Life Update

I can sometimes be a sensitive little bunny. I overanalyze things, replay stuff in my head, and sometimes create stories that don’t exist. I can be histrionic, melancholic, empathetic, and deeply affected by my surroundings. I sometimes need reassurance and validation from others. So you can imagine giving up on corporate life and pursuing a personal dream has not been easy for me!

Thinking back on this journey, I didn’t have faith in myself, but somehow (I really have no idea how), I kept persisting and moving forward. And now I’m in year 3 of independently working for myself with 70 recipes, pages of creative memoir stories, and dozens of social media partnerships under my belt. And I’m happy to announce, after turning down a direct publishing offer a couple months ago, I have officially signed with a literary agent! I have to stop for a minute and show myself some love. I never thought I would find an agent that is as passionate about my memoir cookbook as I am. But I found her! I’m in the home stretch and hopefully am on my way to getting published soon!

The last year and a half have not been easy with the pandemic. There have been lots of lows and then small highs or more like mediums and then back to lows again with me questioning whether things would ever get better. During the last couple months I started to feel bouts of intense self-negative talk, existential confusion, and lack of direction. I had finished all of my cookbook writing and didn’t have a concrete plan for what was next for me. I couldn’t find a new client for my consulting business and had gotten lots of rejections from literary agents. I sulked alone in my dark pit for awhile and then forced myself to be social as an attempt to rescue myself. I was ready to admit defeat and accept all the failed outcomes in my life, but then things began to turn around. Within less than 2 months, four literary agents expressed interest in my cookbook, I got a new client for my consulting business, and landed a new social media partnership with a brand I love! I basically have 3 jobs. It’s complicated but also fun to be able to mix things up.

Sometimes my little heart can’t handle the emotional rollercoaster that is life. I’m not good at riding the waves. In fact, I can’t swim so it makes riding the waves a little harder and scarier. Everything passes though—the good, the bad, and the ugly—and you just gotta learn how to roll with all the punches. I am trying to get better at letting go and not attaching myself to certain outcomes. Hope for the best, and just keep moving forward, and whatever happens, happens. And when I haven’t been able to handle my emotions lately, I’ve indulged in donuts and cake. A sweet treat really does help!

My life isn’t perfect. I don’t have everything that I desire. But in this moment, I’m feeling good and I’m going to sit with this feeling of pride, love, and gratitude for a bit.

Writer's Block

For the last two months, I’ve been focusing on the writing portion of my cookbook (yes, I’m still working on my never-ending cookbook). I plan to incorporate short memoir stories throughout the book that illustrate the powerful role food plays in my family and, especially in my relationship with my mother. It has been a challenge tapping into that part of myself. Not just the creative part that wants to weave together a beautiful story, but also the part of me that is trying to capture all the emotions from a nostalgic memory.

It has been exhausting. I joined a couple writing groups for support and motivation. After a couple weeks of frustration, I found two groups that I really enjoy and have made some wonderful friendly connections. I think I have created some beautiful stories, which feels so liberating and cathartic. However, I have also learned more about my family history and have been forced to revisit some painful childhood memories. It has been an emotional journey and I feel that I still have more stories to tell.

Although I have been productive the last couple of months, I’ve hit a roadblock this past week and have felt unmotivated. I need to write more but can’t seem to find the right words or be able to access the emotions I want to convey. Inspiration can sometimes be elusive. Maybe I need to switch things up?

I’m actually in a virtual writing group session now and decided to work on this blog post instead of editing my short story. Procrastination at it’s finest. At least, I’m writing thought, right? I’ve gone on several walks this weekend (not because I wanted to but because I’m dog-sitting and had to). I’ve tried opening a bottle of champagne. None of those ideas helped. Maybe I need to go for a drive to pick up tacos for lunch today? Yes, I think that’s a good idea…Maybe that will spark some inspiration.

