Cooking From Memory

The Vietnamese Boat People

Growing up, Ly Nguyen and her mom did not have the most understanding or tender relationship. Ly remembers the friction starting very early in her childhood, when she was molested by a family member and found that she wasn’t able to talk about it with anyone. To protect the family’s reputation, the incident was kept a secret. Leaving Ly feeling alone and unprotected by her mother. Over the years, their relationship progressively worsened. It wasn’t until Ly had her own daughter, did the complicated and unresolved trauma begin to surface again. In early 2020 during the pandemic, Ly started Cooking off the Cuff, a food blog to preserve her family’s stories for her daughter. It began as a way to heal and later when her mom passed away, it became an important space to remember her mom through the meals they shared and a chance to change their relationship.

Content Warning: Please note that this episode contains discussions of sexual trauma as noted in the summary.

Credits:
Executive Producer: Tracey Nguyen Mang
Associate Producers: Tricia Vuong, Matt Young
VBP theme music: Clarity, Paulina Vo
Other Music: Liberating, Megan Wofford; Respire, Rikard From; Beyond Imagination, Gavin Luke; Joust, Trevor Kowalski; Returning Memories, Erasmus Talbot (melody stem)