Caribbean Chinese Fried Rice: An Afro-Asian Diaspora Story
Food for Thought | Presented by The Greene Space x MoFAD
Originally Aired: Thursday, April 8, 2021
Overview
ON DEMAND VIDEO IS NOT AVAILABLE FOR THIS EVENT.
In collaboration with the Afro-Asia Group and Junzi 君子 Kitchen, MOFAD and The Greene Space take you through Afro-Asian foodways and intimacies, featuring a lecture, cooking demo and conversation exploring the crossroads of Black diaspora and Asian diaspora cuisines.
Troubling the concept of what is “authentic” Chinese food and “fusion” cuisine, Professor Tao Leigh Goffe (Cornell University) and Chef Lucas Sin (Junzi, Nice Day) highlight varieties of fried rice across the Caribbean, fresh off their successful exploration into the history of chop suey.
After the Cuban revolution, Cuban Chinese restaurants sprouted up all across New York City, a result of the migration of Cuban Chinese communities. The closing of La Caridad 78 signals the end of an era for Caribbean Chinese cuisine that Prof Goffe and Chef Sin will explore.
During this demo, Professor Goffe and chef Lucas Sin will be making:
- Cuban Fried Rice, in the style of La Caridad 78
- Hokkien (Fujian) Fried Rice, a dry fried rice on its base topped with a heaping “gravy.” Texturally and structurally not like any other fried rice, the narrative traces Chinese immigration backwards, from the Caribbean back to the Hakka, Cantonese, and Fujianese traditions where many early immigrants came from.
Recipes will be mailed to ticket holders in advance so attendees can cook along at home. This event will celebrate ingenuity, remixing, and Afro-Asian solidarity and coalition in cuisine. Please help us elevate the conversation around these incredible traditions in an evening of celebration.
Credit: Photo provided by guest
Lucas Sin, Eater Young Guns Class of 2019 and Forbes 30 under 30, opened his first restaurant when he was 16, in an abandoned newspaper factory in his hometown of Hong Kong. Despite spending his Yale undergraduate years in the Cognitive Science and English departments, Lucas spent his weekends running restaurants out of his dorm, known as Y Pop-up. He backpacked and cooked his way through Japan, before settling at Kikunoi Honten in Kyoto. He’s also spent time at Modernist Cuisine in Seattle and Michelin-starred kitchens in Hong Kong and New York.
In addition to being the chef/owner of Junzi Kitchen, and Chinese takeout restaurant, Nice Day, Lucas also directs the funkier, more indulgent After Hours menu: fried chicken, instant noodles, juicebox cocktails, and the like.. During the COVID-19 crisis, he runs the collaborative delivery pop-up known as Distance Dining.
Credit: Photo provided by guest
Tao Leigh Goffe is an assistant professor of literary theory and cultural history at Cornell University. She is Director of the Afro-Asia Group, an advisory consortium with the mission of designing and imagining African and Asian diasporic entanglements into the future. Her interdisciplinary research and practice examines the unfolding relationship between food studies, ecology, and the human sensorium. DJ’ing is an important part of her pedagogy and research. She has been interviewed by VICE Munchies on Caribbean colonial food origins in Africa and Asia that converge on the plantation.