Update. 3 hours later…

I drove to the Westside to pick up tacos and the taco place was closed. Perhaps, because of the pandemic? Or maybe because it’s Easter Monday? Who knows anymore? I was so disappointed! So then, I decided to drive in the opposite direction to get Korean fried chicken because I needed to get gas for my car and the gas station was in that direction. I really wanted tacos but fried chicken is a good alternative. I’ve been feeling indecisive about food and about life lately and don’t know what I want to eat or cook anymore. Anyway, I came home to eat my fried chicken and I took a picture of it. When I went back to my camera to look at the picture, it wasn’t there. Sometimes my phone camera does that. It’ll will make the clicking sound like you took a picture but then doesn’t save it. Or maybe it’s because I close out of it too soon? I don’t know. But now I don’t have a picture of tacos or wings to accompany this post. So now I’m just posting a picture of me on a walk.

And yes, I know I’m rambling. As you can tell, I’m not in the mood to write but I’m forcing myself to, hoping it will open the flood gates. But it’s really not working. Maybe I need to make myself a martini? Maybe I need to take a break from my project and try to figure out my life? I know that I am priviledged in that I have the luxury to think about pursuing what makes me happy versus working to surivive. This is a completely different concept from that of the previous generation—our parents’ generation. I feel guilty for this sometimes.

Okay. Time to return to procrastinating. Ideas for sparking inspiration welcome!

Happy 2021!

Happy NEW Year! I had been meaning to check in on the blog but then chaos ensued after only a few days into the new year. The riots at the Capitol were so upsetting. I had a lot of feelings and needed some time to process. I’m deeply saddened by the acts of ignorance, hate, racism, and white supremacy in our country. I can’t help but feel a little scared and nervous about the future with everything happening right now. While I think that having new leadership will help, as a country, we still have a long way to go and so much to learn.

Here in Los Angeles, we are still in a lockdown. I survived the holidays. It was a little lonely and isolating but I bounced back quicker than I thought I would. People all around me are still traveling and seeing their friends and carrying on as normal (or close to normal) and I’m wondering if I should be doing the same? I haven’t seen my family in a year and a half. I haven’t been on a plane in a year. I do see people occasionally for social distant hangs, walks, and hikes but probably not as regularly as I should to maintain my mental health.

I was starting to feel the isolation creeping in on me again as we entered the new year. So then last weekend, I made plans for 2 back to back hangs, 2 days in a row. One was a challenging 4 mile uphill hike to Sandstone Peak in Malibu and the other was a 5 mile walk along Zuma Beach in Malibu. I had also hiked 3 times that week leading up to the weekend and had a few back to back FaceTime calls the Friday night prior. That following Monday, I was completely exhausted and as a result, was not as productive as I had wanted to be. Plus, my body was completely sore from all the hiking and exercise. By Tuesday morning, I still had not recovered. I woke up with an allergy attack and was basically incapacitated on the couch for the whole day. My body did not like all of that action! As an introvert, too much social activity can be draining but now, in a pandemic, after becoming accustomed to quarantine and isolation, I must have hit a whole new level of social exhaustion combined with too much physical ventures. Anyway, because of that setback, I worked all of this weekend on my cookbook to catch up with the time that I lost during the week.

With my consulting at a halt at the moment due to my project ending last November, I finally have the time to refocus on my cookbook. It was hard to transition back to a creative and entrepreneurial mindset and schedule though. It took a couple of weeks of resistance in December before I found the momentum to get going again. In the last year, it was not possible for me to work on the cookbook while also juggling full-time consulting work, brand partnerships, content creation, and my blog. I believe this break from consulting is a blessing in disguise because now I can commit my time to the cookbook again. My passion project requires more energy. Creativity for me requires more energy. I notice that when there is too much space and time between each piece of the cookbook that I work on, it then reflects in my work. The quality, depth, connection, and flow suffer. I’ll forget why I wrote something or how I made a dish.

