- We're making egg rolls with my friend and old boss, Bunbob Chhun.

- What's up Buddy.

- Hey buddy how are you.

- great.

Come on in.

- Yeah, we're happy to have you.

You remember where the kitchen is?

- yeah the kitchen is.

his parents are stopping by later to show us how to wrap them and tell us about growing up in Cambodia.

So Bun, this is where all the magic happens.

This kitchen brings me back.

A lot of memories.

You used to be my boss.

- For one hot minute.

- For your egg rolls.

What ingredients do you put in?

- So we put carrots, onion, garlic, black pepper, white pepper, salt, and mung bean thread, or glass noodle.

We'll start by peeling the carrots and we'll shred them.

Ooh, you're fast - Ah, you know, I've peeled a few carrots in my time.

Do you just go right on the mandolin?

- Yup.

Yup.

Yup.

- Yeah.

When was like the first time you can remember making egg rolls.

- My first memory, like we made them when we were young and we each had a job.

- Yeah .

What was your first job.

- Maybe mixing?

This was kind of a, more of a special occasion food.

Growing up it was me, my two brothers, my younger sister and my mom, my dad and my grandma.

You know, it was a special thing to get everybody together when we could, because my parents were working, they were in school, got together and we'd just slow things down and made egg rolls as a family.

- Has this family recipe changed or anything or... - You know, I've kind of tweaked it a little bit for the restaurant, but it's pretty close to mom's recipe.

- His mom's recipe is pretty much the same as the one she grew up with.

The biggest difference is in Cambodia.

She used taro- a starchy root vegetable native to Southeast Asia and India, instead of carrots.

- Do you want to mince the garlic?

- Okay how much you want me to, chef?.

- Let's do it all.

- Oh, dang!

Okay.

- Bun there's a lot of versions of egg roll.

- Oh yeah, sure.

- So I always talk about a Hmong way of making them.

- Is there a version of like a Cambodian way of doing egg rolls?

- The size is a indicator of Cambodian egg roll not too big, but not too small.

- Origins of egg rolls come from ancient China where they were called spring rolls as Chinese egg rolls, spread to other countries, wrappers, fillings, and sizes changed.

The Philippines make theirs long, crispy and filled with pork beef and vegetables.

Thailand often includes beansprouts and wood ear mushrooms.

Vietnam incorporates seafood and often uses rice or tapioca flour as a base for their wrappers.

But one thing remains the same.

People love them.

- So Yia, Now we'll soak the noodles - And these are mung bean noodles, right?

- Mung bean thread made out of mung beans.

- Mung beans are small green legumes starch extracted from the beans is used to make translucent noodles, call cellophane noodles, glass noodles, or mung bean thread.

- Well soak them for about 30 minutes.

So we'll salt, the carrot and onion.

- So chef, why are we salting onions and the carrots.

- To extract the moisture So we don't want our mix to be super wet.

It'll be problematic in the fryer.

- When you have all this moisture in the egg roll, it creates steam and that's how egg rolls explode.

- Just let this hang out about 30 minutes - As a kid.

This was my favorite part.

- So Bun, we looking for a certain size.

- Let's look for a quarter inch, half inch.

- It's still like one of my favorite things to do.

It's just very therapeutic.

You know?

- I'll let you know next time, call you up... - Bun, I had a little rough day.

Let me just come in and cut some noodles.

- Yeah!

So we're squeezing this mixture to get every little last drop of moisture out.

- Man, there's a lot of moisture in there.

- Yeah.

it's surprising.

- Oh yeah.

- It's a good workout, - Onion and carrots.

You know, one of the things I love with the onions and the carrots is it gives a, like a, just a hint of sweetness.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- in the egg roll.

- All right.

So now let's add our garlic, salt, black pepper, white pepper.

- Now what's the difference between the black pepper and white pepper.

- White pepper?

Well, it's a little spicier and it has this iconic Asian flavor too.

So if you're cooking Asian food at home, you need white pepper.

The last thing we'll add is ground pork.

After that, we'll just let it hang out, let it marinate together.

- So do you guys put eggs in here?

- Oh, we actually don't put any eggs in our egg rolls.

- Huh?

You know, in our family, you know, my mom puts egg in there as a binder to keep everything together.

But I've read that the reason why they call it egg roll was because you use egg wash at the end to kind of make sure that it sticks together.

- Yeah, okay.

That's just literally how it got its name.

- We actually just use wheat and water.

- So technically it should be called a "wheat and water roll" - I guess so.

