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Being a first generation Asian American, I was raised in a family where Filipino and Chinese cuisine is the food on our table. The vast majority of food that my parents served are stir fry noodles, spring rolls and other home-cooked Filipino and Chinese food even the lunch that I brought at school.
Whenever I open my lunchbox, the first thing you can smell is garlic. My mom always prepares fried rice for me during lunch time wherein you can barely taste the comforting blend of soy sauce, garlic and egg.
I remember my classmate will laugh at me and will say "You're so Asian" as they are having their peanut butter and jelly sandwich with no crust. All those years that has been my scenario until I got tired and ask my mom for a peanut butter and jelly thinking that it was the right combination of carbs and protein and got me thinking, finally no one will make fun of me of having fried rice at school.
Fast forward, you will see a lot of Asian inspired menus everywhere. Restaurants is taking Asian food as a glamour home cooked meal, comforting and down to earth in a 5 star restaurant. I mean there's nothing wrong with that and I am not against it.
What bugs me is these foods are created and judged by white people. I'm not trying to be racist here or anything but they are the same people who scoffed at my home made dumplings and stinky kimchi, saying that dumplings and kimchi is their favorite food and preaching how healthy it is and posting it on their Instagram. They create these food trends in Asian food without even thinking where it comes from.
Sushi bar? They are in every corner in LA. Ramen House? They are everywhere. Matcha? They are better than coffee and people are going crazy about it. Boba or Milktea? Got to post this just like everyone does.
These people are saying they discover it, it's a great new food and will be the latest food trend of the year.
Let me tell you more about this Asian food trend that it is all over the world of Instagram and believe to be made by Americans. Ramen was invented in the early 20th century: Matcha has been apart of Japanese traditional tea ceremonies and dumplings was invented in suburb in China.
I guess we can all agree that as an Asian American today, we are very happy in slurping a homemade ramen, drinking a good matcha at home, craved for a soup dumplings during rainy day in LA. These foods are a part of our history and culture, both are past and present.
I'm not saying Asian food are just for Asians. We are really happy that people are starting to appreciate and value Asian food. What im trying to say is that we are tired of people calling Asian food a "Trend" when these foods has been around longer than you have.