Lao cuisine the focus for Portland entrepreneurs
Elizabeth Dinh and Tim Steele
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Sao Noi is Lao for “little girl.” It’s also the name of a chili sauce business by two entrepreneurs who chose it to honor their mother’s nickname.
Co-founders and sisters Maly Douangphoumy and Lisa Douangphoumy say the Sao Noi products — chili oil, beef jerky and a cookbook — represent Lao cultures and cuisine. They went to Portland State University while helping to run their family’s now-closed restaurant in Hood River.
Maly took business classes at PSU, earning a business minor. “One of my former entrepreneurship professors, I had pitched to him our chili oils and he believed in us and our product,” she told KOIN 6 News.
Their first product was their mom’s idea.
“Our mom decided to make some chili oils to go with the pho and that became such a hit,” Lisa said. “And one of our employees really enjoyed the chili oils and they were like, Marnie – Marnie is our mom’s name – ‘why don’t you just bottle these and sell them?’ And that’s how we started.”
Family is the heart of their company, and their late father continues to have an impact.
“Our dad was so creative with food and he was just such an inspiration to us. And he actually passed away in 2013, so it was pretty much our mom and us running the restaurant,” Lisa said. “Our brother was pretty young at the time, so I mean, he could only do so much.”
She said people often ask where they’re from and then explains where Laos is.
“I have to share with them our culture and our food,” Maly said. And also we do have a cookbook which has some family recipes in there and it has a map of Laos, so it kind of shares our story and then also our culture.”
Sao Noi products are available locally, including at Market of Choice and Elephant’s Deli. This summer the sisters are going to the Fancy Food Show in New York along with people from the Food Innovation Center in Portland.
