Celebrating Asian Heritage Everywhere All At Once In May...

 

What a honour it was to speak at Dentsu Canada last week about my Chinese Food and Culture to celebrate Asian Heritage Month 🇨🇳. Denstu is one of the largest media and marketing agencies in the world headquartered in Tokyo, Japan with offices across the globe since the 1960s. This was hosted in their Toronto office with their Calgary, Vancouver and Montreal offices livestreaming in to watch 🇨🇦📽.

I was invited by their Business Resource Group to raise awareness around different immigrant cultures to bring people together through food as part of their second event in this series, with South Asia being the first. The presentation was followed by a Chinese luncheon also in their respective Canadian offices. The menu was extensive and varied including many classic dishes that are beloved catered by the one and only Hong Shing Restaurant on Dundas West. 

I started my presentation on the distinct cuisine flavour characteristics of the various regions in China, then proceeded to talk about my favourite comfort food (wonton soup), special traditional food (zong zi sticky rice ode to my grandma #myfoodhero), what a typical Chinese meal looks like in the day, table etiquette, a soy sauce difference educational piece followed by information on my cookbooks, Chinese food documentary recommendations and recipes to share.

How to Prepare Dumplings

Soy Sauce Differences

As a wrap up, I shared a beautiful quote from the film, A Bite of China-- "A mother instinctly implants flavour into her child's memory. For the child, the flavours becomes kind of like a mother tongue. The memory of the familiar flavours becomes a compass forever pointing to home." 🏮

Catering by Hong Shing Restaurant

Dentsu's organization team was excellent to work with, very approachable and professional. I felt very welcomed and the sense of a great inclusive culture at Dentsu. As one of their staff walked me out to the elevators, I said this was warm hospitality at it's best- thank you all 🙏!

What does Korean chap chae, Filipino adobo chicken, sushi wraps and bubble tea all have in common? Answer: they are all food students @tdsb_communityservices prepared this May to celebrate #asianheritagemonth🏮

Korean Chap Chae and Egg Dumplings

Filipino Adobo Chicken

Japanese Sushi Wraps

Prepared Bubble Tea for Assembly

On a different high note, it's this exuberance I feel when I see young people try a new cuisine for the first time. Korean chap chae and egg dumplings (with noodles) prepared by two male youths new to my newcomer culinary program at JOhn Poilanyi Collegiate- one from Mexico and the other Dominican Republic. Paired with kimchi (another new food), we had a great time eating and chatting with bacchata 🎵🎶 being played in the background. And in the adobo chicken and mango salad session, a new Russian student prepared and tried Filipino food for his first time, and took leftovers home for his parents to sample! 

Talk about cross cultures, cross generations, cross connecting. Gotta ❤ it!! 🤗

And ending the Asian celebrations on an even higher note with my dear friend @lisa.eats and her family here for a BBQ and swim 🍗🥩🥗💦. Yes, it's finally that time again and what an absolutely beaute of a day 🔆🌸!

My darling hubs the King of the Grill for the day

Grilled Korean Gochujang Chicken Wings (adapted by Cakenknife.com)
Serves 6

4 lbs chicken wings, broken down into drummettes and flats with tips
1/3 cup Korean red chili pepper paste (Gochujang)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh ginger, peeled and minced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
Garnish: sesame seed, sliced green onion

Add raw chicken wings to a large ziploc bag.

In a small bowl, whisk together chili pepper paste, brown sugar, soy sauce, water, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, garlic, ginger, salt, and pepper until combined. Add the marinade to the wings and seal the bag. Let sit in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour or overnight.

When ready to cook, preheat grill to 400°F and remove wings from bag, reserving the marinade. Add wings to the grill and cook until the skin is crispy and they are cooked through, flipping them every 10 to 15 minutes as they cook. This will take about 30 to 40 minutes. 

Brush the finished wings with the sauce. Garnish with sesame seeds and green onion. Serve immediately.

