Presented by the United States of Asian American Festival: Reimagining Horizons
During a virtual storytelling cook-along, VC Tang reads vignettes from her Thai cookbook memoir in which she reconciles the difference between home and motherland – and then weaves in new writings about her Asian and Latinx friendships forged in food and travel that birthed a new recipe: the curry tamale. It is the meeting and reunification of new ingredients: first, the chili pepper that circumvented the globe via Spanish colonization and Aztec exploration, making its way to Asia; and second, a pocket of masa steamed in a banana leaf – a scent of home in many tropical cultures. Furthermore, this particular curry relies on one particular brand of canned sour, brined bamboo that is little known and obscure - apart from mainstream Thai food. The convergence of familiar and foreign flavors via familiar techniques returns us to our roots and sends us into a shared future.