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"title": "Asian American Chefs Talk MSG (Making, Sharing, Gathering) in SF Chinatown",
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"content": "\u003cp>You don’t have to go far back to remember when MSG was the most vilified ingredient in America. At the peak of this hysteria, in the ’80s and ’90s, the flavor enhancer was frequently \u003ca href=\"https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/its-the-umami-stupid-why-the-truth-about-msg-is-so-easy-to-swallow-180947626/\">maligned\u003c/a> as a grotesque transmitter of heart palpitations, migraine headaches and assorted other maladies — though, curiously, only when consumed in Chinese takeout and not, say, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.bonappetit.com/story/give-msg-a-chance\">bag of Doritos\u003c/a>. These days, of course, these sentiments have largely been debunked as \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/09/12/1197874002/umami-savory-taste-history\">bad science\u003c/a> (undergirded by a healthy dose of \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/18/asia/chinese-restaurant-syndrome-msg-intl-hnk-scli/index.html\">racism\u003c/a>), and a new generation of young Asian American chefs have proudly taken up the MSG banner. (One \u003ca href=\"https://www.foodandwine.com/cook-with-msg-8421862\">trendy Cantonese American restaurant\u003c/a> in Brooklyn incorporates it into almost every dish.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s with a knowing and pointed wink, then, that \u003ca href=\"https://www.edgeonthesquare.org/\">Edge on the Square\u003c/a>, a contemporary art hub in San Francisco Chinatown, named its new series of food workshops “MSG\u003ci>” \u003c/i>— only in this case, the letters stand for “making,” “sharing” and “gathering\u003ci>.\u003c/i>” And while monosodium glutamate itself won’t be a primary subject of discussion, those kinds of broader cultural narratives around Asian Americans and food very much \u003ci>are\u003c/i>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other words, says Edge on the Square head curator Candace Huey, “If food is your primary point of contact about this culture, what types of myths and stereotypes can we dispel?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Toward that end, \u003ca href=\"https://www.edgeonthesquare.org/msg\">\u003ci>MSG: Making, Sharing, Gathering\u003c/i>\u003c/a> will feature six talented Asian American chefs, cookbook authors and pop-up entrepreneurs from around San Francisco and the East Bay, each of whom have their own particular relationships to food nostalgia, the Asian diaspora and, in some cases, San Francisco Chinatown itself. Joyce Tang, the Chinese American pastry chef behind Oakland’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/bakesumpastries/?hl=en\">Bake Sum\u003c/a>, will kick off the series on \u003ca href=\"https://www.edgeonthesquare.org/joyce-tang\">Saturday, Oct. 19\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13966499\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13966499\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/Joyce-Tang_@thejoycetang_1.jpg\" alt=\"A box of assorted pastries with Asian American flavors.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1984\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/Joyce-Tang_@thejoycetang_1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/Joyce-Tang_@thejoycetang_1-800x794.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/Joyce-Tang_@thejoycetang_1-1020x1012.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/Joyce-Tang_@thejoycetang_1-160x159.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/Joyce-Tang_@thejoycetang_1-768x762.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/Joyce-Tang_@thejoycetang_1-1536x1524.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/Joyce-Tang_@thejoycetang_1-1920x1905.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A box of assorted pastries from Bake Sum in Oakland. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Joyce Tang)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Future editions will star Tracy Goh of the Malaysian restaurant \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13953078/curry-puff-malaysian-damansara-sf-noe-valley\">Damansara\u003c/a> (Dec. 8), chef Babo Waheed of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/babosconceptkitchen/\">Babo’s Kitchen\u003c/a> (Jan. 18), James Beard Award–winning cookbook author \u003ca href=\"https://eatchofood.com/\">Kristina Cho\u003c/a> (Feb. 8), \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/batikandbaker/?hl=en\">Batik and Baker’s\u003c/a> Audrey Tang (April 12) and Taiwanese dumpling specialist Henry Hsu of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/eatoramasama/?hl=en\">Oramasama Dumplings\u003c/a> (May 18).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The workshops are meant to provide a critical lens on how food acts as an “identity marker” and how it helps shape the narrative of Asian America, Huey explains. “We’re thinking about questions related to immigrants and the different threads of colonization, as well as when you move through the pathway of diaspora, how that changes the rituals and the practices related to food preparation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13962284,arts_13953078,arts_13924997']\u003c/span>\u003c/span>“Edge’s mission is always about how we can shift the narrative and how art” — and, in this case, food — “can be a vehicle for this widening of the aperture,” Huey says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each session will be different, but at the most basic level, there will always be a personal storytelling component and a Q&A. Each chef will share samples of their food (either cooked while guests watch or prepared ahead of time) that connect in some way to the story of their immigrant experience or their cultural heritage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the inaugural workshop, Bake Sum’s Tang will pass out a small box of pastries to help elucidate her theme of “Past, Present and Future.” Attendees will receive a green onion croissant that evokes Tang’s childhood memories of eating green onion pancakes in Chinatown, an okonomiyaki Danish that speaks to the present day and her interpretation of a mooncake, which points toward the future of Asian American diasporic cooking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Guests will sit at long banquet tables inside the gallery, in the heart of Chinatown, surrounded by the artwork in Edge on the Square’s current exhibition, \u003ca href=\"https://www.edgeonthesquare.org/walking-stories\">\u003ci>Walking Stories\u003c/i>\u003c/a> — which, fittingly, is also centered on stories and storytellers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963121\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963121\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/HighFive_2000.jpg\" alt=\"image of crowd holding banners under Chinatown lanterns and an image of a projection on a building front\" width=\"2000\" height=\"864\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/HighFive_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/HighFive_2000-800x346.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/HighFive_2000-1020x441.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/HighFive_2000-160x69.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/HighFive_2000-768x332.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/HighFive_2000-1536x664.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/HighFive_2000-1920x829.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scene from ‘Under the Same Sun,’ a previous event hosted by Edge on the Square. \u003ccite>(Henrik Kam)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Tickets for the workshops are pay-what-you-can, with a suggested donation of $20 — though Linda Lui, the art hub’s communications director, stresses that they don’t want the cost to deter anyone from coming. Past Edge on the Square events, like a mahjong night and a concept barter shop, have drawn college students, prominent Asian American intellectuals and activists, and the local “popo” who walks past the Chinatown gallery every night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the \u003ci>MSG \u003c/i>series itself will run through May, that won’t be the end of the project. Edge on the Square is also collaborating with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.goodmedicinefilms.com/forever-chinatown\">Emmy-nominated\u003c/a> San Francisco director James Q. Chan, who will be on hand to film the workshops, with plans to turn them into a six-part documentary series.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>The \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.edgeonthesquare.org/msg\">MSG: Making, Sharing, Gathering\u003c/a>\u003ci> workshops will be held approximately once a month, through May 2025, at Edge on the Square (800 Grant Ave., San Francisco). Tickets for each session will be released online 30 days in advance. The first workshop, featuring Joyce Tang of Bake Sum, will be on Saturday, Oct. 19, 4–5 p.m. Tickets are pay-what-you-can, but must be \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.edgeonthesquare.org/joyce-tang\">\u003ci>reserved ahead of time\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>, as seating is extremely limited.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>You don’t have to go far back to remember when MSG was the most vilified ingredient in America. At the peak of this hysteria, in the ’80s and ’90s, the flavor enhancer was frequently \u003ca href=\"https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/its-the-umami-stupid-why-the-truth-about-msg-is-so-easy-to-swallow-180947626/\">maligned\u003c/a> as a grotesque transmitter of heart palpitations, migraine headaches and assorted other maladies — though, curiously, only when consumed in Chinese takeout and not, say, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.bonappetit.com/story/give-msg-a-chance\">bag of Doritos\u003c/a>. These days, of course, these sentiments have largely been debunked as \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/09/12/1197874002/umami-savory-taste-history\">bad science\u003c/a> (undergirded by a healthy dose of \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/18/asia/chinese-restaurant-syndrome-msg-intl-hnk-scli/index.html\">racism\u003c/a>), and a new generation of young Asian American chefs have proudly taken up the MSG banner. (One \u003ca href=\"https://www.foodandwine.com/cook-with-msg-8421862\">trendy Cantonese American restaurant\u003c/a> in Brooklyn incorporates it into almost every dish.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s with a knowing and pointed wink, then, that \u003ca href=\"https://www.edgeonthesquare.org/\">Edge on the Square\u003c/a>, a contemporary art hub in San Francisco Chinatown, named its new series of food workshops “MSG\u003ci>” \u003c/i>— only in this case, the letters stand for “making,” “sharing” and “gathering\u003ci>.\u003c/i>” And while monosodium glutamate itself won’t be a primary subject of discussion, those kinds of broader cultural narratives around Asian Americans and food very much \u003ci>are\u003c/i>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other words, says Edge on the Square head curator Candace Huey, “If food is your primary point of contact about this culture, what types of myths and stereotypes can we dispel?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Toward that end, \u003ca href=\"https://www.edgeonthesquare.org/msg\">\u003ci>MSG: Making, Sharing, Gathering\u003c/i>\u003c/a> will feature six talented Asian American chefs, cookbook authors and pop-up entrepreneurs from around San Francisco and the East Bay, each of whom have their own particular relationships to food nostalgia, the Asian diaspora and, in some cases, San Francisco Chinatown itself. Joyce Tang, the Chinese American pastry chef behind Oakland’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/bakesumpastries/?hl=en\">Bake Sum\u003c/a>, will kick off the series on \u003ca href=\"https://www.edgeonthesquare.org/joyce-tang\">Saturday, Oct. 19\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13966499\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13966499\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/Joyce-Tang_@thejoycetang_1.jpg\" alt=\"A box of assorted pastries with Asian American flavors.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1984\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/Joyce-Tang_@thejoycetang_1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/Joyce-Tang_@thejoycetang_1-800x794.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/Joyce-Tang_@thejoycetang_1-1020x1012.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/Joyce-Tang_@thejoycetang_1-160x159.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/Joyce-Tang_@thejoycetang_1-768x762.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/Joyce-Tang_@thejoycetang_1-1536x1524.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/10/Joyce-Tang_@thejoycetang_1-1920x1905.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A box of assorted pastries from Bake Sum in Oakland. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Joyce Tang)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Future editions will star Tracy Goh of the Malaysian restaurant \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13953078/curry-puff-malaysian-damansara-sf-noe-valley\">Damansara\u003c/a> (Dec. 8), chef Babo Waheed of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/babosconceptkitchen/\">Babo’s Kitchen\u003c/a> (Jan. 18), James Beard Award–winning cookbook author \u003ca href=\"https://eatchofood.com/\">Kristina Cho\u003c/a> (Feb. 8), \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/batikandbaker/?hl=en\">Batik and Baker’s\u003c/a> Audrey Tang (April 12) and Taiwanese dumpling specialist Henry Hsu of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/eatoramasama/?hl=en\">Oramasama Dumplings\u003c/a> (May 18).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The workshops are meant to provide a critical lens on how food acts as an “identity marker” and how it helps shape the narrative of Asian America, Huey explains. “We’re thinking about questions related to immigrants and the different threads of colonization, as well as when you move through the pathway of diaspora, how that changes the rituals and the practices related to food preparation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/span>“Edge’s mission is always about how we can shift the narrative and how art” — and, in this case, food — “can be a vehicle for this widening of the aperture,” Huey says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each session will be different, but at the most basic level, there will always be a personal storytelling component and a Q&A. Each chef will share samples of their food (either cooked while guests watch or prepared ahead of time) that connect in some way to the story of their immigrant experience or their cultural heritage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the inaugural workshop, Bake Sum’s Tang will pass out a small box of pastries to help elucidate her theme of “Past, Present and Future.” Attendees will receive a green onion croissant that evokes Tang’s childhood memories of eating green onion pancakes in Chinatown, an okonomiyaki Danish that speaks to the present day and her interpretation of a mooncake, which points toward the future of Asian American diasporic cooking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Guests will sit at long banquet tables inside the gallery, in the heart of Chinatown, surrounded by the artwork in Edge on the Square’s current exhibition, \u003ca href=\"https://www.edgeonthesquare.org/walking-stories\">\u003ci>Walking Stories\u003c/i>\u003c/a> — which, fittingly, is also centered on stories and storytellers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963121\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963121\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/HighFive_2000.jpg\" alt=\"image of crowd holding banners under Chinatown lanterns and an image of a projection on a building front\" width=\"2000\" height=\"864\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/HighFive_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/HighFive_2000-800x346.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/HighFive_2000-1020x441.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/HighFive_2000-160x69.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/HighFive_2000-768x332.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/HighFive_2000-1536x664.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/HighFive_2000-1920x829.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scene from ‘Under the Same Sun,’ a previous event hosted by Edge on the Square. \u003ccite>(Henrik Kam)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Tickets for the workshops are pay-what-you-can, with a suggested donation of $20 — though Linda Lui, the art hub’s communications director, stresses that they don’t want the cost to deter anyone from coming. Past Edge on the Square events, like a mahjong night and a concept barter shop, have drawn college students, prominent Asian American intellectuals and activists, and the local “popo” who walks past the Chinatown gallery every night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the \u003ci>MSG \u003c/i>series itself will run through May, that won’t be the end of the project. Edge on the Square is also collaborating with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.goodmedicinefilms.com/forever-chinatown\">Emmy-nominated\u003c/a> San Francisco director James Q. Chan, who will be on hand to film the workshops, with plans to turn them into a six-part documentary series.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>The \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.edgeonthesquare.org/msg\">MSG: Making, Sharing, Gathering\u003c/a>\u003ci> workshops will be held approximately once a month, through May 2025, at Edge on the Square (800 Grant Ave., San Francisco). Tickets for each session will be released online 30 days in advance. The first workshop, featuring Joyce Tang of Bake Sum, will be on Saturday, Oct. 19, 4–5 p.m. Tickets are pay-what-you-can, but must be \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.edgeonthesquare.org/joyce-tang\">\u003ci>reserved ahead of time\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>, as seating is extremely limited.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "silicon-valley-fashion-isnt-just-patagonia-bros",
"title": "Silicon Valley Fashion Isn’t Just Patagonia Bros",
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"headTitle": "Silicon Valley Fashion Isn’t Just Patagonia Bros | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/siliconvalleyunseen\">Silicon Valley Unseen\u003c/a> is a series of photo essays, original reporting and underreported histories that survey the tech capital’s overlooked communities and subcultures from a local perspective.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hey Siri, what defines Silicon Valley fashion?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you Google the phrase, you’ll get some obvious responses: “basic male,” “tech worker aesthetic,” “‘tech bro’ hoodie wardrobe.” But perhaps the most revealing result you’ll get is itself a question, one asked for years now: “Do people lack fashion sense in Silicon Valley?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Look, I’m not here to defend Silicon Valley’s fashion choices. But I can’t help but notice two things. First off, Silicon Valley style seems inextricably linked to tech culture, thereby erasing any other local presence, as if only tech workers wear clothes around here. And secondly, the tech workers being ridiculed are often white, well-off, middle-aged men — not exactly the best barometer of fashion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13964340\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13964340\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-8-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-8-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-8-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-8-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-8-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-8-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-8-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-8-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jesson Ny thrifts at Classic Loot. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sure, there’s Santana Row — Silicon Valley’s Beverly Hills-esque shopping area — gleaming with high-end luxury brands and a Tesla dealership. It’s where you’ll find all the stereotypical tech-mogul outfits. That side of Silicon Valley is real.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there are nooks around here where the norm is not “Patagucci.” Cultivated by punk rockers, skaters, hip-hop heads, nightclub-goers, Chicano lowrider clubs, strip mall addicts, anime convention-goers and more, the styles around Silicon Valley vary just as much as its diverse population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13964347\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13964347\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-27-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-27-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-27-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-27-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-27-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-27-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-27-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-27-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Denim for sale at Classic Loot. The store features a mix of used and new clothes, as well as other handmade items from local artisans. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Tam Tran, a first-generation Vietnamese American, is among them. Born in San Francisco in the ’80s, she moved to San Jose at age four and has gone back and forth between the cities ever since. After a career in graphic design, the fashionable millennial started a pop-up version of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/classicloot/?hl=en\">Classic Loot\u003c/a> in 2012. Her passion eventually turned into a quirky, glittery thrift shop in San Jose’s Japantown filled with vintage goods and hard-to-find collectibles, like a double-stacked Japanese claw machine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unfortunately, like many adults in Silicon Valley who don’t work in tech, Tran recently had to move out of the area due to the high cost of living.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It became unlivable,” she said. “I tried getting apartments out there, but it’s an arm and a leg to live in a box.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13964485\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13964485\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JapantownThriftShop-30-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JapantownThriftShop-30-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JapantownThriftShop-30-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JapantownThriftShop-30-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JapantownThriftShop-30-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JapantownThriftShop-30-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JapantownThriftShop-30-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JapantownThriftShop-30-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JapantownThriftShop-30-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Leyna Huynh shops at Classic Loot, which has been in San Jose’s Japantown for seven years.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That hasn’t stopped Tran from running her speciality shop. If anything, being away from Silicon Valley makes her appreciate the region’s culture more than ever (she especially misses \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13961537/san-jose-night-market-vietnamese-grand-century-mall\">the area’s vibrant Vietnamese food circuit\u003c/a>).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While juggling many roles and holding down her shop, Tran reflected on what she most enjoys about thrifting in the Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13965311\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/SVU.LogoBreak.computer.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/SVU.LogoBreak.computer.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/SVU.LogoBreak.computer-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/SVU.LogoBreak.computer-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ALAN CHAZARO: Tell us about your clothing shop, Classic Loot.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>TAM TRAN:\u003c/b> Classic Loot is a whole lot of everything. We’re an actual team now, but I started off doing pop-up events, table events, just selling vintage jewelry. That was back in 2012 when vintage wasn’t a major thing like it is today. I remember getting comments from people freaking out that everything [we sold] was used and worn. But now we’re a shop in Japantown, and we’ve been here for seven years. Everything blossomed from selling vintage clothing to handmade goods and art, to brand new stuff. It’s just a collection of everything I think is dope. And I’m honored to have a great team, girls who are a lot younger and know all the trends and cool things happening. They recommend what we should have, and then we get it. That’s the joy and freedom of having a small business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13964349\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13964349\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-35-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-35-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-35-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-35-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-35-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-35-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-35-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-35-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stickers for sale at Classic Loot. The shop also features a double-stacked Japanese claw machine, where customers can try their luck at winning small items. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What’s your connection to Silicon Valley? You were born in San Francisco, but moved to San Jose at a young age. Where do you feel most rooted, especially in terms of fashion?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I definitely spend more of my time in San Jose, but most of my adult life has also been inspired by San Francisco. I attended the San Francisco Art Institute for graphic design. Over there, people talk down on [Silicon Valley], like our fashion is lame, or whatever. During that period, there wasn’t social media quite yet, so people [outside of San Francisco] didn’t always get the same recognition. But because of social media nowadays, you can really be anywhere and be the dopest kid. It doesn’t matter where you’re from.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I moved back to San Jose after graduating. I became a graphic designer for a while, freelancing and doing commercial real estate. It was boring and terrible, but it paid the bills. Actually, I would never change it for anything, because what I learned professionally, I apply it to Classic Loot to this day. But I didn’t like to work for “the man.” So I went to a garage sale and started buying stuff and selling it on Instagram. I quit the day job I had and moved into my mom’s house and started hustling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>There’s a popular opinion that Silicon Valley is fashion-less. People always joke about tech workers wearing Patagonia vests. But what does local style look like to you as an insider?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From an outsider’s perspective I can see how it might not seem like we have much going on down here besides the tech world. But we have the coolest kids who come here and we get to see how they express their fashion sense. Because of the markets and events we go to, we get to see that type of crowd all over this area. The scene is small and niche, but once you’re tapped in, you really appreciate everyone’s way of expressing themselves differently through clothes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The girls who work [at Classic Loot], they’re really an inspiration for me and the customers. I’m in my late 30s, so to see the younger generation experimenting every day is really cool. They like to mix new trends with things that I wore when I was growing up, and I love that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13964343\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13964343\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-16-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-16-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-16-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-16-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-16-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-16-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-16-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-16-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Classic Loot owner Tam Tran poses for a photo in her thrift store. Though born in San Francisco, she grew up in San Jose, and is proud to represent the region’s under appreciated fashion community. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Where do you find your inspiration in Silicon Valley as a thrifter?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are tons of Savers, Goodwills, those kinds of places around here. But those are hit or miss, because it’s thrifting. Japantown has a few small businesses with a local feel. There are lots of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13952476/san-jose-japantown-photo-night-cukui\">young entrepreneurs here with cool brands\u003c/a>. JUBO. Cukui. Headliners. We all support each other. Another heavy hitter is \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/blackandbrownsj/\">Black and Brown\u003c/a>. They have a solid curation of secondhand stuff like us, but with a different feel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, one of our friends at \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/popupsj/?hl=en\">Pop Up SJ\u003c/a> has vendors come to The Garden at the [Berryessa] Flea [Market]. That’s \u003ca href=\"https://midpenpost.org/2024/06/30/san-joses-pop-up-sj-brings-local-vintage-community-together/\">a cool vintage market event\u003c/a>. Everyone is dressed to impress there. It’s an event to go thrifting there, but it’s also like a runway for our little area. They have some of the coolest vintage clothing finds there, and it’s close to BART.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But don’t sleep on the [West Wind] \u003ca href=\"https://www.sanjose.org/attraction/west-wind-capitol-flea-market\">Flea Market on Capitol\u003c/a>. That’s the best one. It’s the smaller flea market, but it’s where the good stuff is for the cheapest prices. We do team bonding there and thrift together sometimes. It used to be our hidden place, but that changed after \u003ca href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/discover/capital-flea-market-san-jose\">TikTok blew up the spot\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>San Jose seems to have a thing for expensive brands, which you can find at Santana Row and Valley Fair — the high-end stuff that gives more of an L.A. vibe, as opposed to the grungy and artistic ethos often associated with San Francisco or Oakland. \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yeah, I feel like San Jose gets the reputation of being more bougie. Personally, I don’t set foot into a mall anymore. I try to shop small and stay within the thrift shops here. And I don’t really support the big box stuff online either.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13964351\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13964351\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-41-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1309\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-41-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-41-KQED-800x524.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-41-KQED-1020x668.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-41-KQED-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-41-KQED-768x503.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-41-KQED-1536x1005.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-41-KQED-1920x1257.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Silicon Valley is often associated with high-end products, especially because of Santana Row and Westfield Valley Fair. Though these Gucci sneakers are for sale at Classic Loot, the store mostly focuses on quirky trends and offers all sorts of finds. