Chinese Traditional Meals

Many stories arise from the simple ingredients of our Chinese Continental Breakfast. The two dishes I made were tofu mixed with diced Chinese sausages, as well as diced sausages and ginger egg omelet. There is history behind all these ingredients; the Chinese sausage, which was produced in the dynasty era. Tofu, which replaces meat for Buddhists as a source of protein starting centuries ago. Going to ginger, it is believed to be the oldest flavoring ingredient since the beginning of the Chinese history. For American Born Asian Americans, they are usually influenced by the American life styles and often forget their heritage. Home to me, describes a place where you are able to learn your parent's culture and traditions. And as we do that, we use our judgments to determine the accuracy of it and decide whether or not to follow the tradition. I believe the ingredients I used perfectly expresses the tradition and culture I believe in combining it with the American Culture I have adapted to. The long history of these ingredients can be carried on by Asian Americans as long they are willing to adapt themselves to these traditions.

Some Ingredients for the Chinese Continental Breakfast include:
3 teaspoon of vegetable oil
3 blocks of hard tofu
2 sticks of Chinese Sausages
5 Eggs
1/2 cup of shredded ginger

_________________________________________________________

Iron Chef, Asian American Style!

As one of our first group projects, we were to envision ourselves to be Iron Chefs and create an American dish adding a twist from our assigned ethnic group, Chinese American. We came up with a list of ideas but didn't want to do anything common or a dish another group might make. We thought of the traditional American breakfast. It seemed pretty typical, but we decided to go for it because we didn't have much time and thought it would fit in great since our class was in the morning. For the traditional American breakfast, there can be bacon, eggs, sausage, potatoes or hashbrowns. For our "Chinese" Continental Breakfast, we had a sausage, ginger and egg omelet, tofu mixed with sausages, slices of pork and a fried rice hash brown. Alvin and Ryan were our chefs and were able to cook what they could the night before to bring into the class the next morning. The rest of the group researched some background information on the ingredients and it's history to add in our presentation. For the Iron Chef match, we were paired up with the Just So Sick Girls, Vietnamese American group, who made a type of Vietnamese sandwich. We had about a minute to plate our dish and 3-5 minutes to present it. After the judges tasted our dishes, the rest of the class had the chance to taste it as well. In the end, they tallied up the points and we came out to be the winners! This project was really interesting and fun to see what dishes the other groups came up with and their competitiveness to become the ultimate Iron Chef, Asian American style!

- Angelie

Letters to the Editor of Hyphen Magazine

Hello Harry!
I thought it was really awesome when you came to our classroom yourself to introduce to many of us who didn't know what Hyphen magazine was already. Reading through the latest issue of Hyphen magazine, I found the "Interrogasian" section of the magazine to be really interesting. It made me laugh reading about the razor one! The articles were really interesting to read. It was as if one of my peers wrote the articles in the magazine, because they were so easy to understand! One thing I enjoyed learning about was "The United States of Asian American". There are so many facts within those two pages that I didn't know so that was very educational for me. The pictures were very lively, they really caught my attention. From the two issues that I have bought, you guys do a great job. All your guys' hard work, put into the issues are really appreciated by readers like us. Keep up the good work!

Sincerely,
Abigail Burgos

Dear Harry,

Hi, my name is Leslie and i am one of the students that you visited in the ethnic studies class at SF State. I am really amazed about the articles that you guys put in this magazine. I had the road trip issue. I especially like the article "Commercial Success". Before i read this article, i also notice that alot of asians are in ads. I first noticed in yahoo news or feature articles. Then i started noticing in commercials in where you expect them. I thought i was crazy for noticing this but this article prove that i was not the only one thinking about this. I was an editor in my high school and i understand that the job was hard. This is great work and i hope you guys keep up the good work!!

Sincerley,

Leslie Lau

Dear Harry,

I really enjoyed reading the Hyphen Road Trip edition magazine. Reading through articles, what really caught my attention was the “Commercial Success” passage. Though most Asian American are only spotted for 30 seconds in a commercial, there are big words spoken as we are getting closer to be viewed as “Americans”. Being Asian American myself, I think adapting to the American culture is great, but I believe that there should still be a fair amount of traditional culture adapted as well; mainly because we are pursuing the American culture and not trying to sink ourselves in there. The idea of interviewing successful Asian actresses is a brilliant idea (Bobby Lee!). But when I read Asian actress, I automatically thought of Jackie Chan, Chow Yun Fat and Jet Lee and the wonderful success they have in their career. I think this American society is slowly starting to accept Asian American’s as true American because we practice their life styles and what not, but as I said, I think that there should be a boundary between being American and remembering your own ethnicity and culture. Randall Park brings up a really interesting point where he said, “sometimes the most powerful way to kind of change things for a community is not to bash people over the head with political messages but to just keep them laughing and it’s also a great way to humanize yourself as well as shoving a point in somebody’s face.” I have been to several comedian stand ups and they are really affective in what they do and what they try to communicate. In a sense of humor, you will find something more interesting as it is if you read or hear formally about it. There was the MasterCard commercial about the Japanese girl have her parents meet her white fiancé’s family, just for me, I found it very interesting because it brings diversity and acceptance onto the table. At the same time, I found it very stereotypic because it almost seemed like it implied that, Asians, have to marry a white person in order to be “American”. And there is one last point I like to bring up. When I read Bobby Lee’s name, what else would you think of? MADTV. But that show is constantly using stereotypes generally against different races, and I don’t feel like it is a way to adapt to the American Society. Overall, this article hit me the most and I found it surprisingly interesting. I look forward to your future work.

Sincerely,

Alvin Yu

Hi Harry,

My name is Angelie and I'm from Irene Duller's Asian American Culture class at SFSU. I just finished reading the Road Trip issue of Hyphen Magazine and I really enjoyed it because it is focused on Asian Americans which is rare to find. It made me realize and think about how our culture is portrayed. There are many stereotypes of Asian Americans and I feel it's because people don't understand us or may have some idea but don't exactly know. Also, the Road Trip issue is an inspiration to those that want to help spread the knowledge about Asian Americans to not only the United States but worldwide. From the articles about commercials to driving across the country to share their words, we see that Asian Americans have come a long way. Hyphen Magazine is great for everyone to read, whether or not they are Asian American because we can all relate to the stories in our own way. Thank you for all your hard work!

Sincerely,
Angelie Angeles


Dear Harry,

Hey, my name is Ria and I'm in Ms. Duller's Asian American Culture Class. I bought the Issue 10 Hyphen magazine and the articles that most interest me was the section called the "Furious Five". The articles were about five individuals who either overcame different adversities and used hip hop as an outlet of escapism or just born prodigies of the hip hop lifestyle. This article touched me emotionally because hip hop music played an important role in my life growing up. The way the lyrics flowed through my head and the instrumentals combined to ease the pain helped me stay humble through out life. To see these Asian American hip hop activists make history is a beautiful thought. I feel like our people don't gain enough recognition for the contributions they've provided through out the years. Hyphen magazine makes it possible for these individuals to be recognized for their talented work and how they help today's youth by running workshops. I am proud to say I am an Asian American and to see them represent us in a positive way.

Sincerely,
Ria Espinoza