Chime Celebrates: Honoring APISA Heritage Month and culinary culture
In the opening pages of Korean-American musician and author, Michelle Zauner’s, memoir, Crying in H Mart, she tells of the grief she feels after losing her mother — and how closely tied so many of her memories are to food. While wandering the aisles of her local H Mart (a Korean-American supermarket chain), she remarks:
I wonder how many people at H Mart miss their families. How many are thinking of them as they bring their trays back from the different stalls. If they’re eating to feel connected, to celebrate these people through food. Which ones weren’t able to fly back home this year, or for the past ten years? Which ones are like me, missing the people who are gone from their lives forever?
And then, when she moves on to the food court portion of the mall, she remembers:
It’s a beautiful, holy place. A cafeteria full of people from all over the world who have been displaced in a foreign country, each with a different history. Where did they come from and how far did they travel? Why are they all here? To find the galangal no American supermarket stocks to make the Indonesian curry that their father loves? To buy the rice cakes to celebrate Jesa and honor the anniversary of their loved one’s passing? To satisfy a craving for tteokbokki on a rainy day, moved by a memory of some drunken, late-night snack under a pojangmacha tent in Myeong-dong? We don’t talk about it. There’s never so much as a knowing look. We sit here in silence, eating our lunch. But I know we are all here for the same reason. We’re all searching for a piece of home, or a piece of ourselves. We look for a taste of it in the food we order and the ingredients we buy. Then we separate. We bring the haul back to our dorm rooms or our suburban kitchens, and we re-create the dish that couldn’t be made without our journey. What we’re looking for isn’t available at a Trader Joe’s. H Mart is where your people gather under one odorous roof, full of faith that they’ll find something they can’t find anywhere else.
To Chimer and PacifiChime (the Chime Resource Group dedicated to APISA Chimers) co-lead, Eric Shen (he/him/his), the words ‘food’ and ‘culture’ may as well be synonyms. “From memories of certain dishes at my grandparents’ home in Taiwan to every family event being centered on a meal, food is how we share our culture with each other, both within our community and outside of it,” he says. “They are so closely tied, you can’t really have one without the other.”
This month, to celebrate Asian Pacific Islander South Asian (APISA) Heritage Month, PacifiChime will gather to build connections and foster a sense of belonging through shared diverse cultural experiences across the company — many of which will happen around food. We sat down with several members of the group to hear what food means to them, learn about their unique and food-centric cultural practices, and celebrate their heritage. Here’s what they had to say.
Why food is such an important ingredient in APISA culture
“I don’t live close to my family and only get to visit twice a year, so I regularly prepare recipes my mom used to prepare for me to feel like I’m at home,” says Sandy Huynh (she/her/hers), a functional lead for PacifiChime. “There’s a strong connection between what I’m eating and the memories of with whom I’ve shared the meal in the past.”
It’s undeniable that food — the flavors, smells, and rituals — can quickly take us back to a distant memory or place we’ve visited. After all, food becomes part of a culture because of the place a group of people lives — which determines what they have access to — and the ways in which they eat food — whether in religious or family rituals, traditions, and specific preparations.
Food is one of the biggest ways that Andrew Udeshi (he/him/his), a PacifiChime member and our Program Manager for Diversity, Equity, and Belonging & Social Impact at Chime, connects to his home country of Sri Lanka. “I only travel home around the holidays, so cooking traditional recipes is how I stay connected to my family and heritage,” he says. “Growing up, my grandmother was adamant about teaching me specific recipes and they still remind me of home and of her.”
In Taiwanese culture, where Chimer Stacey Lin (she/her/hers) is from, food is a big part of everyday culture. “Often, the first thing you’ll ask someone when you see them is if they’re hungry or have eaten; talking about and sharing food is a way of showing you care,” she says. Meijie Xia (he/him/his), a Chimer who’s from mainland China, says that asking a friend if they’ve eaten is the same as saying “What’s up?”.
What’s more, the culture of food in APISA culture extends beyond friends and family, to the workplace. “At a growing number of companies in Asia, mealtimes are taken very seriously,” explains Meijie. “Even in the most rigorous work environments, employees get over two hours to take a break and enjoy a meal at lunch and dinner — there’s no scarfing down a sandwich in the breakroom, meals are an important gathering in social and work contexts.”
Favorite APISA food traditions
For Sandy, the best celebration of the year is for Lunar New Year, which centers largely around meals. “There’s a meal on New Year’s Eve and then rules for what you can and can’t eat on New Year’s Day,” she explains. “With a big feast of all the finer things to ring in the new year, your diet on the first day of the year should be vegetarian to make up for your indulgence. There are also special meals on the second and fifteenth days of the year.”
