And without further ado, the vacant spot where Andy Ricker’s Pok Pok Phat Thai noodle house sat will officially become the new home of Eddie Huang’s Baohaus.
Joining the likes of Howlin’ Rays, Chego, Unit 120, Endorffeine, and Ramen Champ, it goes without saying that Los Angeles’ Chinatown is developing culinary talent like no other – not to mention the array of Asian American chefs establishing their edible prowess while maintaining their cultural heritage. I have to give Eddie props that he name dropped the man who owns the Plaza. If you know Chinatown remotely passed the surface, YOU KNOW George runs it.
While there will not be an official “launch date” as Huang mentioned on Instagram, we can expect a whole new line congesting the small plaza next month. Thanks for keeping the identity of old Chinatown while you steal all these hipsters’ money – mine included.
-Z
I never really considered the origins of Boiling Crab until The Love Life of An Asian Guy posted about it recently. I always just figured there was some Asian ingenuity at work, which isn’t terribly wrong. What I didn’t know is there is some serious American history at work and it all started with the United States’ involvement with the fall of Saigon.
After all was said and done, there was an influx of Vietnamese refugees to the United States. While statistics and graphs show that the highest immigrant population of Vietnamese has been California, the state following was Texas and the Southern states. As the video mentions, Vietnamese immigrants found the weather conditions (humidity, almost tropical like, and ocean bordered) similar to their homeland. Because of the near distance of the ocean, there were jobs in fishing that contained skills the Vietnamese people already had.
Combined with some overlapping cuisine similarities, they found a familiarity in their seafood, spice usage, breaking the food up with your hands, and rice as a supplemental carb in their diet. And like most Asians, they took what was in front of them and added their own twist to it creating an arguably better way to consume boiled crawfish. Their additions of ginger, more garlic, and the integration of a new type of sauce for their seafood boil has propelled the success of this new take on cajun food.
With the immense success of the chain Boiling Crab (the primo Californian Asian cajun restaurant), it is easy to say that everyone else has reaped the benefits of Asian American fusion cuisine. I’m definitely craving a whole pound of crawfish whole-shabang extra juicy now.
I’ll be frank, I haven’t used Netflix in a hot minute because I’ve fallen out of infatuation with the entertainment streaming application. Their recent selections haven’t really regained my interest since I was disappointed with the speed of that last Orange Is The New Black season and the borderline annoying popularity of Daredevil. I’m a fucking misoneist, okay?
So randomly I logged into Netflix and my lack of coordination accidentally missed the preview I wanted to view leading me into the hilarious standup by a very fucking pregnant Ali Wong.
First and foremost, the thing that stuck out to me was 1) she looks like me and 2) her vulgarity reminded me of how I talk to my friends. Okay, not just my friends. I can’t decide if it was the “going home to talk racist shit with your (intraracial) partner” or the pho restaurant punchline I identified more with, but I will say… there was a lot. And even when it went down the pregnancy and childbirth tangents, I definitely cringed and got extremely nauseous at the thought of something coming out of one of my bottom ends… I still laughed.
Giving birth makes my uterus flinch. I get sweaty and dizzy and I just want to run out of the room. But I finished it because it was damn funny.
It was empowering to see a self-identified Asian American woman embrace her adventures in sexuality and prod at the cons of feminism and the pursuit of gender equality while simultaneously creating a powerful statement about the double standard of parenthood in comedic entertainment. Her jokes were relatable to many Asian Americans that are never exposed to a comedian of the Far Eastern descent let alone a woman. A part of her appeal is the probable racial stereotypes we’ve been fed that Asian looking women don’t say “fuck” so casually, regale on accidental homeless rendevous, and have relatable thoughts about taking a dump at work.
This video brought me to tears in a public place because their remorse as Asian Americans is something I have seen affect many of my peers throughout my life. I have been surrounded by first generation-ers and second generation Asian Ams and to be quite frank, there is a significant difference in personality.
I whole-heartedly believe that this can be traced to how significant the household has pressed assimilation on their child. I think first generation children are expected to adopt American cultural customs more so than second generation because their parents have brought them here, sacrificed to make it this far, and want to acclimate to United States society to succeed faster.
