Sarom Sieng did not want her daughter trapped in the church kitchen, cooking curry and egg rolls her whole life.
That’s where they’ve launched Mona Bella Catering, a union of the Khmer cooking skills that the mother brought from Cambodia and the technical skills the daughter brought from the trenches of a major catering operation.
Sieng made money sewing hospital gowns but eventually started cooking meals for other Cambodian families, and then later for baptisms, weddings, and other church events. Sang grew up working at her mother’s side, helping to cook huge trays of her signature chicken curry, egg rolls, Chinese sausage fried rice, and the sweet and sour beef soup somlar ma’chu kroeung.
Beginning in March she started cooking with her mom every day, building a lengthy catering menu full of classic Khmer dishes such as prahok ktiss, a ground pork dip seasoned with fermented mudfish and the herbal spice paste kroeung, with lemongrass, garlic, galangal, turmeric, and makrut lime leaf; or chha trop dott, grilled eggplant stuffed with ground pork and topped with pickled Fresno chilis. Sieng’s egg rolls were on the menu too, but Sang also created a few dishes merging Khmer and western culinary traditions, like kroeng and miso-braised short ribs served with sweet potato puree; or her mom’s chicken curry paired with grilled pesto garlic bread.
Though it’s only been a few months, Sang’s repertoire is formidable. And in addition to the rigorously traditional food her mom taught her to cook, she’s continuing to roll out a few Khmer-western mashups, like a lemongrass burger topped with crispy pork belly, spicy mayo, and mango salad; and a twako sub, with peanut sauce and pickled red onion.
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