Gil Asakawa's Nikkei View | Food & Dining
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May 17, 2008

We just snuck out after a couple of hours of Denver's annual Asian Pacific American Heritage Month celebration, an event sponsored by Colorado's APA umbrella organization, Asian Roundtable. This free event has been going on for over a decade, and it's held every May in a community auditorium at the Well Fargo Bank building in downtown Denver. The Asian Roundtable represents two dozen APA organizations and for-profit companies as well as some individuals. Its member organizations sponsor the event, which runs from 11 am-4pm on a Saturday, kicking off with a buffet and then featuring several hours of performances. I was involved with this event when I was the president of the Mile-Hi chapter of the JACL, almost 10 years ago. Back then, I appreciated the event because it brought Asian communities together to learn from each other. I was surprised at the time that Asians knew so little about each other's cultures. One year the JACL brought some basic sushi for people to taste, and people kept asking me, "What is that?" (Sushi, or wasabi.) "What's the soy sauce for?" (The sushi.) "What does this taste like?" (Try it and see, lady.) Then it struck me -- Asians are so tribal and insulated from each other, that they don't know anything about the other Asian cultures. I admit, I didn't exactly grow up eating Filipino or Thai or Vietnamese food. But I've embraced all those cuisines, and more, every chance I get. Many Asians (especially older Asians) don't do this.
April 20, 2008

Iroha ramen and gyoza I just had a great meal at our favorite restaurant in San Francisco's Japantown, Iroha. It's a noodle house that serves up a great deal: A lunch combination special of ramen topped with a couple slices of pork, and gyoza dumplings on the side. The restaurant is more crowded than usual, and filled with lots of non-Japanese who are here for the first time. That's because J-Town in general is hopping this weekend. It's the second weekend of the annual Cherry Blossom Festival, or Sakura Matsuri. There are vendors with booths selling everything from junky trinkets to high-class jewelry, lots of food and stages of performers and martial arts demonstrations, all with a Japanese focus. But there's also a Japanese American undercurrent, with young people flocking to stores that specialize in anime and Jpop music. It's a cool mix of traditional and contemporary -- much like J-Town itself.
September 15, 2007
It's great to feel so welcomed. Erin and I arrived late yesterday afternoon at Honolulu Airport and called up Regine Shimomura, a cousin I'd never met. She's the twin sister of Laura McHugh, who was stuck at a hair appointment. We're staying at Laura's home, so once we got the rental car, we called Regine to get directions from the airport to the suburban town of Mililani, to the northwest of Honolulu. What I remember from my childhood visit to Hawaii is the sun, the clouds and the wind. The clouds are always on the move, with the wind pushing them along. It seems like Hawaii is just always breezy.
June 27, 2006

Here's one reason I enjoy working in Jersey City's Journal Square: One of the best meals is from the dumpy-looking pizza joint, "Three Guys from Italy," which is run by Latinos. Next door is a burrito joint touting authentic Mexican grub, which is run by... a couple of Chinese women.
August 16, 2005

Buttermilk fried chicken from Chef E's, with fried green tomatoes, spicy cabbage and mashed sweet potatoes.
Ain’t it great when a dining experience is positively orgasmic? I for one, live for those meals. The first meal with the AAJA Link student staff at the AAJA convention in Minneapolis was one of those great foodfests.
April 15, 2005

Sometimes, you just gotta have comfort food -- you know, meat loaf, mac and cheese, a nice chicken fried steak. Real mashed potatoes, not the just-add-water kind. And when it comes to comfort food, you can't beat a great diner. So I welcomed my lunch date today at the Rocky Mountain Diner, even though it's a bit on the high-end side of diner cuisine.