Whereas you have the second generation children whose parents were already speaking English when they were growing up because they were born here in the states. A compromise never really spoken about in terms of rising socioeconomic ranks is how little minorities there are when you “move up in the world” so to speak. This creates an almost stronger inclination for parents to really stress the significance of language.
While this video reduced me to blurred vision, I wish I had that kind of cultural influence on my life. As a fourth generation Japanese Mexican American, I definitely blame American society for a lack of language oriented focus in my life. I’m not bitter, but I do definitely feel left out considering I look a certain way and can only speak English. Not to mention the almost prejudice I receive from people because I look Japanese and yet not know a lick.
Don’t even get me started on the whole “You say you’re Mexican, but can you speak Spanish” argument, which I have read via social media sites that it is far more prevalent than my personal experience of just a hapa trying to fit in.
Is it asinine to attribute my lack of language on history?That if my grandparents weren’t put into Internment Camps because they were Japanese, we MIGHT have SOME semblance of language? That my family would’ve pushed Spanish on us a LOT harder had society not looked so down on the language as a language of day laborers and hired help? Was it intergenerational trauma and fear that has led me to live an English-only language minus the required Foreign Language you have to take in order to graduate High School?
Regardless, my Dad did let us know growing up that an interest in cultural practices does phase in and out as generations pass. I mean this in a Nisseis (2nd generation Japanese Americans) took far more interest in preserving their culture compared to Sanseis and underwent a resurgence of interest in my generation, Yonseis. With that said, I don’t know if I really feel so inclined to learn Japanese as much as I do Spanish. That teetering thought is more brought on by pragmatism about foreign languages here in the United States.
Chinese and Spanish are the largest growing immigrant populations in the United States with Filipinos following shortly after making Tagalog the third most popular foreign language in the state of California. My significant other is of Chinese descent and he has even asked me if I would be willing to learn it if we were to get married. I agreed because 1) I love him so its kind of a no brainer, but also 2) because I want my kids to hold onto something that maybe us as Asian Americans cannot provide culturally due to our upbringing here. That doesn’t mean, however, that I don’t want my kids to learn Spanish because how cute would it be to have little Asian babies fluent in Spanish?! But I digress.
Ultimately, language is so important. The erasure of indigenous languages by colonization and imperialism is a travesty and its almost as if when moving to the United States you’re expected to be English dominant or be prepared to face lots of racial discrimination.
So while I cannot relate to the plight of my fellow yellow brothers and sisters in this video, I do empathize with the feelings associated with failing your family because it seems the least you could’ve done was try. But it’s not our faults and it is definitely something that could always be changed or learned. And who knows, one’s lack of native language could inspire their children to take it up because of that distance.
April showers bring May flowers. And what do May flowers bring? Imperialism, disease, I think the list can surely continue.
But most significantly, May ushers in something that could be more celebrated in my superfluous opinion.
And if you don’t know me by now, let me cue you in on some pertinent information – I identify as Asian. A lot of my posts are going to be about Asian things because that’s one of the few aspects in my life that I have some semblance of knowledge and experience on.
With that said, I’d like to wish you all a happy Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month (AAPIHM)!!
What is AAPIHM, why does it exist, and why in the month of May? Those are all reasonable questions that could be answered quickly with a search engine in less than .05 seconds, but I’ll enlighten you.
AAPIHM like other heritage months observed here in the United States (Black History Month in February, Jewish American Heritage Month is also in the month of May) is the celebration of the diversity that made the country what is it today. There are many contributions by Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans to the history of the United States that often gets overlooked or disregarded, but still played a significant role in the solid foundation of the country we reside in today.
Did you know AAPIHM didn’t even use to be a whole month? It wasn’t until 1992 when President George W. Bush extended the celebration of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders from 10 days to the entire 31. According to the official AAPIHM website, May was chosen because it was the first recorded date of an Asian immigrant – a Japanese person on May 7, 1843. What I found a little funnier for all the wrong reasons was their second reason for picking the month of May was because the transcontinental railroad was finished May 10, 1869.