(laughs) (cars passing) We have everything set up here, literally ready to roll.

It's a wet towel.

You guys throw on top.

- right, right.

- These rappers dry out fast.

- And so I noticed right away that these are triangle.

- Sure.

Yeah.

You buy it as a square.

- And then you cut in half.

- And while we like to do it as a triangle, is that sometimes depending on the size of the square, there might be too much wrapper - Okay.

- And it doesn't fully cook when you throw it in the fryer.

- So at home we just get all the skin ready.

- Yep.

- Get about a tablespoon, tablespoon and a half.

- For me anyway, it's like my index finger.

- Sure.

Yeah.

- I got big fingers.

- Sausage fingers here.

(laughs) - Pack it in.

Yeah.

- You have to keep it tight, right?

- Yup.

- And once you get it, you can fold in the sides.

- Okay.

- So kind of looks like a little envelope or a package then from there... just roll it up.

- Okay - And take the mixture.

A little dab - and this is a water and flour.

grab the end, seal it up.

And you've got yourself an egg roll.

- With you're mom here, I'm like all nervous.

Oh, mine's not tight enough!

- Yeah, first time, that's okay.

- Ah, no.

I feel like my mom right now is just like, I have brought dishonor to us all.

- Okay, one more time.

- Oh man, I feel so embarrassed - Put that up here.

So Mr. Chhun, where did you learn how to make egg rolls?

- I learned from my mother.

So back home, we made egg roll only occasionally because it's hard work and it costs money too.

- We both come from different places in Cambodia.

My wife, Mrs. Chhun, she's from Phnom Penh.

and the way they do egg roll they do different way.

And from where I came from where I came from they do different way, - How did you guys end up here in Minnesota?

- When the Khmer Rouge took over in 1975, I went to school in Phnom Penh.

(sad music) The Khmer Rouge was a brutal communist regime that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979.

- After they threatened to kill me, I escaped all the way to a village, it's called Khla Krapeu.

Khla means tiger And krapeu means crocodile.

(sad music) We lived in that village and we don't have anything to eat.

They took people to kill every night.

If people will survive in that place, that will be this, their life is precious.

- During the Khmer Rouge nearly 2 million Cambodians were executed or die from exhaustion, starvation or disease.

- In my family, we have six children.

My dad got killed and my four brothers were killed.

So my mother decided to bring two of us who were still alive run away from the communist regime to the refugee camps.

- Did you guys meet in the refugee camp or did you guys meet here?

Where did you guys meet?

- Part of it.

Because I know a little bit of English and they look for translator to work for refugees for the resettlement agency.

And one day her family came and I I asked them where they came from.

- Yeah.

He interviewed my family.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

And they say that they came from, Khla Krapeu which is a tiger crocodile village.

And we all are crying because nobody would survive in that place.

When I finished my contract and then they sent me to transit camp and we were on the same plane to come to United States.

- It's so great to hear story because it's, it's so parallel to my parents, you know?

So when I'm hearing this, I'm like, In a way I'm hearing my parents' story too, you know?

- Yeah, we know.

The Hmong, Cambodian, Laos- have the same situation.

- And it's, it's amazing to be here at this table rolling egg rolls with you guys.

The same way I would with my mom and dad too (gentle music) (cooking oil boils) (gentle music continues) - I've got the egg rolls are here, and this is my beautiful wife, Lucy.

- Hi.

- And the little one.

- Hi, Rowan.

- Well, let's all pass around these plates.

Let's get going.

I'm really excited for this.

Grab a couple.

- Okay.

- Hot, hot, hot.

- It's hot.

- Yeah.

- I think this egg roll must be mine because it looks good and it's wrapped really good.

(cheerfully laughing) - It's great.

- - So delicious.

This smaller size, like it's crispier, you know, because that skin, I love it.

This is so delicious.

- And we, we passed the egg rolls recipe to Bunbob, and now what you gonna do next?

- Pass it to baby Rowan.

- Awesome.

- Bunbob, I feel like it's a little homecoming for me.

To come back to Dumpling here.

Mr. And Mrs. Chhun, just to hear your story- it reminds me so much of my mom and dad's story, and then just to be able to be here with Lucy and Rowan, just to see the next generation here.

Thank you so much, brother.

- Thanks for coming.

- Thank you for everything.

- Don't feel like you don't got to go all the way.

- I know.

I always tell all my cooks don't be a hero.

- Yeah.

Exactly.

- It's like, I always say, when you get to the nub and make sure your hand doesn't become a nub.

- That's good advice.

- (laughing) I don't know.