Our zoom panel titled Crossroads between Food, Culture, and Education in the AAPI Community touched on themes of family connections, the importance of food as medicine in different cultures, regionalism and colonialism, alongside some great foodie recommendations.
Current God’s Love RDN, Austin Park, former God’s Love RDN Reena Panjwani and current Senior Sous Chef Andre Daquigan shared personal experiences and food memories on a panel led by RDN Mary O’Hara and Special Events Coordinator, Julia Cordry. Each sought to fight the misconception that is Asia is homogenous. Chef Andre, added that no place is an island. All cuisine is in flux, necessarily going to get influenced by other cultures and places. He also left us with the wonderful line that “culture is edible.”
Here are some fun facts each of our panelists shared
Favorite ingredient:
- Chef Andre: Fish Sauce
- Reena: Dried fenugreek leaves and asafetida
- Austin: Ginseng and fermented foods (with a strong memory of fermented skate)
Go-to dish growing up
- Reena: Rice and Dahl
- Austin: Korean BBQ– homemade style with rice, meat and kimchi
- Andre: A Filipino dish called Adobo – it’s a braise that can be used with chicken or pork. It’s a really garlicy, with vinegar, soy, black pepper, bay leaf.
Favorite restaurant in New York City
- Austin: Sam Won Gahk– it’s Korean-Chinese fusion, and we order the same thing every time: sweet and sour chicken or pork, black bean noodles, and garlic spicy shrimp
- Andre: Great New York Noodletown- open all night, a real New York food institution
- Reena: Indian Accent which I was able to go to before I left New York for high-end Indian food and Mahmoud’s for falafel
At the end of the panel, we took a moment of silence to recognize and remember the victims of violence and discrimination against the AAPI community.
We’re so grateful to our panelists for sharing their stories and knowledge with us. You can watch a recording of the event below!