By Albertha Schmid, Registrar, Metropolitan Community College
Food has a way of connecting people and opening doors to different cultures. It allows them to share the sights, smells and sounds of what is familiar to them. In celebration of AAPI Heritage month, the AAPI caucus asked its members to share their memories of food as it relates to their heritage. We hope that this “tour” of a variety of Asian cuisine will introduce to you new foods and inspire you to try them!
Melody Sabin, Sherman College of Chiropractic
How do you or your family cook rice?
My mom, my sister, and I make Jasmine rice in a rice cooker– not the small one, because you can never have too much rice!
What is your go-to snack?
Growing up, my mom would get so annoyed with my wanting either only plain rice, or a grilled cheese sandwich. You would think I’d have grown out of those, but they are still my favorites.
Describe a dish that you enjoyed growing up [or comfort food?].
I love pancit bihon. It is made with Filipino rice noodles called bihon, and typically includes a meat and vegetables, like a stir-fry. Garlic and onion are sauteed until translucent, then the meat (cut into strips) or protein is added to cook. Vegetables are added, like chopped cabbage, sliced carrots (sticks), snow peas, and maybe bell peppers. Finally, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and some water or broth are added. The noodles are very thin and are soaked in water to soften while the stir-fry is cooking, then added to the stir-fry. Then, the pan or wok is covered with a lid to further cook or steam the noodles, and the liquid is absorbed. It is tossed until well combined and is ready to eat!
(Again, to the irritation of my mom, I prefer having more noodles than stir fry!)
What holidays do you continue to celebrate, and what are some of the dishes?
I love holidays. Easter, Christmas, New Year’s Eve/Day, and also birthdays are the main ones for us that involve lots of food and are special occasions to make lumpia. Lumpia are Filipino-style spring rolls. There are 2 main versions that I know of, and I tend to always make one while my sister prefers the other. A stir fry is cooked, with meat or protein, then put onto a thin lumpia wrapper and rolled, then fried. It is different from a Chinese eggroll in that the wrapper is thinner, it has more meat than cabbage, and the roll itself is not as large. The other version is with a meat mixture prepared and placed (uncooked) in a very thin line onto the lumpia wrapper, then fried. This is very skinny and longer than the other lumpia.
While I love eating lumpia, another favorite thing is just everyone being in the kitchen, rolling lumpia.
In my adulthood, I began to go to the Santo Niño festival with my mom. It is a huge religious festival to celebrate the Christ Child Jesus and the birth of Catholicism in the Philippines. The celebration is replicated in many areas, and like many people, we would travel far to attend the mass and festival somewhat locally. After the mass, there are so many food dishes around to try, in addition to a large variety of sweets! Here, I learned of many other dishes than the family favorites. One that I decided to make for my mom is Brazo de Mercedes. This is like a jelly roll, made with a meringue roll filled with sweet egg custard and dusted with powdered sugar. Heavenly!
Favorite restaurant/ingredient/dish you enjoy cooking?
I love making Filipino desserts and am not sure what I would choose to be my favorite. One that I have fond memories of making is palitaw, Filipino rice cakes with coconut and toasted sesame seeds. My mom had a coconut grater, that was a wooden stool with a round, metal coconut scraper attached to it. My job was to sit on the stool and scrape the half-shells of coconuts. I took much pride in being able to scrape almost all the coconut meat without also scraping the shell into it. I buy shredded coconut now, but I do still own a scraper (un-attached). To make palitaw, mix glutinous rice flour and water to make a soft, smooth dough. Roll into small balls and flatten them into ovals (why ovals, I don’t know, but I’ve always done ovals!). Simply drop each into a pot of boiling water until the dough floats to the surface, and remove. Coat it with shredded coconut while the palitaw is still warm. Serve sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds and sugar.
Albertha Schmid, Metropolitan Community College (NE)
How do you or your family cook rice?