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You showcase your local vendors very prominently on \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://www.classicloot.com/vendor\">\u003cb>your website\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb>. How do you go about finding these vendors and what are you generally looking for in a potential vendor or thrifter to work with?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes we just go out to markets and see booths and tables whose aesthetic would match what we have going on. But most times they contact us through Instagram. We have a vendor manager and she goes out scouting for people, or people come in and apply to be with us. It’s not just thrifting, we deal with artists, too. I was in their shoes at one point, making stuff to sell at other stores. Starting off on eBay or Etsy, you sometimes just end up with 5 cents after paying all the fees. I wish I had a mentor back then. So we want to provide that opportunity, and to help newcomers with the process. A lot of artisans are great but don’t necessarily know the business side of things. Price points, materials, marketing. We like to exchange tips and help them get started.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13964345\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13964345\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-18-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-18-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-18-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-18-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-18-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-18-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-18-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-18-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Classic Loot employee Annie Ng wears a heart choker. Shop owner Tam Tran is intentional about creating a work environment that is intergenerational, funky and “woman-powered.” \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Silicon Valley has a reputation as a male-dominated space. In contrast, your shop has a very strong, feminine energy. I’ve also heard you use the word “woman-powered.” What does that represent for you?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you walk into our store, it’s super pink and glittery. Guys come in and kind of creep back out and we’re like “no, no, no, we have a little section for you in the back, we promise!” We have a very small curation of masculine items, because girls can dress masculine, too. We’re predominantly all women here. It’s a sisterhood. It’s not just about the skills or the knowledge, but matching the energy. My whole thing as a designer is that you spend a lot of time at work, so if you fucking hate the people there, it won’t last. I really appreciate taking care of your people, because they will take care of you. Having this small business, we can create a space for each other. That’s the beauty of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13965311\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/SVU.LogoBreak.computer.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/SVU.LogoBreak.computer.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/SVU.LogoBreak.computer-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/SVU.LogoBreak.computer-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Classic Loot (570 N. 6th St., San Jose) is open Monday–Friday from 12 to 8 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/siliconvalleyunseen\">Silicon Valley Unseen\u003c/a> is a series of photo essays, original reporting and underreported histories that survey the tech capital’s overlooked communities and subcultures from a local perspective.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hey Siri, what defines Silicon Valley fashion?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you Google the phrase, you’ll get some obvious responses: “basic male,” “tech worker aesthetic,” “‘tech bro’ hoodie wardrobe.” But perhaps the most revealing result you’ll get is itself a question, one asked for years now: “Do people lack fashion sense in Silicon Valley?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Look, I’m not here to defend Silicon Valley’s fashion choices. But I can’t help but notice two things. First off, Silicon Valley style seems inextricably linked to tech culture, thereby erasing any other local presence, as if only tech workers wear clothes around here. And secondly, the tech workers being ridiculed are often white, well-off, middle-aged men — not exactly the best barometer of fashion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13964340\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13964340\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-8-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-8-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-8-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-8-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-8-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-8-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-8-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-8-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jesson Ny thrifts at Classic Loot. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sure, there’s Santana Row — Silicon Valley’s Beverly Hills-esque shopping area — gleaming with high-end luxury brands and a Tesla dealership. It’s where you’ll find all the stereotypical tech-mogul outfits. That side of Silicon Valley is real.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there are nooks around here where the norm is not “Patagucci.” Cultivated by punk rockers, skaters, hip-hop heads, nightclub-goers, Chicano lowrider clubs, strip mall addicts, anime convention-goers and more, the styles around Silicon Valley vary just as much as its diverse population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13964347\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13964347\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-27-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-27-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-27-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-27-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-27-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-27-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-27-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-27-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Denim for sale at Classic Loot. The store features a mix of used and new clothes, as well as other handmade items from local artisans. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Tam Tran, a first-generation Vietnamese American, is among them. Born in San Francisco in the ’80s, she moved to San Jose at age four and has gone back and forth between the cities ever since. After a career in graphic design, the fashionable millennial started a pop-up version of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/classicloot/?hl=en\">Classic Loot\u003c/a> in 2012. Her passion eventually turned into a quirky, glittery thrift shop in San Jose’s Japantown filled with vintage goods and hard-to-find collectibles, like a double-stacked Japanese claw machine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unfortunately, like many adults in Silicon Valley who don’t work in tech, Tran recently had to move out of the area due to the high cost of living.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It became unlivable,” she said. “I tried getting apartments out there, but it’s an arm and a leg to live in a box.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13964485\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13964485\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JapantownThriftShop-30-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JapantownThriftShop-30-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JapantownThriftShop-30-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JapantownThriftShop-30-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JapantownThriftShop-30-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JapantownThriftShop-30-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JapantownThriftShop-30-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JapantownThriftShop-30-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JapantownThriftShop-30-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Leyna Huynh shops at Classic Loot, which has been in San Jose’s Japantown for seven years.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That hasn’t stopped Tran from running her speciality shop. If anything, being away from Silicon Valley makes her appreciate the region’s culture more than ever (she especially misses \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13961537/san-jose-night-market-vietnamese-grand-century-mall\">the area’s vibrant Vietnamese food circuit\u003c/a>).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While juggling many roles and holding down her shop, Tran reflected on what she most enjoys about thrifting in the Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13965311\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/SVU.LogoBreak.computer.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/SVU.LogoBreak.computer.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/SVU.LogoBreak.computer-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/SVU.LogoBreak.computer-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ALAN CHAZARO: Tell us about your clothing shop, Classic Loot.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>TAM TRAN:\u003c/b> Classic Loot is a whole lot of everything. We’re an actual team now, but I started off doing pop-up events, table events, just selling vintage jewelry. That was back in 2012 when vintage wasn’t a major thing like it is today. I remember getting comments from people freaking out that everything [we sold] was used and worn. But now we’re a shop in Japantown, and we’ve been here for seven years. Everything blossomed from selling vintage clothing to handmade goods and art, to brand new stuff. It’s just a collection of everything I think is dope. And I’m honored to have a great team, girls who are a lot younger and know all the trends and cool things happening. They recommend what we should have, and then we get it. That’s the joy and freedom of having a small business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13964349\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13964349\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-35-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-35-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-35-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-35-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-35-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-35-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-35-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-35-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stickers for sale at Classic Loot. The shop also features a double-stacked Japanese claw machine, where customers can try their luck at winning small items. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What’s your connection to Silicon Valley? You were born in San Francisco, but moved to San Jose at a young age. Where do you feel most rooted, especially in terms of fashion?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I definitely spend more of my time in San Jose, but most of my adult life has also been inspired by San Francisco. I attended the San Francisco Art Institute for graphic design. Over there, people talk down on [Silicon Valley], like our fashion is lame, or whatever. During that period, there wasn’t social media quite yet, so people [outside of San Francisco] didn’t always get the same recognition. But because of social media nowadays, you can really be anywhere and be the dopest kid. It doesn’t matter where you’re from.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I moved back to San Jose after graduating. I became a graphic designer for a while, freelancing and doing commercial real estate. It was boring and terrible, but it paid the bills. Actually, I would never change it for anything, because what I learned professionally, I apply it to Classic Loot to this day. But I didn’t like to work for “the man.” So I went to a garage sale and started buying stuff and selling it on Instagram. I quit the day job I had and moved into my mom’s house and started hustling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>There’s a popular opinion that Silicon Valley is fashion-less. People always joke about tech workers wearing Patagonia vests. But what does local style look like to you as an insider?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From an outsider’s perspective I can see how it might not seem like we have much going on down here besides the tech world. But we have the coolest kids who come here and we get to see how they express their fashion sense. Because of the markets and events we go to, we get to see that type of crowd all over this area. The scene is small and niche, but once you’re tapped in, you really appreciate everyone’s way of expressing themselves differently through clothes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The girls who work [at Classic Loot], they’re really an inspiration for me and the customers. I’m in my late 30s, so to see the younger generation experimenting every day is really cool. They like to mix new trends with things that I wore when I was growing up, and I love that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13964343\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13964343\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-16-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-16-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-16-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-16-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-16-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-16-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-16-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-16-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Classic Loot owner Tam Tran poses for a photo in her thrift store. Though born in San Francisco, she grew up in San Jose, and is proud to represent the region’s under appreciated fashion community. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Where do you find your inspiration in Silicon Valley as a thrifter?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are tons of Savers, Goodwills, those kinds of places around here. But those are hit or miss, because it’s thrifting. Japantown has a few small businesses with a local feel. There are lots of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13952476/san-jose-japantown-photo-night-cukui\">young entrepreneurs here with cool brands\u003c/a>. JUBO. Cukui. Headliners. We all support each other. Another heavy hitter is \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/blackandbrownsj/\">Black and Brown\u003c/a>. They have a solid curation of secondhand stuff like us, but with a different feel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, one of our friends at \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/popupsj/?hl=en\">Pop Up SJ\u003c/a> has vendors come to The Garden at the [Berryessa] Flea [Market]. That’s \u003ca href=\"https://midpenpost.org/2024/06/30/san-joses-pop-up-sj-brings-local-vintage-community-together/\">a cool vintage market event\u003c/a>. Everyone is dressed to impress there. It’s an event to go thrifting there, but it’s also like a runway for our little area. They have some of the coolest vintage clothing finds there, and it’s close to BART.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But don’t sleep on the [West Wind] \u003ca href=\"https://www.sanjose.org/attraction/west-wind-capitol-flea-market\">Flea Market on Capitol\u003c/a>. That’s the best one. It’s the smaller flea market, but it’s where the good stuff is for the cheapest prices. We do team bonding there and thrift together sometimes. It used to be our hidden place, but that changed after \u003ca href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/discover/capital-flea-market-san-jose\">TikTok blew up the spot\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>San Jose seems to have a thing for expensive brands, which you can find at Santana Row and Valley Fair — the high-end stuff that gives more of an L.A. vibe, as opposed to the grungy and artistic ethos often associated with San Francisco or Oakland. \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yeah, I feel like San Jose gets the reputation of being more bougie. Personally, I don’t set foot into a mall anymore. I try to shop small and stay within the thrift shops here. And I don’t really support the big box stuff online either.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13964351\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13964351\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-41-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1309\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-41-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-41-KQED-800x524.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-41-KQED-1020x668.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-41-KQED-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-41-KQED-768x503.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-41-KQED-1536x1005.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-41-KQED-1920x1257.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Silicon Valley is often associated with high-end products, especially because of Santana Row and Westfield Valley Fair. Though these Gucci sneakers are for sale at Classic Loot, the store mostly focuses on quirky trends and offers all sorts of finds. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You showcase your local vendors very prominently on \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://www.classicloot.com/vendor\">\u003cb>your website\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb>. How do you go about finding these vendors and what are you generally looking for in a potential vendor or thrifter to work with?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes we just go out to markets and see booths and tables whose aesthetic would match what we have going on. But most times they contact us through Instagram. We have a vendor manager and she goes out scouting for people, or people come in and apply to be with us. It’s not just thrifting, we deal with artists, too. I was in their shoes at one point, making stuff to sell at other stores. Starting off on eBay or Etsy, you sometimes just end up with 5 cents after paying all the fees. I wish I had a mentor back then. So we want to provide that opportunity, and to help newcomers with the process. A lot of artisans are great but don’t necessarily know the business side of things. Price points, materials, marketing. We like to exchange tips and help them get started.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13964345\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13964345\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-18-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-18-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-18-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-18-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-18-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-18-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-18-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/20240913_JAPANTOWNTHRIFTSHOP-18-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Classic Loot employee Annie Ng wears a heart choker. Shop owner Tam Tran is intentional about creating a work environment that is intergenerational, funky and “woman-powered.” \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Silicon Valley has a reputation as a male-dominated space. In contrast, your shop has a very strong, feminine energy. I’ve also heard you use the word “woman-powered.” What does that represent for you?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you walk into our store, it’s super pink and glittery. Guys come in and kind of creep back out and we’re like “no, no, no, we have a little section for you in the back, we promise!” We have a very small curation of masculine items, because girls can dress masculine, too. We’re predominantly all women here. It’s a sisterhood. It’s not just about the skills or the knowledge, but matching the energy. My whole thing as a designer is that you spend a lot of time at work, so if you fucking hate the people there, it won’t last. I really appreciate taking care of your people, because they will take care of you. Having this small business, we can create a space for each other. That’s the beauty of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13965311\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/SVU.LogoBreak.computer.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/SVU.LogoBreak.computer.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/SVU.LogoBreak.computer-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/SVU.LogoBreak.computer-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Classic Loot (570 N. 6th St., San Jose) is open Monday–Friday from 12 to 8 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "four-kings-hong-kong-restaurant-san-francisco-chinatown-hella-hungry-interview",
"title": "This Hong Kong-Inspired Hot Spot Abounds With Cantonese Soul",
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"headTitle": "This Hong Kong-Inspired Hot Spot Abounds With Cantonese Soul | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]I[/dropcap]’ve never actually been to Hong Kong. How fortunate, then, that a multiverse portal to a 1990s Cantopop-themed iteration of the island city has ripped through the Bay Area’s space-time continuum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a hilly, jam-packed street in San Francisco’s Chinatown, Four Kings beckons. Led by chefs Franky Ho and Mike Long and their partners Lucy Li and Millie Boonkokua, the five-month-old restaurant is where the past, present and future of San Franciscan Cantonese food abounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nightly, not one but \u003ci>two\u003c/i> queues of curious locals overflow down opposite ends of the tiny block. Once seated inside, you’ll quickly surrender to the temptations of the casually upscale hot spot’s culinary éclat and abundance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is where you go when you want to feast on HK favorites — saucy pork chop rice, succulent black pepper steak and fusion offerings like mapo spaghetti or XO escargot — while industrial kitchen appliances hum around you, longtime friends chatter nearby and the immortal Wong Ka Kui croons over the speakers. If you’re savvy, you’ll enjoy a glass of monkey-picked oolong tea, a boozy Chinese almond milk highball or a crisp Taiwanese lager brewed with discarded bread crusts while observing the bustling energy from an intimately tight spot at the counter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13961953\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13961953\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-012-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-012-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-012-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-012-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-012-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-012-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-012-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-012-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The pork chop rice with tomato egg — Four Kings’ take on a classic Hong Kong cha chaan teng–style dish. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And just when you’ve finally begun to settle in and appreciate the restaurant’s funkier elements (unframed posters of Cantopop celebrities, golden maneki-neko playfully waving their paws, a kitschy array of knickknacks bathed in neon-lit perfection), a plate of fried squab arrives to recenter your attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That squab is the headlining draw at Four Kings, and, like the rest of the menu here, it’s both an ode to and a deviation from traditional Cantonese fare. The malt-sugar-brushed bird comes with its claws and beak intact, and you’ll need to properly angle it with your hands to get a piece of thigh — the best part, I’m told.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13961950\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13961950\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-001-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-001-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-001-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-001-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-001-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-001-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-001-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-001-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Salted egg squash croquettes. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Having grown up in Chinatown after immigrating from China, Ho is serving heat in the neighborhood where he was raised by his grandmother and mother, who still regularly drops off homemade soup at the restaurant in the mornings. While working as a chef at Mister Jiu’s, he struck up a friendship with Long, who brings his Los Angeles flare and memories of living in Hong Kong to Four Kings, which the duo started as a pop-up last year. With Li running the business end and Boonkokua greeting guests as the hostess, the team of four has overtaken San Francisco’s dining scene like a monsoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Built on a shared sense of childhood nostalgia, migratory friendships and the comfort of home away from home, Four Kings has an anima — a deep soulfulness — that can only be unlocked after living abroad, after tasting a homeland. It’s hot mustard jellyfish salad and sweet red bean shaved ice for the soul.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Four Kings isn’t the traditional dining experience you might encounter in the historic center of Chinatown. Instead, it’s like being inside the culinary fever dream of first-generation Cantonese millennials — where plates of sensory-overloading goodness keep piling up in front of you, and where you’re lavished with attention as the royal guest of honor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center\">********\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13961956\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13961956\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-022-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-022-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-022-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-022-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-022-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-022-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-022-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-022-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A full house of customers. Since opening in the spring of 2024, Four Kings has been one of San Francisco’s buzziest restaurants. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Chazaro: Cantopop music is a major element at Four Kings. How did you get into that genre and how does it fit with your concept? Also, any Cantopop recommendations?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mike Long:\u003c/b> Cantopop is huge for Cantonese kids. Our parents play it all the time on TVB — that’s the channel for Cantonese stuff. Beyond is my favorite group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lucy Li: \u003c/b>Our name, Four Kings, references the Four Heavenly Kings, which is a specific group of Cantopop stars from the ’90s. They’re not an actual group, but they were dubbed as the four. It’s like Britney or Christina, but this is for four men in Cantopop [Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau, Leon Lai and Aaron Kwok]. Out of those four, I like Jacky Cheung’s music the best.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When we used to all hang out before we worked together, we would always listen to a Chinese playlist, and then we just kept adding to it. So that’s what started it. We were like, oh, we should just play this at our future restaurant because we like it so much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Millie Boonkokua::\u003c/b> We have \u003ca href=\"https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7m5GmSTmYNqJ0VpZFyPG6A?si=c8282f11eef64212&nd=1&dlsi=d4a6f3ea1bdf4a88\">a Cantopop playlist\u003c/a> that we’re happy to share with customers if they ask about it at the restaurant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/7m5GmSTmYNqJ0VpZFyPG6A?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>How are you all feeling a few months into your successful opening? You entered this endeavor as friends and life partners, so I’m sure there have been plenty of highlights and struggles in running your first food business in San Francisco.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mike:\u003c/b> The struggle has always been there, and it’s probably going to keep going, but the reward has definitely been amazing. We spent a lot of time in our careers working for other people, and Franky and I transitioned from fine dining to where we’re at now. That has always been a goal of ours, to open a more low-key, casual, approachable spot. But the whole journey has been really good. It really helps to have this team right here: Lucy, Millie, Franky. Each one of us brings a different strength to this team. Without it, this isn’t doable. It’s a lot easier to do it together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lucy:\u003c/b> It might look like we have a big team from the outside, but it’s really just the four of us. I’m doing press and accounting. I have no PR training. Millie is doing everything. She’s making drinks and serving. Mike and Franky are in the kitchen. Mike \u003ca href=\"https://www.itsfourkings.com/menu\">designed our menu\u003c/a>. And we love our staff. They’re amazing, and we can’t do this without them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Franky:\u003c/b> Yes, I agree. [Group laughs].\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Millie: \u003c/b>I just want to say, as the person who does the hosting and works the front every day, I just feel overwhelmed with joy. I get to be the one who physically opens our door every night, and sometimes there are 40 people or more waiting outside. It really is just a feeling of joy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13962301\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13962301\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-003-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-003-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-003-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-003-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-003-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-003-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-003-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-003-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-003-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">KQED Arts Reporter Alan Chazaro eats the hot mustard jellyfish salad. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>When I visited, I could definitely feel that vibe of deep friendship and teamwork. You all seem to be doing multiple things at once.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mike:\u003c/b> The big ethos of our restaurant is that no one person is doing just one specific task. We want our kitchen to kind of operate in a way where each person gets each other’s back and everyone’s able to flow into helping one another out. A lot of traditional restaurants have a disconnect between front and back of the house. But for us, in a way, we’re like, hey, they’re a little busy right now. We’re going to help run food. And that’s kind of also what we want to encourage, that engagement with our guests and being able to drop off some food, check in on everyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What did you all learn from running a pop-up together?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Franky:\u003c/b> Our pop-up was extremely busy. There were long lines and we would run out of food. We were very short-staffed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lucy:\u003c/b> It was just the four of us [laughs].\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mike: \u003c/b>Yeah, and the dishwasher had to be downstairs. So with running up and down the stairs to do that on top of cooking and serving, it was pretty rough. We were a little…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lucy:\u003c/b> Very slammed. But the reception, seeing people line up, was a good indicator of like, okay, maybe we’re doing something right. And then seeing continued interest only further confirmed that. That energy we had during the pop-up never went away. It just kept increasing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>I love pop-ups. A lot can be learned and creatively developed at that stage.