Virtual Book Event Idea

AAPI bakery + Bay Area food tips + Moon Festival Primer + Viet Red Turmeric supply

Hello everyone!

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Last Sunday, I experienced the power of food and community building at Bake Sum, an Asian American bakery located in Oakland. I’d never met owner and head baker Joyce Tang before but she reached out about cookbook writing and invited me to the shop for a book signing.

It was a spectacular fall-ish Sunday. Who would come see me? I was delighted when people turned out to say “Hello”, get a book and chat. A 90-second recap video:

While at the bakery, I got to know Joyce. A former software engineer manager at Facebook, she switched careers in 2015, attended the San Francisco Cooking School, and then worked at bakeries in the Bay Area; while pregnant, she ventured to Spain for an externship at a Michelin three-star restaurant. She’s tough and determined.

From the get-go, Joyce intended to infuse pastries with Asian American heritage. Asian desserts have long been been seen as strange or meh. (It’s more than almond cookies!). Joyce’s approach blends the best of all cuisines that have impacted her through her life.

Joyce opened Bake Sum in 2021 when the pandemic hit and her wholesale business supplying clients such as the Asian Art Museum and Boba Guys (a local chain) vanished overnight. “We have had our challenges,” she said. Two years later, she has fourteen employees and business is humming.

When I started in the food industry, meeting someone like Joyce was rare. She chose her profession because she wanted to be there, not because she had to be there. Such a generational shift unleashes a wealth of creativity and community.

As for the rainbow of faces in the video — Oakland-native Roxane met her Viet husband when he picked her up to attend a wedding. (Roxane’s father was an accountant in Chinatown where he got to know her future husband’s family.) Three years later, they got married. She regularly cooks from my books for her family, including her in-laws!

Anthea Nguyen, a PTFS premium subscriber, sent her daughter Andrea to get a book signed. Thanks, Anthea!

Virtual Book Event

Sunday’s event got me thinking about doing a virtual Ever-Green Vietnamese book event on Zoom. It will be free and open to everyone. Here’s the date and time:

Wednesday, October 11 at 5-6pm PT / 8-9pm ET

We’ll gather on Zoom. Because people who come to my events often want to know about ingredients I use, I’ll pull some for you. If I have time, I’ll demo something too. Plus I’ll answer any questions you may have.

Yes, I’ll have a recorded playback, in case you can’t make it. However, because Zoom recordings can be funky, attending is way to experience the event.

Closer in, I’ provide a reminder and the Zoom details.

If you are NOT already a newsletter subscriber, get on the mailing list to ensure you get all event details!

Many of you already got the book (thank you!) and have perhaps perused or cooked from it! I look forward to hearing about what you’ve made or are interested in.

If you don’t have EGV, consider getting a copy from a local bookshop or online (Amazon and other e-tailers are continuing their discounted price). More about the book is here and here.

East Bay and San Jose Eating Tips

Back to Sunday’s book signing at Bake Sum. When you get avid cooks and eaters together, we trade insider tips! Intel I gathered:

Chinese and Vietnamese

• Joyce recommended Pho Ga Huong Que Cafe in Oakland for chicken pho. She also enjoys Noodle Dynasty in Berkeley.

• Joshua, who is Teochew (Chao Zhou, Chiu Chow, Trieu Chau), recommended Vien Huong in Oakland for hu tieu noodles, which may be served as a noodle soup, or “dry” with broth on the side. Hu tieu is a signature southern Vietnamese noodle dish.

• For bubble tea and adventurous drinks like fresh sugarcane, pennywort, mung bean and durian, Hao suggests Teahee in San Jose. [The name, Teahee, is a play on ti h í in Vietnamese which I can best express as this emoji: 😆]

Burmese

A woman who came for a copy of Ever-Green Vietnamese shared her heritage so I had to ask where she and her family go for ingredients and to dine. Her tips:

• Donut Delight in Union City sells donut and dim sum. But, Burmese food insiders go there for pantry items. [Tip from me: Kyain Kyain in Fremont has good Burmese food too.]

• Drive a little further and you’ll find Shwe Myanmar Burmese Cuisine in Livermore, which opened right before Covid happened. Yikes. The owner is a former Bay Area taxi cab driver, many of whom are Burmese. Judging from Yelp reviews, Shwe is a community favorite.

Want to make Burmese food at home? On my website are recipes for:

• shortcut Tea Leaf Salad (Laphet Thoke)

• an easy Green Tomato Salad

• very doable Egg and Okra Curry

What We Actually Ate

Along with the mini Mocha Cake that Joyce made from Ever-Green Vietnamese, Sunday was quite an eating day.

Joyce strongly suggested one of her regular spots — Pizzeria da Laura in Berkeley. The owner, Laura Meyer, is an award-winning pizzaoila mentored by renowned pizza expert Tony Gemignani. She worked with him for 20 years before opening her own shop.

You can order pizzas with different crust treatments. The New York Pizza has a chewy, thin, just right crisp crust. We ordered Laura’s award-winning La Regina, the generous arugula salad and a side of focaccia. We took leftovers home.

At Pizzeria da Laura: La Regina and a colossal amount of arugula in the salad!

The hearty foursome next to us ordered slices plus a deep-fried calzone and a Detroit pizza! They looked overwhelmed.

Joyce gifted me a box of goodies (hardworking author bonus ;-). For a pre-dinner snack, we ate her okonomiyaki danish. It’s a brilliant marriage of Japanese and French ideas — savory, crisp, rich, what I’d eat too regularly if I lived near Bake Sum.

Okonomiyaki danish and moon cake from Bakesum.

After a light dinner, we tried one of Bake Sum x Sheng Kee’s hojicha and white chocolate moon cakes. Cut into small wedges to go along with hot herbal tea, the moon cake was the capstone to a great day.

Mid-Autumn Festival Tips

Speaking of moon cakes, the Mid-Autumn (Moon) Festival gets underway on 9/24 — that’s Friday — tomorrow! If you shop at Asian bakeries or Chinese or Viet markets, you’ll see boxes of moon cakes big and small, as well as single cakes. The prices reflect the cake’s complexity (lava ones have a molten center). At 99 Ranch this week, about 1000 square feet of 🥮 cakes, not counting the frozen ones.

Try a moon cake or two to get into the spirit of the harvest festival, which lasts a good week. Like Thanksgiving, it’s a time for gratitude, family and friends.

At Viet World Kitchen, there’s a moon cake primer on how I make them and where to buy them.

How to expertly say Mid-Autumn Festival and moon cakes in Vietnamese? Click below to get my tiny language tip!

Viet Red Turmeric Supply

Y’all liked the turmeric! Burlap and Barrel just sold out last Monday. They’ll likely not bring it back so you’re lucky to have some. Without the rare Viet spice, I use B&B’s New Harvest Turmeric from India, which is currently on sale!

In the Andrea Nguyen Collection of spices, the turmeric has been replaced by ground lemongrass, which comes from Vietnam. It’s good and what I use.

⚡️ Spicy deal reminder» Whenever you make a purchase of $15 or more from Burlap and Barrel, add a set of their thirsty kitchen towels to your cart. During the checkout process, enter this special promo code: ANDREA-NGUYEN

The towels will be free to you!

That’s it for me right now. Thanks for being here.