By Chelsea Meyer
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — There are no recipe books, measuring spoons or instructions when Ann Boutchannha prepares to cook one of her family’s traditional Laotian meals.

All the details she needs to know have been drilled into her memory from years of honing her craft in home kitchens.

Now, Boutchannha and her family have brought the crispy fried egg rolls, sweet sausage and other dishes friends have raved about to a new restaurant on the city’s east side. After years of making eggrolls for friends — a task that would sometimes force them to cook through the night in order to satisfy the demand — the family has opened Pho 27 Asian Cuisine at 298 N. Mulford Road.

The restaurant offers up Laotian, Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese and Asian fusion meals ranging from papaya salad and beef larb to pad Thai and specialty fried rice, Tom Yum soup and General Tso’s chicken. Everything is a family recipe.

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Boutchannha, who came to America from Laos when she was about 7, grew up cooking with her mom and sister, creating delectable Asian dishes from scratch. Both she and her husband, Sam Sirimanotham, impressed friends and family with their cooking.

“All our family and friends kept asking us when the next time we were going to have family gathering was because they loved our food so much,” said Nyruck Syphommarath, Boutchannha’s niece.

Over the past few years, Boutchannha and her family spent many hours rolling their traditional family recipe eggrolls by hand in their home kitchen.

“A lot of her friends kept asking her to order food, so that’s part of it too, her friends love her food,” said Melinda Soutthivong, Boutchannha’s daughter.

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The eggrolls helped the family’s cooking get noticed, Syphommarath said, but then people wanted to try more of the cuisine.

“Because they’re like, ‘If the eggrolls are good, what else is good?’ and my aunt’s able to introduce that,” she said.

About five years ago, Boutchannha’s mother fell ill so she and her sister stayed home to take care of her until she died last year.

“Grandma would be sitting here trying to help if she were here,” Boutchannha said this week as she sat around a table at the restaurant eating with her family. “Grandma loved to cook.”

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Boutchannha said she learned to make all the dishes on Pho 27 Asian Cuisine’s menu from her mom. The new restaurant incorporates distinctive ingredients and techniques from Laotian and Chinese culture.

“Food is a universal ground that everyone can come together and enjoy,” Soutthivong said. “Nothing beats coming to a place and just having homemade cooking.”

The new eatery has been busy since it opened last week, even forcing a one-day closure on Monday because of a run on ingredients.

“We were slammed,” Syphommarath said. “We weren’t expecting such a huge turnout but we’re really glad, and we’re trying our best to keep up with the demand.”

About | Pho 27 Asian Cuisine

Where: 298 N. Mulford Road, Rockford

Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Monday. Closed on Tuesday

Phone: 779-423-0216

On the web: Find them on Facebook here

This article is by Chelsea Meyer with contributions by Kevin Haas. Email Meyer at Chelsea@b103fm.com or Haas at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com.