Nyum Bai
Nyum Bai was a Cambodian restaurant founded by Nite Yun that served Khmer street food in Oakland's Fruitvale neighborhood from 2018 to 2022.[1] The name means "let's eat."[1] Yun founded it to preserve and share Cambodian culture through food, and its food and rooms paid tribute to the golden era of Cambodian pop and rock music in the 1960s.[2][3]
History
The idea for Nyum Bai came to Yun at a small noodle stall in Phnom Penh, over a bowl of kuy teav Phnom Penh. She recreated her mother's recipes from scratch and put together a menu of Cambodian street food classics.[2] She told Hoodline that she wanted to honor her Cambodian roots and pay tribute to her parents, who escaped the genocide of the Khmer Rouge.[1]
Nyum Bai began in 2014 as pop-up events in San Francisco's Mission District. It grew through catering jobs and pop-ups at Mission Pie, Golden Gate Donuts and Temescal Brewing.[2][4] With help from La Cocina, a Bay Area food business incubator, Yun began serving her food and refining her menu at the Emeryville Public Market, and in 2017 she turned the pop-up into a food counter there.[1][5] She leased a kitchen in the Fruitvale Transit Village in late 2017 and, with the help of a Kickstarter campaign, opened the restaurant there in February 2018.[2][1][6]
The restaurant operated in a small dining room.[1] Yun announced on Instagram on May 13, 2022, that the five-year lease was ending and that the restaurant would leave its space on East 12th Street near the Fruitvale BART station. She called the closing the end of a first chapter and said Nyum Bai would reopen in a new location.[6][1] The Infatuation listed the Fruitvale restaurant as permanently closed in August 2024.[7]
Food
The menu offered modern versions of classic Khmer dishes, inspired by Cambodian street food. Pastes, sauces and pickled vegetables were made from scratch.[3] Many dishes began with kroeung, a spice paste of lemongrass, shallots, galangal, kaffir lime leaves and fresh turmeric.[5] Amok was catfish steamed with kroeung-based coconut curry and egg.[5] Prahok ktiss was a spicy dip of pork belly simmered in coconut milk and prahok, the fermented fish paste, served with fresh vegetables.[4]
Kuy teav Phnom Penh, a noodle soup with a seven-hour pork broth, shrimp and crispy garlic, was the dish that first won the pop-up its following.[5] Other dishes included kuy teav cha, thin rice noodles stir-fried in dark soy sauce with a runny egg; machoo kroeung soup with pork spareribs; sach ko aung, grilled beef skewers marinated in kroeung; ginger fried chicken; and a banana blossom salad with mint, basil, bell peppers and peanuts.[5][7] A changing list of specials brought a wider range of Cambodian flavors to the table.[4]
Community
Cambodian rock played from opening time, and album covers of old Cambodian records hung on the walls.[1][5] Custom wallpaper by the Cambodian American illustrator Ratha Nou combined Khmer singers with Oakland landmarks.[4] Incense burned in an open-air teal garage where diners also sat.[5] The restaurant became a gathering place for Cambodian Americans in the Bay Area, both children of immigrants looking for their culture and newcomers looking for familiar food.[4]
Recognition
In 2018 Eater's national critic put Nyum Bai on his list of Oakland's 18 most exciting restaurants, and the San Francisco Chronicle named Yun a Rising Star.[5] Bon Appétit named Nyum Bai one of the ten best new restaurants in the United States that year.[1][4] Eater listed Yun as its 2018 Breakout Star of the Year and as an Eater Young Gun.[4] In 2019 Yun was a finalist for the James Beard Foundation's Best New Restaurant award.[6]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Hoodline, Nyum Bai has closed in Oakland, will reopen elsewhere (May 2022)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Nyum Bai, About us
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Nyum Bai, home page
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 Vilcek Foundation, The Good Old Days: Nite Yun revives Cambodia's golden era (January 2020)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 East Bay Express, Why Oakland's Nyum Bai is poised for national acclaim (July 2018)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 The Mercury News, Trailblazing Cambodian restaurant Nyum Bai has closed in Oakland (May 2022)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 The Infatuation, Nyum Bai review (August 2024)