Kat Batuigas Photo
Rajachak and Son.
The first thing that Ketkeo Rajachak noticed when she arrived in Connecticut was the cold. Rajachak had spent several months in Thailand in her teens as a refugee from communist Laos, before she was arranged to be resettled in the United States.
She remembers being handed a heavy jacket by immigration workers. “If not, you’re gonna be freezing,” one informed her.
It was April of 1980. “I was crying, I wanted go back,” Rajachak recalls. “It’s too cold [here].”
She felt that way for some time, until Connecticut warmed up, and she warmed to it. By the mid ‘80s, she started to have children in Connecticut, laying down roots that suggested she was going to stay for a good while. And she did
Rajachak is now 53, and runs Pho Ketkeo, a restaurant on Temple Street serving Thai and Laotian cuisine. She runs it with the help of her daughter Christine Son, who is 28.
The special summer roll.
Son, a native of Bridgeport and currently residing in Milford, knew New Haven to be a up-and-coming destination for food and culture.
“I thought it was the perfect place to introduce a Laotian restaurant,” she said in an interview for WNHH’s “Open for Business” series.
Rajachak had run a catering business on the side, serving the local Lao community, before opening Pho Ketkeo. That ended several years ago, when she realized that she was ready to do a brick and mortar operation. But it wasn’t easy. Not at all.
“She’s up all the time, pretty much 24 hours a day,” Son said, describing how much time her mother had spent cooking on the side before they decided to dive into the restaurant industry.
Both say a must-try dish is the nam khao, a salad with crispy fried curried rice and fermented pork, dressed in lime, fish sauce, and other herbs, and eaten as a wrap. Son also recommends the special summer rolls, a number-one seller from when Rajachak used to cater.
“She [Rajachak] cooks better than her mom,” Son proclaimed. “If you try other Laotian dishes, hers is a little bit different. She just puts her own twist to it.”
To listen to the full interview, click on or download the audio above. Open for Business is supported by Frontier. Frontier is proud to be Connecticut’s hometown provider of TV, Internet and Phone for your home and business. Their number is 1.888.Frontier and their website is https://frontier.com/.