With the Night Market and her food blog, Tiffany Alexandria has helped show diverse food culture in Rochester

Theodore Tollefson, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.
·3 min read

Feb. 8—ROCHESTER — Tiffany Alexandria has an obsession with food, and that obsession has fueled her passion to help Rochester become a more culturally diverse food market in the city's restaurant scene.

Alexandria came to Rochester five years ago from Taipei, Taiwan, to come and live in her husband's hometown. The move was a cultural shock for her in the food scene from what she was used to in Taiwan.

"People didn't talk about food the way we do in Taiwan as much," Alexandria said. "When I got here there were a lot of minority restaurants that were not really being promoted as much as other restaurants. So I just want to draw attention to the less talked about restaurants that were minority owned in town."

Alexandria's first move to help promote these businesses after her move was the launching of her blog

ChooChoo-ca-Chew

. The blog has been a platform for businesses to reach out to Alexandria for her photography work and her own writing to promote restaurants that she sees lacking attention.

Alexandria has worked alongside local restaurants such as Bleu Duck Kitchen, Thai Pop and Ootori Sushi among many others to photograph and write about their foods.

Her main project over the last two years to help grow the minority-owned restaurant scene in and around Rochester has been the

Night Market

. The idea of the Night Market came from Alexandria's childhood experiences in Taiwan and the markets in the streets of Taipei.

Bringing the experiences of home together with a platform for restaurants, farmers, and other vendors three times over the summer did see much success for promotion of businesses involved.

"The Night Market definitely was a platform for these business owners and marketed towards people who also want diversity and different types of foods. By bringing all the members and restaurant owners together we were able to reach a larger audience. I think that was really special," Alexandria said.

While there are no current plans in place for when the Night Market will be happening in Rochester this year, there are still opportunities vendors are reaping the benefits of from this previous year's market.

One individual doing so right now is Eman Abdul, who runs her own online bakery business called

Seto Bakery

. Seto Bakery has had pop-ups over the years at Bleu Duck Kitchen but through her partnership with Alexandria in the Night Market, has been able to expand her pop-up locations to places such as Fiddlehead Coffee's Miracle Mile location. Seto Bakery will begin their popup at Fiddlehead next Thursday, Feb. 16.

While some opportunities shift around to highlight restaurants and travels on her blog this year, Alexandria always approaches the opportunities to help promote others' businesses through her photography and writing.

"Not every restaurant has enough energy and resources to do a lot of marketing on their own. That's why when I started my blog, I wanted to highlight these places, spread the word and talk more about learning more about everybody being happier," Alexandria said.