Creator
Mona Sang
Cambodian American chef and restaurant owner in Chicago cooking Khmer dishes learned from her mother.
Mona Sang is a Cambodian American chef who runs the Cambodian restaurants Khmai and Kaun Khmai in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago.[1][2] Her menus pair Khmer dishes she learned from her mother with her own modern preparations.[3][1]
Career
Sang first learned to cook while working as a cashier at a gyro restaurant, where she watched her coworkers.[4][1] She then spent about seven years cooking in the Lettuce Entertain You group, as a caterer at its Ivy Room event space, where she received culinary training. She was laid off there during the COVID-19 pandemic.[5][4]
During the pandemic she and her mother launched Mona Bella Catering in the kitchen of Living Water Community Church in Rogers Park.[6][3] Sang learned the family recipes by cooking with her mother and memorizing them rather than writing them down. She began with prahok ktiss, a dip of ground pork, fermented fish paste and kroeung, and went on to dishes such as somlor kari and samlor korko.[4][1] She posted photographs of the food on Instagram and offered a different weekly delivery menu each Monday. The catering menu mixed Khmer dishes such as chha trop dott, grilled eggplant stuffed with ground pork, with Khmer-Western dishes such as kroeung-and-miso-braised short ribs and a lemongrass burger.[6][1] The business grew from small orders to parties and a wedding.[7]
Khmai
After nine months of catering, Sang and her mother opened Khmai Cambodian Fine Dining at Howard Street and Ridge Avenue in Rogers Park in late June 2022.[1][3] In September 2022, WTTW called it only the second Cambodian restaurant then open in Chicago.[4] The restaurant served two or three customers a day at first and 100 a day six months after opening.[1] The menu changed every week, and her mother's egg rolls were served as Mai's Eggrolls.[4]
In early 2024 the restaurant moved to a second location and took the name Khmai.[1] As of June 2024, Khmai and a new casual sister restaurant, Kaun Khmai, were set to open in mid-June at 6580 North Sheridan Road, across from Loyola University Chicago.[5] Khmai keeps the traditional dishes her mother taught her, while Kaun Khmai serves Cambodian street food and gives Sang room to try new recipes.[5][2] As of 2025, Khmai offered a seven-course tasting menu on Fridays and Saturdays, by reservation, and Kaun Khmai took walk-in customers.[2]
Sang is executive chef of Khmai Fine Dining and has cooked professionally in the Chicago area for about a decade.[8] Her modern dishes include tamarind chicken wings and a lemongrass-marinated skirt steak with kroeung butter on French bread.[1] She pounds her kroeung, a paste of lemongrass, galangal, garlic, shallots and turmeric, in a mortar and pestle, and uses it in stews, marinades and a sea bass grilled in banana leaves.[2] Khmai also offers an introductory format that uses modern techniques to introduce Khmer cuisine to younger diners and first-time guests. Its province-based tasting journeys include a seven-course menu on Ratanakiri in northeastern Cambodia, built on forest herbs, fresh fish, gathered vegetables, cashews and coffee.[8]
Murals of apsara dancers, paintings and furnishings tell stories about Cambodian culture and the restaurant's origins, and staff learn Cambodian greetings.[7] Sang says the restaurant is meant to teach people about Cambodian culture and food, and to share the history of Cambodian people in the United States, including the genocide.[3][1]
Recognition
Sang was a James Beard semifinalist.[7]
Works
- Prahok Ktis (recipe) (Recipe)
See also
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 StarChefs, Past, Present, Prahok: A Story of Healing at Khmai (October 29, 2024)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 NBC Chicago, The Food Guy: Khmai (March 21, 2025)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Block Club Chicago, Rogers Park's Khmai Cambodian Fine Dining showcases a mom and daughter's native cuisine (September 8, 2022)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 WTTW Chicago, A Refugee Mother's Recipes Give Her Life and Inspire One of Chicago's Only Cambodian Restaurants (September 13, 2022)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Block Club Chicago, Khmai Cambodian Fine Dining has new Rogers Park home, joined by casual sister restaurant (June 10, 2024)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Chicago Reader, Mona Bella caters Cambodian
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 The Chicagoland Guide, Preserving Cambodian Culture Through Cuisine with Chef Mona Sang of Khmai Fine Dining (November 24, 2024)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Khmai Cambodian Fine Dining, official website