MAKING THE JUMP FROM OAHU TO NEVADA COUNTY
Former Navy man and Hawaiian skydiving instructor, Andy Ross––whose jumps tally more than 13,000––claims his wife’s incredible cooking was a surprise she kept hidden until after their marriage. “In my apartment in Thailand, you not allowed to cook,” shares Ploy Ross, in her authentic Thai accent. “And why would you when you live in Bangkok with 24 hour food? When I move to Hawaii, I start to bring lunch to him at work. His co-workers saw it and they want some. So I start to make 5 boxes,10, 15, 20, a birthday party, baby shower, events, and then when our daughter started kindergarten we got a food truck.”
Their original truck, Ploy Kitchen, ran for a year in Oahu before the Ross family was forced into a change of scenery by the pandemic. “We both served tourism,” said Andy, “The skydiving school shut down, the food truck wasn’t sustainable on local business, so we made the jump. We always planned on bringing the truck to California, but the pandemic really sped up that reality. We opened March 17, 2022 at Tractor Supply in Grass Valley.”
While starting over on the mainland required some patience, Thai Chic Food Truck is rarely parked. “This is my dream job,” shares Ploy, “Because my family, every generation, we have food business. My grandma, my great grandma, my mom, my auntie, my sister, everybody sell food. My mom sell food in front of the elementary school in Thailand, my grandma have a local grocery store. I don’t call myself a professional, I call myself a chef.”
“Chef Ploy,” adds her husband, with a very sweet smile.
Khao Soi Soup
This winter Thai Chic Street Food is adding to their authentic menu of pad thai, spring rolls, pot stickers, and Khao Nio Gai Yang, with a winter soup, Khao Soi, made of a spicy-curry broth over egg noodles, chicken, onions, pickled cabbage, and topped with fresh cilantro and a squeeze of lime perfectly timed to warm hungry hands while strolling the Grass Valley and Nevada City Cornish and Victorian Christmas markets.
“Many people in Nevada County know Thai food, they come up to the window, they speak Thai to me, they tell me a story about being in Thailand, they say, ‘I eat this food before, in Bangkok.’ It makes me feel good. I love to feed people.”
Ploy Ross
530-760-8902
