today's video is a story about a very special family who fled the Cambodian genocide and arrived
in New Zealand as refugees
20 years ago they opened a restaurant called Satay Noodle House
this is a story of grit and determination
to one open a Cambodian restaurant here in Papakura South Auckland and to two use social media to take it to the next level
and on top of all that they do great food
Satay Noodle House was opened 21 years ago by Nany and Tech Leng who arrived in New Zealand
from Cambodia as refugees they were fleeing the Cambodian genocide
so we're here at Satay Noodle House we're going to head into the kitchen
meet Nany meet Bun who is their son who is now the owner operator of Satay Noodle House
the man by the stock pot is Bun Leng kia ora Bun
Bun is the owner operator of Satay Noodle House
and it was his parents Nany and Tech Leng who first opened this joint
how many years ago
long time ago 21 since 2000 so yeah a little while ago
and this guy has amassed a legion of fans who adore his food and who adore
what Satay Noodle House is all about
we're blessed and grateful to be here to be in this country um
but it's I don't know how much you know of Cambodian history but so
um the big part of it is just Mum and Dad survived the war with um five young children at the time
and that was the Khmer Rouge and so that's the national genocide
where they're going down tanks down the street
and they're getting everyone out of their house and you just pack your bag and
like hey we're going and you gotta you've got a few seconds to pack your bags and you're gone
and you're taken to concentration camps um where you're forced to work agriculture um and you know manual labor
and they killed off everyone um intelligent anyone educated so teachers um members of um
like political anyone in politics yeah so they had to start two three times in their life from zero again
so they'd make they'll make a bit of money and then boom um Khmer Rouge happened
boom refugee camp happens um they got they got nothing um so i think it was a lot of jumping around refugee camps
this photo here is from a refugee camp in Thailand
and I think that was the last one before they made it to to New Zealand yeah
when we left Cambodia at the night time
and walk walk I'm the one i heard like
like a gun they do things
I I heard click click click but can't say anything because walk like you know and
I don't know what to do you know I just i just shake my hand and dark you can't see anything
and you know we hungry and nothing to eat and we very tiring
and all the money jewellery anything all been robbed horrible time yeah
okay so this opened in 2000 and I was in intermediate at the time and I didn't know
because Mum and Dad worked two jobs right my whole life um primary we didn't have much I remember the
story where Mum would give me a dollar for lunch and I used that dollar to buy a marmite and chip roll
and pies were $1.20 and I was like Mum can I have 20 cents more for a pie and she's like
nah i can't afford it and so that's when I was like oh
man like we must we must be pretty poor um
and then the shop came and I didn't know like what effect it would have have on my life
I didn't have after schools so after schools were coming here
um weekends we'd come here and yeah it just that became life I remember I fell asleep here one time
um that's actually a pretty sad story like I was just tired like i was overworked at 12 years old
and I fell asleep yeah I remember hearing my sister say hey dad look man like he's tired
why are you dragging him to the shop yeah you know give him one day off so yeah but
so um I took over in 2011 um it was never my intention to to take over the shop I
didn't think about it I was going to be a PE I was heading into PE teaching actually
and once I graduated with my sport and rec degree my sister um came to me was like hey what do you
think about because i think that at that time Dad's about 65 what do you think about taking
over the shop like it's got so much potential like me and you could do it share the load type
thing and I was like hey actually like yeah like we could do this you know so I was keen
I went in and then she pulled out last minute just for personal reasons um and then so it meant me and
Dad uh worked it was just he stayed on probably a lot longer than what he would would have liked
uh so that was 2011 he didn't retire until 2017 and by this time he's about 72 um 71, 72 and um
yeah so that whole dynamic too it was basically just me and him running the shop
what you've done since you took over is you've made Satay Noodle House completely your own and
what I love about it is that you're there's this transparency so you're on social media people can
see the food you're creating people get to know you and your team through social media
can you tell us a bit about that and building that up that side of the business up
yeah um it's it's been crazy and I don't I don't there's no real strategy
um I just document everything um so
it's basically it's not just so a lot of takeaway restaurants would just use it to let's just say
promote food and stuff like that but I just thought man I'm running i'm running the shop
things happen every day good good and bad um why don't I talk about it I want to talk about um the
sentimental value um the significance of what it meant to me why I decided to take it over
um so like why we're here what we're about what our story is you know yeah how we even got to be
in this country let alone the shop being here um so I spoke about that a lot and we did something
in Covid um this year I was like hey I really don't know if I'm going to open because it's
it's hard out here for you know food retailers so hey do you like if I open would you guys
support and I had a dm from someone who was like man I'd love to support but um it's just uncertain
times I just don't actually have the money to be able to support and I'm like man like that that
hit me hard and I was like wow people are you know really struggling and then there's other
pockets of the community who who aren't who aren't so bad so what I thought about I was like man I'm
actually going to start a fundraiser where um you know people um who are who are better or
better off maybe they could donate and I'm going to use that to help my business obviously like
so that's going to I'm going to use that to buy meals from myself which I'm then going to gift to
um other pockets of the community kind of and I don't even know if it was legal at the time
but it's kind of like a robin hood type you know I was like man I was like South Auckland
robin hood um where I'll take from these these customers here and then giving it to these but
that just blew up i thought man if I could help if I could get two or three hundred dollars
um that would be amazing that that's probably you know five six families that I could feed like
that's that's cool so I put that it went live overnight woke up in the morning and I think
it was at $1,000 or $1,500 and um that ended up getting I think $5,000
in that in that first week and there's numerous other things that have happened
in the last three four years and it's yeah I often sit and just reflect and I'm just
like I don't I don't know what's going on like it's just wild yeah it's crazy
who cooks the best food you or Bun?