Since mid-December, I’ve been FaceTiming with my mom several days a week to discuss my recipes, photos, Khmer translations, ideas, and facts about our history. I’m going back through all my recipes and editing the writing, reorganizing the flow, and deciding which ones I need to reshoot. Even though I devoted the entire 2019 to cooking most of the recipes in the book (and thought I was almost done), I’ve just added more new recipes to my list and I still have desserts that I need to make. And I’d like to add more stories. I still have a lot to do and it has been so exhausting. One evening, I spoke with my mom for 2 hours just about herbs! HERBS! Each of our calls last 2 hours. There’s so much detail to go through and understand. But I know I can do it!

Last week, on a call with a new therapist, she asked me what I do for fun after I had updated her on all the things I’ve been working on and all the emotions I had been feeling. Her question made me pause and think. I had been spending all my time working on the cookbook, FaceTiming with my mom or sister to brainstorm about contents of the cookbook, going to virtual therapy, and attending virtual support groups. Basically, all my time had been devoted to either my cookbook or my mental health. It has been awhile since I’ve dedicated a day or even a few hours to doing something that brings me joy. I was diligent about allocating one day a week to joy last summer and I did do a couple road trips in November that brought me some joy. But I hadn’t really incorporated joy into part of my everyday life recently. I’ve kind of lost my balance again. And that’s okay. It happens. It’s hard to maintain balance all the time.

So this coming week, I’m going to be thinking about some new ways to spark joy for me and try to incorporate it more regularly into my life. I also think that we all need to show ourselves a little compassion and grace for just surviving everything that is happening in the world right now. It’s a lot. In the meantime, I hope you find some way to bring a little bit of joy into your life as well. And if you have ideas, please comment on this post and share! I’d love to hear!

My Cambodia Adventure

This past November, I celebrated the anniversary of my birth on a month-long solo trip to Cambodia. It was one of the most incredible journeys! I went on a vegan yoga retreat, biked through the countryside, explored ancient temples, took a cooking class and learned how to make fish amok, visited my family in Phnom Penh, had the most amazing crabs in Kep, toured a pepper plantation, traveled to the top of the Bokor Mountain in Kampot, drove through fields of sugar cane and rice paddies on the back of a motorbike, ate my favorite Cambodian noodle soup and rice porridge just about everyday, drank watermelon juice at least once a day, glamped on the Mekong River, saw the most beautiful sunsets, went on several boat cruises, got the best massages, traveled through the roughs seas to get to the beautiful Koh Rong Island where they filmed Survivor, and rode a horse for the first time ever.

I did a lot! And I’m so happy that I did it all. I had been planning to return to Cambodia ever since I had started my cookbook passion project, but I didn’t know exactly when that trip was going to happen or what it was going to look like until two months before I actually embarked on the trip. I had already finished creating almost 60 recipes and I finally felt ready to return to the country that inspired my passion project. Even though I was excited, I also felt nervous and a little scared. Nervous about traveling solo again. Nervous that I might feel lonely. Nervous that I might not enjoy the trip. Nervous that my trip would feel too long and that I would get bored. In the end, I loved everything about this trip and I am so grateful that I was able to make it all happen.

My first day in Cambodia started with a 5 day yoga retreat at Hariharalaya in a traditional Cambodian farming village outside Siem Reap. Our phones were taken away from us and locked up, we were put on a vegan and gluten free diet with no alcohol or caffeine all week, and we were even assigned a day of silence. At first, I thought this was going to be really tough (and it was! Lol), but this was exactly what my body needed after a crazy busy last month. I took on a new fashion client and two new brand partnerships during the one month leading up to my trip. I worked nonstop including every weekend and then my body broke down and I got sick just before my flight out. At Hariharalaya, I was nursed back to health and forced to be still after being on the constant go for basically all of October. I meditated and practiced yoga daily, read books, journal-ed every night, rode bikes through the countryside, napped for hours in a hammock, hula-hooped (I’m not bad!), played ping pong (so fun!), practiced ukelele (I’m pretty bad! Ha!), and woke up to the sounds of roosters or monks chanting in the distance. My body leaned into the opportunity to be still for a moment in order to reset and recharge and it felt so good!