On The Menu: Buldak stir-fried noodles, Grilled kalbi ribs,
Szechuan Spicy Cucumber Salad, Gochujang chicken wings,
Okra and Tomato Salad, Grilled shrimps with cilantro lime sauce and Chap chae.

On the Dessert Side: Easy Creme Caramel with Fresh Fruits
and Coconut Tapioca with Taro, Grass Jelly and Jackfruit

And on the friendship side, Lisa and I, my baby with her baby.... So Blessed 🙏! 

How did you celebrate Asian Heritage Month?

Exciting News and Winter Term Wrap Up at Newcomer Kitchen...

Spring has finally sprung🌷! And Newcomer Kitchen is cooking up somethin' somethin' good.

We are expanding... in more ways than one👊💥! And I have been promoted to Program Manager- woo hoooo! 

Since the "Willing To Work" food business program started as a pilot project funded by Immigration Refugee Citizenship Canada 4 years ago, it has been a dream and vision for our Newcomer Kitchen Executive Director to grow it. This project has developed leaps and bounds since the early days with numerous lesson iterations and teaching formats, and has benefited over 200 newcomer women. We just sent the final curriculum manual to the printer (it's been over two years in the making created during COVID) so we can take it nationwide, to any province, to any community, in any kitchen willing to open its doors to the newcomer population. 

We are so proud of this huge accomplishment!

Our determination resulted in extra government support and funding for additional staff. We happily just hired two dynamic Program Trainers to teach in a hybrid (online and kitchen format) delivery and to manage multiple food business opportunities through community collaborations. I will move out of teaching the program with newcomer women to work closely training our new trainers and ensuring the programs run smoothly🙏. On another expansion note, more staff needs more space. We are preparing to sign a lease to move into a larger sun-soaked office at CSI Spadina, and plan to equip it with a mini demo kitchenette for workshops. YaY!! That's not all we have going on, but more on that later :)

In my first gig as Program Manager, I will be presenting an info session promoted as follows:

Are you female identifying and a newcomer to Canada who loves to cook and or eager to start your own small business in the food industry?

Join Times Change Women's Employment Service as they host an information session for Newcomer Kitchen's "Willing to Work" 14 week Women's Food Business Training Program where you can earn while you learn and start your own small food business. 

Join Susan Ng, Program Manager at Newcomer Kitchen as she discusses the 14 week program that consists of 2 classes, plus a mentorship once a week with online business and cooking lessons. There are both evening and daytime cohorts available. See dates in eventbrite link or QR code. 

Newcomer Kitchen is a non-profit organization that seeks to create social and economic opportunity for newcomer women through food-based projects. Our goal is to create a model that can be replicated with any newcomer group, in any kitchen willing to open its doors, in any city in the world.

I have taught four very different dynamic groups of women over the course of a year as Program Trainer. I am so delighted that I ended that role on a high note with an exceptional group- Taste Elle... each and every one is AmaZing!

Congrats for completing our Newcomer Kitchen IRCC-funded Willing To Work Food Business Program. I had the privilege of teaching, learning, sharing and accomplishing together the many wonderful facets of food entrepreneurship in real life events where 100% of the revenue goes to the ladies. May you continue to embody the passion and spirit you each exemplified during this time and excel in all your goals. Believe it! Achieve it ⭐! Will miss you- for now 😉

This over-the-top layered Ukrainian honey cake has been the showstopper at our grad party with our proud and bold Taste Elle logo 😍. Prepared and designed by our Liza, it has wowed us and customers from the beginning (with our farmer's market cake box) to the last module (catering) @csitoronto 's What's Next Fest. It's sumptuous flavours were one of many deliciousness produced by this group over the term. Lucky me right 🤤!?

Liza's Ukrainian Honey Cake

Catching up on posting about the other two food events this group partook in after their Farmer's Market product to market experience. 

