8asians.com8Asians | An Asian American collaborative blog | 8Asians is a collaborative online publication that

8Asians | An Asian American collaborative blog 8Asians is a collaborative online publication that features original, diverse commentary by Asians from around the world on issues that affect our community. Established 2006. Skip to content Home About Us Media and Press Privacy Policy 8Asians on Twitter 8Asians on Facebook 8Asians on YouTube ← Older posts Vegan Filipino Food Vendor Plans to Expand Posted on January 14, 2021 by Jeff Reina Montenegro, former owner of vegan Filipino restaurant Nick’s on Grand, has struck out on her own as Chef Reina, packaging dishes such as a plant-based Kaldereta (Filipino pot roast) at a commissary kitchen in Daly City. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group) Vegan Filipino food? When I first heard about vegan Filipino food almost 9 years ago, I was really skeptical. But the restaurant chain Nick’s thrived for a long time, and during this Pandemic, owner Reina Montenegro has rebranded the Nick’s restaurant line as Chef Reina . In this interview with the Mercury News , she talks about how she became vegan, how she successfully adapted Filipino food, and how she plans to expand her brand. Montenegro says that she became vegan for health reasons, and given the fatty meaty meals that many Filipinos eat and their generally poor health as a result , and I am not surprised. At home, we drastically changed what we eat when Number One Son and Number Two Son were training for cross country in high school . As a result, we do not eat much Filipino food. Montenegro missed those unhealthy but tasty dishes and created meatless versions of such classics as Tocino . I love Tocino, but definitely not a good thing to eat frequently. A quick search yield a couple of sites dedicated toward Filipino vegan food , and PETA even has a an article on vegan Filipino recipes . I have tried other Asian cuisines that do traditional dishes using simulations of meat, and I found myself preferring dishes that started out as vegetarian and building on the ingredients rather than trying to imitate something else. I never got around to trying Nick’s, and I don’t know of any Filipino restaurants near me in the South Bay that serve vegan versions. Looking forward to trying her new rebranded line and her retail products when they become more available or whenever the pandemic ends – which ever come first. Posted in Family , Food & Drink , Health , Health and Beauty , Lifestyles | Tagged Chef Reina , Filipino food , Reina Montenegro , vegan food | Leave a comment In Praise of Spam: Prose, a Play, and a Poem Posted on January 5, 2021 by Jeff Spam, Eggs, and Rice . That was a familiar and comforting meal when I was a kid, and I still feel that way today. While Spam has been condemned as the epitomy of unhealthy processed food , I recently learned about an article, a play, and a poem singing its praises. What has Spam done to earn such accolades? In many ways, as Eric Kim writes here , eating Spam is part of an experience that for Asian Americans of many different ethnic backgrounds is fundamental to their identity. While I knew about (and love) Spam Musubi , I didn’t know about how widespread the love of Spam is across Asian American and even Pacific Islander communities. Kim talks about Korean communities use of it. In the comments to his article (definitely worth checking out), Pacific Islanders talk about eating it. I already knew that many Filipino Americans like myself love it, and what many Spam loving Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have in common is a history of interaction with American Military . Not only do Asians Americans and Pacific Islanders reminisce about Spam, but other people who have a common history of eating spam as a cheap food when they were struggling to get by. Kim’s article mentions an Asian American play that uses Spam as a central theme, called Specially Processed American Me . About Jaime Sunwoo’s play: Specially Processed American Me by Jaime Sunwoo is a surreal autobiographical performance using SPAM, the canned meat, as a portal into her Asian American upbringing and her family’s experiences of the Korean War. It investigates SPAM’s legacy in the military, its significance in the Asia-Pacific, and its influence on Asian cuisine through music, shadowplay, and cooking. Oscillating wildly between absurd humor and sober tragedy, Specially Processed American Me is a thought-provoking exploration of one of America’s most misunderstood foods. Sunwoo has hosted workshops associated with the play, where people talk about food and stories over a shared meal of Spam. You can even submit a story about Spam on her website . The comments of Kim’s article also have a pointer by a poem called Spam by Roberto Ascalon . It starts with the following: My father’s love is a fried Spam sandwich. I never have had a fried Spam sandwich, but as so many Asian American parents express their love through food rather and don’t say “I love you” explicitly , this opening line resonated for me. Why does Spam seem to resonate so well with Asian Americans? I think it is the shared experience among so many Asian Americans – a food that is well regarded by family and home culture but is embarrassing to reveal to outside mainstream Americans. It is also the shared experience of a cheap affordable food from the days of being a struggling, immigrant family trying to make it in America. To find out more, I suggest you check out Kim’s article as well as Roberto Ascalon’s poem and the website for Sunwoo’s play. I would love to go to one of her workshops to eat and talk about Spam whenever plays and workshops can be held again in person. (photo credit: Open Food Facts under CC3 ) Posted in Family , Food & Drink , History , Lifestyles | Tagged Eric Kim , Jaime Sunwoo , Roberto Ascalon , spam | Leave a comment 8mm Review: A Sugar and Spice Holiday Posted on December 23, 2020 by Jeff With nowhere to go on yet another night of the COVID-19 lockdown, The Wife and I settled in to watch the first Lifetime movie with Asian American leads . As we rarely watch the Lifetime channel, I decided to keep my expectations low. That was a good thing, as A Sugar & Spice Holiday is like a mooncake – some good points, some bad points, some will like it, and some will not. Some positives: It was good see to Asian American leads, and especially a love story with an Asian American couple. There was even a couple with an Asian Male and a non-Asian female. The Asian American family was not cultureless, and there were references to things that Asian Americans run into like the “where are you from” thing. The story was sweet and was neatly wrapped up cleanly like a holiday present. Some negatives: I thought that Jacky Lai’s character was stereotypical in her drive and general overachievement. I would have liked to see more of Tzi Ma, and a conceit about his accent was not well executed, in my opinion. A brief storyline about Lillian Lim’s cooking goes unresolved. Finally, the story was neatly wrapped up cleanly like a holiday present, which made it very predictable. I told The Wife what I thought would happen at the final contest, and I was exactly right. I generally think of mooncakes as okay, and similarly, I think that this movie is okay. This movie is definitely a sign of Asian American entering the mainstream, as it has some of the standard tropes of the other 88 Lifetime Christmas movies . So if you like Lifetime movies (my smartwatch thought that I was asleep during the time that I watched the movie), you will probably like this movie. It is currently available for free on Lifetime and you can also rent or buy it from Amazon Prime Video. (picture courtesy of IMDB/Lifetime Channel) Posted in 8mm Film Review | Tagged A Sugar & Spice Holiday , christmas , Jacky Lai , Lifetime , Lillian Lim , Tony Giroux , Tzi Ma | Leave a comment Asian American Commercial Watch: Gift Like You Mean It: Shiori Posted on December 14, 2020 by Jeff These days, there are a lot more Asian Americans ...