Feast Meets West

Eric Tran didn’t set out to open a restaurant during a pandemic, but here we are. Eric took over the lease for Falansai and now operates the Bushwick restaurant as a reimagined 2.0 version, making his interpretation of delicious Vietnamese dishes with a focus on whole animal butchery and seasonally and locally sourced ingredients. We talk about the food, what it was like to open with a takeout and delivery focus to start, and what’s in store for Falansai as the city reopens.Photo Courtesy of Adam FriedlanderKeep Feast Meets West on the air: become an HRN Member today! Go to heritageradionetwork.org/donate. Feast Meets West is powered by Simplecast.

Early last year, Eric Huang left his sous chef position at Eleven Madison Park to open his own restaurant. However, the pandemic forced Eric to switch gears. It led him back to his family's restaurant, Peking House, where he started Pecking House—a delivery concept for chili fried chicken dinners, so successful it has an 8-week long waitlist. Tune in to hear Eric talk about his new culinary path, one that he never expected but is far more rewarding and fun than he ever thought it would be.Photo Courtesy of Daniel BrennanKeep Feast Meets West on the air: become an HRN Member today! Go to heritageradionetwork.org/donate. Feast Meets West is powered by Simplecast.

Hetty McKinnon, the internationally renowned cookbook author and food writer, joins us to chat about her latest book To Asia, With Love. It’s filled with a mix of comforting Asian dishes that her Cantonese mother prepared for her growing up, as well as her modern spin on favorites for her own family. We talk about her incredible culinary journey across continents and the powerful ability to capture identity in home cooked meals.Photo Courtesy of Shirley CaiKeep Feast Meets West on the air: become an HRN Member today! Go to heritageradionetwork.org/donate. Feast Meets West is powered by Simplecast.

We’re thrilled to be back! For our first episode of 2021, we chat with Joe Boo, Founder of Asian Veggies, a business born out of the pandemic. Joe started Asian Veggies, a New York City based grocery delivery service, as an effort to save his dad’s wholesale vegetable business in Brooklyn when COVID hit. In the span of a year, the delivery service has expanded from selling 40 to 650 products. Tune in to hear about the incredible journey of Asian Veggies and what’s next.Keep Feast Meets West on the air: become an HRN Member today! Go to heritageradionetwork.org/donate. Feast Meets West is powered by Simplecast. 

For the last episode of the season, we chat with Tracy and Tiffany Pham of Red Boat Fish Sauce, a product beloved by chefs and home cooks around the world. Tracy and Tiffany tell us about what makes their fish sauce special, what the company is making beyond fish sauce, and what it’s like to work with the Red Boat founder, their dad, Cuong Pham. The sisters also reveal a new product launching this summer.In March, HRN began producing all of our 35 weekly shows from our homes all around the country. It was hard work stepping away from our little recording studio, but we know that you rely on HRN to share resources and important stories from the world of food each week. It’s been a tough year for all of us, but right now HRN is asking for your help. Every dollar that listeners give to HRN provides essential support to keep our mics on. We've got some fresh new thank you gifts available, like our limited edition bandanas.Keep Feast Meets West on the air: become an HRN Member today! Go to heritageradionetwork.org

We catch up with a former guest, Joanne Kwong, President of Pearl River Mart. Joanne tells us about the changes she's made at Pearl River Mart due to Covid, as customers shop online instead of in-stores, and the wide range of projects she’s taken on for her local communities, including her participation in Mayor De Blasio’s Small Business Sector Advisory Council.In March, HRN began producing all of our 35 weekly shows from our homes all around the country. It was hard work stepping away from our little recording studio, but we know that you rely on HRN to share resources and important stories from the world of food each week. It’s been a tough year for all of us, but right now HRN is asking for your help. Every dollar that listeners give to HRN provides essential support to keep our mics on. We've got some fresh new thank you gifts available, like our limited edition bandanas.Keep Feast Meets West  on the air: become an HRN Member today! Go to heritageradionetwork.org/donate. Image courtesy of Pearl River Mar

We continue our Corona Diaries conversations with Chef Lien Lin of Bricolage, the Vietnamese gastropub in Park Slope, and Owner Maiko Kyogoku and Chef Emily Yuen of Bessou, the modern Japanese comfort food restaurant in Soho. Tune in to find out how the pandemic fast forwarded Lien’s plans to move her family to the West Coast, complete with a cross-country RV adventure. Hear how Maiko and Emily have been adjusting Bessou for takeout, taking on projects to support frontline healthcare workers, and more. In March, HRN began producing all of our 35 weekly shows from our homes all around the country. It was hard work stepping away from our little recording studio, but we know that you rely on HRN to share resources and important stories from the world of food each week. It’s been a tough year for all of us, but right now HRN is asking for your help. Every dollar that listeners give to HRN provides essential support to keep our mics on. We've got some fresh new thank you gifts available, like our limited edition b

Vanessa Pham and Kim Pham are first-generation Vietnamese-Americans, sisters, and co-founders of Omsom, a brand of Asian pantry staples that have been designed to make cooking your favorite Asian dishes with uncompromised flavors and hard-to-find ingredients possible in any home kitchen. While launching a new product is tough enough as it is, they did it in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic this May. We talk about how they brought the Omsom concept to life, and how they adapted the launch to work for these unusual times.HRN will be donating 10% of our membership drive proceeds from now until June 15 to the Philando Castile Relief Foundation. Visit heritageradionetwork.org/donate to make your gift.Image courtesy of Omsom.Feast Meets West is powered by Simplecast.  

