Bangkok Inn

In her interview for the “Digging In” oral history project, Daisy Chuskul, the owner of Bangkok Inn, a family-run Thai restaurant in Dallas, shared how her parents, Threechok and Patcharee Chuskul started the restaurant in 1982 and how it has evolved over the years. Bangkok Inn, located at 6033 Oram Street near Lower Greenville in Dallas, serves a loyal clientele spanning generations. Chuskul remembers growing up in the restaurant and her experience taking it over from her parents:

“So we have a lot of customers that have been eating at our restaurant for, you know, decades…I think we only had maybe six or seven tables. So we would have people line up in the parking lot, waiting to eat and would bring coolers and stuff and kind of tailgate our parking lot, wanting to try probably my mom's Pad Thai…It's been really fun to see…generationally our clientele who have watched me grow up…and I've watched their families grow up and now their kids eat here and they bring their kids…And I think probably one of the biggest draws…was just my mom. She was just so hospitable, and everyone called her "Mom" and just wanted to be around her and spend time with her. And I think that's why they enjoyed coming to the restaurant.”

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Chuskul’s mother, who was known as “Pat,” was from the town of Ratburi in Thailand and learned how to make her popular Pad Thai by spying on the night market vendors there. Chuskul recounts that her mom “would go to the night market and kind of watch how they were making Pad Thai. "She knew the most popular one was the one to look for, so she would spy at their trash and see which trash had the most eggshells because, at the night market, they would crack an egg for each order. And so the one that had the most eggshells…had the best Pad Thai. So she just would watch and study.”

Daisy Chuskul studied hospitality management at the University of North Texas and started running the restaurant with her siblings after her parents retired. She reflects in her interview on the centrality of food and hospitality in Thai culture, pointing to the Thai “phrase ‘kin khao reu yang’ [which] means ‘have you eaten?’ And that's how people greet each other. And it's just making sure that you just entered someone's heart, through their stomach and make sure they're fed and that warmth and care that's taken through food. So, I think with the restaurant is, we wanted to create an atmosphere that's like, come into our home and we're going to feed you.” Running the restaurant now, Daisy Chuskul balances preserving her family’s legacy while also moving the restaurant forward: “I'm interested to explore, especially now that my parents have passed. And so it's kind of been a mission for me to dive even deeper into the cuisine and kind of unearth these recipes that maybe that I've never...I didn't get a chance to learn.”

The interview with Daisy Chuskul is part of the project, “Digging In: How Food,Culture, and Class Shape the Story of Asian Dallas” and will be archived at Baylor University’s Institute for Oral History. The Chuskul family has donated digitized photos, menus, and articles from Bangkok Inn to the Dallas Public Library’s downtown branch. Selections from Daisy Chuskul’s interview, as well as her portrait, shot by Thanin Viriyaki at Bangkok Inn in 2022, are also featured on the library’s Digital Wall. The project is possible thanks to an ACLS/Mellon Community College Faculty Fellowship.