What Home Taste Like

On Sundays it is a tradition for my mother would make jook (Chinese porridge) for lunch. I do not know why but I know that she loves to spend her time preparing jook for the family to eat. She spends one hour before noon washing the rice, boiling the mixture, chopping pieces of chicken, egg wraps, or duck eggs, and heating Chinese dumplings. I pass her in the kitchen on the way to my room or other parts of the house and I notice that she always multitasks between cooking, answering the telephone, and checking on what’s going on in the house. She doesn’t have that much free time so she does her best to accomplish as much of her tasks as she possibly can.

When it is noon, the whole entire family gathers (mom, dad, brother, and me) at the dining table and my mom brings out this large, steaming pot of jook and a plate of food to go along with it (called sung in Cantonese). My eyes widen and my mouth waters like crazy at the sight of such delicious food. We take turns serving the jook (usually I let my dad and mom go first because I think of it as a sign of respect) and have no conflicts over who gets food first.

Once all the food is settled right in front of me, I am excited to eat and get the awesome taste of Chinese cuisine. However, bad manners are not permitted in my family so I cannot let my bad side of greed and ill table manners get to my head. I eat in a respectable way and I enjoy the food. The jook is basically a combination of rice and water, but it tastes really good when served with other food, including leftovers. Once I get a large amount of jook in my mouth, I feel its warmth and I accompany the bland flavor (rice does not have that much taste) with more tasty food like dumplings and chicken. I can also add hoisin (soy sauce) to jook to make it sweeter. There are many ways to serve jook that are impossible to list, but each way is unique in providing a different experience of taste in Chinese cuisine. I like the fact that jook is served warm because most of the time cold food is not appealing to eat. I feel comfortable and calm eating warm food and it provides more value from the meal.

After eating all the jook in my bowl and some of the side food, I am really full and I cannot eat anything else. That’s the thing about jook: if you eat a large amount you are guaranteed to be full. Being full after a meal is important in Chinese cuisine. You do not want people to be hungry and you want people to be happy. That is the reason why the Chinese tend to serve a lot of food and why the Chinese like to eat as much as they possibly can.

APAture 2008; Laugh On

On Tuesday Night, I went to Laugh On one of APAture’s 10 day events on Capp Street. I've never been to a comedy show, so honestly, I didn't know what to expect from it. The beginning of the night was a bit slow, after the first performance I wasn’t too impressed. The jokes the first performer made were not appealing to me. To be honest, they actually made me feel a bit uncomfortable for many of the jokes he made were sexual jokes. I was afraid the whole night was going to be like this, but the next performance was better than the first. The next performance was a group performance. They did an improv based on information they collected from an audience member. This performance caught my attention because Irene had told us that we were going to do an improv performance in class based on the information we read in our hyphen magazines and the whole time I was thinking… how on earth do they do it? There is no way I could ever pull something like that off. Performing in front of a class is hard enough, but to improv a performance… we’ll see how that goes. But seriously, I give them props for begin able to perform like that because it is something I definitely can not do. The next act was from a half Vietnamese half Jewish guy. This guy got the audience on the edge of their seats wanting to hear more. And the last performer, an Indian guy, just took the night away.

It’s sad but true, that most of the jokes that we find funny are stereotypical or racist jokes. It’s only funny because most of what we joke about is true. By laughing about it, it does not necessarily mean that we agree with it, but its reality and it is happening in our lives today. By making a joke about the issue doesn’t mean that we don’t care about it either, it just makes us realize that if we all understand the joke and understand the meaning behind the joke why don’t we do something about the issue?

I really enjoyed the last two performances; their jokes were incorporated into Asian American culture that we are well aware of. We laugh because we know it’s true.

Move Out of the Way!

Have you ever driven through Irving Street (upper Irving and/or lower Irving) on a Sunday afternoon? Well, if you haven't you don't want to start! Irving is always crowded in general, but for some reason Irving is especially crowded on Sunday afternoons. Why is that? I guess everyone has the same idea that on Sundays, Irving is the hot spot for lunch.

