"Asian Soul Food?" Yes, Please!

Hi Meltingpot Readers,

If there's two things I love in this life it's food and Asian people. Seriously. It seems in every major time period of my life, I've always had a really good Asian friend. In childhood, my best friend was Japanese. In high school, I hung with some cool Filipinos. In college, seriously, all of my friends were Asian; Korean, Thai, Indian, Japanese. In my twenties, I bonded with a way cool Chinese chick. And you might know if you read this blog enough, that I have a serious crush on the coolest Asian dude on the planet, Kip Fulbeck.

And it goes without saying, that I love food. I love eating my way through different cultures. If I can't travel, I can still sample the flavors of other worlds and I love that. So, imagine my utter delight at discovering Roy Choi and his Korean tacos. Sadly, I haven't tasted his food, only read about it, but then I found out that Choi is not alone in creating his meltingpot medley of Korean and Mexican cuisine. Check out this article in the Atlantic and try not to cry and have your mouth water at the same time.

" Choi is part of a tsunami of rule-breaking Asian American chefs who have created a new genre of cooking in America: a robust and astonishingly creative blend that draws on Asian, Latin, and Southern foods. Its growing ranks of practitioners bring sterling chef credentials and modernist cooking techniques to bear on the foods of their forebears.

What they're making is not just "modernist" Asian cuisine. It's a type of cooking that has filtered through the multiethnic influences of their upbringings: taco stands, fast food joints, barbecue shacks, hip hop, and graffiti. Theirs is not the "fusion" cooking of the late '70s and '80's, effete creations of European-trained masters who melded cultures with delicacy and nuance. Nor is it the cooking of Nobu Matsuhisa or Martin Yan, talented newcomers who tutored America in Asian ingredients and flavor combinations. This new wave of chefs is dishing up what I call Asian Soul Food: a gutsy, high-low mash up of street food and haute cuisine, old country flavors and new-fangled cooking techniques."

The story of the food and the way it came to be is a meltingpot masterpiece, don't you think? I love how food can be the connector between cultures. I love how these warring cultures on the streets have found a way to cozy up on the plate. It gives me hope. And a hunkering for a taco. Get me to Los Angeles, please. 

What's your favorite culinary mash up dish? Kinky gazpacho perhaps? I'm kidding. But, really. I'm listening.

Peace!

Music Monday: Substitute Me, The Musical!

Okay, so recently during a long car ride, I was listening to the soundtrack of my favorite Broadway musical, Aida by Elton John and Tim Rice and I realized, gee, except for the location in Egypt and the like 1000 year time difference, the story line from Aida and Substitute Me is remarkably similar.

Here's a clip from the original cast of the Broadway Musical that kind of sums up the conflict in both stories. The clip comes from the song "Elaborate Lives."



Those of you who have read, Substitute Me, what do you think? Am I right? On so many levels?

And for people who could care less about the similarities between my first novel and a Broadway Musical, but love Meltingpot stories, please check out the Korean cast of AIDA, performing the same song.


(*Note, I have spent far too much time watching the Korean version of Aida this morning. It's truly amazing, especially the God's Love Nubia).

Happy Monday!

Peace!

Do You Know This Man? (Not Obama, the Other Guy)

Remember the tag line of the Meltingpot is "keeping track of where cultures collide, co-mingle and cozy up?" Well, I just had to bring your attention to some more cultures cozying up in the Obama administration. Do you all know the story of Eugene Kang? He's a 24-year old Korean-American political wunderkid, who also happens to be special assistant to President Obama. Did I mention he's only 24!

I love Kang's story because it is America's meltingpot working at its very best. The American-born child of Korean immigrants, Kang grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Got a taste for politics early, ran for city council while still in college and got involved in the Obama campaign before Obama was, well, OBAMA. Even better, Kang was very instrumental in helping many Asian-Americans transfer their support away from Hilary Clinton, in the primaries, and vote for Obama. How did he do this? By pointing out Obama's many ties to the Asian community, including growing up in Hawaii, living in Indonesia, and having an Asian stepfather and sister, just for starters.

Not that I believe in multiracial fairy tales, but as a big fan of the exquisite combination of Kimchee and chitllin's, I hope the Obama/Kang connection plays its role in promoting the positive in Black/Korean relations. We definitely need more love there. And if anybody can do it, my vote would be for Obama... and Eugene Kang. Yes, they can.

Peace!

What Would You Do?

My husband takes his clothes to be dry-cleaned at a neighborhood shop. The owners are Korean and very nice and friendly. After using their services for close to a year my husband confessed to me that he thought the Korean wife, who handles the customers, always made complimentary comments about my younger son, and offered him candy, and ignored my older son. Here's the deal, my younger son is pale with loosely curled hair. My older son's skin is honey brown and tight curls cover his head. They're both beautiful, but you see where I'm heading with this right?

I told my husband he was probably imagining it. That the baby was still a baby and attracted more attention. I guess I didn't want to admit what might be happening. Two years passed and the behavior didn't change, according to my husband. What's worse, my older son started to notice. My husband was enraged (and please note, he's a teacher so he doesn't go to the dry-cleaner all that often) and wanted to say something to the woman, confront her on her preferential treatment, explain the painful legacy of the color complex in the African-American community (yes, my husband is a pale Spaniard). Do something!

I told him that what he should do is stop patronizing this shop, because that would have the greatest effect. Send a message. But maybe I was wrong.

What would you do?

Peace!