oh Bun now Bun because
he stayed there all the time now he take over so long so
he's perfected your recipes yeah
he's good now he's good yeah I'm proud of him too he's good
Satay Noodle House specialises in Cambodian food
so they have a ton of Cambodian classics on the menu but we've honed in on a certain special section of the menu
it's called Mum's collection and those are Nany's recipes
so food from Bun's childhood we've ordered some pork belly we've got some Cambodian chicken curry coming
and a number of other hot favourites that the locals love
the kitchen is a hive of activity we've got the dream team in here and what I love is
that there are so many smiles there's great camaraderie and man the smells in here I'm
just peering over Casey's shoulder she's got a noodle soup on the go
we've got a massive delicious looking spread in front of us and it was such a privilege
speaking to Nany and Bun about the history of Satay Noodle House learning more about their
story and learning about how this incredible looking food has come to be on our table
and this place is popular it has a huge local following so we have ordered up all of the
local favourites so at the front here we've got this braised pork belly so one of Nany's
traditional recipes we've got a Cambodian chicken curry we've got
their wontons which Bun was saying they're so popular that they deserve their own Instagram page
we've got a Kiwi Cambodian classic this is chicken satay on rice and then we have the
famous satay noodle soup so a bunch of secret spices in there
create that delicious looking broth it looks super fiery
I've loaded up my bowl with two of Nany's dishes so the braised pork belly and the Cambodian chicken curry
and we watched these getting made in the kitchen and holy moly
far out the food is so good here i just had some of that Cambodian chicken curry super
tender chicken thigh there's a ton of different spices in there we saw um galangal lemongrass
that fragrant curry paste going in oh that's so delicious now for this braised pork belly
oh yeah stunning flavour of star anise a lot of that went into the stockpot together with dark soy
palm sugar it's just stunning beautiful flavours and it tastes really like home cooking it
tastes like home cooking and it it's comforting it's satisfying it's delicious
what special food this is to eat but also discover the story of there's so often a story behind the food when
you're at a restaurant and you don't get to hear it so for us to be able to come here today and
truly delve into what has made this food and how it came to be here in Papakura in South Auckland
I think it is truly fascinating this dish is one I also find fascinating this is chicken satay on
rice you will always find this dish on Cambodian menus here in New Zealand and there are not many
Cambodian restaurants in New Zealand there's also not many Cambodians there's only about five to six
thousand people in New Zealand from Cambodia so it's a very small community but this is a hybrid
dish this is something that was invented for the Kiwi flavour and man it has taken people by
storm so cooked and then put on rice and over the top of that satay sauce so covered in peanut sauce
wow wow
it's so moreish oh strong peanut hit tiny bit of chilli dang that is good
it's been lovely also here today seeing Bun and his interactions with the community
he's clearly a beloved community member
he knows almost everyone that's come into this restaurant and a lot of people have come in while we've been in here today
these wontons are screaming my name
oh pork wonton super crispy crunchy
this food is so good but how good is the story it's heartwarming it's inspirational
to hear it all and to get to be a part of it and learn about it today and to eat this food I
mean the food completely stacks up too it's it's not a great story with mediocre food that's for
sure it's a beautiful story with stunning food at the end of it this is a gem of a restaurant
follow Bun on social media come here and eat we hope you've enjoyed the video we have loved filming
this one hit subscribe for more videos like this on the channel thank you for watching