In addition to yoga, we were blessed by monks that visited the retreat, got to speak with a former monk about his journey and transition, had a Cambodian band from the local village play for us, and we learned traditional Cambodian dancing. While I loved my experience at the retreat, I had two favorite moments: 1.) The day the monks walked into our retreat holding a smart phone out, blasting music upon their arrival and departure. This happened on our day of silence, after we had been deprived of our phones all week! The monks had smart phones and we didn’t! This made me smile. 2.) On the last day of our retreat, which also happened to be my birthday, we had one last yoga and meditation session. As the session was coming to a close, we were told to stand up. All of the sudden a song by Lauryn Hill started playing and we were instructed to dance. And so we danced. And we laughed…a lot. After a week of challenging our bodies, our stomachs, and our minds, who knew that dancing would be exactly what we needed. It was such a fun and silly way to end the retreat and begin my birthday celebration.

In the last few years, it has become an annual tradition for me to go on a yoga retreat—mostly because I was feeling lost or because I needed to escape. This time was different. I’m so happy and grateful that I got to celebrate my birthday in Cambodia. The yoga retreat was only the beginning of my adventure in Cambodia and was such a wonderful transition into my new year of life. If you haven’t been on a solo-trip before (this is my 4th), I highly recommend it. It is the best way to learn about yourself as well as challenge yourself, self-reflect, nourish your soul, and push your boundaries.

My birthday celebration continued in Siem Reap. I took a cooking class in town and stayed at Templation (part of the Maads Hotel group), where I stayed at the most beautiful private villa. I had breakfast served to me in my pool! Staying here felt like I was staying in my own private oasis in the jungle. The service was amazing. I had the opportunity to meet their award-winning Cambodian Chef Tim Pheak. The staff was so friendly and accommodating. They even surprised me with a delicious birthday cake and sang to me! And a special person back home had wine delivered to my room with a sweet note.

After being deprived of some indulgences the week prior during the yoga retreat, I felt a little gluttonous, sitting in my luxurious hotel bed, eating leftover birthday cake and drinking wine. But I was happy and completely content because I had such a good birthday. It was probably the best birthday ever. Is it possible to enjoy yourself that much alone? Yes, it is. Even though I had the opportunity to celebrate with some new friends from the yoga retreat at Pub Street, I chose to stay in. My birthday started with yoga and dancing, continued with a cooking class, and ended with wine and cake in bed. It was perfect.

The next day, I woke up early to visit the ancient temples in Siem Reap. I have visited several times before, but it never gets old for me. Each time I visit, I am in awe of the beauty and the history. This time, I wanted to make sure I captured that beauty. Many people hire photographers for engagements, weddings, babies, and family photos. As far as I know, I am not getting married or having a baby anytime soon and I also don’t know what the future holds for me. So I decided, why not celebrate single me? Plus, it’s hard to take photos of yourself when you’re traveling solo. I splurged and hired local Khmer photographer Josepp to take some shots of me at the temples. It was fun to pretend to be a model for a couple of hours.

After Siem Reap, I flew down to Phnom Penh to spend some time with my family, eat local food, shop at the souvenir markets, and relax. Tourism has really grown in Cambodia and there are so many options to choose from for accommodations. I stayed at a few different hotels that are also part of the Maads Hotel group. I first stayed at The Penh House: Jungle Addition. This hotel is centrally located in the bustling city with beautiful rooftops views, yet you still feel like you’re in nature in the charming Jungle Addition. I also got a chance to stay at their sister location down the street, The Pavilion, which offers large, spacious suites and 2 hotel pools. A complimentary sunset boat cruise, a massage, and a few other perks are included with your stay here. I was so impressed with all of the accommodations and the attentive and friendly service provided at all of the Maads Hotel locations.

However, my most memorable stay was at the The Floatation, an eco-friendly glamping site that floats on the Mekong River and is only accessible by boat. The Floatation is also part of the Maads Hotel group. It’s connected to a restaurant bar with a small staff that caters solely to you. It’s definitely very romantic and even though I stayed here alone, I really enjoyed the entire experience—the boat ride, watching the sunset from my private patio, and my delicious Khmer dinner. If you’re interested in this experience, you should book this place fast because there is only 1 room available!