Today, a couple of my friends and I were looking forward to eating some cheap Japanese food at KiKi's located on 9th and Irving (if you’re looking for a high class Japanese cuisine, this is not the place for you! But there is a good Japanese restaurant right next door called Ebisu. KiKi’s is like a fast food Japanese restaurant if you ask me). However, plans quickly changed as we arrived on Irving. It was so crowded we didn't even try to look for parking because it was almost impossible to find any. Everybody was doubling parking or circling blocks competing for spots it would be a waste of time trying. We decided to try to find a place on lower Irving instead, but as we got closer we saw that it would be impossible to drive through there as well. Finally, we settled for Noriega Teriyaki and found parking right away. What is it about Irving Street that causes traffic to be bumper to bumper when all the other streets have no cars?

Another question I’ve always wondered was… Is it really necessary to charge for a bowl of soup? So as we were eating at Noriega Teriyaki, we ordered a meal for three people, but we had four people total, so we asked for an extra bowl of rice and soup. I understand that the price for rice is rising, so charging for rice is understandable, but for soup too? If you compare a Chinese and Japanese restaurant, the Chinese restaurant usually serves a bowl of soup per person; however, in a Japanese restaurant, miso soup is only included with a certain meal and if you ask for an extra bowl of soup it cost a little over a dollar. It’s a small bowl of soup, is it really necessary to charge so much let alone anything at all for a bowl of flavored water? You’re probably thinking; if it’s just a bowl of ‘flavored water’ then why get it? Well, I love soup, but I just find it ridiculous how much they could charge for it.

APAture 2008; COMICS AND ZINE EXPO

For my Asian American Culture class we were required to attend at least one of the APAture events that were being held for 10 days in San Francisco. APAture celebrates and displays Asian Pacific American heritage to everyone in the form of art, music, performance, and more. I went to the closing event for APAture today and it offered a COMICS AND ZINE EXPO. It wasn’t as I expected because in my head I was picturing a big floor filled with all these animated pictures of heroes and villains, like a typical comic convention.. But this place was small, like a studio where you can take literally 30 steps and you’ve already seen the whole room. But within those 30 steps, I was able to enrich my eyes with the most individualistic pictures.


I’ll just walk you through what I experienced there and because art is left up to your imagination, I’ll let you guys into what I felt and thought when I saw these pictures. Okay, when you first walk up the stairs you come face to face with a tree. It was basically water-colored paint smudges on current news paper clippings forming this tree. Covering articles about death, rape, and the depression that is about to take forth, I think this tree symbolized how the world needs to be united and be a family to support each other through the hard times that are about to come through.

Walking into the actual expo room, the table full of comics was the first thing that caught my eye. I got to meet Hellen Jo who is the main artist of Jin and Jam comics. Although I didn’t get to talk to her personally about her comics because she was doing an interview for APAture, I got to read some of her work and let me just say, they’re really BLUNT. The main theme of her comic strips that I came across was sexuality. She approached the subject as a natural occurrence in life, and I’m thinking that’s what she would like to portray to the world. Jin & Jam 1, published by Sparkplug Comic Books will debut at the Alternative Press Expo this year, on November 1 & 2.

The next picture I enjoyed was this fingerprint made up of Japanese stamps. To me, this taught me that a person’s identity and culture never leaves a person; it is literally integrated in a person’s body. And this is what I’m coming to find. With this Asian American culture class I’m becoming more curious with not just my own, but different Asian cultures.


The next art work that intrigued me was the tanks that were made out of fuzzy material. They were lined up and leading to a giant explosion looking piece that was made up of these individual tanks. Along with this theme, there were shoes, spray painted camouflage and laid across fake grass. It brought me back to what I learned in class through the culture presentations and how each culture experienced some hardship along the way.


