Wrapping Up Asian Heritage Month and Then Some...

 

Dumplings 🥟 and Noodles 🍜, two beloved staples that transcends Asian cultures, with each country having their own nuances and specialties. 

Two wonderful events to celebrate Asian Heritage Month with a deep dive conversation on cuisine, culture and contribution with @tdsb_cs newcomer youths! It was a small group but nonetheless impactful 💥💗! 

Thank you to Fatma and Derek from Welcoming Communities for your support in taking up on my idea to promote this to our students and to our incredible guest and my friend Jennifer Uy @happy.naturalproducts for your stories of trials and tribulations as an immigrant, a singer and entrepreneur. 

Jennifer Uy is a strong advocate for beauty from within for all colours, orientation and sizes. Being an immigrant, local woman entrepreneur, professional singer, and of Asian descent, she knows all too well the emphasis society places on looks and fitting in. 

Jennifer was inspired by her grandmother's daily rituals and founded and developed Happy Natural Products with modalities of Traditional Chinese Medicine practiced by her great grandfather who is a doctor of TCM.  She joined me to talk about her challenges of assimilation, balancing cultural roots and societal expectations and eventual empowerment coming into her own 🌷.

Kickstarted Asian Heritage Month of May with a Chinese classic fried rice and chicken lettuce wraps with youths in my after school cook along program.

Then with Korean chapchae noodles...

A captivating cuisine tradition in Japan called Yoshoku marries Japanese and Western ingredients & flavours to create delicious mouthwatering dishes such as tender hambagu (bunless hamburger steak). Simply served with steamed 🥕🥦, 🍚 and homemade teriyaki sauce (mirin, soy sauce and suga' 😋🤤🤤) this is a homestyle fave!

Ahhh... bringing in the tropics 🌞🥭 instantly with Filipino Kamayan- the experience of eating with your hands 👐, often called a Boodle Fight to finish the Asian cuisine series with youths ! Shout out to VJ for her gorgeous platter 💗🌺! 

At Casa Manila restaurant where I had my first  experience years ago so beautifully describes, "imagine having a picnic in a tropical setting where you're free to taste, touch and savour a feast of textures laid on top of fragrant rice. Picture yourself using your hand to feed yourself from a bed of banana leaves as your plate while quenching your thirst drinking fresh juice from a coconut." And that is the "Mabuhay spirit" of the Filipino islands, which means long live and welcome. Classical family-style home cooking and entertaining is celebrated with unforgettable hospitality and like a fiesta with the freshest ingredients. #restaurantinspiredhomecooking

Today, my banana leaf covered platter consists of grilled shrimps, adobo kalbi ribs, turmeric chicken, over garlic fried rice and lightened with a simple green and tomato salad, fresh mango slices and crunchy chicarron. Soy garlic vinegar and sriracha lime sauces for dip and of course, a fresh coconut to cheers - TaGay 🥥❤!

Celebrating Asian Heritage Month with a united passion for food 🥢💗 with huge Shout Outs to these fine respected chefs for their contributions to Asian culture elevating Asian cuisines over decades of cooking, teaching and sharing it forward... 

From top left clockwise to centre. 

Chef Joseph Ho, a well-respected powerhouse Executive Chef at Lee Kum Kee and prominent member of the Chinese Culinary Association to preserve and promote Chinese cuisine. 

Chef Frederick Oh founded Richmond Hill Culinary Arts Centre. Over the years, he has represented Canada in the Culinary Olympics and Expo Gast Culinary World Cup.

Chef Smita Chandra, a respected authority on South Asian cuisines, is a renowned Indian cookbook author and cooking instructor.

Chef Oliver Li, @oliver_li_cmc is a Certified Master Chef (CMC) which is the highest possible culinary credential attainable in Canada! He tenured as Chef de Cuisine at George Brown College's student-training restaurant "Siegfried's" for 15 years.

Chef Florence Kwok, specializes in authentic Asian cuisines and has been featured on TV and Chinese channels. I don't know if she is still teaching, but I admire her tremendously as a noteable woman chef who has elevated the diverse multi-cuisines of Asian home cooking in Toronto. 

Chef Tim Chen @timchen4485 Executive Chef at Markham's Lanna Cuisine offering Northern Thai cuisine, delivering exquisite and authentic flavours.

Chef Sang Kim, @chefsangkim conducts Sushi Making For the Soul, Canada's most popular hands-on sushi and gimbap-making workshop, which is lauded for the charitable work. He appears regularly on CTV's daytime talk show, The Social.

Chef Susu Han @hansommchef is classically trained in Italian cuisine and a Certified Sommelier. She is a reputable Korean cuisine instructor at George Brown College and a local entrepreneur producing small batch, hand-crafted organic kimchi including pickled beets. 

