The third episode of the new documentary series Takeout Kids follows Brooklyn Jiang growing up around the cafe that his parents own and operate. He chats with Charlotte Muru-Lanning about repairing old gadgets, starting high school and why his mum’s fried rice is the best.

Making and fixing gadgets takes up the bulk of 12 year-old Brooklyn Jiang’s spare time.

He lives in Thames with his two younger sisters, Katelyn and Kaycee, his mum, Lim Heng and his dad, Tola Bo, who own and run Sunburst Coffee Lounge, a cafe in the centre of the town. It’s open seven days a week, from 7am to 4pm.

“I’d like to be an engineer,” he says over a Zoom call where he’s beaming in from the cafe kitchen. The dream is to work at Nasa, Apple or RocketLab one day. 

Brooklyn and his family are featured in the third episode of observational documentary series Takeout Kids. The series, from director Julie Zhu, follows the everyday lives of four young New Zealanders growing up in their parents’ restaurants or takeaway shops. 

Brooklyn has always liked the idea of heading to space but says his mum “won’t allow me because she wants me to be down to earth”. If space is out of the question, “I could start my own IT company that fixes things,” he concedes.

He taught himself to code in the first nationwide lockdown – “it’s just about making something,” he says. “Right now, I’m fixing old iPhones and iPads I found in the closet.” 

A broken iPad has been repurposed as a jukebox for his sister and his own old iPad has been transformed into a clock. At the moment, he’s working on his most difficult project yet: fixing an iPhone that’s locked because it’s stuck on an old mobile plan. 

During lunchtimes at school he’s been collaborating with a friend to build a remote-controlled boat. They’re combining his mate’s wood-making skills with his own knack for programming to get the vessel water-ready.

Every morning, Brooklyn’s dad heads to the cafe around 4am, to make a start on the house-made pies and cakes which fill the cabinets in the cafe. Back at home, his mum wakes Brooklyn and his sisters up and gets them ready for school. Brooklyn gets his wakeup call at 7am, “but I don’t actually wake up till 7.10am,” he says. 

Breakfast (Milo cereal is his firm favourite) is usually at the cafe, and then he heads off to school with his sisters. The hours after school are usually spent at the cafe too. The family heads home around 5.30pm.

Sometimes Brooklyn helps with jobs around the cafe, like preparing cutlery sets. Knives and forks are swaddled in serviettes and held together by a dab of water, ready for customers. “It’s like origami,” he notes, making another fold in an origami heart he’s been working on while we chat.

Brooklyn’s parents, both originally from Cambodia, moved to New Zealand in the early 2000s. Mum Lim Heng says the experience of diaspora make for an awkward cultural in-betweenness sometimes. “You kind of lose your own language, and then you don’t get the whole English language as well.”

The fried rice recipe that Brooklyn has shared [it will be on The Spinoff on Saturday] is a reflection of techniques and tips learnt from Lim Heng’s own mother and aunties. It’s been finessed over time. And, because her three kids love it, it’s a staple dinner in the Jiang household. “My mum likes making it and she keeps on making it” but, Brooklyn says, “I still love it.”

Brooklyn’s top trick is to “always cook the rice first” and to make sure you’re using dark soy sauce. His mum adds that if you’re using frozen vegetables, cook them in the pan first to dry them out before adding the rice. 

Even though Brooklyn is a keen cook, he’s felt nervous since burning his hand with some stray oil while frying salmon last year. The experience taught him a lesson though, and he’s trying to convince his dad to let him cook once a week. “Not everything will be like the salmon incident,” he says.

Already, he’s nailed cooking chicken and omelettes, but he’s eager to learn to make soups and to cook different meats. Anything but salmon.

Growing up as a “takeout kid” has equal pros and cons, reckons Brooklyn. Weekends and after school are spent at the shop, but “you kind of get used to it”. He’s realised his parents know most of the teachers from the high school because they also happen to be customers at the shop – “there are spies everywhere,” he says.

But then there’s the food: a major benefit of having parents that run a cafe. “Chocolate eclairs, sponge drops – the sweet stuff tastes real good when they’ve come right out of the oven,” he says.

This year will be Brooklyn’s first year at Thames High School. Reflecting on getting older and starting high school after eight years at the same school, Brooklyn feels “excited but scared”. It’s one step closer to being more independent, but there’s a catch: it might come with even more homework.

Watch the whole Takeout Kids series here. Made with support from NZ On Air.