Field Notes From Asian American Kitchens
Technically speaking, there’s no such thing as “Asian food.” I don’t mean there’s no such thing as amazing food that comes from the Asian continent. I mean that the way the word Asian is used as a catch-all term does a disservice to each of the individual cuisines represented on the world’s largest and most diverse continent. By that logic, “European food” would be a singular entity offering no distinction between French, Italian, Spanish, Greek, or Russian cuisines. And that’s why you never really hear this.
You do, however, often hear people say, “I’m in the mood for Asian.” This misnomer has its roots partly in the label “Asian American,” a term first coined just 54 years ago as a means of resisting oppression faced in the U.S. and representing cultures, peoples, languages, and dishes that are hundreds if not thousands of years old.
Asian Pacific Americans are far from a monolith. And these days we’re reclaiming the visibility of the umbrella term to show how expansive it really is. While Chinese, Korean, and Japanese have been the most visible “Asian” communities, this country is also home to many Southeast Asians, many of whom fled war, and Pacific Islanders, like Native Hawaiians, whose cuisines bear imprints of American colonialism.
Food, with its connection to history, terroir, and memory, is the perfect conduit for celebrating our mosaic identity. So for this series, we asked eight chefs, writers, and recipe developers of different Asian Pacific American descents to go deep on foods they’re obsessed with, that are authentic to their experiences. Some were inspired by adventures in Asia, like writer Cathy Erway, who remembers a magical ice cream roll she tried at a Taiwanese night market in college. We catch up with restaurateur Leah Cohen to shoot a video for khao soi, a classic Northern Thai coconut curry noodle soup she learned on the road.
Others tap into the experience of being Asian in America. In Colorado, writer Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton pens an ode to the nostalgic plate lunch dish that connects her to her mom’s Hawaiian heritage. And in San Antonio, the Houston-born owners of the restaurant Pinch Boil House share their recipe for Vietnamese-Cajun seafood boils—an entirely new cuisine created by Vietnamese Americans in Texas, kind of like Tex-Mex.
Asian food is vast and varied. And Asian American food is too. The product of immigrants who made do in a strange new country, it’s rooted in tradition, but not bound by it. Understanding that all of this is more nuanced than just “Asian food” isn’t meant to complicate things. It’s an invitation to get to know the ingredients, understand the flavor profiles, and then ultimately make it your own, just like we do.
THAILAND'S ICONIC
CURRY NOODLES
THE VANILLA OF
SOUTHEAST ASIA
A MULTICULTURAL INDIAN
FAMILY RECIPE
INDONESIA'S
ALL-PURPOSE CONDIMENT
VIETNAMESE-CAJUN
BOIL PARTY
SON-MAT:
MADE WITH LOVE
ICE CREAM,
MEET CILANTRO
PLATE LUNCH
TAKES ME HOME
From Our Friends At The
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