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mike: \u003c/b>With our pop-up, we had this idea of doing a Cantonese izakaya–style concept. But I think initially, it was a hard image for a lot of people to think about. But by doing our pop-up slowly, people began to recognize what we were trying to do. And it’s the same for ourselves, too, right? It allows us to start actually seeing what we had planned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Up until now, even with the brick-and-mortar, we are still trying to realize that goal. It wasn’t until our opening night and seeing guests here that it really felt like we hit it. That’s when we felt like, okay, this is the spot where we want to be. A lot of energy and people just having a good time in a casual neighborhood spot. Sharing small-plate foods, enjoying everything. I think it’s through the pop-up phase that we were able to learn all that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13961955\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13961955\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-016-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-016-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-016-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-016-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-016-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-016-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-016-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-016-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">KQED Arts Reporter Alan Chazaro waits in line outside the Chinatown restaurant with Four Kings co-owner Lucy Li. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>And you’re doing it all in San Francisco’s Chinatown, the neighborhood where Franky grew up. How does it feel being there and what’s your relationship with this community? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Franky:\u003c/b> It’s been nice coming back and having a restaurant where [my family and I] first immigrated to [from Guangdong province of China]. We really like the neighborhood. We try to support a lot of the local producers and the produce people. We get a lot of our live seafood from Chinatown, and our noodles are all made in Chinatown. We weren’t specifically looking to be in Chinatown, but we just somehow ended up in the perfect space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13961696,arts_13950866,arts_13924997']\u003c/span>Mike: \u003c/b>Our building used to be an old shrimp company. When our landlord took over the space years ago, his wife wanted to build a Kumon. The space downstairs became a restaurant prior to us taking over. I definitely feel very honored to be in Chinatown. Being in this space, you see more and more of the culture. Just walking from the parking lot [beneath Portsmouth Square] to the restaurant, you see all the grandmas and grandpas playing chess and cards in the park. It’s dope to see everyday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lucy:\u003c/b> It’s a vibrant community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mike:\u003c/b> Yeah. It gives you glimpses of the vibes of being in Hong Kong. Especially if you go down Stockton Street. When I think about Hong Kong, it’s walking down crowded streets. It’s hot, it’s humid. And then you have AC blasting from the storefronts, and they’re just selling random knickknacks. Sometimes when you walk down Chinatown in San Francisco, you hit those same feelings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Have you been back to Hong Kong recently? \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://video.kqed.org/video/crackdown-1710973659/\">\u003cb>The government has implemented new national security laws\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb>. What’s the political climate there right now?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mike:\u003c/b> Lucy and I actually went [a year ago]. Politics isn’t necessarily what you see on the streets. It doesn’t really affect tourism, doesn’t affect visitors. But you do see it in the families. like for me and my relatives. There’s a divide between people who are pro-China and people who are in support of the youth movements for liberation and democracy. So you definitely see the tension within families, but not necessarily out in the streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Do you all have any go-to spots in Chinatown or nearby? How is being here a source of culinary inspiration?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mike:\u003c/b> We go out in Chinatown all the time. Every Monday night after service, after a long week, we take our staff to eat dinner at like 2 a.m., and the only spot that’s open, which happens, in our opinion, to be the best place in Chinatown is \u003ca href=\"https://maps.app.goo.gl/Q3TFUs2W6LRwHMQS6\">Taishan Cuisine\u003c/a> on Broadway. We also go to Hon’s Wun-Tun around the corner. They have two locations. But yeah, we definitely eat out in Chinatown for sure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13961957\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13961957\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-027-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-027-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-027-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-027-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-027-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-027-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-027-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-027-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Line cook Brenda Lau plates a dessert. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Have other chefs or business owners in the area stopped by since you’ve moved in?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lucy: \u003c/b>One of our big inspirations in the Bay Area is actually \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2022/6/8/23160058/chome-izakaya-san-francisco-mission\">Chome\u003c/a>. They’re a Japanese izakaya [in the Mission], and we’ve been there plenty. They actually came to eat at Four Kings since we opened, and it was really cute. We love Chome.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Franky:\u003c/b> R & G Lounge has stopped by. They’re right near to us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mike:\u003c/b> Mow Lee [Shing Kee & Company]. They’re very established and do Chinese charcuterie plates just up the street. The owner’s son has eaten here. There has been a lot of support in general.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Franky, you’ve been in Chinatown the longest. How has the area changed over time?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Franky: \u003c/b>It changed a lot for a while, but I feel like it’s back to where it was when [my family and I] first immigrated here. We’re getting a lot more people again, and all the vendors are busy, the streets are busy. I feel like a couple of years ago it was pretty dead. And a lot of restaurants and businesses were closing, but it seems like it’s back to where it was from what I remember. I see a lot of the younger generations coming back to hang out in Chinatown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.itsfourkings.com/about\">\u003cb>Your amazing website\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb> lists Franky as being better than “a walking encyclopedia of Chinese food knowledge.” So I humbly ask, what defines Cantonese food for you, Franky?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Franky:\u003c/b> There’s a few descriptions and explanations for Cantonese food. In China, Cantonese food is pure food. They don’t add a lot of seasoning. Everything is fresh. That’s why many things are steamed or blanched. But when you move towards Hong Kong or Macau, Cantonese food becomes fusion food. A mixture of French cuisine. British influences. It can be more flavorful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What dish do you serve at Four Kings that most embodies your version of Cantonese food?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mike:\u003c/b> The pork chop rice. The inspiration for ours comes from cha chaan teng, which are the Hong Kong-style cafes we go to. One of our favorite orders that we get there is this big pork chop on either rice or spaghetti. And that’s kind of our take on it for our restaurant. We really needed to be able to bring something that’s nostalgic. It hits home for us and for a lot of young Cantonese kids, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lucy:\u003c/b> The dish also takes inspiration from Japanese katsudon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mike: \u003c/b>Yeah, so we bread it with panko and deep-fry our pork chops after we brine it for a few days. And then we serve it with a tomato egg slurry versus the traditional sauce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Franky:\u003c/b> I also really like our take on a Hong Kong version of a Sichuan fish dish, which is fermented mustard greens and fried fish. I guess we do a San Francisco version of it. And we add butter, which is from the French influence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mike:\u003c/b> The fried squab is also an easy answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13962300\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13962300\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-019-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-019-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-019-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-019-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-019-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-019-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-019-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-019-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-019-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fried squab hanging in the kitchen. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>For those who don’t know, what exactly is squab, and why isn’t it more commonly served in the U.S.?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Franky:\u003c/b> I feel like a lot of people don’t really eat squab because they’re pigeons. But a good amount of fine dining restaurants use them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mike: \u003c/b>There aren’t any farms for squab. So the general price for it is pretty expensive. And I guess for most people to get a smaller bird for that price, it’s not ideal. Hence, it’s a harder protein to sell at a restaurant because it always comes with a higher price tag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lucy: \u003c/b>Franky, you have a personal connection to squab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Franky:\u003c/b> Yeah, so in my hometown in China, we’re famous for our squab. Our dialect is squab, or “squab speak” in Chinese. Most banquets will serve one fried squab per person. We wanted to bring that here. We also really want people to eat it with their hands, to just devour it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mike:\u003c/b> The squab is ideal for our restaurant concept because we want to serve smaller plates for our size [the building is narrow]. It’s my favorite course from a Cantonese banquet. All the kids always fight for the squab.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Four Kings (710 Commercial St., San Francisco) is open Thurs. through Mon. from 6 to 11 p.m. \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.opentable.com/restref/client/?restref=1329550&lang=en-US&ot_source=Restaurant%20website&corrid=ba87a81d-b5c9-4732-9555-dbc3fd2783f1\">\u003ci>Reservations\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> are recommended up to three weeks in advance; walk-in counter seating is available on a limited basis. Fried squab is offered in small quantities on a first-come, first-served basis.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">I\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>’ve never actually been to Hong Kong. How fortunate, then, that a multiverse portal to a 1990s Cantopop-themed iteration of the island city has ripped through the Bay Area’s space-time continuum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a hilly, jam-packed street in San Francisco’s Chinatown, Four Kings beckons. Led by chefs Franky Ho and Mike Long and their partners Lucy Li and Millie Boonkokua, the five-month-old restaurant is where the past, present and future of San Franciscan Cantonese food abounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nightly, not one but \u003ci>two\u003c/i> queues of curious locals overflow down opposite ends of the tiny block. Once seated inside, you’ll quickly surrender to the temptations of the casually upscale hot spot’s culinary éclat and abundance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is where you go when you want to feast on HK favorites — saucy pork chop rice, succulent black pepper steak and fusion offerings like mapo spaghetti or XO escargot — while industrial kitchen appliances hum around you, longtime friends chatter nearby and the immortal Wong Ka Kui croons over the speakers. If you’re savvy, you’ll enjoy a glass of monkey-picked oolong tea, a boozy Chinese almond milk highball or a crisp Taiwanese lager brewed with discarded bread crusts while observing the bustling energy from an intimately tight spot at the counter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13961953\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13961953\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-012-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-012-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-012-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-012-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-012-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-012-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-012-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-012-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The pork chop rice with tomato egg — Four Kings’ take on a classic Hong Kong cha chaan teng–style dish. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And just when you’ve finally begun to settle in and appreciate the restaurant’s funkier elements (unframed posters of Cantopop celebrities, golden maneki-neko playfully waving their paws, a kitschy array of knickknacks bathed in neon-lit perfection), a plate of fried squab arrives to recenter your attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That squab is the headlining draw at Four Kings, and, like the rest of the menu here, it’s both an ode to and a deviation from traditional Cantonese fare. The malt-sugar-brushed bird comes with its claws and beak intact, and you’ll need to properly angle it with your hands to get a piece of thigh — the best part, I’m told.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13961950\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13961950\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-001-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-001-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-001-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-001-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-001-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-001-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-001-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-001-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Salted egg squash croquettes. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Having grown up in Chinatown after immigrating from China, Ho is serving heat in the neighborhood where he was raised by his grandmother and mother, who still regularly drops off homemade soup at the restaurant in the mornings. While working as a chef at Mister Jiu’s, he struck up a friendship with Long, who brings his Los Angeles flare and memories of living in Hong Kong to Four Kings, which the duo started as a pop-up last year. With Li running the business end and Boonkokua greeting guests as the hostess, the team of four has overtaken San Francisco’s dining scene like a monsoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Built on a shared sense of childhood nostalgia, migratory friendships and the comfort of home away from home, Four Kings has an anima — a deep soulfulness — that can only be unlocked after living abroad, after tasting a homeland. It’s hot mustard jellyfish salad and sweet red bean shaved ice for the soul.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Four Kings isn’t the traditional dining experience you might encounter in the historic center of Chinatown. Instead, it’s like being inside the culinary fever dream of first-generation Cantonese millennials — where plates of sensory-overloading goodness keep piling up in front of you, and where you’re lavished with attention as the royal guest of honor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center\">********\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13961956\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13961956\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-022-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-022-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-022-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-022-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-022-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-022-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-022-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-022-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A full house of customers. Since opening in the spring of 2024, Four Kings has been one of San Francisco’s buzziest restaurants. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Chazaro: Cantopop music is a major element at Four Kings. How did you get into that genre and how does it fit with your concept? Also, any Cantopop recommendations?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mike Long:\u003c/b> Cantopop is huge for Cantonese kids. Our parents play it all the time on TVB — that’s the channel for Cantonese stuff. Beyond is my favorite group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lucy Li: \u003c/b>Our name, Four Kings, references the Four Heavenly Kings, which is a specific group of Cantopop stars from the ’90s. They’re not an actual group, but they were dubbed as the four. It’s like Britney or Christina, but this is for four men in Cantopop [Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau, Leon Lai and Aaron Kwok]. Out of those four, I like Jacky Cheung’s music the best.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When we used to all hang out before we worked together, we would always listen to a Chinese playlist, and then we just kept adding to it. So that’s what started it. We were like, oh, we should just play this at our future restaurant because we like it so much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Millie Boonkokua::\u003c/b> We have \u003ca href=\"https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7m5GmSTmYNqJ0VpZFyPG6A?si=c8282f11eef64212&nd=1&dlsi=d4a6f3ea1bdf4a88\">a Cantopop playlist\u003c/a> that we’re happy to share with customers if they ask about it at the restaurant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/7m5GmSTmYNqJ0VpZFyPG6A?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>How are you all feeling a few months into your successful opening? You entered this endeavor as friends and life partners, so I’m sure there have been plenty of highlights and struggles in running your first food business in San Francisco.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mike:\u003c/b> The struggle has always been there, and it’s probably going to keep going, but the reward has definitely been amazing. We spent a lot of time in our careers working for other people, and Franky and I transitioned from fine dining to where we’re at now. That has always been a goal of ours, to open a more low-key, casual, approachable spot. But the whole journey has been really good. It really helps to have this team right here: Lucy, Millie, Franky. Each one of us brings a different strength to this team. Without it, this isn’t doable. It’s a lot easier to do it together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lucy:\u003c/b> It might look like we have a big team from the outside, but it’s really just the four of us. I’m doing press and accounting. I have no PR training. Millie is doing everything. She’s making drinks and serving. Mike and Franky are in the kitchen. Mike \u003ca href=\"https://www.itsfourkings.com/menu\">designed our menu\u003c/a>. And we love our staff. They’re amazing, and we can’t do this without them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Franky:\u003c/b> Yes, I agree. [Group laughs].\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Millie: \u003c/b>I just want to say, as the person who does the hosting and works the front every day, I just feel overwhelmed with joy. I get to be the one who physically opens our door every night, and sometimes there are 40 people or more waiting outside. It really is just a feeling of joy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13962301\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13962301\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-003-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-003-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-003-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-003-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-003-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-003-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-003-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-003-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-003-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">KQED Arts Reporter Alan Chazaro eats the hot mustard jellyfish salad. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>When I visited, I could definitely feel that vibe of deep friendship and teamwork. You all seem to be doing multiple things at once.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mike:\u003c/b> The big ethos of our restaurant is that no one person is doing just one specific task. We want our kitchen to kind of operate in a way where each person gets each other’s back and everyone’s able to flow into helping one another out. A lot of traditional restaurants have a disconnect between front and back of the house. But for us, in a way, we’re like, hey, they’re a little busy right now. We’re going to help run food. And that’s kind of also what we want to encourage, that engagement with our guests and being able to drop off some food, check in on everyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What did you all learn from running a pop-up together?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Franky:\u003c/b> Our pop-up was extremely busy. There were long lines and we would run out of food. We were very short-staffed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lucy:\u003c/b> It was just the four of us [laughs].\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mike: \u003c/b>Yeah, and the dishwasher had to be downstairs. So with running up and down the stairs to do that on top of cooking and serving, it was pretty rough. We were a little…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lucy:\u003c/b> Very slammed. But the reception, seeing people line up, was a good indicator of like, okay, maybe we’re doing something right. And then seeing continued interest only further confirmed that. That energy we had during the pop-up never went away. It just kept increasing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>I love pop-ups. A lot can be learned and creatively developed at that stage.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mike: \u003c/b>With our pop-up, we had this idea of doing a Cantonese izakaya–style concept. But I think initially, it was a hard image for a lot of people to think about. But by doing our pop-up slowly, people began to recognize what we were trying to do. And it’s the same for ourselves, too, right? It allows us to start actually seeing what we had planned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Up until now, even with the brick-and-mortar, we are still trying to realize that goal. It wasn’t until our opening night and seeing guests here that it really felt like we hit it. That’s when we felt like, okay, this is the spot where we want to be. A lot of energy and people just having a good time in a casual neighborhood spot. Sharing small-plate foods, enjoying everything. I think it’s through the pop-up phase that we were able to learn all that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13961955\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13961955\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-016-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-016-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-016-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-016-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-016-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-016-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-016-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-016-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">KQED Arts Reporter Alan Chazaro waits in line outside the Chinatown restaurant with Four Kings co-owner Lucy Li. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>And you’re doing it all in San Francisco’s Chinatown, the neighborhood where Franky grew up. How does it feel being there and what’s your relationship with this community? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Franky:\u003c/b> It’s been nice coming back and having a restaurant where [my family and I] first immigrated to [from Guangdong province of China]. We really like the neighborhood. We try to support a lot of the local producers and the produce people. We get a lot of our live seafood from Chinatown, and our noodles are all made in Chinatown. We weren’t specifically looking to be in Chinatown, but we just somehow ended up in the perfect space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>Mike: \u003c/b>Our building used to be an old shrimp company. When our landlord took over the space years ago, his wife wanted to build a Kumon. The space downstairs became a restaurant prior to us taking over. I definitely feel very honored to be in Chinatown. Being in this space, you see more and more of the culture. Just walking from the parking lot [beneath Portsmouth Square] to the restaurant, you see all the grandmas and grandpas playing chess and cards in the park. It’s dope to see everyday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lucy:\u003c/b> It’s a vibrant community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mike:\u003c/b> Yeah. It gives you glimpses of the vibes of being in Hong Kong. Especially if you go down Stockton Street. When I think about Hong Kong, it’s walking down crowded streets. It’s hot, it’s humid. And then you have AC blasting from the storefronts, and they’re just selling random knickknacks. Sometimes when you walk down Chinatown in San Francisco, you hit those same feelings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Have you been back to Hong Kong recently? \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://video.kqed.org/video/crackdown-1710973659/\">\u003cb>The government has implemented new national security laws\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb>. What’s the political climate there right now?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mike:\u003c/b> Lucy and I actually went [a year ago]. Politics isn’t necessarily what you see on the streets. It doesn’t really affect tourism, doesn’t affect visitors. But you do see it in the families. like for me and my relatives. There’s a divide between people who are pro-China and people who are in support of the youth movements for liberation and democracy. So you definitely see the tension within families, but not necessarily out in the streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Do you all have any go-to spots in Chinatown or nearby? How is being here a source of culinary inspiration?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mike:\u003c/b> We go out in Chinatown all the time. Every Monday night after service, after a long week, we take our staff to eat dinner at like 2 a.m., and the only spot that’s open, which happens, in our opinion, to be the best place in Chinatown is \u003ca href=\"https://maps.app.goo.gl/Q3TFUs2W6LRwHMQS6\">Taishan Cuisine\u003c/a> on Broadway. We also go to Hon’s Wun-Tun around the corner. They have two locations. But yeah, we definitely eat out in Chinatown for sure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13961957\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13961957\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-027-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-027-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-027-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-027-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-027-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-027-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-027-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HELLAHUNGRYFOURKINGS-JY-027-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Line cook Brenda Lau plates a dessert. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Have other chefs or business owners in the area stopped by since you’ve moved in?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lucy: \u003c/b>One of our big inspirations in the Bay Area is actually \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2022/6/8/23160058/chome-izakaya-san-francisco-mission\">Chome\u003c/a>. They’re a Japanese izakaya [in the Mission], and we’ve been there plenty. They actually came to eat at Four Kings since we opened, and it was really cute. We love Chome.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Franky:\u003c/b> R & G Lounge has stopped by. They’re right near to us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mike:\u003c/b> Mow Lee [Shing Kee & Company]. They’re very established and do Chinese charcuterie plates just up the street. The owner’s son has eaten here. There has been a lot of support in general.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Franky, you’ve been in Chinatown the longest. How has the area changed over time?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Franky: \u003c/b>It changed a lot for a while, but I feel like it’s back to where it was when [my family and I] first immigrated here. We’re getting a lot more people again, and all the vendors are busy, the streets are busy. I feel like a couple of years ago it was pretty dead. And a lot of restaurants and businesses were closing, but it seems like it’s back to where it was from what I remember. I see a lot of the younger generations coming back to hang out in Chinatown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.itsfourkings.com/about\">\u003cb>Your amazing website\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb> lists Franky as being better than “a walking encyclopedia of Chinese food knowledge.” So I humbly ask, what defines Cantonese food for you, Franky?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Franky:\u003c/b> There’s a few descriptions and explanations for Cantonese food. In China, Cantonese food is pure food. They don’t add a lot of seasoning. Everything is fresh. That’s why many things are steamed or blanched. But when you move towards Hong Kong or Macau, Cantonese food becomes fusion food. A mixture of French cuisine. British influences. It can be more flavorful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What dish do you serve at Four Kings that most embodies your version of Cantonese food?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mike:\u003c/b> The pork chop rice. The inspiration for ours comes from cha chaan teng, which are the Hong Kong-style cafes we go to. One of our favorite orders that we get there is this big pork chop on either rice or spaghetti. And that’s kind of our take on it for our restaurant. We really needed to be able to bring something that’s nostalgic. It hits home for us and for a lot of young Cantonese kids, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lucy:\u003c/b> The dish also takes inspiration from Japanese katsudon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mike: \u003c/b>Yeah, so we bread it with panko and deep-fry our pork chops after we brine it for a few days. And then we serve it with a tomato egg slurry versus the traditional sauce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Franky:\u003c/b> I also really like our take on a Hong Kong version of a Sichuan fish dish, which is fermented mustard greens and fried fish. I guess we do a San Francisco version of it. And we add butter, which is from the French influence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mike:\u003c/b> The fried squab is also an easy answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13962300\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13962300\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-019-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-019-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-019-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-019-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-019-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-019-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-019-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-019-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/20240729-HellaHungryFourKings-JY-019-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fried squab hanging in the kitchen. