♪♪ -If you go to Thailand,
then definitely these are gonna be the food
that you'll find on the street. It doesn't need to be
like fancy, perfect. Whatever we eat,
whatever we like, we throw them in the menu. We all know how to cook
because she kind of train us. ♪♪ It's a family business,
we kind of helping each other. ♪♪ ♪♪ My name is Benjaporn Chua,
and there's my mom. I have two other siblings. This is Pat.
-Hi, my name is Pat. -And this is Joe.
-I'm Joe. -Everything on the menu is what
we literally eat in Thailand. And all the ingredients we use, we would cook it
at home for ourselves. The duck panang is really good. I love duck, and that
panang curry, it's just like
the perfect combination for me. The papaya salad
is one of her favorite. It's like the homestyle cooking. We have three locations
under Plant Love House -- Look, Mondayoff, and Noods n Chill. One dish that I always recommend
to the customer is the the pork blood noodle. When they hear it,
they're kind of like -- they pull back a little bit,
you know. They're quite
not sure what it is. That broth would be
Chinese 5 spice with the pork bone,
pork meatball, and pork strip. We have to simmer it about
like two, three hours before we can use it. At the boiling point,
that's where we put the raw pork blood. Eliminates the --
How do you call that smell? -The odor. Like the strong odor.
-Yeah. We eat it with the noodle
and bean sprout. That's, like,
one of my favorite. It's her favorite.
It's everybody's favorite. We moved here in 2007.
-2007. -We would have Thai friends
who come and hang out with us in Queens and then, you know,
lunchtime, she would cook. So when they come to us, it's like, what they eat
when they were in Thailand. They told their friends that,
"Okay, this house cooking Thai food. Next week,
they're planning to cook this." People started to come. So it becomes more like
a restaurant in a backyard. People who's driving
and pass by, they, like, they have to stop their car and look like,
"What's going on here?" That was a line
in front of the house. [ Laughter ] We name our backyard
as Baan Pluk Rak. Baan, it's house. Pluk is like
you're planting something. Rak is love. House where love grow. Translated, very, like, very straightforward
to Plant Love House. We opened the first restaurant
in 2014 in Elmhurst, Queens. When we see the sign
that was for sale, we basically went for it,
you know. Like, we were just, like,
looking at each other and like,
"Do you want to do this?" "Okay, we'll try it.
We'll go for it." [ Indistinct conversations ] Mom is kind of like
the boss, yes. [ Laughter ]
In every aspect of life. [ Laughter ] She would work with Mom
to come up with all the new dishes
and the recipe. They would fight.
You know, they would like, "No, no, no, no, use this," and my mom would be like,
"No, no, no, no, use this." For the pork knuckle,
She would simmer it overnight. This one would be like,
"You know what? Why don't we just use
the pressure cooker?" It would take a couple of hours
and then it would be done. Behind my mom,
she does it her own way. Pressure cooker. Yeah. It actually tastes the same.
Yeah. Ooh -- [ Laughs ]
-Not the same, not same. [ Laughter ] -She's like,
"No, it's not the same." She's, like,
a very strict person. For Pad Thai,
all the Thai restaurants, they would use vinegar,
and we use, like, hand-squeezed tamarind here. At the beginning,
we didn't serve Pad Thai at all because Pad Thai is not
what we eat in Thailand. So people would come in
and be like, "How can you be a Thai
restaurant without Pad Thai?" And they would walk out.
They didn't understand. That was like
the most struggling part of the first restaurant. [ Indistinct conversation ] Our family is really close,
like really, really close, and we're close
to the staff as well. -[ Laughing ] -We are having, like,
a little hot pot party. Half of my family is here, and then there's, like,
my close friends from work. That's how we do it
every Monday, or most of the Mondays here. -We will never open
on Monday. [ Chuckling ] -Move, move, move. [ Indistinct conversation ] -We've together
for five years. -Yeah. -Everybody, most, they've been
with me for a really long time. Come on. We have the fish ball,
the shrimps, the beef, the pork, and, you know,
all the vegetables. ♪♪ -[ Laughing ] ♪♪ -This is a good opportunity
for me to spend time with my sister
and the rest of the workers because I don't really have
that much time with them. When I work
at a different location, by the time I get home,
they're probably asleep already. -I really believe in, like,
work-life balance. [ Laughter ] Inside the work environment,
we work. And outside,
we're like a family. When we moved here,
I was 17, she's 16. Me and Pat worked
in a bagel store. We have to wake up like 4:00
in the morning, go to work, come back, smell like onions, you know?
[ Laughter ] My mom would work, like,
the night shift, 6:00 till 4:00 a.m. -Once they clocked in,
she clocked out. When she clocked out,
they clocked in. -My brother is the one
who's like, go to school, come back home, and doesn't really have anybody
to teach him homework. It's like he missed that
when he was a child. We can't go back
to that point again. So everybody put their hundreds
into the restaurants. That's why we got today. Yeah. The things that really drive me
the most is my family, my sister, my brother,
my mom. [ Laughter ] -[ Laughing ] [ Laughter ] -He doesn't back me up. He backs her up
most of the time. -Because she will yell at me
if I don't do certain things. -It wasn't easy
to be a single mom and raise three kids. She's my hero. Yeah. She's such a fighter,
you know. She's the reason
why I do what I do today. She didn't go to college. She wants her kids
to go to college. And the restaurant
is -- it's for my mom. It's actually everything,
it's actually for her. I want her to live comfortably
because she works for us for a really long time already. So now I just want her to just
sit back and relax and, you know,
we'll do what we can do for her, and the team too,
you know. That drives me. Like, I can't give up
because I still have them. Are you proud?
[ Speaks Thai ] ♪♪ I am 30. -I'm turning...
You're 31! She's 31, I'm turning 30. -Okay.
[ Laughter ] I still have a couple of more
months to go, give me a break! -I am 30. -I'm turning...
You're 31! She's 31, I'm turning 30. [ Laughter ] -Okay. I still have a couple of more
months to go, give me a break!