I cook it the way my mom taught me. She used “sight” to measure how much rice she wanted to cook and that’s the way I do it. I make sure to wash the rice thoroughly and will do the “finger” measure to make sure that I have enough water. I use a rice cooker*, which is the easiest way to make it. My mom used to also cook rice on the stove top using various pots, but I never was able to master that!
*side note: my mom LOVED rice cookers and had about 10 (many of them brand new) when she passed. Her favorite brand was the “elephant one,” which is made by Zojirushi.
What is your go-to snack?
It depends on what I’m craving. Sometimes, it is heated up dried Filefish; other times it is a variety of rice cakes or a Korean sweet cake called Chapsal yakgwa.
Describe a dish that you enjoyed growing up [or comfort food?]. There were a few that I loved. My mom grew up in extreme poverty, so many of the dishes she made were very simple but absolutely delicious. One of the dishes was a porridge like soup. It consisted of water, cooked rice with stirred in eggs and a meat with seasoning. She would put freshly cut-up green onions on top of it, and it tasted best if you ate it right away. This was usually her quick go to when we weren’t feeling well.
Another dish was bimbimbap. I always thought my mom’s was the best, as she mixed the cooked rice with whatever dishes she had on hand. It would always be different. Some days, it would be a mixture of rice, bean sprouts, a variety of kimchi, seasoned sweet potato roots, and once in a blue moon, seasoned fried anchovies.
We also ate a lot of soups made out of homemade Doenjang paste (made from fermented beans and salt and “baked” by the sun). What holidays do you continue to celebrate, and what are some of the dishes?
Growing up, we used to celebrate two of the major Korean holidays (Seollal-lunar New Year and Chuseok-harvest festival) with other Korean families. Since my mom has passed, I “celebrate” Seollal and make Tteokguk (rice cake soup). My mom used to make homemade rice cake, but I never learned how to make them. I still have her homemade steam pot! That pot produced a variety of rice cakes with various fillings. If it could talk, it would share so many stories!
Doenjang-guk with tofu
My mom making one of her bean rice cakes using her homemade steamer pot
Favorite restaurant/ingredient/dish you enjoy cooking?
I continue the legacy of making soups. There was something special about a freshly made piping hot soup. We usually made it with doenjang paste and added whatever we felt like eating. Sometimes, it was as simple as adding potatoes, spinach and torn up lettuce or cabbage. Other times, we would make fish cake soup, which my brother still loves and devours when he comes over. My mom was an exceptional cook who never used measuring instruments and could make something out of “nothing.” She always said it was in the “hand.”
Tteok-guk with mandu
Max Xiong, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
How do you or your family cook rice?
Although my fiancé and I do not cook rice as often anymore, we use a Korean rice cooker and warmer when we do. When I was a kid, my parents would hand wash the rice and cook it in a Tiger rice cooker...I think these were common in the day for Southeast Asian households.
What is your go-to snack?
Doritos!
Describe a dish that you enjoyed growing up [or comfort food?].
I love papaya salad. Its the best and the more spicy the better. I enjoyed it as a kid and I still enjoy it occasionally today. Who doesn't like papaya or crab paste?
What holidays do you continue to celebrate, and what are some of the dishes?
We celebrate just the big holidays, like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Usually for Thanksgiving we'll have turkey and the usual items that go with it, like stuffing, cranberrry sauce, turkey gravey, and pumpkin pie. For Christmas, we treat ourselves to a prime rib dinner.
Favorite restaurant/ingredient/dish you enjoy cooking?
When I do find time to cook, especially Southeast Asian dishes like Sinigang and Red Curry, I love to add fish sauce. Not just any fish sauce, though. Squid is my go-to. Fish sauce adds umami and makes the dishes even better.
Catch Part Two of this series in our next issue of AACRAO Connect, and don't forget to register for the upcoming webinar "AAPI Heritage Month Book Discussion: "Yellowface" by R.F. Kuang" on May 28 from 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. (ET).