At the end of April, the Courageous Kitchen team took a break from our Thai cooking classes in San Diego, to travel to Northern Cali for our first activity in Sacramento. The occasion was to collaborate with Sacramento State University’s Full Circle Project in celebration of the Asian and Pacific Islander Awareness Festival. The APIA Fest is a yearly event coinciding with Asian Pacific Heritage Month, and we were invited to hold a Thai cooking demo and share our story with students on campus.
The Full Circle Project (FCP) works to mentor and support first generation college students, many of them the children of refugees who resettled in the US. This includes people of Hmong ethnicity, a hill tribe group in South East Asia, that Courageous Kitchen assists in Bangkok. Connections to the refugee experience and the culture and cuisine of South East Asia, made hosting the cooking demo a lot of fun and rewarding for everyone involved. Some students even wore their traditional clothing, sporting Hmong patterns and jewelry unique to their families’ tribes.
On the menu was a vegetarian version of our cooking class favorite ‘Tom Kha’, the Thai coconut soup. In addition to the soup, we taught the students to make a healthier version of the ever popular Thai Tea. The students helped themselves to seconds and thirds, while our volunteers, led by Christy Innouvong Thornton, dished out tips for recreating simple and college budget friendly versions of our recipe at home. The activity culminated with sharing from students who had recently joined Courageous Kitchen efforts in Bangkok, giving first hand testimony of both people in need and the hope we endeavor to provide through our food aid and education programs.
In the future we’d love to do more activities in Sacramento and are grateful to everyone who helped make this event a success. You can enjoy more photos from the activity on our Courageous Kitchen facebook page.
PS – If there are northern California supporters or former volunteers who missed this event, but would be interested to help with another in the future, please reach out!
If you’ve taken one of a cooking classes since we began our small social enterprise in Bangkok, you will have no doubt met Alina. She’s the friendly young cooking trainee who has worked her way into becoming our main instructor. If you’re a fan of our version of pad thai, Thai basil, or other popular recipes, she is likely the one to blame! She works hard before guests arrive: researching new recipes, practicing her English, and even hand makes her own chili pastes, in a traditional mortar and pestle.
Alina is originally from a small village a few hours outside Hanoi, where her family asked her to quit school and help more on the farm. She had never been to Hanoi or another big city until 2012 when her family fled persecution on foot to Thailand. Currently residing in Bangkok, Alina speaks 4 different languages: Hmong, Vietnamese, Thai, and English. Despite lack of access to education, the kidnapping of her older sister (believed to be trafficked to China), and her harrowing journey to Bangkok, Alina is a model of strength and perseverance in her community. She aspires to be a role model to other Hmong girls, especially her younger nieces, and in the future, she hopes to have the opportunity to study more and one day own her own restaurant.
Now you have the opportunity to hear from this rising star firsthand during her upcoming interview with Hmong Women Today!
When: Friday, April 20th, 10am (Bangkok Time) When: Thursday, April 19th, 8pm Pacific/11pm Eastern Where: Hmong Women Today FB Page How: The interview will be broadcast on the Hmong Women Today facebook page. Go there to watch the interview and leave a comment of encouragement for Alina.
Who are the Hmong people?
The Hmong are a minority hill tribe group originally from Southern China, but migrated further south into the mountains of South East Asia. Hmong inhabited the mountainous areas of Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, they were trained by the CIA to help with guerrilla warfare and the US’s ‘Secret War in Laos’. After the Americans lost the war, many of the Hmong fled Laos and Vietnam to refugee camps in Thailand. Many of them were resettled to the US, but the group is still a fairly large minority group in South East Asia, where they struggle with issues such as land rights, religious persecution, and human trafficking.
What is Hmong Women Today?
Hmong Women Today is a community for promoting and empowering Hmong women based in the US. The organization actively uses their website, facebook page, and local events to engage Hmong women about the issues they are facing, while sharing stories of women who have triumphed as they met challenges themselves. More info is available on the Hmong Women Today website.
Note: Don’t worry, if you miss this live broadcast, the video will still be available for watching after the event.
“Food is the ultimate equalizer… at the end of the day, everybody has to eat.” – Chef Yia Vang
Typically, you won’t find the Courageous Kitchen team giving you advice on which riveting television shows you should be watching. However, that may be able to change with the exciting new arrival of a show called, “Refugee Chef”. In six episodes the show will poignantly examine the challenging origins and immense contributions refugee chefs are making on the culinary scene all over the world. This includes Chef Yia Vang, a friend of Courageous Kitchen, who we were proud to feature in last year’s Courageous Family Dinner.
Watch the trailer for “Refugee Chef” on Channel NewsAsia:
Here’s the full list of chefs to be featured on Refugee Chef:
Episode 1: Queen of Nordic Vietnamese
Featuring: Anh Le
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Origin: Chef Ang Le and her family arrived in Denmark after escaping Vietnam by boat.
Episode 2: Hmong and Here
Featuring: Yia Vang
Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Origin: Chef Yia was born in a Thai refugee camp after his parents escaped Laos during the Vietnam war.
Episode 3: Afghan at Last
Featuring: Javed Ghaderi
Location: Wollongong, Australia
Origin: Chef Javad escaped Afghanistan and would be deported three times, and spend his life savings before being resettled to Australia.
Episode 4: Beyond Bali
Featuring: Anita Saborn
Location: Paris, France
Origin: Anita’s family fled Indonesia to China where they traveled on fake passports to Paris, where they were granted political asylum.
Episode 5: Redefining Shangri-La
Featuring: Lobsang Dorjee Tsering
Location: Washington, DC
Origin: Dorjee was born to nomadic parents in Tibet, and had been a monk for 18 years before fleeing his homeland.
Episode 6: Aleppo Supper Club
Featuring: Ahmad Abo Aziz
Location: London, UK
Origin: The war in Syria brought danger and great tragedy to Ahmad and his family, and they left the city the loved looking for safety.
“People don’t see us refugees but we are there.” – Chef Anh Le
In today’s political climate, giving anything a refugee label is to condemn it to controversy and scandal. This show, however, bucks the trend and takes the weighty topic head on. In doing so the show humanizes the refugee situation in a way not always possible in today’s news headlines and sensational political commentary. We’re challenged to take a look into the lives of each of the chefs and to have a sampling of the obstacles they overcame to achieve success whether with their restaurants, efforts to challenge or their efforts to help others.
The show airs on Saturday, February 24th on Channel NewsAsia at 7:30pm Bangkok time. You can also stream the episodes on demand for free, here.
The Courageous Kitchen is a charity that believes the heat and fast paced nature of kitchens can forge leaders and build strong teams. The kitchen is a hands on classroom and our kitchen education includes basic cooking, food safety, and nutrition for disadvantaged youth. We also provide support for students to learn other invaluable skills such as English and math.
In this quick update Dwight shares the progress on creating a new classroom for the students. For the past year and a half most of the cooking sessions have been happening in a cramped cooking space, with at times over 40 students. However, we’ve been working recently to upgrade a new space so it can be used as a classroom. This has meant doing some renovations such as raising the floor, redoing plumbing, painting, and a lot of cleaning. There were also funds to outfit the space with tables and shelves to make it more organized and conducive to teaching.
Big thank you to the Year 2 students at Bangkok Patana School and everyone else who has been supporting us!
P.S. Please mark the date August 19th, when we will debut a new documentary about our work in Bangkok. The video will be about 10 minutes and will talk more in depth about the situation and the importance of getting aid to the community we’re serving, especially the food, housing, and educational support we’re working hard to provide.
