By trade, I’m a marketer and before this, I was in the food & hospitality industry for 20 + years and always, a foodie obsessed with egg rolls. This particular adventure started 20 years ago during my university days, and ignited in 2020 as most things recently have.

While the majority of people were learning how to make sourdough, I split off from my personal Instagram page and started FeedMeRightMau. The focus was to be the Cambodian food I cooke and anything in my life involving food. Also, Mau is my last name and I didn’t want to pass on the play on word.

Before we start that story, let’s go back 20 years ago when I moved to Austin. There was minimum asian restaurants and fewer places that served really good egg rolls like Mom’s. If I wanted them, I had to drive home every weekend or learn how to make them. Well, this started Christmas egg rolling parties where I made the stuffing and invited my close friends over. We’d sit around rolling, frying and eating them while sharing stories of our separate family traditions. This continues till this day.

Fast forward to 2020, when The Black Lives Matter Movement was at its peak, after the murder of George Floyd. Austin bakers joined the movement with our chapter of Bakers Against Racism, and I was invited by a friend via IG. While everyone baked, I decided to make egg rolls. Let’s be honest, I’m no match to these talented home bakers. My friends at Smoking Beauty BBQ let me use their restaurant as a pickup spot. Some have said that this was my first popup.

Shortly after, Snovid happened. I was without water and electricity for 2 weeks. I couldn’t help immediately but I knew I wanted to help. Again, with the help of my friends at Smoking Beauty BBQ, we hosted a market and invited local small to raise funds for those in need due to the storm. Again, I made eggs rolls to raise funds. All in all these past few years these egg rolls have made close to $30,000 which all went to different causes. The egg rolls caught people’s attention and they wanted more eggs rolls and Cambodian food. (Thank you, Austin & Friends!)

Here it was, my dream before my eyes, sharing Cambodian culture and my family’s story through my cooking of Cambodian food. My friends at Seoulju Korean Kitchen encourage me to continue my dream by persisting I host a popup and they offered up their kitchen. Here we are. Here I am, many many popups later, Ming Da’s Cambodia Kitchen was born. I have a platform to share Cambodian culture through my cooking.

Creating FeedMeRightMau started only a couple of years ago and to be honest, I thought my followers were my 400 friends from my personal page. I never thought I’d have this many followers/IG Community.

My advice is to be genuine, and get to know the folks who follow/engage with you. Most importantly, have fun!