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>For those who don’t know, what exactly is squab, and why isn’t it more commonly served in the U.S.?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Franky:\u003c/b> I feel like a lot of people don’t really eat squab because they’re pigeons. But a good amount of fine dining restaurants use them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mike: \u003c/b>There aren’t any farms for squab. So the general price for it is pretty expensive. And I guess for most people to get a smaller bird for that price, it’s not ideal. Hence, it’s a harder protein to sell at a restaurant because it always comes with a higher price tag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lucy: \u003c/b>Franky, you have a personal connection to squab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Franky:\u003c/b> Yeah, so in my hometown in China, we’re famous for our squab. Our dialect is squab, or “squab speak” in Chinese. Most banquets will serve one fried squab per person. We wanted to bring that here. We also really want people to eat it with their hands, to just devour it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mike:\u003c/b> The squab is ideal for our restaurant concept because we want to serve smaller plates for our size [the building is narrow]. It’s my favorite course from a Cantonese banquet. All the kids always fight for the squab.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Four Kings (710 Commercial St., San Francisco) is open Thurs. through Mon. from 6 to 11 p.m. \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.opentable.com/restref/client/?restref=1329550&lang=en-US&ot_source=Restaurant%20website&corrid=ba87a81d-b5c9-4732-9555-dbc3fd2783f1\">\u003ci>Reservations\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> are recommended up to three weeks in advance; walk-in counter seating is available on a limited basis. Fried squab is offered in small quantities on a first-come, first-served basis.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13962763\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13962763\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Viridian1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Viridian1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Viridian1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Viridian1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Viridian1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Viridian1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Viridian1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">At Viridian, we filled every available inch of our assigned counter space with plates and bowls piled high with food. The Oakland bar is best known for its cocktails. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/the-midnight-diners\">\u003ci>The Midnight Diners\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is a regular collaboration between KQED food editor Luke Tsai and graphic novelist \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thiendog/?hl=en\">\u003ci>Thien Pham\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>. Follow them each week as they explore the hot pot restaurants, taco carts and 24-hour casino buffets that make up the Bay Area’s after-hours dining scene.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The list of Bay Area hotspots that I don’t feel cool enough to frequent is too long to enumerate, but suffice it to say that \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/viridianbar/\">Viridian\u003c/a>, Uptown Oakland’s sleek Asian American cocktail bar, is near the top. With its pulsing electronic music, purple-pink neon glow, abundance of paper lanterns and psychedelic light show projected onto the walls, the vibe at Viridian is somewhere between a moody Wong Kar-wai film set (one of the owners’ \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2020/2/3/21119819/viridian-uptown-oakland-bar-cocktails-desserts-asian-photos\">stated inspirations\u003c/a>) and a particularly stylish rave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The main thing you notice, though, is how impeccably cool and well-dressed everyone is, from the bar staff to the patrons. Viridian draws an ethnically diverse crowd, but the clientele does skew young (20s and 30s), and it especially skews toward the demographic I’ve always referred to as the Cool Asian, in every single strand: good-looking Cool Asians in designer black-framed glasses, in muscle shirts or showing off intricate full sleeve tattoos. Cool Asians wearing trucker hats or vintage Japanese denim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The one thing that made us feel we hadn’t come to the wrong place at 9 o’clock on a Friday night? The fact that the bar also serves some of Oakland’s best late-night food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To be fair, Viridian only qualifies as a late-night restaurant if you’re grading on a bit of a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13951382/chinese-skewers-are-the-last-bastion-of-late-night-dining-in-the-bay\">Bay Area curve\u003c/a>. The bar is always open late, so you can stay and nibble at your plate of garlic noodles for as long as you like. But the latest the kitchen ever stays open is 10 p.m., and that’s only on weekends. During our recent visit, a server started politely collecting last-call orders at 9:30 sharp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not that it mattered much: We appeared to be the only customers in the entire bustling, fully packed bar who had ordered any food whatsoever. No one else had purchased even a single lonely bowl of tater tots. Meanwhile, in typical fashion, we’d filled every available inch of our assigned counter space with plates and bowls piled high with braised meats and pickled greens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anyway, I get it. The vibes at Viridian are great, and the cocktails are spectacular — and I say this as someone who’d never describe themselves as a cocktail person. The signature Tomato Beef, a magically crystal-clear tequila drink that tastes like the purest essence of a ripe summer tomato, might be my favorite cocktail in the Bay Area. For a change of pace, this time I tried the Cafe Sữa Đáddy, a jet-black iced coffee concoction topped with a thick, fluffy cloud of egg foam. It was dangerously sweet and smooth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What we’re here to tell you, though, is that you shouldn’t skip out on the food — that, in fact, Viridian is well worth a dinner or after-dinner-snack visit even if you don’t drink at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13962765\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13962765\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Viridian2.jpg\" alt=\"Exterior facade of Viridian cocktail bar at night, lit up inside in purple neon.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Viridian2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Viridian2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Viridian2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Viridian2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Viridian2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Viridian2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The vibe at Viridian is somewhere between a moody Wong Kar-wai film set and a particularly stylish rave. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This is at least the third or fourth permutation that Viridian’s distinctly Asian American food program has gone through. When the bar first opened in early 2020, just a month before the start of the pandemic, it served almost exclusively desserts — elegant pandan custard pies and Thai tea tiramisu. It went through a period when the kitchen mostly served fancy reinterpretations of dim sum, and then various stretches when every intricately plated dish would have looked right at home at any three-star palace of fine dining.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current food menu, which launched just a few weeks ago, is probably the simplest, most bar-snacky edition yet, leaning toward homey diasporic Asian flavors in a way we found especially enjoyable. There was piping-hot “mala spice chicken tempura,” which turned out to be spicy chicken nuggets, essentially, served with a carrot-flecked sweet chili dipping sauce — but such a tasty rendition that McDonald’s really should have consulted with \u003ci>them\u003c/i> before launching its own tepid version. There were tater tots served with a sour cream, chili crisp and chive dip. It wasn’t anything fancy, but a must-order for anyone who likes munching on hot, crunchy carbs when they drink.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13962340,arts_13961997,arts_13956218']\u003c/span>\u003c/span>Our favorite dish might have been the huge mound of cucumbers that came coated with a thick layer of fiery, extra-crunchy chili crunch — the ideal bar snack. As delicious as it was, the portion was so abundant that we still wound up taking half of it home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the best thing to order if you want a hearty \u003ci>dinner-\u003c/i>dinner, or to just sample a few different things, is the donburi. The rice bowl comes topped with a generous portion of mirin-glazed pork, crushed peanuts, pickled mustard greens topped with pork floss, and fresh cilantro. Taken all together, it was just like eating a deconstructed gua bao (pork belly bun) — pure comfort to my Taiwanese American soul.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We must have looked like we were having a good time, because toward the end of the night, one of those Cool Asians (black dress, tattoos) sitting just down the counter from us leaned over to ask what we’d recommend from the food menu. She and her date had already eaten before they came, but they’d noticed how delicious we made everything look when we were eating it. (This is, in the end, our one specialized skill.) So, we talked up the cucumbers, and the donburi, and the chicken, and…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So everything’s good,” she said, laughing. And you could tell she believed us, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://www.viridianbar.com/\">Viridian\u003c/a> is open Fri.–Sat. 5 p.m.–2 a.m. and Wed., Thu. and Sun. 5 p.m.–midnight at 2216 Broadway in Oakland. The kitchen closes at 9 p.m. except for on Fridays and Saturdays, when it’s open until 10 p.m. \u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13962763\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13962763\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Viridian1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Viridian1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Viridian1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Viridian1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Viridian1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Viridian1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Viridian1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">At Viridian, we filled every available inch of our assigned counter space with plates and bowls piled high with food. The Oakland bar is best known for its cocktails. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/the-midnight-diners\">\u003ci>The Midnight Diners\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is a regular collaboration between KQED food editor Luke Tsai and graphic novelist \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thiendog/?hl=en\">\u003ci>Thien Pham\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>. Follow them each week as they explore the hot pot restaurants, taco carts and 24-hour casino buffets that make up the Bay Area’s after-hours dining scene.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The list of Bay Area hotspots that I don’t feel cool enough to frequent is too long to enumerate, but suffice it to say that \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/viridianbar/\">Viridian\u003c/a>, Uptown Oakland’s sleek Asian American cocktail bar, is near the top. With its pulsing electronic music, purple-pink neon glow, abundance of paper lanterns and psychedelic light show projected onto the walls, the vibe at Viridian is somewhere between a moody Wong Kar-wai film set (one of the owners’ \u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2020/2/3/21119819/viridian-uptown-oakland-bar-cocktails-desserts-asian-photos\">stated inspirations\u003c/a>) and a particularly stylish rave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The main thing you notice, though, is how impeccably cool and well-dressed everyone is, from the bar staff to the patrons. Viridian draws an ethnically diverse crowd, but the clientele does skew young (20s and 30s), and it especially skews toward the demographic I’ve always referred to as the Cool Asian, in every single strand: good-looking Cool Asians in designer black-framed glasses, in muscle shirts or showing off intricate full sleeve tattoos. Cool Asians wearing trucker hats or vintage Japanese denim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The one thing that made us feel we hadn’t come to the wrong place at 9 o’clock on a Friday night? The fact that the bar also serves some of Oakland’s best late-night food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To be fair, Viridian only qualifies as a late-night restaurant if you’re grading on a bit of a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13951382/chinese-skewers-are-the-last-bastion-of-late-night-dining-in-the-bay\">Bay Area curve\u003c/a>. The bar is always open late, so you can stay and nibble at your plate of garlic noodles for as long as you like. But the latest the kitchen ever stays open is 10 p.m., and that’s only on weekends. During our recent visit, a server started politely collecting last-call orders at 9:30 sharp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not that it mattered much: We appeared to be the only customers in the entire bustling, fully packed bar who had ordered any food whatsoever. No one else had purchased even a single lonely bowl of tater tots. Meanwhile, in typical fashion, we’d filled every available inch of our assigned counter space with plates and bowls piled high with braised meats and pickled greens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anyway, I get it. The vibes at Viridian are great, and the cocktails are spectacular — and I say this as someone who’d never describe themselves as a cocktail person. The signature Tomato Beef, a magically crystal-clear tequila drink that tastes like the purest essence of a ripe summer tomato, might be my favorite cocktail in the Bay Area. For a change of pace, this time I tried the Cafe Sữa Đáddy, a jet-black iced coffee concoction topped with a thick, fluffy cloud of egg foam. It was dangerously sweet and smooth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What we’re here to tell you, though, is that you shouldn’t skip out on the food — that, in fact, Viridian is well worth a dinner or after-dinner-snack visit even if you don’t drink at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13962765\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13962765\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Viridian2.jpg\" alt=\"Exterior facade of Viridian cocktail bar at night, lit up inside in purple neon.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Viridian2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Viridian2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Viridian2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Viridian2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Viridian2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Viridian2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The vibe at Viridian is somewhere between a moody Wong Kar-wai film set and a particularly stylish rave. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This is at least the third or fourth permutation that Viridian’s distinctly Asian American food program has gone through. When the bar first opened in early 2020, just a month before the start of the pandemic, it served almost exclusively desserts — elegant pandan custard pies and Thai tea tiramisu. It went through a period when the kitchen mostly served fancy reinterpretations of dim sum, and then various stretches when every intricately plated dish would have looked right at home at any three-star palace of fine dining.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current food menu, which launched just a few weeks ago, is probably the simplest, most bar-snacky edition yet, leaning toward homey diasporic Asian flavors in a way we found especially enjoyable. There was piping-hot “mala spice chicken tempura,” which turned out to be spicy chicken nuggets, essentially, served with a carrot-flecked sweet chili dipping sauce — but such a tasty rendition that McDonald’s really should have consulted with \u003ci>them\u003c/i> before launching its own tepid version. There were tater tots served with a sour cream, chili crisp and chive dip. It wasn’t anything fancy, but a must-order for anyone who likes munching on hot, crunchy carbs when they drink.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/span>Our favorite dish might have been the huge mound of cucumbers that came coated with a thick layer of fiery, extra-crunchy chili crunch — the ideal bar snack. As delicious as it was, the portion was so abundant that we still wound up taking half of it home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the best thing to order if you want a hearty \u003ci>dinner-\u003c/i>dinner, or to just sample a few different things, is the donburi. The rice bowl comes topped with a generous portion of mirin-glazed pork, crushed peanuts, pickled mustard greens topped with pork floss, and fresh cilantro. Taken all together, it was just like eating a deconstructed gua bao (pork belly bun) — pure comfort to my Taiwanese American soul.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We must have looked like we were having a good time, because toward the end of the night, one of those Cool Asians (black dress, tattoos) sitting just down the counter from us leaned over to ask what we’d recommend from the food menu. She and her date had already eaten before they came, but they’d noticed how delicious we made everything look when we were eating it. (This is, in the end, our one specialized skill.) So, we talked up the cucumbers, and the donburi, and the chicken, and…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So everything’s good,” she said, laughing. And you could tell she believed us, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://www.viridianbar.com/\">Viridian\u003c/a> is open Fri.–Sat. 5 p.m.–2 a.m. and Wed., Thu. and Sun. 5 p.m.–midnight at 2216 Broadway in Oakland. The kitchen closes at 9 p.m. except for on Fridays and Saturdays, when it’s open until 10 p.m. \u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/seijioda/?hl=en\">Seiji Oda\u003c/a> is adept at remixing the energy around him. Over the past few years, the Oakland-raised artist — who is of Japanese, Irish and Panamanian heritage — has been at the forefront of pushing a new kind of Bay Area sound, a saucy combination of Northern California rap, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13924014/seiji-odas-anri-city-pop-003-celebrates-lunar-new-year-with-a-ride-through-japantown\">Japanese City Pop\u003c/a> and free-flowing jazz. He’s dubbed it “lofi // HYPHY.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On social media, he’s gone viral for \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C0-E7hTSazq/?hl=en\">popping his collar while sitting on a tree branch\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C6b8tBJPs0c/?hl=en\">dancing in a Japanese garden\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C6NoYJLL2uE/?hl=en\">going stupid beneath a waterfall\u003c/a> — all while his raps casually slap in the background. In each clip, he summons the holy spirit of a mid-aughts hyphy ghost while somehow remaining as chill as \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f932UdEg4p8\">Lofi Girl studying at a desk\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13955802']His music is a bottled-up version of big Bay Area energy, taking the form of a peaceful bonsai tree. There isn’t really a category to describe Seiji Oda’s vibe, either. Hyphy heart whispering? Gentle gigging? Serene smeezing? Acoustic turfing? Going dumb in acapella? Therapeutic thizzing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Growing up, I was listening to Bay music,” he says. “Mac Dre, that type of shit. But when I got into making music, it was the more melodic stuff like jazz. That kind of sparked my interest in melding that with Bay music.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seiji Oda’s latest track, “a gentle gigg,” delivers exactly that: a cool minimalism and tranquility distilled into lo-fi hyphy. The Jake Chapman-produced single — which has already accumulated thousands of views, and been shared by SZA, G-Eazy and SiR — evokes E-40’s “Tell Me When To Go” while floating over a soundscape of gentle bells and flutes, stripped-down drums and a hint of mobb music bass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwFJ4cH51-s\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like much of Seiji Oda’s output, the track blends the Bay’s famously uptempo street ethos alongside elements of nature and gratitude. His lyrics underscore the Bay’s contrasting discrepancies, too: “I got friends who went to Berklee School of Music / I got friends who let that glock spill on you for talking stupid / I got homies that’s hella hyphy born after the hyphy movement / I got OGs who teach peace and started revolutions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s audio proof that Seiji Oda has been quietly nurturing his aura, and he supplies it in abundance — a playerish kind of positivity inspired by anime, international travel, vintage clothing, retro Japanese vocals, Oakland sideshows and much more. Now, others seem to be catching on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13953009']“I feel like the reason I make art is to give people an oasis in the world,” he says. “I really want to create a soundscape; that’s the goal. I’m always positive, and very simply myself. I’m not trying to be anything other than that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The industry tries to lump Asian artists into one vague genre, [but] we’re not all gonna fit on the Jasmine or Tapioca playlist,” he continues. “I wanna show the young life we can do anything, not just what people expect of us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s certainly on his way to doing that, and is currently establishing himself as one of the region’s most promising, original talents. As he sagely reminds us on his latest track: “We all got game, so each one teach one / we all different.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/seijioda/?hl=en\">Seiji Oda\u003c/a> is adept at remixing the energy around him. Over the past few years, the Oakland-raised artist — who is of Japanese, Irish and Panamanian heritage — has been at the forefront of pushing a new kind of Bay Area sound, a saucy combination of Northern California rap, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13924014/seiji-odas-anri-city-pop-003-celebrates-lunar-new-year-with-a-ride-through-japantown\">Japanese City Pop\u003c/a> and free-flowing jazz. He’s dubbed it “lofi // HYPHY.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On social media, he’s gone viral for \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C0-E7hTSazq/?hl=en\">popping his collar while sitting on a tree branch\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C6b8tBJPs0c/?hl=en\">dancing in a Japanese garden\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C6NoYJLL2uE/?hl=en\">going stupid beneath a waterfall\u003c/a> — all while his raps casually slap in the background. In each clip, he summons the holy spirit of a mid-aughts hyphy ghost while somehow remaining as chill as \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f932UdEg4p8\">Lofi Girl studying at a desk\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>His music is a bottled-up version of big Bay Area energy, taking the form of a peaceful bonsai tree. There isn’t really a category to describe Seiji Oda’s vibe, either. Hyphy heart whispering? Gentle gigging? Serene smeezing? Acoustic turfing? Going dumb in acapella? Therapeutic thizzing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Growing up, I was listening to Bay music,” he says. “Mac Dre, that type of shit. But when I got into making music, it was the more melodic stuff like jazz. That kind of sparked my interest in melding that with Bay music.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seiji Oda’s latest track, “a gentle gigg,” delivers exactly that: a cool minimalism and tranquility distilled into lo-fi hyphy. The Jake Chapman-produced single — which has already accumulated thousands of views, and been shared by SZA, G-Eazy and SiR — evokes E-40’s “Tell Me When To Go” while floating over a soundscape of gentle bells and flutes, stripped-down drums and a hint of mobb music bass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/KwFJ4cH51-s'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/KwFJ4cH51-s'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Like much of Seiji Oda’s output, the track blends the Bay’s famously uptempo street ethos alongside elements of nature and gratitude. His lyrics underscore the Bay’s contrasting discrepancies, too: “I got friends who went to Berklee School of Music / I got friends who let that glock spill on you for talking stupid / I got homies that’s hella hyphy born after the hyphy movement / I got OGs who teach peace and started revolutions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s audio proof that Seiji Oda has been quietly nurturing his aura, and he supplies it in abundance — a playerish kind of positivity inspired by anime, international travel, vintage clothing, retro Japanese vocals, Oakland sideshows and much more. Now, others seem to be catching on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I feel like the reason I make art is to give people an oasis in the world,” he says. “I really want to create a soundscape; that’s the goal. I’m always positive, and very simply myself. I’m not trying to be anything other than that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The industry tries to lump Asian artists into one vague genre, [but] we’re not all gonna fit on the Jasmine or Tapioca playlist,” he continues. “I wanna show the young life we can do anything, not just what people expect of us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s certainly on his way to doing that, and is currently establishing himself as one of the region’s most promising, original talents. As he sagely reminds us on his latest track: “We all got game, so each one teach one / we all different.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "A New Foraging Walking Tour With Asian American Roots Springs to Life",
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"content": "\u003cp>It was dark out when Cindy Li’s mother first taught her how to forage. But they weren’t hunting for clusters of mushrooms in the moonlit depths of forests with bespoke baskets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They were going through people’s trash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“‘Look out for a long stick,’” Li remembers her mother telling her from the front seat of her Toyota as a 5-year-old Li pressed up against the window from her car seat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>23 years later, Li is trimming the shaggy tops of a wild fennel plant on a side street in San Francisco. It’s a sunny spring morning, and her shoulder bag is already full with tender bunches of miner’s lettuce, fiery orange nasturtium blossoms and stinging nettle, carefully wrapped in a dish cloth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In May, Li will debut a series of \u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSezqZbZOgehSQoSuwd8P9n1TK-4VH_jNL-jqGhg7C-B8qD8SQ/viewform\">foraging walking tour\u003c/a>s and post-walk eating fests, which will include versions in San Francisco and the East Bay — and already have a 20-person waitlist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The foraging world tends to be mostly white male–dominated,” Li says. “I’m really excited that I’m starting to see more younger people of color like me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Li’s foraging knowledge is intergenerational, she says, supplemented by learning from other foragers and research she’s done on her own. Over the past three years, she’s built up a popular social media account, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cindydoedee/?hl=en\">cindydoedee\u003c/a>,” where she shares that knowledge with her followers in videos like “\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C6KL6VFLoCv/?hl=en\">10 common edible plants to forage in San Francisco\u003c/a>” and “\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C0w0janvkRP/?hl=en\">how to identify strawberry fruit tree (Arbutus unedo\u003c/a>).”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955150\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955150\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD09-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A spread of edible plants arranged on a rough wood surface.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD09-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD09-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD09-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD09-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD09-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD09-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD09-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A spread of nettle, Bermuda buttercups, nasturtium and other plants foraged in Golden Gate Park. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>I accompany Li on a preview of her San Francisco walking tour in early April. On the menu is magnolia blossom and nettle tea, miner’s lettuce and nasturtium leaf pesto and strawberry tree fruit over ice cream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Look at all of this free food!” Li exclaims as we enter a clearing in Golden Gate Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Where a novice like me sees dirt, a circle of eucalyptus trees and patches of grass, Li sees tea, dinner and dessert.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With slices of orange preserved in resin dangling from her ears and a hat crocheted with sunflowers tucked over her head, Li looks completely at home in her foraging world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Li didn’t always feel like she could forage in the open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back in L.A., where she grew up, a five-year-old Li and her mother would search around their neighborhood on Sunday nights — the day before trash pickup when bins were choked with trash and loaded on the edge of driveways. That was also when the cover of darkness would keep Li and her mother out of sight from wary, white neighbors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956115\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956115\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD01-KQED-1.jpg\" alt=\"A woman in a knitted hat gazes upwards while standing in a grassy, wooded area.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD01-KQED-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD01-KQED-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD01-KQED-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD01-KQED-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD01-KQED-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD01-KQED-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD01-KQED-1-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Li has built up an enthusiastic following for the foraging videos she posts on social media. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Li remembers looking for old discarded brooms whose handles could be repurposed as a trellis for the long winding vines of cucumbers in their family garden. And when Li’s mother was making stir-fry and needed a lemon, Li would get on a bike her dad bought her from Walmart — spray-painted black because Li didn’t like that it was pink — and go out into the neighborhood to find one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Li, this very practical kind of foraging has always been wrapped up in her parents’ immigrant experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I grew up with parents who immigrated from China,” Li says. “And they grew up during the Cultural Revolution, where they were foraging mostly for survival.