“If you ask my mom, she’ll basically tell you that I hated Asian food until I went to college. I would eat it with my family and there are things that I definitely loved about it. Like Dâu Cháo Quây, the pan fried noodles and having the Peking duck and cha siu for Christmas. I loved a lot of the stuff, like Hainan chicken rice and stuff like that. But the other stuff like Bánh Xèo, the thing that my grandma used to make all the time, I actually hated eating that. My mom would have to force me to try it all the time. I know, Ai-Ling is making a face at me. But I actually do like it now, I just didn’t like it as a kid. And I don’t actually know why. I think I just had this idea of being very American and wanting to be very American. And just that Chinese food just felt very separate from that. But then as I got older I really wanted to recognize my parents’ culture and where they came from, and stuff like that rather than ignore it. And it gave me the opportunity to learn more about it but through my friends instead of my parents. Which I think is sometimes an easier avenue.”
Tiffany Goh and Ai-Ling Kuon are cousins (Tiffiny’s mother and Ai-Ling’s father are siblings). They both grew up in Houston, Texas, U.S. Ai-Ling is currently a senior in high school (still in Houston) and Tiffany works as a Content Creator and lives in Los Angeles, California, U.S. The two have always been close and they have tried to maintain this bond by cooking together. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these cooking hangouts have largely been done over video chat.
Tiffany and Ai-Ling are interviewed by Keli Butame.