015 - Comfort Food, part 1

Asian Americana

A plate of Thai-Chinese style pork and rice. Photo credit: Quincy Surasmith

The past several months of pandemic have been really hard on all of us, and have kept a lot of us at home. For those of us that can afford to, that means a lot of finding solace in taking care of ourselves and others with some comforting meals.

This is the first of two episodes about Asian American comfort foods: the traditions we’ve passed down in our families, as well as the adaptations and substitutions different communities have picked up along the way.

You can listen to part two here!

Listen:

Or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, or RadioPublic.

I present to you: the Weiner dinner, a Migaki family staple. Invented by my grandmother when she was was raising 3 kids with no money. Cut up hot dogs, potatoes, soy sauce + sugar served over rice.
Asian-American fusion at its humblest and finest. A comforting meal always. pic.twitter.com/w6YVAcMmzL

— Lauren Migaki (@lmigaki) March 17, 2020

Check out Lauren Migaki’s original tweet and picture of the Migaki family “Weiner dinner.” This was the post that set this whole episode in motion!

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Learn more about Kelly Fong and Clement Lai’s community cookbook research project on their blog, Chinese American Homestyle Cooking.

The Stockton cookbook Kelly’s family owned:Treasured Recipes from Two Cultures–American and Chinese. Photo credit: Kelly Fong

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From VAALA’s website:

“The Illuminated Recipes project’s purpose is to contribute to diversifying the story of the Vietnamese American refugee experience and the larger American immigrant narrative through the mediums of storytelling and oral history, photography, and mixed media art with food as the compelling connection.”

VAALA’s Illuminated Recipes project can be found on the VAALA website.

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Music from this episode included:

Jason Chu ft. Olivia Thai - Grandma’s Kitchen
David Tran aka applesauce - Song for Mom
Peter Su - Before You Get Too Old