In 1978 the chef Reyna Duong, along with her parents and 10 siblings, fled their fishing village in southwestern Vietnam. Duong was just a year old when she boarded the boat in the middle of the night, escaping the takeover of the communist regime. The family eventually landed in Long Beach, California.

It may seem like escaping a war as a baby would be the most defining aspect of Duong’s (or anyone’s) identity. But her life has been equally shaped by what happened after: the arrival of her youngest brother, Sang Duong.

Sang has Down syndrome. He was born in Long Beach, and Duong spent her childhood taking care of him alongside her parents, who opened their own clothing manufacturing business. At age 22 she moved to Dallas, initially working in the corporate world but ultimately becoming the owner of a Vietnamese sandwich shop, Sandwich Hag.

Sang is the reason she opened Sandwich Hag in Dallas, a restaurant that, in a city often ignored for its food offerings, is serving a dazzling take on Vietnamese home cooking. Thirty to forty percent of her part-time employee force, at the restaurant and for events, encompasses individuals with different abilities, including those with Down syndrome.

Duong initially hated cooking but had vivid childhood food memories of her mom making spaghetti seasoned with fish sauce, and bánh tét, sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves and filled with mung beans or plantains. “She would hold yarn with her teeth and stretch and wrap the banana leaves,” she recalls. “Each one hung like a pair of…” she pauses. “What’s that? Bruce Lee?” she pauses. “Oh! Nunchucks. I mean, the talent of this woman.”

But the food memories are intertwined with difficult ones...READ MORE