Eric’s favorite traditions involve the rich food symbolism in Asian culture. For example, noodles on your birthday are good luck — long, like the life that is wished for you. Oranges are also good luck, dumplings bring wealth, and rice balls lead to togetherness.
“I love that we always eat at a large round table,” says Stacey. “There’s a rotating plate in the middle for shared dishes and public chopsticks used for serving. Eating is a social tradition, you should never eat alone.” Meijie loves the round table tradition, too — as well as the way it helps welcome new members of the family and remembers those who have passed. “When a new family member joins a meal, such as a boyfriend or a girlfriend, we just add another chair, making them feel like family. And when a family member passes away, we leave a set of chopsticks and a bowl for them at the table so it feels like they never left us,” he says.
“Before exams, I’d always eat one donut and two sunny side up eggs to help me get a 100%,” jokes Meijie. Stacey shared that she also did the same growing up.
Some of the group’s other favorite traditions include:
- The most senior person at the table always dips into a dish first.
- The youngest person at the table is responsible for refilling water and tea.
- If someone refills your tea, tap twice on the table to say thank you (this tradition is rooted in an ancient Chinese legend).
- If you hold your chopsticks too far away, legend says your daughter will marry and move far from home.
For Andrew, who was born in San Diego but grew up in Sri Lanka, and then returned to California to study and work, a favorite food tradition is actually one he brought from the U.S. to Sri Lanka: Thanksgiving. “Growing up, we’d always go to San Diego for Thanksgiving, but when I left Sri Lanka to study in California, I decided I’d start taking Thanksgiving home to Sri Lanka instead,” he says. “Every year, my family invites our friends over in Sri Lanka for a Thanksgiving-inspired dinner with all of the fixings: turkey, green beans, stuffing, and more. I love that there are so many food-related traditions in Sri Lanka and we’ve created one in our own little community around one of my favorite holidays.”
Their favorite meals to prepare, eat, and share
Sandy: Congee
“Growing up, my mom always made me congee, a Chinese rice porridge, when it was cold or I was sick.”
Andrew: Hoppers
“They’re like a bowl-shaped, thinner, crispier version pancake that we serve with curries — I always make them when I host potluck dinners, and even have the special pans to make them.”
Meijie: Dumplings
“I love preparing dumplings — as a child, I loved how collaborative it was; someone makes the noodles, another flattens them, someone mixes the veggies and meat, and finally, someone stuffs and wraps the dumplings.”
Stacey: Fried scallions
“My grandmother was famous for her fried scallions in oil; we always had a jar of them in the fridge to add to stir-fries and noodle soups.”
Eric: Hotpot
“It’s always my go-to for family gatherings because it’s a nice way to share a meal.”
Sharing food culture at work
Although it’s still not customary to spend over two hours eating lunch at work, there are still plenty of ways to share food culture at work — which Chimers love to do. Here’s how we share our favorite recipes, restaurants, and meals with one another at Chime.
- Share restaurant recommendations on Slack
- Try new restaurants for lunch
- Crowdsource suggestions for offsites or team outings
- Bring in dim sum to the office and invite everyone to come enjoy
- Host pot luck dinners with fellow Chimers to share our favorite recipes or takeout meals
“When I was a kid growing up in Canada, I always worried about bringing my family’s food to school for lunch,” remembers Stacey. “The smells were different, people didn’t know what the black bubbles in my tea were, so I’d ask my mom to send me to school with a sandwich and a juice box instead of traditional food. What I didn’t realize was that food is a huge part of my identity; now, at work, we all share that part of our culture with one another, openly talk about it, and show interest in each other’s food traditions.”
Since the pandemic set in and not everyone is in the office, Chime has made a concerted effort to keep Chimers connected over food, whether with DoorDash gift certificates or at-home cooking or meal kits. “It’s been nice to have moments to bond with teammates and colleagues over food even though we aren’t always in the same room,” Andrew says. “Food builds a sense of connection among Chimers, whether we’re cooking over Zoom or at a table together in the office — it’s a great way to foster our internal community.”
This month, PacifiChime will help chimers from the APISA community share their food traditions through events, including a panel, lunch, and ongoing conversations about food and culture. Stay tuned to hear more about the events in our end-of-month recap. In the meantime, we’d love to hear what your favorite dish or cultural practice around food is — tell us in the comments!
