Authentic Flavors of Home Inspire the Menu for Both Restaurant and Food Truck
Ruth Chhuani and her husband, Vaiphei Thanga, sat in the Malaysian airport with their toddler son and a baby on the way, boarding passes in hand to a place they had never heard of, bringing with them nothing but hope and determination for a better future. It was 16 years ago when the young family fled their native Myanmar (formerly Burma) as refugees, willing to go anywhere the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) would send them.
Originally from Kalay (or Kalaymyo) in the country’s northwestern Sagaing Region, Chhuani and Thanga are Chin, one of the major ethnic nationalities in the country that experienced widespread persecution at the hands of the ruling military regime at the time, according to Human Rights Watch. When the UNHCR asked where the family wanted to go, the couple wasn’t choosy.
“I say, ‘Send me to the safe place,’” says Chhuani. “I had one final medical check, and they asked where am I going, and I said, ‘It’s called Rhode Island. Where is that, Europe or America?’ And they say, ‘You are going to America.’”
It didn’t take long for popular consumer review websites to be populated with ringing endorsements of Nanu’s pillowy soft dumplings, flavor-packed fish soup, chewy noodles and, for the lunch crowd, convenient bento boxes.
She reached out to the handful of people she knew in the U.S.
“I call them to say, ‘Do you know Rhode Island?’ Nobody, though, knew Rhode Island. ‘Maybe you are wrong,’ they said. ‘Maybe they’re gonna send you to Long Island.’”
Today Chhuani laughs heartily at the memory, adding that she, like many Rhode Islanders, is still forced to explain where the state is located.
As soon as they arrived in the Ocean State, she and her husband worked any job they could, including, for Chhuani, a stint at Beautiful Day, the nonprofit granola company that provides job training for refugees. But at home, it was the cuisine of their Southeast Asian home that rooted them, like tea leaf salad, or (in Burmese) Laphet Thoke. The traditional salad is made with fermented tea leaves mixed with vegetables, toasted peas and peanuts and tossed in a sweet and spicy dressing. Ginger salad, or Gin Thoke, was another dish Chhuani grew up making alongside her mother and grandmother, mixing pickled ginger with fish sauce, fried lentils, chickpeas or a variation of ingredients with ample vegetables.
It was that love of blended Southeast Asian flavors that inspired the couple to steer their careers into the culinary space.
“We wanted to open a restaurant, but we ended up with a food truck,” Chhuani says with a laugh. As the couple wanted to reach a wide audience, knowing few people outside of their native region knew the characteristics of Burmese food, they focused on fusion cuisine, blending myriad flavors of the region.
“We have a lot of neighboring countries—China, Thailand and Laos on the east side, Bangladesh and India on the west, and all the flavors, especially Chinese and Thai and India, if you mix it, that is most like Burmese food,” she explains.
Despite the pandemic, Nanu Burmese Fusion food truck launched in late 2020 (nanu means “mom” in Burmese Chin) rolling up to breweries, festivals, parks, fundraisers and pedestrian hot spots like the Providence Pedestrian Bridge and Pawtuxet Village—anywhere they could. It didn’t take long for popular consumer review websites to be populated with ringing endorsements of Nanu’s pillowy soft dumplings, flavor-packed fish soup, chewy noodles and, for the lunch crowd, convenient bento boxes. With the support of their now-teenage children—son Robin and daughter Rebecca—word spread about the food truck and social media follower counts began to rise.
In January of last year, Chhuani and her husband Thanga realized their dream of opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant in Warwick. The sleek, modern space isn’t large but it’s warm and welcoming—indicative of their spirit—and the menu is a kaleidoscope of Southeast Asian flavor. Tom yum soup is one of the most popular dishes, native to central Thailand and a blend of chiles, lemongrass, lime leaves, fish sauce, mushrooms, tomato, onion and cilantro with shrimp. Diners can also experience Mohinga, Myanmar’s national dish: a fish soup made with rice noodles that, in Chhuani’s version, includes egg, cilantro, scallions and fried split chickpeas.
Chhuani is neither vegan nor vegetarian, but many of Nanu’s dishes are offered as such. “I love it, and I love making it,” she explains of vegan food. It’s easy for her to create vegan recipes as Burmese foods are typically vegetable-driven. “Almost everyone loves veggies,” she says of Burmese people. And when dishes do include meat, it’s never exclusively so. “Nobody eats just meat; there’s at least two or three veggies, too; with veggie stir fry or veggie soup or veggie salad.”
Other widely popularized Southeast Asian dishes, including Pad Thai, Drunken Noodles, fried rice, edamame, spring rolls, plus sushi and even milk and boba teas, are on the menu. Whenever possible she sources vegetables and herbs from several local farmers markets and keeps a large vegetable garden at home.
Like most restaurateurs who run both a brick-and-mortar and a food truck, it means long hours and hard work, but you’ll never hear Chhuani complain.
“I hate complaining,” she says. “If something’s not working, close the door and try another one. Even if you complain, it’s not gonna get better. This is the land of opportunity, America … this is almost like heaven.”
Andrea E. McHugh is a freelance writer who has written for the Hartford Courant, Baltimore Magazine, Daily Candy, Design Sponge, Providence Monthly and more. She resides in Newport.
Nanu Burmese Fusion
997 Sandy Lane, Warwick
NanuBurmeseFusion.com
And follow them @nanuburmesefusion for food truck updates.