Next, I took a 5 hour bus ride to Kep on the coast of Cambodia. I had been to Kep before and I just had to come back for the crabs at Kimly Restaurant. They make the most delicious fried crabs with fresh green Kampot peppers on the sprig. It had been 7 years since I last had them and I had to have them again! The beach in Kep was beautiful as well but I mostly came for the crabs :P Since I had been to Kep before and visited Rabbit Island, I only spent one night here before leaving the next day for Kampot.

Kampot is a sleepy riverside town in the mountains about a 45 minute ride from Kep. I had never been before and it had been on my list for awhile. I visited the Bokor Mountain, which is part of a national park and home to pagodas, an abandoned palace, and a waterfall. The swirling clouds, elevation, and history all made this visit so magical.

From Kampot, I also visited La Plantation, which is a pepper plantation. Kampot is known for their pepper, which make tasty seafood dishes such as the crabs I had in Kep. I didn’t realize that most of the pepper plantations were closer to Kep. Had I known, I probably would have taken the time to visit more than one because I enjoyed it so much! The drive alone on the back of a motor bike through fields of sugar cane and rice paddies was beautiful! On the way to La Plantation are breathtaking views of Secret Lake in the middle of the countryside with the mountain backdrop. It was so interesting learning about the different types of peppercorn—green, red, dark red, white, and black. My favorite is the fresh green peppercorn but you can only take it home dried, otherwise it will spoil.

I really enjoyed the tour of the Bokor Mountain and the pepper plantation, but I was exhausted! It was a long day of activities! I needed some down time relax at my hotel, Sabay Beach Resort. The resort is a little bit away from the main town, but that was exactly what I liked about it. It’s right on the riverfront with beautiful views of the sunset behind the mountains. I spent a day at the Nibi Spa, a spa on the riverfront that involves you getting picked up by a small private boat. I had never been picked up by boat for a spa day before! I had an amazing massage there that put me right to sleep. It was just what I had needed after a busy day of touristy activities.

From Kampot, I took a 4-hour bus ride to Sihanoukville to catch a 1-hour ferry ride to Koh Rong Island, where a season of Survivor had been filmed. Another long day of travel. The boat ride there was really rough and I was a little scared, but I think the most beautiful islands are sometimes the ones that are a little harder to get to. I stayed at Sok San Beach resort, which is away from the party area of the island. It was so nice to have only 1 mission during my stay: relax on the white sand beaches, bathe in the warm blue sea, and drink cocktails. But I did take a break from relaxing to ride a horse for the first time ever! Koh Rong Island was a very different experience from the rest of my trip but it was also such a nice complement to my adventure.

Instead of taking another long bus ride, I decided to fly back to Phnom Penh for my last 3 days in Cambodia. I stayed at The Aquarius Hotel, an urban and hipster hotel with an incredible rooftop infinity pool and view. Something about the style of this hotel resonated with me and reminded me of home. I loved the industrial decor, the raw light-bulb lighting, the bespoke art, and the upbeat messages with Khmer translation that hung on tapestries in the rooms.

Traveling is always rough on my body, but it was all worth it. I got over 70 mosquito bites (so itchy), at least 50 sand fly bites, 4 allergy attacks, and 2 bloody noses after healing from a sore throat and cold when I arrived in Cambodia. Even still, I try to find my comforts wherever I go to help w the transition. This includes taking time out to rest at my hotel and not feeling guilty about it, eating comfort foods that sooth my belly and soul (for me, that's noodle soup and bolognese. You can find decent versions of bolognese on any western menu almost anywhere in the world lol), drinking fresh fruit and green juices, getting massages, using face-mask sheets to hydrate my dry skin, napping, meditating with my Insight Timer app, and sometimes taking melanin when I have trouble sleeping.

Even though I left Cambodia, the adventure is not over. There’s so much more to see and I will definitely be coming back. This time, I’m not going to let so many years pass by again before I do.