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Li’s parents became highly familiar with plant species out of necessity, but they also love and respect the natural world deeply, says Li. On Li’s social media, she posts videos of herself eating passion fruits from her dad’s massive garden and harvesting honey from a wild beehive he found in his basement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956774\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956774\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/bounty.jpg\" alt=\"A colorful spread of edible plants and flowers, arranged on a white tablecloth.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/bounty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/bounty-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/bounty-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/bounty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/bounty-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/bounty-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/bounty-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The bounty. \u003ccite>(Olivia Cruz Mayeda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I spent most of my childhood in the backyard getting to know plants really well,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Li wants to share those deeper, complicated food histories that are also her family history with folks in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Foraging has a very complicated history, especially when it comes to race and culture in this country, Li said. “There are not a lot of foragers of color or Asian American foragers and that has a lot to do with foraging actually being an act that is banned in a lot of places today.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The modern foraging scene is white-dominated, says Li, because anti-foraging laws have been historically rooted in racism, colonization and capitalism. Anti-foraging laws enacted since the early colonial period in the U.S. have \u003ca href=\"https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2740&context=ulj\">disenfranchised Native folks\u003c/a> and later, during slavery, targeted Black folks, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With that legacy and its continued impacts in mind, Li wants to help other people of color reclaim these practices, together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956775\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956775\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/strawberry-tree-fruits.jpg\" alt=\"Red berries arranged on top of bowls of whipped cream and ice cream.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/strawberry-tree-fruits.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/strawberry-tree-fruits-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/strawberry-tree-fruits-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/strawberry-tree-fruits-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/strawberry-tree-fruits-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/strawberry-tree-fruits-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/strawberry-tree-fruits-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Strawberry tree fruits are delicious with ice cream. \u003ccite>(Olivia Cruz Mayeda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I would love for people to walk away with a sense of abundance in the place that they live,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Berkeley, Li snags a small handful of red fruits from the upper branches of a strawberry tree. They’re berry-red like the kind of strawberry that grows in patches on the ground, but they’re not juicy — they’re custardy, smooth and subtly sweet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’d be great with vanilla ice cream,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Later, Li and I sit down at the table and dig our chopsticks into a foraged pesto that’s peppery from wild nasturtiums and tangy from mustard weed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it’s the best pesto I’ve ever had.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Signups for Cindy Li’s guided foraging walks can be found on this \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSezqZbZOgehSQoSuwd8P9n1TK-4VH_jNL-jqGhg7C-B8qD8SQ/viewform?usp=send_form\">\u003ci>Google sign-up sheet\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>. Walks are offered at sliding scale from $5-$50, in addition to free community walks.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It was dark out when Cindy Li’s mother first taught her how to forage. But they weren’t hunting for clusters of mushrooms in the moonlit depths of forests with bespoke baskets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They were going through people’s trash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“‘Look out for a long stick,’” Li remembers her mother telling her from the front seat of her Toyota as a 5-year-old Li pressed up against the window from her car seat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>23 years later, Li is trimming the shaggy tops of a wild fennel plant on a side street in San Francisco. It’s a sunny spring morning, and her shoulder bag is already full with tender bunches of miner’s lettuce, fiery orange nasturtium blossoms and stinging nettle, carefully wrapped in a dish cloth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In May, Li will debut a series of \u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSezqZbZOgehSQoSuwd8P9n1TK-4VH_jNL-jqGhg7C-B8qD8SQ/viewform\">foraging walking tour\u003c/a>s and post-walk eating fests, which will include versions in San Francisco and the East Bay — and already have a 20-person waitlist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The foraging world tends to be mostly white male–dominated,” Li says. “I’m really excited that I’m starting to see more younger people of color like me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Li’s foraging knowledge is intergenerational, she says, supplemented by learning from other foragers and research she’s done on her own. Over the past three years, she’s built up a popular social media account, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cindydoedee/?hl=en\">cindydoedee\u003c/a>,” where she shares that knowledge with her followers in videos like “\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C6KL6VFLoCv/?hl=en\">10 common edible plants to forage in San Francisco\u003c/a>” and “\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C0w0janvkRP/?hl=en\">how to identify strawberry fruit tree (Arbutus unedo\u003c/a>).”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955150\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955150\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD09-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A spread of edible plants arranged on a rough wood surface.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD09-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD09-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD09-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD09-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD09-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD09-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD09-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A spread of nettle, Bermuda buttercups, nasturtium and other plants foraged in Golden Gate Park. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>I accompany Li on a preview of her San Francisco walking tour in early April. On the menu is magnolia blossom and nettle tea, miner’s lettuce and nasturtium leaf pesto and strawberry tree fruit over ice cream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Look at all of this free food!” Li exclaims as we enter a clearing in Golden Gate Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Where a novice like me sees dirt, a circle of eucalyptus trees and patches of grass, Li sees tea, dinner and dessert.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With slices of orange preserved in resin dangling from her ears and a hat crocheted with sunflowers tucked over her head, Li looks completely at home in her foraging world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Li didn’t always feel like she could forage in the open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back in L.A., where she grew up, a five-year-old Li and her mother would search around their neighborhood on Sunday nights — the day before trash pickup when bins were choked with trash and loaded on the edge of driveways. That was also when the cover of darkness would keep Li and her mother out of sight from wary, white neighbors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956115\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956115\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD01-KQED-1.jpg\" alt=\"A woman in a knitted hat gazes upwards while standing in a grassy, wooded area.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD01-KQED-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD01-KQED-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD01-KQED-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD01-KQED-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD01-KQED-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD01-KQED-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240401-EAST-BAY-FORAGING-WALKING-TOUR-MD01-KQED-1-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Li has built up an enthusiastic following for the foraging videos she posts on social media. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Li remembers looking for old discarded brooms whose handles could be repurposed as a trellis for the long winding vines of cucumbers in their family garden. And when Li’s mother was making stir-fry and needed a lemon, Li would get on a bike her dad bought her from Walmart — spray-painted black because Li didn’t like that it was pink — and go out into the neighborhood to find one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Li, this very practical kind of foraging has always been wrapped up in her parents’ immigrant experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I grew up with parents who immigrated from China,” Li says. “And they grew up during the Cultural Revolution, where they were foraging mostly for survival.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Li’s parents became highly familiar with plant species out of necessity, but they also love and respect the natural world deeply, says Li. On Li’s social media, she posts videos of herself eating passion fruits from her dad’s massive garden and harvesting honey from a wild beehive he found in his basement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956774\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956774\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/bounty.jpg\" alt=\"A colorful spread of edible plants and flowers, arranged on a white tablecloth.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/bounty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/bounty-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/bounty-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/bounty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/bounty-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/bounty-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/bounty-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The bounty. \u003ccite>(Olivia Cruz Mayeda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I spent most of my childhood in the backyard getting to know plants really well,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Li wants to share those deeper, complicated food histories that are also her family history with folks in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Foraging has a very complicated history, especially when it comes to race and culture in this country, Li said. “There are not a lot of foragers of color or Asian American foragers and that has a lot to do with foraging actually being an act that is banned in a lot of places today.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The modern foraging scene is white-dominated, says Li, because anti-foraging laws have been historically rooted in racism, colonization and capitalism. Anti-foraging laws enacted since the early colonial period in the U.S. have \u003ca href=\"https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2740&context=ulj\">disenfranchised Native folks\u003c/a> and later, during slavery, targeted Black folks, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With that legacy and its continued impacts in mind, Li wants to help other people of color reclaim these practices, together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956775\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956775\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/strawberry-tree-fruits.jpg\" alt=\"Red berries arranged on top of bowls of whipped cream and ice cream.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/strawberry-tree-fruits.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/strawberry-tree-fruits-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/strawberry-tree-fruits-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/strawberry-tree-fruits-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/strawberry-tree-fruits-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/strawberry-tree-fruits-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/strawberry-tree-fruits-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Strawberry tree fruits are delicious with ice cream. \u003ccite>(Olivia Cruz Mayeda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I would love for people to walk away with a sense of abundance in the place that they live,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Berkeley, Li snags a small handful of red fruits from the upper branches of a strawberry tree. They’re berry-red like the kind of strawberry that grows in patches on the ground, but they’re not juicy — they’re custardy, smooth and subtly sweet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’d be great with vanilla ice cream,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Later, Li and I sit down at the table and dig our chopsticks into a foraged pesto that’s peppery from wild nasturtiums and tangy from mustard weed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it’s the best pesto I’ve ever had.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Signups for Cindy Li’s guided foraging walks can be found on this \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSezqZbZOgehSQoSuwd8P9n1TK-4VH_jNL-jqGhg7C-B8qD8SQ/viewform?usp=send_form\">\u003ci>Google sign-up sheet\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>. Walks are offered at sliding scale from $5-$50, in addition to free community walks.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "A New Bay Area Food Festival Celebrates Chefs of Color and Diasporic Unity",
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"content": "\u003cp>You’re at a food and wine festival in the Bay Area. But instead of the usual Chardonnay and chicken pairing, you’re drinking arak — an anise seed–based Palestinian spirit — and eating hearty Ethiopian sambussas in a space that is designated for diasporic, cross-communal celebration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You might sip on \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/drinkkace/\">a Filipino and Taiwanese tea\u003c/a> founded by a pair of young AAPI entrepreneurs while enjoying bites from \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/event/1610\">Chef Nelson German — the Dominican savant behind Oakland’s alaMar and Sobre Mesa\u003c/a>. And since true nourishment requires more than just food and beverages, you can sneak off for a CBD sound bath, or keep your energy balanced at an R&B Soul Lounge, before returning for the afterparty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a snippet of the vision that San Francisco event organizer Gina Mariko Rosales has in mind for the first-ever \u003ca href=\"https://www.pocfoodandwine.com/\">POC Food and Wine Festival\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want people to know up front that it’s a diverse space, and you’re welcome here,” Rosales says. “We’re already battling in the wine space. It doesn’t feel comfortable or safe for some people, and I knew I needed to create and name it so people would feel it’s a space for them. This is a celebration of the global majority. You gotta have big balls to do this shit. It’s not an easy feat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having co-founded UNDISCOVERED SF’s Creative Night Market in SOMA Pilipinas, and with nearly a decade of experience working as an event specialist with Google, Rosales believes she has the savvy and background to execute such an ambitious three-day festival.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had a huge desire to build a multicultural space to come together and meet each other, share resources, create collaborations that didn’t exist and expand our reach and make it bigger than any one cultural group. We need a space to come together,” she continues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956309\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956309\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/ginamariko-pocfoodandwine-3.jpg\" alt=\"A woman in a red jacket stands before a lavish spread of drinks, appetizers and flowers.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/ginamariko-pocfoodandwine-3.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/ginamariko-pocfoodandwine-3-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/ginamariko-pocfoodandwine-3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/ginamariko-pocfoodandwine-3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/ginamariko-pocfoodandwine-3-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The festival is the brainchild of San Francisco event planner Gina Mariko Rosales. \u003ccite>(Melissa De Mata)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In all, the bodacious festival will include seven events happening across two venues in Berkeley and San Francisco from Thursday, May 2, through Sunday, May 5 (with Friday, May 3, as an off-day). The inaugural festivities will comprise a who’s who of Bay Area foodmakers and small business owners of color, all gathered at one intentional table.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The festival will kick off with a “Palestinian Family Meal” featuring one of the Bay Area’s most notable Palestinian chefs in Reem Assil (of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/reemscalifornia/\">Reem’s\u003c/a>). Assil’s dishes — an array of mezzes, flatbreads, sweets and more served for large group enjoyment — will be paired with\u003ca href=\"https://www.terahwineco.com/\"> Terah Wine Co.\u003c/a> and Terra Sancta, a local winemaker and an importer of Middle Eastern wines and arak, respectively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The opening night dinner underscores a mindful awareness to serve more than just good food. Rosales believes it’s also an opportunity to empower, uplift and educate around the various, complex politics that different Bay Area groups — often working in solidarity — must combat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956598\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956598\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Alanna-Hale_ShishBarak_LambDumplings_021.jpg\" alt=\"A bowl of Palestinian lamb dumplings in yogurt sauce, presented in a pale yellow bowl.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2259\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Alanna-Hale_ShishBarak_LambDumplings_021.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Alanna-Hale_ShishBarak_LambDumplings_021-800x941.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Alanna-Hale_ShishBarak_LambDumplings_021-1020x1200.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Alanna-Hale_ShishBarak_LambDumplings_021-160x188.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Alanna-Hale_ShishBarak_LambDumplings_021-768x904.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Alanna-Hale_ShishBarak_LambDumplings_021-1305x1536.jpg 1305w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Alanna-Hale_ShishBarak_LambDumplings_021-1741x2048.jpg 1741w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">For the festival’s Saturday main event, Reem’s will serve shish barak — lamb dumplings in yogurt sauce. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Alanna Hale)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Food is an entryway to culture,” Rosales says. “Everyone wants good food. That’s how you get people in, and then it’s up to you to teach a lesson.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other festival highlights will include Saturday’s “Main Dish,” a palate-friendly carousel of curated food-and-wine pairings from 14 participating chefs. Featured dishes include \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cheftudavidphu\">Chef Tu David Phu\u003c/a>’s banh khot (a rich Vietnamese pancake) with caviar and velarde truffle, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/tacossincero\">Tacos Sincero\u003c/a>’s charred sweet potato tostada with lime aioli, and salsa verde, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/tartsdefeybesse/\">Tarts de Feybesse\u003c/a>’s iÎle flottante — floating meringue in a custardy creme anglaise, infused with flavors from the Philippines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The concept is to expose festival goers with as many diverse foodmakers as possible from the Bay Area’s impressive scene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Putting Ethiopia and the greater continent of Africa on the culinary map has always been our mission,” a representative for one participant, Oakland’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cafecolucci/\">Cafe Colucci\u003c/a>, told KQED via email. “This is an opportunity to show our greater Bay Area community the power and importance of our diverse food environment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13954899,arts_13956178,arts_13929494']\u003c/span>A “Brown Is Beautiful” afterparty and a “Closing Family Meal” with \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/bigbadwolfsf/?hl=en\">Big Bad Wolf\u003c/a> — a popular cannabis-infused pop-up from first-generation Korean American chef Haeji Chun — will close out the festivities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Think of that \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ1aEaRyR5A\">T.W.D.Y song, “Player’s Holiday”\u003c/a> — but add in lentil dips, old-world vino, DJs, marketplace vendors, diasporic snacks, CBD goods and botanicals distributed for and by people of color in an effort to heal and connect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The heart of what we want to get at with this festival is sharing culture. But this is also about Brown and Black joy,” says Rosales. “We need and deserve spaces where we are taken care of. We deserve nice things. We deserve beautiful experiences. We don’t always have to be struggling and hustling.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.pocfoodandwine.com/events/\">The POC Food and Wine Festival\u003c/a> will take place from Thursday, May 2, through Sunday, May 5, at \u003ca href=\"https://www.fouronenine.com/\">Four One Nine\u003c/a> (419 10th St.) in San Francisco and \u003ca href=\"https://cielcreativespace.com/\">Ciel Creative Space\u003c/a> (935 Carleton St.) in Berkeley. \u003ca href=\"https://www.pocfoodandwine.com/tickets/\">Sliding-scale ticket options\u003c/a> are available. Attendees can select single events, entire days, the complete weekend package or the VIP package, depending on their budgets.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>You’re at a food and wine festival in the Bay Area. But instead of the usual Chardonnay and chicken pairing, you’re drinking arak — an anise seed–based Palestinian spirit — and eating hearty Ethiopian sambussas in a space that is designated for diasporic, cross-communal celebration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You might sip on \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/drinkkace/\">a Filipino and Taiwanese tea\u003c/a> founded by a pair of young AAPI entrepreneurs while enjoying bites from \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/event/1610\">Chef Nelson German — the Dominican savant behind Oakland’s alaMar and Sobre Mesa\u003c/a>. And since true nourishment requires more than just food and beverages, you can sneak off for a CBD sound bath, or keep your energy balanced at an R&B Soul Lounge, before returning for the afterparty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a snippet of the vision that San Francisco event organizer Gina Mariko Rosales has in mind for the first-ever \u003ca href=\"https://www.pocfoodandwine.com/\">POC Food and Wine Festival\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want people to know up front that it’s a diverse space, and you’re welcome here,” Rosales says. “We’re already battling in the wine space. It doesn’t feel comfortable or safe for some people, and I knew I needed to create and name it so people would feel it’s a space for them. This is a celebration of the global majority. You gotta have big balls to do this shit. It’s not an easy feat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having co-founded UNDISCOVERED SF’s Creative Night Market in SOMA Pilipinas, and with nearly a decade of experience working as an event specialist with Google, Rosales believes she has the savvy and background to execute such an ambitious three-day festival.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had a huge desire to build a multicultural space to come together and meet each other, share resources, create collaborations that didn’t exist and expand our reach and make it bigger than any one cultural group. We need a space to come together,” she continues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956309\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956309\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/ginamariko-pocfoodandwine-3.jpg\" alt=\"A woman in a red jacket stands before a lavish spread of drinks, appetizers and flowers.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/ginamariko-pocfoodandwine-3.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/ginamariko-pocfoodandwine-3-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/ginamariko-pocfoodandwine-3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/ginamariko-pocfoodandwine-3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/ginamariko-pocfoodandwine-3-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The festival is the brainchild of San Francisco event planner Gina Mariko Rosales. \u003ccite>(Melissa De Mata)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In all, the bodacious festival will include seven events happening across two venues in Berkeley and San Francisco from Thursday, May 2, through Sunday, May 5 (with Friday, May 3, as an off-day). The inaugural festivities will comprise a who’s who of Bay Area foodmakers and small business owners of color, all gathered at one intentional table.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The festival will kick off with a “Palestinian Family Meal” featuring one of the Bay Area’s most notable Palestinian chefs in Reem Assil (of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/reemscalifornia/\">Reem’s\u003c/a>). Assil’s dishes — an array of mezzes, flatbreads, sweets and more served for large group enjoyment — will be paired with\u003ca href=\"https://www.terahwineco.com/\"> Terah Wine Co.\u003c/a> and Terra Sancta, a local winemaker and an importer of Middle Eastern wines and arak, respectively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The opening night dinner underscores a mindful awareness to serve more than just good food. Rosales believes it’s also an opportunity to empower, uplift and educate around the various, complex politics that different Bay Area groups — often working in solidarity — must combat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956598\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956598\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Alanna-Hale_ShishBarak_LambDumplings_021.jpg\" alt=\"A bowl of Palestinian lamb dumplings in yogurt sauce, presented in a pale yellow bowl.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2259\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Alanna-Hale_ShishBarak_LambDumplings_021.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Alanna-Hale_ShishBarak_LambDumplings_021-800x941.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Alanna-Hale_ShishBarak_LambDumplings_021-1020x1200.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Alanna-Hale_ShishBarak_LambDumplings_021-160x188.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Alanna-Hale_ShishBarak_LambDumplings_021-768x904.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Alanna-Hale_ShishBarak_LambDumplings_021-1305x1536.jpg 1305w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Alanna-Hale_ShishBarak_LambDumplings_021-1741x2048.jpg 1741w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">For the festival’s Saturday main event, Reem’s will serve shish barak — lamb dumplings in yogurt sauce. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Alanna Hale)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Food is an entryway to culture,” Rosales says. “Everyone wants good food. That’s how you get people in, and then it’s up to you to teach a lesson.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other festival highlights will include Saturday’s “Main Dish,” a palate-friendly carousel of curated food-and-wine pairings from 14 participating chefs. Featured dishes include \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cheftudavidphu\">Chef Tu David Phu\u003c/a>’s banh khot (a rich Vietnamese pancake) with caviar and velarde truffle, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/tacossincero\">Tacos Sincero\u003c/a>’s charred sweet potato tostada with lime aioli, and salsa verde, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/tartsdefeybesse/\">Tarts de Feybesse\u003c/a>’s iÎle flottante — floating meringue in a custardy creme anglaise, infused with flavors from the Philippines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The concept is to expose festival goers with as many diverse foodmakers as possible from the Bay Area’s impressive scene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Putting Ethiopia and the greater continent of Africa on the culinary map has always been our mission,” a representative for one participant, Oakland’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cafecolucci/\">Cafe Colucci\u003c/a>, told KQED via email. “This is an opportunity to show our greater Bay Area community the power and importance of our diverse food environment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>A “Brown Is Beautiful” afterparty and a “Closing Family Meal” with \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/bigbadwolfsf/?hl=en\">Big Bad Wolf\u003c/a> — a popular cannabis-infused pop-up from first-generation Korean American chef Haeji Chun — will close out the festivities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Think of that \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ1aEaRyR5A\">T.W.D.Y song, “Player’s Holiday”\u003c/a> — but add in lentil dips, old-world vino, DJs, marketplace vendors, diasporic snacks, CBD goods and botanicals distributed for and by people of color in an effort to heal and connect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The heart of what we want to get at with this festival is sharing culture. But this is also about Brown and Black joy,” says Rosales. “We need and deserve spaces where we are taken care of. We deserve nice things. We deserve beautiful experiences. We don’t always have to be struggling and hustling.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.pocfoodandwine.com/events/\">The POC Food and Wine Festival\u003c/a> will take place from Thursday, May 2, through Sunday, May 5, at \u003ca href=\"https://www.fouronenine.com/\">Four One Nine\u003c/a> (419 10th St.) in San Francisco and \u003ca href=\"https://cielcreativespace.com/\">Ciel Creative Space\u003c/a> (935 Carleton St.) in Berkeley. \u003ca href=\"https://www.pocfoodandwine.com/tickets/\">Sliding-scale ticket options\u003c/a> are available. Attendees can select single events, entire days, the complete weekend package or the VIP package, depending on their budgets.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Tall Tee’s New Track Is Prime for Your Summer Barbecue Playlist",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you like to two-step shuffle with a red cup in your hand, then \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/tallteesound/\">Tall Tee\u003c/a> might be the next addition to your spring barbecue playlist. Two Filipino American DJs-turned-vocalists, Jon “Joog” Macapinlac and Alexander “Flex” Lim, lead the funky band, which has been igniting Bay Area dance floors since emerging from their DJ collective, Cheat Day. (The duo also has\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003ca href=\"https://www.undiscoveredsf.com/blog/2019/10/17/living-room-sf-the-not-so-new-kids-on-the-block\">a panoply of individual creative efforts\u003c/a>, including a distribution of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13923081/purity-wine-richmond-new-years-eve-party-inclusive-natural-winery\">natural wines\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13914042/smax-okonomiyaki-chopped-cheese-asian-american-pop-up-vallejo-san-francisco\">chopped cheese sandwiches\u003c/a>.)