16 MARCH 2020
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HUNTER LEWIS
@NOTESFROMACOOK
COMMUNAL TABLE
This year, Southern
Foodways Alliance
and Food & Wine will
collaborate by sharing
podcast interviews
with Van Nolintha and
other food folks. Play
S FA’s Gravy and F&W’s
Communal Table
podcasts wherever you
listen—and don’t forget
to sign up for our F&W
Pro newsletter for sto-
ries and news from the
leaders in the hospital-
ity industry. (fo o d a n d
wi n e .c o m/fwp ro)
A COOLER WINE
COOLER
Shout-out to the new
Italian spot Boia De
in Miami’s Little Haiti
neighborhood, where
I was charmed by
the food, a bottle of
Domaine de la Pinte
Cuvée d’Automne from
Jura, France, and the
simple terra-cotta ves-
sels made by Danielle
Kaufmann used for
white wine service.
Find Kaufmann’s work
on Etsy (etsy.c o m/
s h o p/d k p o t s) and on
Instagram @dk_pots.
SEE YOU IN ...
Spring kicks off festival
season at F&W. In the
coming months, you’ll
find me, Ray Isle, and
some of the best chefs
and winemakers in the
business at Charleston
Wine + Food (March
4–8, charlestonwine
a n dfo o d .co m), Pebble
Beach Food & Wine
(April 16–19, pbfw.com),
and the first-ever
Bahamas Culinary &
Arts Festival (A p ri l 3 0 –
May 3, bahamar.com/
festival), presented
by Food & Wine and
our sister brand
Travel + Leisure.
From the
Home Office
IN THE SUMMER OF 1990, MY MOM moved my
brother, sister, and me from Atlanta to Chapel
Hill, North Carolina. As we acclimated to our
new home, my 12-year-old brain was preoc-
cupied with little more than playing basketball
and Tom Petty’s album Full Moon Fever.
Restaurateur Vansana (Van) Nolintha also
moved to North Carolina when he was 12—
to Greensboro, about 50 minutes down the
road from Chapel Hill. But his move, and
his preoccupations, were worlds away from
mine, taking him 8,000 miles from Luang
Prabang, Laos, where he was born—and where
his mother, father, and sister stayed behind.
While I fretted, post-relocation, about passing
seventh-grade Latin, Nolintha set to learning
English, attending school while working a few
days a week at his host family’s Japanese and
Chinese restaurants. A year later, when his
11-year-old sister Vanvisa arrived, Van looked
after her, too. As they adjusted to their new life,
brother and sister created rituals and tradi-
tions to ease their homesickness—buying Thai
movies and music and stocking the mini fridge
in their room with fish sauce and Thai chiles.
Fast-forward to 2020. The Nolinthas, now in
their early 30s, continue to honor their roots
with two acclaimed restaurants in Raleigh,
North Carolina, each one in its own way a
tribute to home. Their first, Bida Manda, is a
New Roots
Laotian restaurant whose name translates to
“mother father” in Sanskrit. Next door, they
opened a second restaurant, Brewery Bhavana—
part dim sum teahouse, brewery, flower shop,
and bookstore. They plan to open a third,
called Luang Prabang, later this year.
For the Nolinthas, home is where they
entertain and recharge after serving their city.
At the spiritual heart of their newly renovated
house is a gas stove where a straw basket for
steaming sticky rice rests over a metal pot of
water: an altar in Buddhist Laotian tradition.
“When my mom visited for the first time, she
wanted to pray at the stove in the kitchen to
say thank you to this home and this space,”
Nolintha said. “The stove is where we commu-
nicate to the spirit that is protecting the home.”
The Nolinthas’ story (see “Family Meals,”
p. 100) gets at so many truths that emerge
when we start telling stories about home. The
concept is universal and personal at the same
time: The definitions of home evolve as we
grow. What I’ve learned from my first move
(and many since) and from people like Van
Nolintha is that when we set down roots and
make a beautiful space to create, cook, and
serve others, we make the community where
we live a better place to call home.
from left: The Nolinthas’ stove,
where a straw basket is used to
steam rice; a bowl of Khao Soi (recipe
p. 110); Vanvisa and Van Nolintha
photography by THE INGALLS