Chef Martin Yan is a famous Master chef of Chinese cuisine, public figure, and an author of a dozen Chinese cookbooks. He has hosted his award-winning PBS-TV cooking show Yan Can Cook since 1982. 

And lastly *Announcement* Wrapping up Asian Heritage Month with a contribution of my own in the works- I am writing a cookbook ✍📖🤗!!!!

Halfway through the chapter milestones, I will share details when the final manuscript is delivered. Feeling incredibly ecstatic!

There is a bittersweet story: I received the exciting news by my Publisher that my project was approved, and an hour later we were notified of my husband's father passing in Montreal. From one moment of elation to the extreme end of sadness 😯😪. A week prior, I was on the fence whether to take on the project considering he was hospitalized (not covid related) and that my husband would have to travel. Also with my multi spring cooking programs to start, and just the emotions of what's to come, but it became crystal clear (as I stared out the window to that brief bit of snowfall that late April day) that I will write this book and dedicate it to him 💗. To remember happy and healthier times over meals shared together, his legacy will live on through the food pages in my book. Can't wait to launch it #familymomento

I'll keep you posted when I can reveal more on the project!

May is Asian Heritage Month...

Every Wednesday for the last three seasons, I have been celebrating Asian cuisines with seniors in my TDSB Learn4life cooking program. And we officially get to do it this May with Asian Heritage Month.

I always start a new term introducing flavours from my Chinese background. Our Spring term began with Beijing ja jiang mein and spicy smashed cucumbers. The hearty ground pork cooked in garlic, ginger and ground bean sauce taste delicious over wheat wide sliced noodles that are slippery, smooth and silky. And with the colourful crunch of carrots, cucumbers and red peppers, it makes it that more delightful!

Awww... this blondie son lol loves his slurpelicious soba noodles! Reenacting this noodle pull look seven years later with my homemade dipping sauce version 🇯🇵🍜!

Week Two, we did four dishes- Zaru Soba (translates to basket soba as this style is typically served in a weaved basket) and three salads 🥗- wakame seaweed in vinaigrette, creamy shredded crab with cucumbers, and homemade toasted sesame dressing over iceberg lettuce, tomato, egg and wakame. Nice refreshingly cool healthy salads to bring spring indoors 🌱☀️!

And my kids were all over it, perfect timing for lunch with them at home for online school!

It's a good day when it's a mortar & pestle day 🌶🌱! A likely must in lovely Lao Cuisine 🇱🇦!

Started off May Asian Heritage Month with the intoxicating Southeast Asian flavours of Laos!

Steamed sticky rice is an absolute must! Cooked in a bamboo steamer lined with a banana leaf, rice is not only to serve the meal with but it acts as cutlery in itself as you pick up a ball of sticky rice between your fingers and scoop up your food with it. We had laap, Laos national dish- using any protein but we had it done with steak, tossed with fish sauce, lime juice, shallots, rau ram and mint herbs. Roasted rice crushed is the key for that nutty taste!

And mok pa (steamed fish in banana leaf parcels) is so fragrant and herbaceously delicious with garlic, shallots, lemongrass, galangal, chilies pounded into a paste then mixed with chopped white fish, dill, green onions and Thai basil /rau ram! Padaek is a chunky fermented fish sauce which is key to Lao food but we subbed with 1/2 fish sauce and 1/2 anchovy paste! An egg and roasted rice powder binds everything together and once steamed, the melt-in-your-mouth tenderness is sublime 🤤!

Today was Vietnamese stir-fry lemongrass pork noodle salad (bun thit xao) is a gorgeous bowl that interplay colours, textures and tastes. Cooked fragrant pork shoulder and beansprouts atop soft vermicelli with a heap of crunch from homemade radish and carrot pickles, cucumbers and an onslaught of fresh 🌱🌱🌱 with a ladle of aromatic nuoc cham seasoned fish sauce. A delight for the senses!

Finished with a Vietnamese crab & asparagus soup (sup mang tay cua). The elegance lay in the white on white on white 🥣. Crab meat, white asparagus, quail eggs, clear broth and egg white (I used whole egg) drizzle. This sophisticated thick soup is customarily served at Vietnamese weddings and holidays.

Lots of leftover herbs for lots more meals in the horizon to not waste the freshness! This includes our 🇹🇭 Thai cuisine cooking class next week using Thai basil as the star ingredient!

That's not all, I have been cooking up Asian cuisines with TDSB newcomer youths in my after school cook along program every Tuesday. More on that next post also with a special two day event with youths to have a deep dive conversation on Asian culture and contribution with the awareness of anti-Asian racism while making dumplings 🥟 and noodles 🍜!

Stay tuned 🤗🌸!