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For the past few years, \u003ca href=\"https://tallteesound.bandcamp.com/\">the emergent group\u003c/a> has been gaining underground traction with their playful, up-tempo rhythms that twirl with a mixture of retro boogie and smooth, player vocals. Even though they have yet to release an album — one is scheduled for later this year — Tall Tee’s niche following has patiently anticipated their full-length debut since the two homies first recorded a track together at San Francisco State University in 2018.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiglhPxeQzs\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On April 10, they’re delivering the musical goods. The pair will host a watch party for “So Fly” — their first official single off Tall Tee’s upcoming album, which is also the first song they ever recorded together at SFSU.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Instead of just releasing the video online, we wanted to make it more communal,” says Flex. “This is really a thank you to those who have pushed us over the years. We wanted to extend that sentiment in person to everyone who has been involved with us.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The premiere will take place at \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thisisbabas.house/?hl=en\">Baba’s House\u003c/a> — a quirky, neon-lit Asian snack shop ensconced on the second story of a historic building in downtown Oakland. In a time of digitized streaming and online clout chasing, it’s always refreshing to see any genuine efforts to build community and have fun IRL. [aside postid='arts_13955372']\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The track is — as the name suggests — about being fly. More importantly, it’s an ode to the sweat and grind that goes into remaining fly in the Bay Area, a place that is notoriously vibrant but expensive as hell for artists to thrive in. Flex, a lifelong San Franciscan, and Joog, a Vallejo kid, are simply trying to sustain the good vibes that they were able to simmer in during the hyphy movement, when tall tees could be copped at any Bay Area liquor store worth its malt. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“There’s effort and hustle to look fly,” Flex says. “We wanted to be the antithesis of a tuxedo, and what’s more opposite than a tall tee?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/tallteesound/\">Tall Tee\u003c/a> premiere their debut music video in person at \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thisisbabas.house/?hl=en\">Baba’s House\u003c/a> (410 15th St, Oakland) on April 10 at 8:30 p.m. The event includes a photo booth by Good Mother Gallery and DJ set by Jon Reyes. Tall Tee’s ‘So Fly’ video will be available to watch online on April 15.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you like to two-step shuffle with a red cup in your hand, then \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/tallteesound/\">Tall Tee\u003c/a> might be the next addition to your spring barbecue playlist. Two Filipino American DJs-turned-vocalists, Jon “Joog” Macapinlac and Alexander “Flex” Lim, lead the funky band, which has been igniting Bay Area dance floors since emerging from their DJ collective, Cheat Day. (The duo also has\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003ca href=\"https://www.undiscoveredsf.com/blog/2019/10/17/living-room-sf-the-not-so-new-kids-on-the-block\">a panoply of individual creative efforts\u003c/a>, including a distribution of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13923081/purity-wine-richmond-new-years-eve-party-inclusive-natural-winery\">natural wines\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13914042/smax-okonomiyaki-chopped-cheese-asian-american-pop-up-vallejo-san-francisco\">chopped cheese sandwiches\u003c/a>.)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For the past few years, \u003ca href=\"https://tallteesound.bandcamp.com/\">the emergent group\u003c/a> has been gaining underground traction with their playful, up-tempo rhythms that twirl with a mixture of retro boogie and smooth, player vocals. Even though they have yet to release an album — one is scheduled for later this year — Tall Tee’s niche following has patiently anticipated their full-length debut since the two homies first recorded a track together at San Francisco State University in 2018.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/XiglhPxeQzs'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/XiglhPxeQzs'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On April 10, they’re delivering the musical goods. The pair will host a watch party for “So Fly” — their first official single off Tall Tee’s upcoming album, which is also the first song they ever recorded together at SFSU.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Instead of just releasing the video online, we wanted to make it more communal,” says Flex. “This is really a thank you to those who have pushed us over the years. We wanted to extend that sentiment in person to everyone who has been involved with us.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The track is — as the name suggests — about being fly. More importantly, it’s an ode to the sweat and grind that goes into remaining fly in the Bay Area, a place that is notoriously vibrant but expensive as hell for artists to thrive in. Flex, a lifelong San Franciscan, and Joog, a Vallejo kid, are simply trying to sustain the good vibes that they were able to simmer in during the hyphy movement, when tall tees could be copped at any Bay Area liquor store worth its malt. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“There’s effort and hustle to look fly,” Flex says. “We wanted to be the antithesis of a tuxedo, and what’s more opposite than a tall tee?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/tallteesound/\">Tall Tee\u003c/a> premiere their debut music video in person at \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thisisbabas.house/?hl=en\">Baba’s House\u003c/a> (410 15th St, Oakland) on April 10 at 8:30 p.m. The event includes a photo booth by Good Mother Gallery and DJ set by Jon Reyes. Tall Tee’s ‘So Fly’ video will be available to watch online on April 15.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Sean Wang — and his Grandmas — Will Rep Fremont at the Oscars",
"headTitle": "Sean Wang — and his Grandmas — Will Rep Fremont at the Oscars | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Sean Wang is having an awesome start to his year. The 30-year-old filmmaker from Fremont is nominated for his first Academy Award at this weekend’s Oscars ceremony for Best Documentary Short Film. Wang’s 17-minute documentary \u003cem>Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó\u003c/em> (\u003cem>Grandma & Grandma\u003c/em>), available to stream on on Disney+ and Hulu, sweetly captures the daily routines of his two grandmothers who live together in Fremont.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before getting that golden news from the Academy, Wang debuted his first feature film, \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.focusfeatures.com/article/didi_date-announcement\">Dìdi\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, at the Sundance Festival. A coming-of-age story that Wang calls “a love letter to the Bay Area, Fremont especially,” \u003cem>Dìdi\u003c/em> won two festival awards and was picked up by Focus Features, which will give it a limited theatrical release this summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I caught up with Wang over Zoom to talk about life since the Oscar nod, his filmmaker origin story in the Bay (“everything traces back to skateboarding”) and more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ariana Proehl: A lot of people have seen \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCNMXENmOpk\">the reaction video\u003c/a> of you and your family receiving news of your Oscar nomination. What’s the ride been like since then?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sean Wang\u003c/strong>: So surreal. This experience has overlapped with premiering my first feature film, so it’s two incredible experiences happening at the same time. It really is beyond my wildest dreams. And to get to do it with my grandmothers and have them really enjoy this process – and feel like we’re giving them a core memory at 96 and 86 years old – there’s no real downside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fBvvRBlDHc\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>And how are your Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó feeling about everything? Are they excited to have their glam moment at the Oscars?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yeah, they’re getting styled by \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3tDpLppEhZ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==\">Rodarte and Shirley Kurata\u003c/a>, who was a costume designer for \u003cem>Everything Everywhere All at Once\u003c/em>. So we’re giving them a Hollywood night that, hopefully, we’ll remember forever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>That’s huge! Have they become local celebrities around Fremont?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They don’t leave the house much, so I don’t think they’re getting stopped on the street or at the Chinese supermarket, but certainly within the cultural circles that I am a part of. At the [Oscars] luncheon, people were like, “Oh my God, it’s the grandmas!” And so that’s a very strange but cool experience to have them be noticed and seen like that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Flashing back a little bit on your history, I’m curious when you first realized you wanted to be a filmmaker, and how you went about exploring that while growing up in Fremont?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Everything traces back to skateboarding for me. I’m a younger sibling; all of my cousins in the States are older than me. For a lot of my early years, my interests and my identity was looking at them and what they liked. But then I discovered skating when I was 12 or 13 years old, and that was just a very pure love. It was something that was really my own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Through skating, I got into photography and videos and filming my friends. I started making \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/bJxl7xJh46I?si=HWYSsNh_yxeCqiLV\">little documentaries\u003c/a>, and that was like a buzz for me. I was excited about putting it on YouTube, but I didn’t really have the language for it – that it was “filmmaking.” I just really loved doing it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJxl7xJh46I\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I graduated high school, that was the first real fork in the road, where it’s like, \u003cem>okay, is there a career doing this\u003c/em>? Growing up in Fremont, there just isn’t that language. I didn’t know any other filmmakers. There were no examples that I could really follow. But I knew that whatever this was, it was a very pure love. I ended up at De Anza [Community College] for two years, and the intention was to transfer to a film school and that’s what happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Let’s talk about your Oscar-nominated film. There’s a part when Wài Pó says, “in the future, you can show your children what we were like.” That really struck me. My family just laid my grandmother to rest a few weeks ago. So watching your grandmothers made me think about my own, and it’s really cool that you’ll get to have this memory of them after they are gone. I’m guessing that was at least part of the motivation and inspiration behind it? Did you go into it thinking about a short film, or were you just wanting to capture memories?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thank you for sharing that with me. It was both, I think. The catalyst for the film was just wanting to film them and make \u003cem>something\u003c/em>. I moved to New York City after I graduated college and lived there for about 5 or 6 years. Then in the spring of 2021, I moved home to the Bay Area, and in that period of living with them, there was so much joy. I really got to see my grandmothers and experience day-to-day life with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13953491\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13953491\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/NaiNaiWaiPo-Film-Still-Edit.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1208\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/NaiNaiWaiPo-Film-Still-Edit.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/NaiNaiWaiPo-Film-Still-Edit-800x604.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/NaiNaiWaiPo-Film-Still-Edit-1020x770.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/NaiNaiWaiPo-Film-Still-Edit-160x121.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/NaiNaiWaiPo-Film-Still-Edit-768x580.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/NaiNaiWaiPo-Film-Still-Edit-1536x1160.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">From left, filmmaker Sean Wang’s ‘Wài Pó,’ Chang Li Hua, and ‘Nǎi Nai,’ Yi Yan Fuei, in a still from the Oscar-nominated documentary short film ‘Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy Disney+)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But there was also this extreme anger and helplessness that a lot of people were feeling at that time with Covid, and with the rise in anti-Asian violence that was happening to people like my grandmothers, and people in our community. As a filmmaker, anytime I feel those emotions that are so visceral, it challenges me to ask, “Where are these emotions coming from? And how can we use that and create art?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The antidote to the anger was their joy. I wanted to make a film that was a container for all of their humanity, their joy, their silliness, their infectious, childlike energy, but also their pain and their lives that they lived before they were my grandmothers. And create a holistic portrait of that to show just how human they are, in a way that I felt people were overlooking in our society.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But to what you were saying, at the end of the day, there was this home video mentality that we brought to it, where I just wanted to remember them and remember this moment that I had with them. So even if nobody watched it, it was still a memento and a time capsule for myself and my family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13953493\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13953493\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/NaiNaiWaiPo_Foreheads-Edited.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1204\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/NaiNaiWaiPo_Foreheads-Edited.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/NaiNaiWaiPo_Foreheads-Edited-800x602.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/NaiNaiWaiPo_Foreheads-Edited-1020x768.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/NaiNaiWaiPo_Foreheads-Edited-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/NaiNaiWaiPo_Foreheads-Edited-768x578.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/NaiNaiWaiPo_Foreheads-Edited-1536x1156.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sean Wang touches foreheads with Nǎi Nai in a still from his documentary short film ‘Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy Disney+)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Do you have a favorite scene from the film? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a shot in the end montage, where me and Nǎi Nai are touching foreheads. That shot always makes me emotional. I always thank [producer] Sam [Davis] for capturing that. I edited the movie too, so there were moments in the edit that always gutted me. There’s a moment where Wài Pó was talking about, “I’m not afraid of death.” You can tell she’s thinking about mortality in those moments and you can see it in her eyes – not just the pain, but the humanity. And she takes a little sigh, and that moment always gutted me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad alignright]\u003cstrong>What’s the feeling amongst your family in terms of this accomplishment, and all the excitement going into the Oscars? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re all excited. We were able to get tickets for the whole family, so it’s really a proper family affair. I feel like I’m the grandmothers’ “plus one” in all of this. As long as they’re having a good time and they feel taken care of, I’ll feel like I’m having a good time. At the end of the day, we’ve already won because this experience has been so special.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>If you take home the Oscar, is there a favorite spot in the Bay Area where you and your family would go to celebrate?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a good question. Growing up, we used to go out to dinner at Darda Seafood in Milpitas all the time. We haven’t been in years. But that was like a family tradition. Maybe we’ll bring that back for this one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The director of 'Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó' was a skate-video kid from Fremont — now he's nominated at the Academy Awards.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Sean Wang is having an awesome start to his year. The 30-year-old filmmaker from Fremont is nominated for his first Academy Award at this weekend’s Oscars ceremony for Best Documentary Short Film. Wang’s 17-minute documentary \u003cem>Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó\u003c/em> (\u003cem>Grandma & Grandma\u003c/em>), available to stream on on Disney+ and Hulu, sweetly captures the daily routines of his two grandmothers who live together in Fremont.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before getting that golden news from the Academy, Wang debuted his first feature film, \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.focusfeatures.com/article/didi_date-announcement\">Dìdi\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, at the Sundance Festival. A coming-of-age story that Wang calls “a love letter to the Bay Area, Fremont especially,” \u003cem>Dìdi\u003c/em> won two festival awards and was picked up by Focus Features, which will give it a limited theatrical release this summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I caught up with Wang over Zoom to talk about life since the Oscar nod, his filmmaker origin story in the Bay (“everything traces back to skateboarding”) and more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ariana Proehl: A lot of people have seen \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCNMXENmOpk\">the reaction video\u003c/a> of you and your family receiving news of your Oscar nomination. What’s the ride been like since then?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sean Wang\u003c/strong>: So surreal. This experience has overlapped with premiering my first feature film, so it’s two incredible experiences happening at the same time. It really is beyond my wildest dreams. And to get to do it with my grandmothers and have them really enjoy this process – and feel like we’re giving them a core memory at 96 and 86 years old – there’s no real downside.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/7fBvvRBlDHc'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/7fBvvRBlDHc'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>And how are your Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó feeling about everything? Are they excited to have their glam moment at the Oscars?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yeah, they’re getting styled by \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3tDpLppEhZ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==\">Rodarte and Shirley Kurata\u003c/a>, who was a costume designer for \u003cem>Everything Everywhere All at Once\u003c/em>. So we’re giving them a Hollywood night that, hopefully, we’ll remember forever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>That’s huge! Have they become local celebrities around Fremont?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They don’t leave the house much, so I don’t think they’re getting stopped on the street or at the Chinese supermarket, but certainly within the cultural circles that I am a part of. At the [Oscars] luncheon, people were like, “Oh my God, it’s the grandmas!” And so that’s a very strange but cool experience to have them be noticed and seen like that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Flashing back a little bit on your history, I’m curious when you first realized you wanted to be a filmmaker, and how you went about exploring that while growing up in Fremont?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Everything traces back to skateboarding for me. I’m a younger sibling; all of my cousins in the States are older than me. For a lot of my early years, my interests and my identity was looking at them and what they liked. But then I discovered skating when I was 12 or 13 years old, and that was just a very pure love. It was something that was really my own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Through skating, I got into photography and videos and filming my friends. I started making \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/bJxl7xJh46I?si=HWYSsNh_yxeCqiLV\">little documentaries\u003c/a>, and that was like a buzz for me. I was excited about putting it on YouTube, but I didn’t really have the language for it – that it was “filmmaking.” I just really loved doing it.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/bJxl7xJh46I'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/bJxl7xJh46I'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>When I graduated high school, that was the first real fork in the road, where it’s like, \u003cem>okay, is there a career doing this\u003c/em>? Growing up in Fremont, there just isn’t that language. I didn’t know any other filmmakers. There were no examples that I could really follow. But I knew that whatever this was, it was a very pure love. I ended up at De Anza [Community College] for two years, and the intention was to transfer to a film school and that’s what happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Let’s talk about your Oscar-nominated film. There’s a part when Wài Pó says, “in the future, you can show your children what we were like.” That really struck me. My family just laid my grandmother to rest a few weeks ago. So watching your grandmothers made me think about my own, and it’s really cool that you’ll get to have this memory of them after they are gone. I’m guessing that was at least part of the motivation and inspiration behind it? Did you go into it thinking about a short film, or were you just wanting to capture memories?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thank you for sharing that with me. It was both, I think. The catalyst for the film was just wanting to film them and make \u003cem>something\u003c/em>. I moved to New York City after I graduated college and lived there for about 5 or 6 years. Then in the spring of 2021, I moved home to the Bay Area, and in that period of living with them, there was so much joy. I really got to see my grandmothers and experience day-to-day life with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13953491\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13953491\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/NaiNaiWaiPo-Film-Still-Edit.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1208\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/NaiNaiWaiPo-Film-Still-Edit.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/NaiNaiWaiPo-Film-Still-Edit-800x604.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/NaiNaiWaiPo-Film-Still-Edit-1020x770.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/NaiNaiWaiPo-Film-Still-Edit-160x121.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/NaiNaiWaiPo-Film-Still-Edit-768x580.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/NaiNaiWaiPo-Film-Still-Edit-1536x1160.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">From left, filmmaker Sean Wang’s ‘Wài Pó,’ Chang Li Hua, and ‘Nǎi Nai,’ Yi Yan Fuei, in a still from the Oscar-nominated documentary short film ‘Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy Disney+)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But there was also this extreme anger and helplessness that a lot of people were feeling at that time with Covid, and with the rise in anti-Asian violence that was happening to people like my grandmothers, and people in our community. As a filmmaker, anytime I feel those emotions that are so visceral, it challenges me to ask, “Where are these emotions coming from? And how can we use that and create art?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The antidote to the anger was their joy. I wanted to make a film that was a container for all of their humanity, their joy, their silliness, their infectious, childlike energy, but also their pain and their lives that they lived before they were my grandmothers. And create a holistic portrait of that to show just how human they are, in a way that I felt people were overlooking in our society.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But to what you were saying, at the end of the day, there was this home video mentality that we brought to it, where I just wanted to remember them and remember this moment that I had with them. So even if nobody watched it, it was still a memento and a time capsule for myself and my family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13953493\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13953493\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/NaiNaiWaiPo_Foreheads-Edited.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1204\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/NaiNaiWaiPo_Foreheads-Edited.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/NaiNaiWaiPo_Foreheads-Edited-800x602.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/NaiNaiWaiPo_Foreheads-Edited-1020x768.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/NaiNaiWaiPo_Foreheads-Edited-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/NaiNaiWaiPo_Foreheads-Edited-768x578.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/NaiNaiWaiPo_Foreheads-Edited-1536x1156.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sean Wang touches foreheads with Nǎi Nai in a still from his documentary short film ‘Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy Disney+)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Do you have a favorite scene from the film? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a shot in the end montage, where me and Nǎi Nai are touching foreheads. That shot always makes me emotional. I always thank [producer] Sam [Davis] for capturing that. I edited the movie too, so there were moments in the edit that always gutted me. There’s a moment where Wài Pó was talking about, “I’m not afraid of death.” You can tell she’s thinking about mortality in those moments and you can see it in her eyes – not just the pain, but the humanity. And she takes a little sigh, and that moment always gutted me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What’s the feeling amongst your family in terms of this accomplishment, and all the excitement going into the Oscars? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re all excited. We were able to get tickets for the whole family, so it’s really a proper family affair. I feel like I’m the grandmothers’ “plus one” in all of this. As long as they’re having a good time and they feel taken care of, I’ll feel like I’m having a good time. At the end of the day, we’ve already won because this experience has been so special.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>If you take home the Oscar, is there a favorite spot in the Bay Area where you and your family would go to celebrate?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a good question. Growing up, we used to go out to dinner at Darda Seafood in Milpitas all the time. We haven’t been in years. But that was like a family tradition. Maybe we’ll bring that back for this one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "A Next-Generation Lunar New Year Party in Oakland",