Cooking up deliciousness with Taste Elle for the Catering module. Lebanese date balls (with cardamom and nutmeg) rolled in cocoa or coconut. Plus Ukrainian layered honey cake, Indian deep fried veg lollipops, pan-fried veg patties and Syrian chicken rolls musakhan for a catering event @csitoronto "What's Next Fest" celebrating 10 years with community members at CSI Dundas 🤗💥!

We are all smiles 😊! Sold Out- 50 meals plus ✌!

Taste Elle, not only shine... they radiate inside and out 💫 ! Here they are completing the second food business experiential learning module Prepared Take-Out Meals without a hitch over 2 days in production. These ladies learned how to create a balanced, complementary and exciting menu with cultural dishes cooked from their hearts for our regular and new customers. Time and time again, I hear from our returning clients how they can taste the love put into preparing these meals. They are always looking forward to our event posts and what we offer. During pick up, some told me they were too excited to taste this one 🤗!

Congratulations Taste Elle once again 👏! I love the spirit in your team work and always doing your very best! It shows and I am so proud of our collective results 🥰! I know I will see some of you again soon 😉

And onto a new term with new trainers, new participants :). If you know a newcomer woman who may be interested in food entrepreneurship, please share this flyer about Newcomer Kitchen's Willing To Work Food Business spring program. Cheers 💐!

We Slayed and Maybe Prayed At The First Ever Asian Food Battle...

Feeding 900+ hungry visitors was no easy feat at this weekend (on Sunday's) first ever Asian Food Battle 2023 at Toronto's JCCC (Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre). Ask this battle kitchen and food service crew who slayed and possibly prayed throughout the day, watching a seemingly never-ending snake of a line finally dissipate 5+ hours later 😯🙏.

We had 300+ 🇯🇵🇹🇼 battle tasting boxes to prepare plus countless savoury and sweet dishes for the hot table to be bought a la carte. Keeping up the pace of demand was mission impossible but the kitchen production and service crew did their very best and at the end of the night we were all high fiving!! Culture, Camaraderie, Community- all under one flippin' roof... the E.P.I.C best 👊💥

With little time to spare, supervising the busy kitchen activities, I had tiny moments to capture tidbits including a selfie with a RedSuns- the infamous midnight Tokyo racing car... a popular showstopper centred in the food and entertainment hall ✌.

There were performances, anime shows, people dressed in cos play costumes, kimonos, toys, snacks and food to buy and lots of fun games with prizes unfortunately with zero captures to share by me :(.

Happy to see @lisa.eats @moochi2000 @foodtravelwynne @chianan721025 and my artist brother Preserved Dragons and his family set up a table to sell his retro cult movie and martial arts character tees and stickers 🥋📽🎞.

Drum roll 🥁🥁🥁... The battle foods in question- the main feature summoning the top favourites of both Japanese 🇯🇵 and Taiwanese 🇹🇼 street foods in three categories for YOU to judge! And the results are in!

Savoury Snack- Japanese Takoyaki 97 votes; Taiwanese Chicken Roll 73 votes.

Winner- Takoyaki 🐙💥

Noodles- Japanese Yakisoba 76 votes; Taiwanese Fried Vermicelli (Mi Fien) 91 votes.
Winner- Mi Fien 🍜💥

Sweets- Japanese Matcha Jelly 75 votes;
Taiwanese Lemon Aiyu Jelly 86 votes.
Winner- Aiyu Lemon Jelly 💥

2/3 Looks like Taiwanese street foods reign supreme- in this first ever food battle round! 🇹🇼🏆

The calm 🌊- casual food and snack media tasting with an intimate group two weeks prior savouring the delectables to come on battle day!

The storm 🌩- frenetic kitchen production and food vendor service to meet the non-stop 5 hours + demand for food, food and more food 🍱🍙🍛🍡🍵🥢🍚🍢🥤!

Lots of interest already coming in from other cultural communities for a next round of food battle. With some logistics to iron out, I know the next event will even be more successful 👊💥. 

Congrats to the Three Headed Dragon in hosting their first battle event, and to all the staff, volunteers and vendors- Arrigato Gozaimasu 🙏🌸🌸🌸