long hours every single day and all weekend, my body was starting to feel low on fuel. I felt so drained and tired. This month, I have tried to loosen the grip a little bit and have taken more breaks to rest. It’s hard to feel inspired and productive if you’re exhausted and overworked. I have to allow myself time to re-energize.

There are a few different things I’m trying to jump start at the moment. After 12+ years in the corporate world of the fashion industry, I want something different. I want flexibility. I have different passions and want to be able to do it all. In my experience with a corporate job that is unrelated to my other passions, it is difficult to find time to do anything else. I want to see if there’s a way I can pursue consulting on a part-time basis, which means I need to look for a client and reach out to recruiters, hiring managers, and others in my network. I also want to finish this cookbook and try to get it published. This means I need a publisher and I need to send out query letters to literary agents. Plus, I don’t know anything about publishing. I definitely have a lot of research I need to do. If all that fails, then I will need to look into self publishing. I also enjoy food styling, food photography, and sharing my journey of creating this cookbook on my Instagram. I completed my first collaboration for a brand recently (photos shown above). Food styling is so much fun! I have been getting invited to media night events as a blogger also. I’d love to connect with other brands for partnerships. This means contacting brands, creating a media kit, and sending out pitch emails.

To sum it all up, I’m searching for a new client for consulting, a literary agent, and a brand partnership while I’m cooking and writing for my cookbook. On top of all that, I’m also looking for a life partner. It’s a lot, huh?! But I think I can do it all! Hoping to at least finish all of the cooking by the end of this month. I’ve been attending various types of networking events to brainstorm with others and that has been helpful. Lets go March!

If you have any advice, suggestions, or encouraging words on the above, please send them my way!

P.S. I’ve gotten sick of eating so much of my own food. I need new non-Asian recipes. Help! Something fun and easy.