"headTitle": "A Next-Generation Lunar New Year Party in Oakland | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>For Oakland small business owner Jenn Lui and San Francisco visual artist Hanna Chen, embracing the traditions of their Cantonese and Taiwanese ancestors is a kind of soul-filling nourishment. It’s an imaginative labor that allows for the multi-generational preservation of old-school memories, while forging exciting new ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The creative duo is behind an intimate Lunar New Year celebration happening on February 18 at \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/groundfloorclub/?hl=en\">Groundfloor\u003c/a> in Oakland. The get-together will honor nostalgic Asian cultural cornerstones like mahjong, holiday \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101904619/all-you-can-eat-ringing-in-the-lunar-new-year-with-asian-american-desserts\">desserts\u003c/a> and red envelopes. At the same time, it will also create space for modern, up-and-coming makers who are reshaping the possibilities of diasporic joy with tea-based cocktails, flash tattoos and tooth gems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re just reimagining [our cultures] for the current times,” says Lui, the co-founder of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thisisbabas.house/?hl=en\">Baba’s House\u003c/a>, a specialty Asian snack shop in downtown Oakland. “Mahjong was heavily played as a gambling game in my family, but now it’s a social community type of event. It’s about celebrating those blessings, prosperity, health, and doing it intentionally.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The event will feature live DJs (\u003ca href=\"http://inachu\">Ina Chu\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://jazz.fm/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https://www.google.com/url?q=http://JAZZ.FM&source=gmail&ust=1707862337560000&usg=AOvVaw02x83AbDHbRaxDA4ztH9Ee\">JAZZ.FM\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/tomudj/\">TOMU DJ\u003c/a>), foodmakers (including \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/oramasamadumplings/\">Oramasama Dumplings\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/oaklandfortunefactory/\">Oakland Fortune Factory\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/jasonbakessf/\">Jason Bakes\u003c/a>), tattoo artists (\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/proper.tattoo/\">Proper Tattoo\u003c/a>), retail vendors (\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/twotwo.online/\">Two Two\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/jiahomeco/\">JIĀ HOME CO. \u003c/a>and more) and visual artists (\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/mag.dre/\">Mag Dre\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/chrisjcheung/\">Chris Cheung\u003c/a>). In addition, there will be snacks provided by Baba’s House, a DIY red envelope station, an altar to commemorate deceased loved ones, mahjong, raffles and “tea-tails” (alcohol optional) mixed using KACE Tea, a local \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/drinkkace/\">Taiwanese-Filipino brand\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952055\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952055\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/7._jason_bakes_2.jpg\" alt=\"a red table featuring Chinese cookies for Lunar New Year\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1536\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/7._jason_bakes_2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/7._jason_bakes_2-800x640.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/7._jason_bakes_2-1020x816.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/7._jason_bakes_2-160x128.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/7._jason_bakes_2-768x614.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/7._jason_bakes_2-1536x1229.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Taiwanese pineapple cakes from Jason Bakes will be one of the desserts served at the Lunar New Year Festival. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Jenn Lui)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The festivities are part of \u003ca href=\"https://linktr.ee/itsyangsheng\">Yăng Shēng\u003c/a>, a multimedia project launched by Chen and Cai that highlights the evolving expressions of Asian American artists through art installations, photography and community events (a book is forthcoming in 2026). The San Francisco-raised artist says that for her, Lunar New Year has always represented a connection to her parents’ homeland. It’s about transporting herself and others abroad, without actually going very far.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13951648,arts_13924997,arts_13951382']“We want to recreate the feeling of a night market and also take elements from Bay Area events: art gatherings, supper parties, bringing in that club feeling, too. We’re pulling from different pockets of the world like New York, Taipei, Hong Kong, and putting all that into one space for people who might not be able to travel,” Chen says. “This is nudging American culture to be more community-oriented.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two entrepreneurs, along with Lui’s partner, Alan Chen, are thunderously vocal when it comes to creating a safe space. It’s not something they’ve always experienced as first-generation children of Asian immigrants whose parents and relatives have sometimes questioned their artistic endeavors and cross-cultural expressions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re kind of reimagining everything,” Lui says. “When I told my mom about the altar, she asked why we’re doing that. I found that interesting, and I wonder if other folks from that generation don’t see what we’re doing as a positive thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952059\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952059\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/altar_shot_by_jenn____soulrealjenn.jpg\" alt=\"a table altar featuring photos of deceased family members, incense and treats\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/altar_shot_by_jenn____soulrealjenn.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/altar_shot_by_jenn____soulrealjenn-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/altar_shot_by_jenn____soulrealjenn-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/altar_shot_by_jenn____soulrealjenn-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/altar_shot_by_jenn____soulrealjenn-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/altar_shot_by_jenn____soulrealjenn-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An altar will be provided inside Groundfloor for attendees to honor their loved ones. \u003ccite>(Jenn Lui)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The generational gap hasn’t stopped them, though. If anything, it encourages them to bridge the various ages and groups of Asian Americans who live here in the Bay Area. For both Lui and Chen, intergenerational reclamation and representation is essential. And doing it in a way that feels authentically curated and creatively expansive is what drives them both.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our collective experiences span across many decades,” says Chen, who is about 10 years younger than Lui. “We come from really different eras. But we’re all Asian Americans who grew up in the Bay, and I think that connection is special.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Maybe you were an outcast growing up as a person of color, but now you’re a cool kid pushing the culture.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>The Lunar New Year Festival presented by \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thisisbabas.house/?hl=en\">\u003ci>Baba’s House\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> and \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://linktr.ee/itsyangsheng\">\u003ci>Yăng Shēng\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> will take place at \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/groundfloorclub/?hl=en\">\u003ci>Groundfloor\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> (4055 Telegraph Ave., Oakland) on Feb. 18, 1–6 p.m. \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.eventbrite.com/e/babas-house-x-yang-sheng-presents-lunar-new-year-festival-tickets-808221972677?aff=oddtdtcreator\">\u003ci>Tickets\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> are available online for $15–$25.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "How the children of immigrants are reshaping traditions to reflect their eclectic Bay Area upbringings.\r\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For Oakland small business owner Jenn Lui and San Francisco visual artist Hanna Chen, embracing the traditions of their Cantonese and Taiwanese ancestors is a kind of soul-filling nourishment. It’s an imaginative labor that allows for the multi-generational preservation of old-school memories, while forging exciting new ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The creative duo is behind an intimate Lunar New Year celebration happening on February 18 at \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/groundfloorclub/?hl=en\">Groundfloor\u003c/a> in Oakland. The get-together will honor nostalgic Asian cultural cornerstones like mahjong, holiday \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101904619/all-you-can-eat-ringing-in-the-lunar-new-year-with-asian-american-desserts\">desserts\u003c/a> and red envelopes. At the same time, it will also create space for modern, up-and-coming makers who are reshaping the possibilities of diasporic joy with tea-based cocktails, flash tattoos and tooth gems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re just reimagining [our cultures] for the current times,” says Lui, the co-founder of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thisisbabas.house/?hl=en\">Baba’s House\u003c/a>, a specialty Asian snack shop in downtown Oakland. “Mahjong was heavily played as a gambling game in my family, but now it’s a social community type of event. It’s about celebrating those blessings, prosperity, health, and doing it intentionally.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The event will feature live DJs (\u003ca href=\"http://inachu\">Ina Chu\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://jazz.fm/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https://www.google.com/url?q=http://JAZZ.FM&source=gmail&ust=1707862337560000&usg=AOvVaw02x83AbDHbRaxDA4ztH9Ee\">JAZZ.FM\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/tomudj/\">TOMU DJ\u003c/a>), foodmakers (including \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/oramasamadumplings/\">Oramasama Dumplings\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/oaklandfortunefactory/\">Oakland Fortune Factory\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/jasonbakessf/\">Jason Bakes\u003c/a>), tattoo artists (\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/proper.tattoo/\">Proper Tattoo\u003c/a>), retail vendors (\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/twotwo.online/\">Two Two\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/jiahomeco/\">JIĀ HOME CO. \u003c/a>and more) and visual artists (\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/mag.dre/\">Mag Dre\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/chrisjcheung/\">Chris Cheung\u003c/a>). In addition, there will be snacks provided by Baba’s House, a DIY red envelope station, an altar to commemorate deceased loved ones, mahjong, raffles and “tea-tails” (alcohol optional) mixed using KACE Tea, a local \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/drinkkace/\">Taiwanese-Filipino brand\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952055\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952055\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/7._jason_bakes_2.jpg\" alt=\"a red table featuring Chinese cookies for Lunar New Year\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1536\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/7._jason_bakes_2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/7._jason_bakes_2-800x640.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/7._jason_bakes_2-1020x816.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/7._jason_bakes_2-160x128.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/7._jason_bakes_2-768x614.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/7._jason_bakes_2-1536x1229.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Taiwanese pineapple cakes from Jason Bakes will be one of the desserts served at the Lunar New Year Festival. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Jenn Lui)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The festivities are part of \u003ca href=\"https://linktr.ee/itsyangsheng\">Yăng Shēng\u003c/a>, a multimedia project launched by Chen and Cai that highlights the evolving expressions of Asian American artists through art installations, photography and community events (a book is forthcoming in 2026). The San Francisco-raised artist says that for her, Lunar New Year has always represented a connection to her parents’ homeland. It’s about transporting herself and others abroad, without actually going very far.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We want to recreate the feeling of a night market and also take elements from Bay Area events: art gatherings, supper parties, bringing in that club feeling, too. We’re pulling from different pockets of the world like New York, Taipei, Hong Kong, and putting all that into one space for people who might not be able to travel,” Chen says. “This is nudging American culture to be more community-oriented.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two entrepreneurs, along with Lui’s partner, Alan Chen, are thunderously vocal when it comes to creating a safe space. It’s not something they’ve always experienced as first-generation children of Asian immigrants whose parents and relatives have sometimes questioned their artistic endeavors and cross-cultural expressions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re kind of reimagining everything,” Lui says. “When I told my mom about the altar, she asked why we’re doing that. I found that interesting, and I wonder if other folks from that generation don’t see what we’re doing as a positive thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952059\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952059\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/altar_shot_by_jenn____soulrealjenn.jpg\" alt=\"a table altar featuring photos of deceased family members, incense and treats\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/altar_shot_by_jenn____soulrealjenn.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/altar_shot_by_jenn____soulrealjenn-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/altar_shot_by_jenn____soulrealjenn-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/altar_shot_by_jenn____soulrealjenn-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/altar_shot_by_jenn____soulrealjenn-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/altar_shot_by_jenn____soulrealjenn-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An altar will be provided inside Groundfloor for attendees to honor their loved ones. \u003ccite>(Jenn Lui)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The generational gap hasn’t stopped them, though. If anything, it encourages them to bridge the various ages and groups of Asian Americans who live here in the Bay Area. For both Lui and Chen, intergenerational reclamation and representation is essential. And doing it in a way that feels authentically curated and creatively expansive is what drives them both.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our collective experiences span across many decades,” says Chen, who is about 10 years younger than Lui. “We come from really different eras. But we’re all Asian Americans who grew up in the Bay, and I think that connection is special.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Maybe you were an outcast growing up as a person of color, but now you’re a cool kid pushing the culture.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>The Lunar New Year Festival presented by \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thisisbabas.house/?hl=en\">\u003ci>Baba’s House\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> and \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://linktr.ee/itsyangsheng\">\u003ci>Yăng Shēng\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> will take place at \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/groundfloorclub/?hl=en\">\u003ci>Groundfloor\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> (4055 Telegraph Ave., Oakland) on Feb. 18, 1–6 p.m. \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.eventbrite.com/e/babas-house-x-yang-sheng-presents-lunar-new-year-festival-tickets-808221972677?aff=oddtdtcreator\">\u003ci>Tickets\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> are available online for $15–$25.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Stinky Tofu Is the Unlikely Star of a New Children’s Book",
"headTitle": "Stinky Tofu Is the Unlikely Star of a New Children’s Book | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>In my years as the Bay Area’s most dedicated stinky tofu evangelist, I have preached the pungent virtues of fermented bean curd to anyone who would listen — in blog posts and glossy magazine features, on obscure internet \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13910817/chowhound-shutting-down-rip\">discussion forums\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101893028/all-you-can-eat-funky-foods-we-arent-supposed-to-love-but-do\">live public radio\u003c/a>. And in real life, I’ve wheedled friends, family members and random Taipei night market strangers into at least giving the dish a fair shake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What I never expected, though, was for stinky tofu to be the subject — and the unlikely hero — of a children’s book published here in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that’s precisely what East Bay author Ying Chang Compestine has created with \u003ca href=\"https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/710497/ra-pu-zel-and-the-stinky-tofu-by-ying-chang-compestine-illustrated-by-crystal-kung/\">\u003ci>Ra Pu Zel and the Stinky Tofu\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, her new riff on the classic Rapunzel fairy tale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13940137\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13940137\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/ra-pu-zel-cover.jpg\" alt=\"Cover of the children's book 'Ra Pu Zel and the Stinky Tofu' shows a princess with a long, black braid surrounded by many bowls of Chinese food.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1995\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/ra-pu-zel-cover.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/ra-pu-zel-cover-800x798.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/ra-pu-zel-cover-1020x1017.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/ra-pu-zel-cover-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/ra-pu-zel-cover-768x766.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/ra-pu-zel-cover-1536x1532.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/ra-pu-zel-cover-1920x1915.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Compestine’s book is a retelling of ‘Rapunzel.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Penguin Random House)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Compestine is no stranger to writing about Chinese food: She’s a seasoned cookbook author who used to be a food editor for Martha Stewart’s \u003ci>Whole Living\u003c/i>, and her more recent pivot to writing \u003ca href=\"https://www.yingc.com/picture-books.html\">stories for children\u003c/a> has been almost entirely food-centric\u003ci>.\u003c/i> And fried stinky tofu, specifically, was one of Compestine’s favorite childhood treats, sold by street vendors throughout her hometown of Wuhan, China.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Compestine explains that when she was growing up in Wuhan during the Cultural Revolution in the late ’60s and early ’70s, the Communist Party had banned all Western books, including fairy tales like “Rapunzel.” But Compestine and her friends would read the stories in secret, then regale each other with their own retellings. She remembers especially loving Rapunzel’s dress: “We all had to wear Mao’s uniform,” she recalls. “I never had colorful clothes or long hair.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What Compestine found boring, however, even as a young girl, was the standard storyline about a princess falling for a handsome prince. In the “Rapunzel” stories that she improvised as a child, the prince was only ever able to win over his beloved through her belly, with a steady supply of candy and snacks — including, of course, stinky tofu, which remains a popular local delicacy in Wuhan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Food was on my mind at the time,” Compestine says. “I was hungry.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13937806,arts_13924997,arts_13897272']\u003c/span>In many ways, then, \u003ci>Ra Pu Zel and the Stinky Tofu\u003c/i> is just a more fully realized version of those early retellings, brought to vivid life through Pixar character designer \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/crystaleatsyourbrain/?hl=en\">Crystal Kung\u003c/a>’s delightfully expressive, watercolor-like illustrations. In Compestine’s version of “Rapunzel,” Pu Zel, the princess heroine, isn’t kidnapped by an evil witch. Instead, she locks \u003ci>herself\u003c/i> in the high tower because it’s the only place where she isn’t burdened by the demands and expectations of the imperial court — and where she’s free to cook and eat what she likes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for the young street vendor who (spoiler alert) finally entices the spunky princess to come down again? Let’s just say that it’s a refreshing change from most portrayals of stinky tofu here in the West, where the pungent dish is still largely relegated to some category of extreme eating — something so gross and funky that only the most adventurous eaters would dare to give it a try.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for Taiwanese Americans like myself, in particular, the night market staple is a point of national pride and, more simply, just a delicious everyday food. I often talk about what a radicalizing moment it was for me when a surprisingly \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjGZg4gHOJw\">weak-sauce Andrew Zimmern\u003c/a> was so disgusted by stinky tofu on \u003ci>Bizarre Foods\u003c/i> that he couldn’t swallow a single bite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What I love, then, about \u003ci>Ra Pu Zel and the Stinky Tofu \u003c/i>is how little Compestine dwells on the strangeness or stinkiness of the dish. “It smells like a sweaty ox!” exclaims one old man. But within the span of a few sentences, Pu Zel is admiring how delicious and “irresistible” the tofu is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13940138\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13940138\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/9780593533055_Interior_Image_5_495223.jpg\" alt=\"A spread from a picture book shows a young chef cooking a big pot of stinky tofu, as birds and squirrels flee from the dish's strong odor.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/9780593533055_Interior_Image_5_495223.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/9780593533055_Interior_Image_5_495223-800x400.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/9780593533055_Interior_Image_5_495223-1020x510.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/9780593533055_Interior_Image_5_495223-160x80.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/9780593533055_Interior_Image_5_495223-768x384.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/9780593533055_Interior_Image_5_495223-1536x768.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/9780593533055_Interior_Image_5_495223-1920x960.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In the end, a delicious pot of stinky tofu is what saves the day. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Penguin Random House)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, Compestine says her goal wasn’t necessarily to convince every child who reads the book to eat stinky tofu. She finished the book during the pandemic, right around the time when Wuhan was receiving so much \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-03-20/hundreds-gather-in-san-francisco-for-rally-against-anti-asian-attacks-racism\">negative publicity\u003c/a> — and when there was a wave of anti-Asian sentiment here in the U.S. “Through my book, I want people to understand my hometown,” she says. “And I wanted to portray a very strong female character. I wanted to change the perception that Asians are weak.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if readers feel inspired to eat a big plate of tofu after they finish the book? There’s a (non-stinky) recipe in the back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/710497/ra-pu-zel-and-the-stinky-tofu-by-ying-chang-compestine-illustrated-by-crystal-kung/\">Ra Pu Zel and the Stinky Tofu\u003c/a> is available where books are sold. Compestine and Kung, the illustrator, will appear at Hicklebee’s (1378 Lincoln Ave., San José) on Saturday, Jan. 13, for storytime and a drawing demonstration.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In my years as the Bay Area’s most dedicated stinky tofu evangelist, I have preached the pungent virtues of fermented bean curd to anyone who would listen — in blog posts and glossy magazine features, on obscure internet \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13910817/chowhound-shutting-down-rip\">discussion forums\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101893028/all-you-can-eat-funky-foods-we-arent-supposed-to-love-but-do\">live public radio\u003c/a>. And in real life, I’ve wheedled friends, family members and random Taipei night market strangers into at least giving the dish a fair shake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What I never expected, though, was for stinky tofu to be the subject — and the unlikely hero — of a children’s book published here in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that’s precisely what East Bay author Ying Chang Compestine has created with \u003ca href=\"https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/710497/ra-pu-zel-and-the-stinky-tofu-by-ying-chang-compestine-illustrated-by-crystal-kung/\">\u003ci>Ra Pu Zel and the Stinky Tofu\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, her new riff on the classic Rapunzel fairy tale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13940137\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13940137\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/ra-pu-zel-cover.jpg\" alt=\"Cover of the children's book 'Ra Pu Zel and the Stinky Tofu' shows a princess with a long, black braid surrounded by many bowls of Chinese food.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1995\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/ra-pu-zel-cover.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/ra-pu-zel-cover-800x798.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/ra-pu-zel-cover-1020x1017.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/ra-pu-zel-cover-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/ra-pu-zel-cover-768x766.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/ra-pu-zel-cover-1536x1532.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/ra-pu-zel-cover-1920x1915.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Compestine’s book is a retelling of ‘Rapunzel.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Penguin Random House)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Compestine is no stranger to writing about Chinese food: She’s a seasoned cookbook author who used to be a food editor for Martha Stewart’s \u003ci>Whole Living\u003c/i>, and her more recent pivot to writing \u003ca href=\"https://www.yingc.com/picture-books.html\">stories for children\u003c/a> has been almost entirely food-centric\u003ci>.\u003c/i> And fried stinky tofu, specifically, was one of Compestine’s favorite childhood treats, sold by street vendors throughout her hometown of Wuhan, China.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Compestine explains that when she was growing up in Wuhan during the Cultural Revolution in the late ’60s and early ’70s, the Communist Party had banned all Western books, including fairy tales like “Rapunzel.” But Compestine and her friends would read the stories in secret, then regale each other with their own retellings. She remembers especially loving Rapunzel’s dress: “We all had to wear Mao’s uniform,” she recalls. “I never had colorful clothes or long hair.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What Compestine found boring, however, even as a young girl, was the standard storyline about a princess falling for a handsome prince. In the “Rapunzel” stories that she improvised as a child, the prince was only ever able to win over his beloved through her belly, with a steady supply of candy and snacks — including, of course, stinky tofu, which remains a popular local delicacy in Wuhan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Food was on my mind at the time,” Compestine says. “I was hungry.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>In many ways, then, \u003ci>Ra Pu Zel and the Stinky Tofu\u003c/i> is just a more fully realized version of those early retellings, brought to vivid life through Pixar character designer \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/crystaleatsyourbrain/?hl=en\">Crystal Kung\u003c/a>’s delightfully expressive, watercolor-like illustrations. In Compestine’s version of “Rapunzel,” Pu Zel, the princess heroine, isn’t kidnapped by an evil witch. Instead, she locks \u003ci>herself\u003c/i> in the high tower because it’s the only place where she isn’t burdened by the demands and expectations of the imperial court — and where she’s free to cook and eat what she likes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for the young street vendor who (spoiler alert) finally entices the spunky princess to come down again? Let’s just say that it’s a refreshing change from most portrayals of stinky tofu here in the West, where the pungent dish is still largely relegated to some category of extreme eating — something so gross and funky that only the most adventurous eaters would dare to give it a try.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for Taiwanese Americans like myself, in particular, the night market staple is a point of national pride and, more simply, just a delicious everyday food. I often talk about what a radicalizing moment it was for me when a surprisingly \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjGZg4gHOJw\">weak-sauce Andrew Zimmern\u003c/a> was so disgusted by stinky tofu on \u003ci>Bizarre Foods\u003c/i> that he couldn’t swallow a single bite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What I love, then, about \u003ci>Ra Pu Zel and the Stinky Tofu \u003c/i>is how little Compestine dwells on the strangeness or stinkiness of the dish. “It smells like a sweaty ox!” exclaims one old man. But within the span of a few sentences, Pu Zel is admiring how delicious and “irresistible” the tofu is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13940138\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13940138\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/9780593533055_Interior_Image_5_495223.jpg\" alt=\"A spread from a picture book shows a young chef cooking a big pot of stinky tofu, as birds and squirrels flee from the dish's strong odor.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/9780593533055_Interior_Image_5_495223.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/9780593533055_Interior_Image_5_495223-800x400.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/9780593533055_Interior_Image_5_495223-1020x510.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/9780593533055_Interior_Image_5_495223-160x80.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/9780593533055_Interior_Image_5_495223-768x384.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/9780593533055_Interior_Image_5_495223-1536x768.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/9780593533055_Interior_Image_5_495223-1920x960.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In the end, a delicious pot of stinky tofu is what saves the day. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Penguin Random House)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, Compestine says her goal wasn’t necessarily to convince every child who reads the book to eat stinky tofu. She finished the book during the pandemic, right around the time when Wuhan was receiving so much \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-03-20/hundreds-gather-in-san-francisco-for-rally-against-anti-asian-attacks-racism\">negative publicity\u003c/a> — and when there was a wave of anti-Asian sentiment here in the U.S. “Through my book, I want people to understand my hometown,” she says. “And I wanted to portray a very strong female character. I wanted to change the perception that Asians are weak.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if readers feel inspired to eat a big plate of tofu after they finish the book? There’s a (non-stinky) recipe in the back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/710497/ra-pu-zel-and-the-stinky-tofu-by-ying-chang-compestine-illustrated-by-crystal-kung/\">Ra Pu Zel and the Stinky Tofu\u003c/a> is available where books are sold. Compestine and Kung, the illustrator, will appear at Hicklebee’s (1378 Lincoln Ave., San José) on Saturday, Jan. 13, for storytime and a drawing demonstration.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "lyrics-born-cooking-show-dinner-in-place-berkeley-hella-hungry",
