During Pol Pot’s brutal regime, nine-year-old Chantha Nguon lost nearly everything—her country, her family, her future. What remained was taste.
From the fragrant herbs in her mother’s kitchen to the painstakingly rolled noodles of her youth, food became her lifeline as she fled Cambodia, survived years of exile, and rebuilt a life from ashes. In Slow Noodles, Nguon chronicles her haunting journey through war, loss, and displacement, where memory is measured in flavors and healing is slow—but deliberate.
Whether cooking in a brothel or nursing wounded refugees, she carried one legacy: her mother’s recipes. Recreating them becomes her act of survival and resistance.
Laced with Khmer and Vietnamese dishes, this memoir is a love letter to food, family, and the will to endure.
What if the way home is something you cook?