Lastly, my favorite artwork out of the entire gallery was a box you stick your head into. It was attached to the ceiling so you’d have to climb up there and when you look around inside that tiny box, it made me feel I was in a wheat field of some sort, the mirrors creating this vast image of never ending wonder of what the world can offer a person. I guess this is how people who dedicated their life to working in the fields felt.

I just wish they had a friendlier environment because everyone there was busy fixing things. I would have liked to be confronted with information about each artwork because I would’ve liked to have known what each artist was thinking and feeling when making their artwork. It’s okay because that’s what art galleries are all about, interpreting your own thoughts. This APAture event basically tied everything I learned so far in class. The whole gallery had themes about what Asian American culture is all about; family, sexuality, finding one’s identity, and past suffering. Although before I left, one person came up to me and started explaining APAture’s organization and how to get involved in it. And yes, I did join the mailing list (=

Fall of the I-Hotel

We watched the movie "Fall of the I-Hotel" in class. In the early 1900s, The I-Hotel, or International Hotel, was where low-income minority immigrants stayed. The elderly Filipino immiogrants were affectionately called "Manongs." Rent was cheap and friends lived within walking distance, so it was the perfect place to stay. The I-Hotel was located in the heart of Manilatown on Jackson and Kearny Streets. Manilatown expanded all along Kearny Street for about 10 blocks, but was reduced to just one when the rent raised from 700 to 2500 dollars. Tenants played pool at Lucky M, and the barbershop was not only a place to get a haircut, but also a hangout place. Later on, disastrous news hit tenants of the I-Hotel; the I-Hotel was going to be bulldozed and turned into a parking lot, and everyone was going to be evicted without a place to stay. The tenants have lived in the hotel for more than 50 years and moving away from the place they call home to somewhere else where they might be discriminated against was a horrible thought. They did everything they could to try and save it, even if it meant risking their own lives in the process. Their futures seem so grim that dying for something they believe in was better than submitting and just moving. Three days before the signing of the contract, a fire was set in the I-Hotel, killing three tenants. Violence was not a part of the deal, so this upset even the owner of the I-Hotel. Asian Americans from everywhere bound together to fight for the future of the I-Hotel, which was a symbol of acceptance and Asian American culture of the time. The created a human barricade , risking their lives for something they believed in. They were kicked, beated, and thrown in jail. When the strike ended, the Asian Americans lost their culture and the togetherness that was always a big thing for them. They disbanded to different parts of the city, but at least they fought for what was right. Asian Americans who were usually silent are not anymore.

Fast and furious (Drift, Drift, Drift)

So on Saturday the 20th of September, was Hot Import Night's NightShift event in Pleasanton. Basically Hot Import Nights (HIN) is the country's largest touring car event. With displays of numerous customized show cars, this pop culture experience also features live music, dance performances, and of course.. HOT IMPORT MODELS haha. The NightShift that I went to is a "sister event" which includes all the features of HIN, but with the addition of drift demos and bike stunts.

Cars and swooping them up is enjoyed by many, so tell me why it’s mostly associated with Asians? Like, why where there hella Asians there at HIN? How did it get to the point of us taking over the street racing? Every day life; whenever going down the street and you hear a loud ass car, “Ohhh… RICER!” like you can hella distinguish the typical swooped out Hondas with huge exhausts as “Asian”..

So at HIN is it mainly Asians because they were drifting at the event? This question led me to look up the history of drifting. According to Wikipedia, drifting started out as a popular racing technique in Japan races over 30 years ago. Kunimitsu Takahashi, was the creator of drifting techniques in the 1970s. As professional racers in Japan drove this way, so did the street racers. Keiichi Tsuchiya became particularly interested by Takahashi's drift techniques. Tsuchiya began practicing his drifting skills on the mountain roads of Japan, and this quickly became a hit and inspired many of the professional drifting drivers on the circuits today. By 1996 drifting hit California. Today, drifting has evolved into a competitive sport in Japan, Malaysia, Australia, UK, Canada, and New Zealand.