"title": "Berkeley Rap Icon Lyrics Born Now Has His Own Cooking Show",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003ci>¡Hella Hungry! is a column about Bay Area foodmakers, exploring the region’s culinary cultures through the mouth of a first-generation local.\u003c/i>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Saul’s Deli, a bustling Jewish delicatessen serving North Berkeley since 1986, isn’t where you’d expect to kick it with a rap legend. But it’s where Tsutomu Shimura — better known as Lyrics Born, the pioneering Japanese and Jewish American rapper — chose to meet me for lunch on a calm, sunny Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shimura is a certified hip-hop veteran. As a founding member of the Bay Area rap group \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13929861/latyrx-lateef-lyrics-born-solesides-quannum\">Latryx\u003c/a>, he was one of the first Asian American emcees to gain national fame in the early ’90s. His career stretches across decades with an impressive longevity that only \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13932488/e-40-way-magazine-street-renamed-vallejo\">E-40\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13922548/too-short-way-oakland-street-renamed\">Too $hort\u003c/a> could scoff at. Shimura was the first Asian American rapper to release more than 10 studio albums. He’s so prolific that on the day of our hangout, he also released a song, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb9epoQCnuA\">Heaven and Armageddon\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And still, Shimura makes room for his latest creative appetite: food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13934217\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13934217 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-10-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A bagel with pastrami and a green sauce.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-10-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-10-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-10-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-10-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-10-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-10-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-10-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The author’s’s salami egg bagel with added pastrami. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I like to try new things when I’m cooking, just like I would in a song,” he tells me while enjoying an order of trout, eggs and onions with extra pastrami. “It’s creative, there’s no rules. And you’ll probably like what I make, even if you’ve never heard of it before.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjCJDQP1p-o\">Having appeared on KQED’s \u003ci>Check, Please! Bay Area\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, he’s no stranger to the culinary game. The saucy wordsmith has never been afraid of being front and center, either. So it makes sense that the deep-voiced lyricist and diehard foodie — who grew up in Berkeley with an appreciation for the Bay’s culturally diverse cuisines — now has his own online food series, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuFEwujFCNdkNoLfIIOKOwYb1bHpR0v_g\">\u003ci>Dinner In Place\u003c/i>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK2yFPkrwhs\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The show was born in the pandemic when Shimura was unable to tour internationally as frequently as he was accustomed to. A simple Instagram post of him making pasta with clams blew up, and requests from friends, family and fans flooded his inbox: \u003ci>When’s the next one?\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shimura admits he was simply sharing his cooking out of boredom. But he quickly discovered that while on a path to dieting and home cooking in his spare time, he could share his journey with others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, \u003ci>Dinner In Place \u003c/i>is entering its fourth season. The show focuses on multiculturalism and culinary innovation with a range of guests — including Señor Sisig chef Gil Payumo and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/136410/sobre-mesa-brings-afro-caribbean-cocktails-and-light-bites-to-oakland\">Sobre Mesa\u003c/a> chef Nelson German — tied together by Shimura’s trademark baritone narration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over a plate of open-faced salami egg bagels (with extra pastrami, following Shimura’s lead), I tuned in to the hip-hop icon as he reflected on his love of food, music and wellness as a nourishing therapy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center\">********\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Chazaro: Many of us know you for your music career. But now you’re doing \u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>Dinner In Place\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003cb>. How did your journey into making food videos begin?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lyrics Born:\u003c/b> During the pandemic, I had nothing but time on my hands. Prior to that, to be honest, I was feeling pretty burnt out artistically. Up to 2019, I was doing at least 100 [tour] dates a year. I was exhausted, bro. Putting out albums every 18 months for 20 years straight. I didn’t realize how tired I truly was. When everything shut down I was like wait a minute. No flight? No studio sessions? No gig? I’m sleeping in my own bed for more than a week? I love this. My lifestyle was such that six months prior to lockdown I was having health issues. Soreness, coughing. Shit like that. But then I started having anxiety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13934210\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13934210 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"The facade of a restaurant painted bright red.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-01-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-01-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-01-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-01-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-01-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Saul’s has been a Berkeley institution since 1986. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>So a few months before lockdown, I started to change my diet and exercise. I was up to 225 pounds, and I couldn’t do what I used to on stage, and that was upsetting. I literally couldn’t perform like I used to. So one of the best things I could’ve done was just drop some weight. I started to eat differently and exercise more, and so sliding into quarantine I had some momentum and control over my life. I was at home and started cooking more, since I had been eating out and on the go for years. Because of my health journey, I started to do plant-based stuff. I like to use social media, so I just shot the shit. No editing, just narrating as I went in real time. Everyone was at home also, and it was just a hit. I wasn’t writing anything else, and I didn’t want to do anything with music, so it gave me a new creative outlet instantly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As time went on I started throwing in things from my childhood and travels, and it became weekly. It was cultural, and it was also conceptual like music. Like, wouldn’t it be cool if we took some vegan ground beef and turned it into a kung pao and then made that into a sloppy joe in between two Taiwanese pancakes and just called that a Kung Pao Sloppy Joe? You know what I mean?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13934216\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13934216 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-09-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A plate with homefries and other food on it.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-09-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-09-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-09-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-09-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-09-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-09-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-09-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lyrics Born’s plate of trout, eggs and onion. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>That’s definitely a rapper’s creative mind at work, just remixing hella ingredients.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s all it was. I had time and headspace, and there was nothing else competing with my creativity. It was fun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Bay Area hip-hop has so many anthems — “I Got 5 On It,” “Tell Me When to Go,” “Thizzle Dance.” You put those songs on and Bay Area people will flock to the dance floor and know exactly what to do. What’s the equivalent of that for our region’s food?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are a few restaurants in Berkeley. That’s what I know, so I’ll speak to that. Everett and Jones is one of them. They’ve been around since I was a kid in multiple locations. The one in Berkeley is the best, truth be told. People will have varying opinions on it all, but I also think Le Cheval — a longtime Vietnamese restaurant in Berkeley that unfortunately closed, where many people would go. Chez Panisse, of course.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And in Oakland, you have guys like Chef Nelson from Sobre Mesa. He just reopened \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/alamaroakland/\">alaMar\u003c/a> with a new Dominican menu. The Bay needs that. Oakland is special because it has that diversity. There’s room, space and audience for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>I noticed you’ve invited local chefs — like Chef Nelson — onto your show this season. What have been some favorite dishes you’ve learned how to make?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We actually released one today that I really love. A “Locrio Japonese.” Japanese curry, stir-fried rice, grilled pork. Dominican and Japanese fusion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13934214\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13934214 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-06-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person cuts a pickle with a fork and knife.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-06-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-06-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-06-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-06-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-06-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-06-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-06-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pickled beets and cucumbers. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Are these all your original food ideas? Are they just for your private consumption?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We talk about it, bro. With every guest chef — I’ve even had my wife on for an episode — we talk about it, and if we have time, we demo it. I was able to demo the recipes at Señor Sisig and alaMar. Really generous, brilliant chefs. We’re actually doing a pop-up in alaMar, and we’ll be serving the actual dish. It was fun and cute during the pandemic, but I wanted to do more with it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Now that you’re three decades into your career, having broken barriers like becoming the first Asian American rapper to perform at events like Coachella and Lollapalooza, what stands out to you — and how does food play into it all?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first couple decades of my career I never reflected. I never looked back, I was thinking about what’s next. It wasn’t until I made my greatest hits album that I was forced to reflect. Doing \u003cem>Dinner in Place\u003c/em> and cooking has really led me down a path that I just totally took for granted. I didn’t realize how special it was to make sushi with my father who I saw maybe once a year. And when I saw him, I was young at the time, and we’d make sushi together, or maybe go out for Korean barbecue in Japan. He spent some time in New York City, but he had health issues and went back to Japan. The last 15 years of his life were in Japan, and I’d go back when I could. Even though he was immobile, we still cooked. It was something I did with him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when I got back, my son asked if I could roll sushi, and I was like fuck yeah, I can. Because I did it with my father. Let me start there. It opened up chapters in my life I could revisit. I didn’t consider that to be significant until later. Same with my grandma. She would take me to Jewish delis in L.A. with that side of the family. I grew up in places like Saul’s. \u003ci>Let’s deli.\u003c/i> That’s a Jewish thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>And you did it all while staying true to yourself and highlighting your heritage.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thank you. Rappers? Entertainers? There weren’t many who looked like me who were visible. We had a few here and there. And there were people before me, for sure. But \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13933283/undiscovered-sf-2023-filipino-culture-festival-food-hip-hop-anniversary-soma\">it was mostly DJs and breakdancers\u003c/a>. We were mostly in the background. But there was nobody — since hip-hop was so young — who I could look to in the way someone can look at me now and say, \u003ci>So that’s how you do it\u003c/i>. To have a 30-year career as an Asian American rapper in hip-hop and to see that path as possible.[pullquote size=\"large\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Lyrics Born\"]“In my experience, being mixed is normal. Everything else is different.”[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those lessons exist now, but they didn’t really exist for me. I mean, hip-hop is turning 50 years old. I’ve been around for 30 of those. I took a lot of my cues from studying my peers, but also the previous generation of artists outside of hip-hop. Sammy Davis Jr. James Brown. Those were long careers. There’s a multitude of mountains you have to simultaneously climb. It’s hard for anyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other layer is doing it as a person of color in a system that isn’t built for you to succeed. You’re fighting parallel battles. Then being Asian American, there was even less context as a performer. When I first started touring, I swear to god there were places where I was the only Asian American in the city. But it still sold out. It was about the music. And that’s why food is also so liberating. In my experience, being mixed is normal. Everything else is different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>That’s part of the beauty of growing up in the Bay Area, right?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don’t think my career could have been possible anywhere outside of the Bay Area. My reality has always been multicultural. And that’s even more so now. Everyone I grew up with in Berkeley is mixed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13934213\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13934213 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two people laugh together at a booth in a restaurant.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-05-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-05-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-05-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-05-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-05-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lyrics Born sharing a meal — and reflections on his 30-year career in hip-hop — with KQED food writer Alan Chazaro. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>And you can just hustle your way into different situations and make it work.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13929861,arts_13930458,arts_13907726']\u003c/span>Bro, I never went to any culinary school. But I’m creative. And the food tastes good. I don’t give a shit about technique. About what is the way you’re supposed to do it. Just taste it. You’ll love it. You don’t need a chef’s coat. Whatever you wear isn’t gonna change the way you cook. I didn’t come from that. Yes, some of these guys can cook circles around me. But I’m a self-taught rapper. I didn’t take piano lessons or guitar lessons. I had a pen and paper and started writing down some words and hoped they rhymed to their own beat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And real chefs understand that. They get the raw creativity, and that’s what it all is for me. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko2k6RC4MCc\">sinigang ramen\u003c/a>. Nobody’s doing that or presenting it in the way we do. And I say that with pride, not to brag. We’re injecting something new into this. You’ll walk away feeling better, having learned something. And that’s important to me about the show. We wanna make great food, but what’s greater than expanding your horizons on different levels?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Is that part of growing up with immigrant parents? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Totally. And the best part is that our experience [as children of immigrants] is mathematically going to be the dominant experience in this country. We’ll see more people like us — literally and figuratively. That’s not an opinion. That’s facts. It’s trending in a certain direction, and nothing can stop that. And we’ll be enjoying those flavors for a long time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuFEwujFCNdkNoLfIIOKOwYb1bHpR0v_g\">\u003cem>‘Dinner In Place’\u003c/em>\u003ci> is available to watch on YouTube on Lyrics Born’s channel\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>. Season 4 is now streaming. \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/lyricsborn/\">\u003ci>Lyrics Born\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> will team up with chef Nelson German at \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/alamaroakland/\">\u003ci>alaMar Dominican Kitchen\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> (100 Grand Ave. #111, Oakland) for a live “Dinner In Place” pop-up on Thurs. Sep. 14 from 5 p.m. to closing.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003ci>¡Hella Hungry! is a column about Bay Area foodmakers, exploring the region’s culinary cultures through the mouth of a first-generation local.\u003c/i>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Saul’s Deli, a bustling Jewish delicatessen serving North Berkeley since 1986, isn’t where you’d expect to kick it with a rap legend. But it’s where Tsutomu Shimura — better known as Lyrics Born, the pioneering Japanese and Jewish American rapper — chose to meet me for lunch on a calm, sunny Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shimura is a certified hip-hop veteran. As a founding member of the Bay Area rap group \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13929861/latyrx-lateef-lyrics-born-solesides-quannum\">Latryx\u003c/a>, he was one of the first Asian American emcees to gain national fame in the early ’90s. His career stretches across decades with an impressive longevity that only \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13932488/e-40-way-magazine-street-renamed-vallejo\">E-40\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13922548/too-short-way-oakland-street-renamed\">Too $hort\u003c/a> could scoff at. Shimura was the first Asian American rapper to release more than 10 studio albums. He’s so prolific that on the day of our hangout, he also released a song, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb9epoQCnuA\">Heaven and Armageddon\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And still, Shimura makes room for his latest creative appetite: food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13934217\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13934217 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-10-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A bagel with pastrami and a green sauce.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-10-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-10-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-10-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-10-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-10-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-10-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-10-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The author’s’s salami egg bagel with added pastrami. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I like to try new things when I’m cooking, just like I would in a song,” he tells me while enjoying an order of trout, eggs and onions with extra pastrami. “It’s creative, there’s no rules. And you’ll probably like what I make, even if you’ve never heard of it before.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjCJDQP1p-o\">Having appeared on KQED’s \u003ci>Check, Please! Bay Area\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, he’s no stranger to the culinary game. The saucy wordsmith has never been afraid of being front and center, either. So it makes sense that the deep-voiced lyricist and diehard foodie — who grew up in Berkeley with an appreciation for the Bay’s culturally diverse cuisines — now has his own online food series, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuFEwujFCNdkNoLfIIOKOwYb1bHpR0v_g\">\u003ci>Dinner In Place\u003c/i>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/SK2yFPkrwhs'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/SK2yFPkrwhs'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The show was born in the pandemic when Shimura was unable to tour internationally as frequently as he was accustomed to. A simple Instagram post of him making pasta with clams blew up, and requests from friends, family and fans flooded his inbox: \u003ci>When’s the next one?\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shimura admits he was simply sharing his cooking out of boredom. But he quickly discovered that while on a path to dieting and home cooking in his spare time, he could share his journey with others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, \u003ci>Dinner In Place \u003c/i>is entering its fourth season. The show focuses on multiculturalism and culinary innovation with a range of guests — including Señor Sisig chef Gil Payumo and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/136410/sobre-mesa-brings-afro-caribbean-cocktails-and-light-bites-to-oakland\">Sobre Mesa\u003c/a> chef Nelson German — tied together by Shimura’s trademark baritone narration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over a plate of open-faced salami egg bagels (with extra pastrami, following Shimura’s lead), I tuned in to the hip-hop icon as he reflected on his love of food, music and wellness as a nourishing therapy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center\">********\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Chazaro: Many of us know you for your music career. But now you’re doing \u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>Dinner In Place\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003cb>. How did your journey into making food videos begin?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lyrics Born:\u003c/b> During the pandemic, I had nothing but time on my hands. Prior to that, to be honest, I was feeling pretty burnt out artistically. Up to 2019, I was doing at least 100 [tour] dates a year. I was exhausted, bro. Putting out albums every 18 months for 20 years straight. I didn’t realize how tired I truly was. When everything shut down I was like wait a minute. No flight? No studio sessions? No gig? I’m sleeping in my own bed for more than a week? I love this. My lifestyle was such that six months prior to lockdown I was having health issues. Soreness, coughing. Shit like that. But then I started having anxiety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13934210\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13934210 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"The facade of a restaurant painted bright red.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-01-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-01-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-01-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-01-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-01-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Saul’s has been a Berkeley institution since 1986. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>So a few months before lockdown, I started to change my diet and exercise. I was up to 225 pounds, and I couldn’t do what I used to on stage, and that was upsetting. I literally couldn’t perform like I used to. So one of the best things I could’ve done was just drop some weight. I started to eat differently and exercise more, and so sliding into quarantine I had some momentum and control over my life. I was at home and started cooking more, since I had been eating out and on the go for years. Because of my health journey, I started to do plant-based stuff. I like to use social media, so I just shot the shit. No editing, just narrating as I went in real time. Everyone was at home also, and it was just a hit. I wasn’t writing anything else, and I didn’t want to do anything with music, so it gave me a new creative outlet instantly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As time went on I started throwing in things from my childhood and travels, and it became weekly. It was cultural, and it was also conceptual like music. Like, wouldn’t it be cool if we took some vegan ground beef and turned it into a kung pao and then made that into a sloppy joe in between two Taiwanese pancakes and just called that a Kung Pao Sloppy Joe? You know what I mean?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13934216\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13934216 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-09-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A plate with homefries and other food on it.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-09-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-09-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-09-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-09-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-09-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-09-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-09-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lyrics Born’s plate of trout, eggs and onion. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>That’s definitely a rapper’s creative mind at work, just remixing hella ingredients.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s all it was. I had time and headspace, and there was nothing else competing with my creativity. It was fun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Bay Area hip-hop has so many anthems — “I Got 5 On It,” “Tell Me When to Go,” “Thizzle Dance.” You put those songs on and Bay Area people will flock to the dance floor and know exactly what to do. What’s the equivalent of that for our region’s food?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are a few restaurants in Berkeley. That’s what I know, so I’ll speak to that. Everett and Jones is one of them. They’ve been around since I was a kid in multiple locations. The one in Berkeley is the best, truth be told. People will have varying opinions on it all, but I also think Le Cheval — a longtime Vietnamese restaurant in Berkeley that unfortunately closed, where many people would go. Chez Panisse, of course.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And in Oakland, you have guys like Chef Nelson from Sobre Mesa. He just reopened \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/alamaroakland/\">alaMar\u003c/a> with a new Dominican menu. The Bay needs that. Oakland is special because it has that diversity. There’s room, space and audience for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>I noticed you’ve invited local chefs — like Chef Nelson — onto your show this season. What have been some favorite dishes you’ve learned how to make?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We actually released one today that I really love. A “Locrio Japonese.” Japanese curry, stir-fried rice, grilled pork. Dominican and Japanese fusion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13934214\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13934214 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-06-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person cuts a pickle with a fork and knife.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-06-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-06-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-06-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-06-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-06-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-06-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-06-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pickled beets and cucumbers. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Are these all your original food ideas? Are they just for your private consumption?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We talk about it, bro. With every guest chef — I’ve even had my wife on for an episode — we talk about it, and if we have time, we demo it. I was able to demo the recipes at Señor Sisig and alaMar. Really generous, brilliant chefs. We’re actually doing a pop-up in alaMar, and we’ll be serving the actual dish. It was fun and cute during the pandemic, but I wanted to do more with it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Now that you’re three decades into your career, having broken barriers like becoming the first Asian American rapper to perform at events like Coachella and Lollapalooza, what stands out to you — and how does food play into it all?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first couple decades of my career I never reflected. I never looked back, I was thinking about what’s next. It wasn’t until I made my greatest hits album that I was forced to reflect. Doing \u003cem>Dinner in Place\u003c/em> and cooking has really led me down a path that I just totally took for granted. I didn’t realize how special it was to make sushi with my father who I saw maybe once a year. And when I saw him, I was young at the time, and we’d make sushi together, or maybe go out for Korean barbecue in Japan. He spent some time in New York City, but he had health issues and went back to Japan. The last 15 years of his life were in Japan, and I’d go back when I could. Even though he was immobile, we still cooked. It was something I did with him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when I got back, my son asked if I could roll sushi, and I was like fuck yeah, I can. Because I did it with my father. Let me start there. It opened up chapters in my life I could revisit. I didn’t consider that to be significant until later. Same with my grandma. She would take me to Jewish delis in L.A. with that side of the family. I grew up in places like Saul’s. \u003ci>Let’s deli.\u003c/i> That’s a Jewish thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>And you did it all while staying true to yourself and highlighting your heritage.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thank you. Rappers? Entertainers? There weren’t many who looked like me who were visible. We had a few here and there. And there were people before me, for sure. But \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13933283/undiscovered-sf-2023-filipino-culture-festival-food-hip-hop-anniversary-soma\">it was mostly DJs and breakdancers\u003c/a>. We were mostly in the background. But there was nobody — since hip-hop was so young — who I could look to in the way someone can look at me now and say, \u003ci>So that’s how you do it\u003c/i>. To have a 30-year career as an Asian American rapper in hip-hop and to see that path as possible.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those lessons exist now, but they didn’t really exist for me. I mean, hip-hop is turning 50 years old. I’ve been around for 30 of those. I took a lot of my cues from studying my peers, but also the previous generation of artists outside of hip-hop. Sammy Davis Jr. James Brown. Those were long careers. There’s a multitude of mountains you have to simultaneously climb. It’s hard for anyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other layer is doing it as a person of color in a system that isn’t built for you to succeed. You’re fighting parallel battles. Then being Asian American, there was even less context as a performer. When I first started touring, I swear to god there were places where I was the only Asian American in the city. But it still sold out. It was about the music. And that’s why food is also so liberating. In my experience, being mixed is normal. Everything else is different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>That’s part of the beauty of growing up in the Bay Area, right?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don’t think my career could have been possible anywhere outside of the Bay Area. My reality has always been multicultural. And that’s even more so now. Everyone I grew up with in Berkeley is mixed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13934213\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13934213 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two people laugh together at a booth in a restaurant.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-05-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-05-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-05-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-05-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/230830-LRYICS-BORN-MD-05-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lyrics Born sharing a meal — and reflections on his 30-year career in hip-hop — with KQED food writer Alan Chazaro. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>And you can just hustle your way into different situations and make it work.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>Bro, I never went to any culinary school. But I’m creative. And the food tastes good. I don’t give a shit about technique. About what is the way you’re supposed to do it. Just taste it. You’ll love it. You don’t need a chef’s coat. Whatever you wear isn’t gonna change the way you cook. I didn’t come from that. Yes, some of these guys can cook circles around me. But I’m a self-taught rapper. I didn’t take piano lessons or guitar lessons. I had a pen and paper and started writing down some words and hoped they rhymed to their own beat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And real chefs understand that. They get the raw creativity, and that’s what it all is for me. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko2k6RC4MCc\">sinigang ramen\u003c/a>. Nobody’s doing that or presenting it in the way we do. And I say that with pride, not to brag. We’re injecting something new into this. You’ll walk away feeling better, having learned something. And that’s important to me about the show. We wanna make great food, but what’s greater than expanding your horizons on different levels?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Is that part of growing up with immigrant parents? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Totally. And the best part is that our experience [as children of immigrants] is mathematically going to be the dominant experience in this country. We’ll see more people like us — literally and figuratively. That’s not an opinion. That’s facts. It’s trending in a certain direction, and nothing can stop that. And we’ll be enjoying those flavors for a long time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuFEwujFCNdkNoLfIIOKOwYb1bHpR0v_g\">\u003cem>‘Dinner In Place’\u003c/em>\u003ci> is available to watch on YouTube on Lyrics Born’s channel\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>. Season 4 is now streaming. \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/lyricsborn/\">\u003ci>Lyrics Born\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> will team up with chef Nelson German at \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/alamaroakland/\">\u003ci>alaMar Dominican Kitchen\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> (100 Grand Ave. #111, Oakland) for a live “Dinner In Place” pop-up on Thurs. Sep. 14 from 5 p.m. to closing.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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