P.S. Thank you for reading this lengthy post! I did so much during this trip and I didn’t want to leave anything out. I have so many pictures and I wish I could share them all with you! I will have to dedicate my next blog post to just the food that I ate in Cambodia. Stay tuned…

Dreams...

I had a challenging last week. Can I blame it on Mercury in Retrograde? Some things fell through, professionally and personally, and it made me feel sad, discouraged, and stressed. What am I doing with my life? Am I making the right decisions? What did I do wrong? Etc etc. While it’s human to feel these emotions and have these thoughts, I didn’t want to linger in that head space for too long. I needed to let go, shake it off, and move on.

When I’m feeling anxious or stressed, I have a hard time sleeping. I replay events in my head and over-analyze things unnecessarily, recreating the feelings of negative emotions. Earlier last week, I had one of those dreams where everything went wrong and then it ended with someone saying to me, “Davy, I’m so disappointed in you.” We can analyze that in so many different ways. For example, my mother is not the most supportive mom in regards to my endeavors. I have never heard her say she’s proud of me (until one time recently when I got mad at her). It’s not part of her language or culture, but that’s another long story. However, I can definitely remember her telling me several times about how disappointed she is in me. And if she didn’t say it blatantly, her disapproval was always obvious in her tone and choice of words. Anyway, I was feeling stressed and insecure and it was manifesting in my dream that night.

My friend suggested I try Insight Timer, a free app for meditation and sleep. It’s amazing. I’m not able to stay awake for the entire meditation but I believe you still absorb the positive words while you drift off into sleep. After using Insight Timer a few times, I had the most comforting dream by the end of last week. I was in a small plane with a guy I used to date. I don’t think there is any significance with that particular person because he was never anyone I was serious with. He was that guy I had fun with briefly, which I guess has a different type of significance. My mother never wanted me to have fun growing up—”You had fun last week, you don’t need to have fun again this week.” As if having too much fun is a bad thing that needed to be controlled and restrained. In this dream, we were about to jump out of the plane to skydive. I was scared and nervous. He comforted me and said, “It’s okay, just hold my hand.” So I held his hand and then we jumped out of the plane together. I was shocked because it didn’t feel as scary as I had anticipated. The view was beautiful. I felt light and free. But when we started to get closer to the ground, I panicked because I didn’t know what to do. He reassured me that I had nothing to worry about. He instructed me to deploy the parachute and then we pulled it together. We landed softly and smoothly on our feet in a field where there were people out picnicking and kids playing. It was a beautiful sunny day. I felt relieved and at peace. I was impressed with myself for being brave enough to go through with skydiving, and I was also so grateful that I survived! It didn’t matter how scared I was, I still let go and jumped out of the plane. I still landed on my feet. Those feelings stayed with me when I woke up the next morning. I felt calm, comforted, and hopeful that regardless of what happened last week, things will all work out.

As I was still thinking about the dream again this week, I was reminded of a motorcycle accident I was in 11 years ago. My guy friend showed up at my doorstep to pick me up for dinner on a motorcycle. I wasn’t sure I wanted to go on it because I had never been on one before in the USA but he persuaded me. I conceded because I felt that I needed to say yes to more experiences in my life at that time. I had trouble putting on my helmet so he helped me put it on but I didn’t realize he didn’t buckle it. We didn’t have to ride very far for me to feel unsafe with him. I told him he was going too fast and he disagreed. In less than 2 miles, at an intersection, he hit a moving car making a left turn in front of us. My body flew off the bike and hit another moving car, my helmet flew off my head, and my body fell lifelessly onto the concrete pavement. I have no memory of the impact because I was unconscious and didn’t wake up until the paramedics came to the scene. Fortunately, I didn’t have any major injuries. However, I did suffer from a concussion, had a contusion on my head the size of a golf ball (in my memory, it felt like the size of a baseball), purple bruises and scrapes all over my body, and a sprained wrist and hand. My last thought that night before the accident was, “Oh shit, are we going to make it?” Even though we had the right of way, I felt like my friend was at fault because he was going too fast and could have avoided the accident. He also didn’t listen to me when I told him I was nervous and wanted him to slow down. I trusted him and he failed me that night. My injuries could have been worse. I could have died.