More of a challenge to my work ethic, but I am planning on posting something every day in celebration of AAPIHM ranging all subjects and varying identities that make up Asian and Pacific Islander. The Asian Pacific Islander culture is so multi-faceted and such a range of beauty that is only romanticized at best here on the Western side of the world. Hope we can learn and share dialogue over the next month!
If you don’t know, I identify as multi-racial. Japanese Mexican American to be exact. This unique ethnic combination has always presented itself as sometimes an interesting conversation piece (depending on who I am conversing with), an alternative perspective to the hapa identity, and most significantly a lack of a community to find racial comfort.
Fast forward twenty something years of self-inflicted inner turmoil and there is now a festival combining Mexican and Japanese cultural celebrations of children. While it is not specifically for children of both those identities put together, for someone that clung to Filipinos for some cultural semblance this is kind of a big deal. Not to mention the awesome food offerings those stands will probably be selling.
With that said, I hope you all check it out! It’s tomorrow – May 1st, 2016 from 11AM – 4PM at the JACC Campus.
You can find the itinerary for the day at their website here: Fiesta Matsuri .
Kaskade never ceases to blow peoples minds with his music, his message, and his beautiful heart. But on March 11, 2016, Kaskade gained a whole new respect in my eyes.
That afternoon he dropped the official music video for “Us”. Now while I have been an EDM fan for a few years now, I definitely have felt burnt out by the oversaturation of the popularity as it exploded in the States. With that said, I will state that Kaskade has remained true to himself and what he stood for since I was first really listening to him in 2008.
And then I watched this visual excellence ….
Amazing. And you know why?
BECAUSE THIS IS SET IN BORACAY. SOME OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BEACHES IN THE ENTIRE WORLD. AND YOU KNOW WHAT????
THERE’S NO HALF NAKED WHITE PEOPLE DANCING ON BOATS, DANCE CLUBS, EXCESSIVE PARTYING, NONE OF THAT!!!
Okay, I’ll stop with the All Caps, but DO YOU KNOW HOW RARE THAT IS?? (haha Woops, there I go with the Caps again!)
But this literally made me stop what I was doing and press replay on the video at least 3 times. 1) Because the song is awesome. 2) Because there is no exploitation of the natural beauty of a country with the erasure of the people that actually live on the island.
Honestly, how many GoPro montages set to EDM music/music videos have you watched where a bikini-clad, extremely beautiful female NOT from the country she’s rolling around in the sand in??? How often are we shown the most exciting CLUBS of the country or cultural customs they’re known for but that’s about the extent of our knowledge of that nation?
This video was so refreshing because it was the Philippines in all her beauty with her family-oriented people working with paradise as their background just to provide for their loved ones. There is nothing more beautiful than that.
And thank you, Kaskade, for sharing that with your wide audience.
I’ll be honest, I’m a sucker for “island style” rhythms and beats especially when marimba-like tones and sounds are used to enhance the record overall. Probably a poor comparison lyrically, but in terms of ‘vibe’ I immediately received a Kevin Lyttle feel à la “Turn Me On”. “Your Number” definitely does not match the energy level of that classic jam, the addition of Fetty Wap will probably increase the circulation of this song and doesn’t detract from it either.
Hope you have fun and dance as much as I do to this! Happy Monday 🙂
There are many things I resent commuting to Aliso Viejo five times a week for, but knowing there is a place that serves a myriad of empanadas with various fillings makes it worthwhile.
And let the influx of “Purpose”, Justin Bieber’s latest album released last week, begin!
Love Yourself (Borche Deep House Mix)
If you haven’t given the album a chance because of your stance on the Bieb’s un-Canadian antics, but if you’re a consumer of pop culture you shouldn’t sleep on it any longer.
Although Adele’s album dropped an hour ago, so things are about to get real sad real quick.
I’ll be sure to post my latest music finds and dalliances so be sure to check back!
April showers bring May flowers. And what do May flowers bring? Imperialism, disease, I think the list can surely continue.
All According to Z 