But it wasn’t even Asians who started this street racing. Street racing is reported to have originated prior to the 1930s due to alcohol prohibition in the US, and became very common after the war. I guess basically after drifting was invented by the Japanese, Asians pretty much took over the scene and when it got popular, basically all Asians supported it. HIN I guess is mainly an Asian event because when something originated in a specific race, like in this case, Japanese which automatically selects all asians, that race will PROUDLY SHOW IT OFF because everyone is trying to distinguish themselves and show what they can offer the world.

All this makes me think about Tokyo Drift and how that movie pretty much portrayed HIN with all the Asian import models dressed to add extra sexiness to the cars because what do boys like better than their girls and cars =P

HIN's flyer


swooped up TC


me and my hellokitty :D



Drifting vid

I-Hotel: Analysis of Movie

Today our Asian American Culture class watched a documentary called The Fall of the I-Hotel. This documentary featured the history of the Filipinos and other Asian American minorities, especially the Chinese, in San Francisco and how the International Hotel and other places on Kearny Street played an important role in Asian American culture. The film shows aspects of the events that lead up to the fall of the International Hotel and also brings up issues concerning society and minorities at the time.

Many Filipinos, or manongs, lived in the area called Manilatown on Kearny Street. They immigrated to the United States to seek a better life. They worked as laborers and faced racial discrimination. During social time Filipinos would play pool and talk at the local community center. Many lived in the International Hotel because back then living there was cheap and affordable. However, the expansion of the Financial District caused many big businessmen to take away areas of Manilatown, soon leaving it down to one block. Attempts to evict people from the International Hotel were made and held back due to protests. However, on August 4, 1977, police came to the International Hotel and forced people to stop their protests and lose the fight, putting an end to the International Hotel.

From watching this documentary I felt sincere for what the protesters and Filipinos were fighting for. They believed in justice and wanted to preserve their culture and community. The International Hotel was a symbol that represented many people of Asian American culture living together and enjoying life. They already had other pieces of their culture and life taken away from them, and they were not going to let anyone else ruin more of their lives. The Filipinos went through many rough experiences to get the opportunity to live a better life and now their chances of maintaining that life are going to be diminished due to the greed of others to expand business in San Francisco. Many Filipinos do not have any other place to live in San Francisco besides the International Hotel. The International Hotel provides a safe haven for many Filipinos who do not work or do menial work, such as the elderly. The eviction of tenants would potentially place people in a very difficult situation of what they will do if they cannot find a place to live or make a living. I was amazed at how well the community got together to fight for a common cause. They put themselves forward to spend their time showing what they cared about and got the message about how important the situation was about the International Hotel. The group of protestors consisted of a diverse population. Not only were there Filipinos, there were other minority groups including the Chinese, and there were also numerous Caucasians, whom a majority is racist with Filipinos.

Kicking out an important portion of people in the community just so that the government can use the building for their own needs is a disgrace and another representation of how the government does not serve to the needs of the people. Seeing the looks on the faces of the Filipinos when they lost the fight for keeping the International Hotel made me think about the treatment of Asian Americans in America. Asian Americans are pushed around and ignored because we are a minority in the United States while the Caucasians reign supreme. I am not saying that I have any ill feelings for Caucasians but instead that Asian Americans do not get as much representation and voice in issues that affect everyone. Their fight to keep the hotel represents every fight that every immigrant has to live a better life. This relates to my parents and other folks who came to the United States not knowing what they will face or what will happen to them.


Now whenever I go to Chinatown, I always pass the old Manilatown on the bus. Looking at Kearny Street today, there is a lack of sense of community that was present in this documentary. However, now that the International Hotel is rebuilt in the same location as the old one, there is still hope. The fight is never over though. We have to make sure that history does not repeat itself and also make sure that we have a voice in Asian American culture.