I’m grateful that I survived that crash. But I wonder if, in a way, I have trouble giving up control as a result of that incident. Because when I gave up control in that situation, I got myself into a really bad accident. Do I subconsciously equate control with surviving and letting go with death? In my dream last week, I finally let go, gave up control, jumped out of a plane, and had a beautiful new experience and a smooth landing.

In life, all the little moments impact us. All the big moments impact us as well. Some more heavily than others. Sometimes we ignore how situations, people, circumstances, and things make us feel. Maybe it’s connected to something that has happened to us in the past or maybe not. Those feelings inevitably manifest somehow—in our dreams, in our relationships, in our health. I would like to think that the Universe gives us signs to follow and guide us through life. We just have to pay closer attention. Other times, I search for meaning in things that I just can’t shake off for some reason and yet still find no answer. Because you won’t know why things happen, until they have happened. I have to trust that all things will happen for me in time. This is not an excuse for me to be lazy or to give up. It’s a reason to keep going, to keep moving forward, and maybe to switch things up. Who knows? But at the very least, this rant was cathartic :)

Fun Facts

Hi friends!  It has been awhile since I shared some info about myself so I thought I would divulge some fun facts:

• My parents survived the genocide in Cambodia

• I was born in a refugee camp in the Philippines before coming to the USA when I was a month old

• Raised by a single mother ‍

• I am an immigrant and an American and proud of it

• Grew up in Boston but don’t really follow any of the sports teams

• I’m an introvert, Scorpio, and a lefty!

• I am an INFJ on the Meyers Briggs test, which makes up 1% of the population

• I love love love to travel but hate to fly

• I have 2 sisters. I’m the middle child. My stepfather and 3 stepbrothers are from France. We are basically the Asian Brady Bunch

• I get scared all the time. Lots of things worry me, scare me, and stress me out. But I try to do all of those things anyway

• I love the desert

• I have twin star tattoos on my left wrist in memory of my maternal grandparents ⭐️⭐️

• I quit my corporate job in fashion to pursue my passion project of creating a cookbook of my mom’s recipes and it has been a really hard but amazing journey

• I love love love Excel, is that strange?

• I am def no princess.  I am a woman warrior like my mom

Ok, I just shared a lot about myself! Now tell me something unique about you! ️

Back in Boston!

One of the best things about being an entrepreneur is having a flexible schedule. I can meet a friend for lunch or spend the morning hiking and then work till midnight afterwards. My working hours don’t have to be within the construct of a rigid schedule. However, there are disadvantages to this lifestyle. Projects and work load are not always consistent. While I can run errands during the work week, I do spend most of my weekends working. I have to pay for my own health insurance. I’m still working out the kinks to a steady stream of income. I must deal with the emotional highs and lows of feeling like both a success and a failure. This is best demonstrated in the below chart created by Derek Halpern. But ya know what? I wouldn’t have it any other way. I do not regret my decision.

I was able to buy a one way ticket home to Boston to spend some time testing out some recipes with my mom. While it has been nice to get out of town, it’s cold over here still. It has been raining everyday. I’ve been here for about a week so far and have already been able to test out 4 Cambodian recipes (pineapple sweet and sour soup, meatloaf, marinated beef salad, and Cambodian omelet) with my mom and make 4 new recipes of mine for her to try (vegetarian curry, vegetarian bolognese, pork carnitas tacos, and sticky toffee pudding). I still have about 4-6 more recipes to test out with her while I’m here. I should probably start thinking about when I’m going to return home to LA. Hmmm…

I got a chance to get out into the city this past Friday to try a new restaurant (Row34) in the Seaport area one night and it was delish. Sometimes you just need a break from the parents and work! I’m also going to NYC this weekend and staying for a few days afterwards to see my sister and my niece.

Here are some pics from my trip so far.

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?