This summer, we’ll broadcast a handful of new episodes where we catch up with our friends in the Asian food industry to see what they’ve been up to, and how they’ve adapted their restaurant operation or small business for a pandemic. This episode, we call on Amelie Kang, Owner of MaLa Project, and Dennis Ngo, Chef and Co-owner of Di An Di.Image courtesy of MaLa Project.Feast Meets West is powered by Simplecast.  

Restauranteur Roni Mazumdar and Chef Chintan Pandya, the dynamic duo behind Adda Indian Canteen in Long Island City, Rahi in Greenwich Village, and the soon to opened Dhamaka in Essex Street Market, are opening the eyes and palettes of New Yorkers to what authentic Indian food looks and tastes like. The menus composed by Chef Chintan are inspired by recipes found across the Indian subcontinent, nostalgic dishes that he and Roni grew up with, and innovations using Indian flavors and cooking techniques.The holiday season is all about food and community. There’s no better time to show your support for food radio by becoming a member! Lend your voice and help HRN continue to spreading the message of equitable, sustainable, and delicious food – together, we can change minds and build a better food system. Go to heritageradionetwork.org/donate today to become a crucial part of the HRN community.Feast Meets West is powered by Simplecast.

We chat with Matt Le-Khac and Jimmy Tran of Bolero. Located in the heart of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Bolero features a hyper-seasonal menu that emphasizes the rare fresh herbs that form the foundation of Vietnamese cuisine — sourced from Matt’s family farm and showcased in the restaurant’s Vietnamese Tea Garden. The Bolero team will use the Northeast Corridor to bring awareness to lost traditions.Feast Meets West is powered by Simplecast.  

Joanne Kwong, President of Pearl River Mart, the iconic NYC “friendship store” specializing in Asian goods since 1971, joins us to chat about her favorite Asian snacks! We find out what the best selling classics are at the store, as well as what’s new and trending. Joanne will also speak to the history and progression of the Pearl River brand, and give us a sneak peek of the soon-to-be opened fourth location dedicated to Asian foods.Join Heritage Radio Network on Monday, November 11th, for a raucous feast to toast a decade of food radio. Our tenth anniversary bacchanal is a rare gathering of your favorite chefs, mixologists, storytellers, thought leaders, and culinary masterminds. We’ll salute the inductees of the newly minted HRN Hall of Fame, who embody our mission to further equity, sustainability, and deliciousness. Explore the beautiful Palm House and Yellow Magnolia Café, taste and imbibe to your heart’s content, and bid on once-in-a-lifetime experiences and tasty gifts for any budget at our silent auct

Sink into artisinal tofu with Paul Eng, heir to a tofu dynasty. Since 1933, the Chinatown specialty tofu shop Fong On has been run by the Eng family. Prior to coming back to the family business, Paul embarked on a series of other careers over the span of 25 years that led him to music, design, art direction, advertising and photography. Paul has now rebooted the shop for both long-time customers as well as a younger generation.Join Heritage Radio Network on Monday, November 11th, for a raucous feast to toast a decade of food radio. Our tenth anniversary bacchanal is a rare gathering of your favorite chefs, mixologists, storytellers, thought leaders, and culinary masterminds. We’ll salute the inductees of the newly minted HRN Hall of Fame, who embody our mission to further equity, sustainability, and deliciousness. Explore the beautiful Palm House and Yellow Magnolia Café, taste and imbibe to your heart’s content, and bid on once-in-a-lifetime experiences and tasty gifts for any budget at our silent auction. T

Paul Chen of Fan Fried Rice and Layla Chen of Maya Bed Stuy join us to discuss the topic of rice as a comfort food. They also share some parallel experiences as shop owners that specialize in a rice dish that pays respect to their heritage: for Paul it’s fried rice and for Layla it’s congee, their approach in combining tradition and modernity on their respective menus, and setting up shop in the Bed-Stuy neighborhood of Brooklyn. Feast Meets West is powered by Simplecast.  

Simone Tong, Chef-Owner, and Emmeline Zhao, GM and Partner, of Little Tong, Little Tong Noodle Shop, and the soon-to-be opened Silver Apricot talk to us about their culinary progression from introducing mixian at Little Tong to showcasing what it means to be Chinese-American today at Silver Apricot. We'll chat about this coming of age for Chinese-American food--a clear distinction from the American-Chinese food born out of economic necessity. Feast Meets West is powered by Simplecast.

There are countless dishes that you should be adding miso to beyond the omnipresent soup! Maiko Kyogoku and Emily Yuen, the dynamic duo behind Bessou, join us in the studio to tell us about all the different miso varietals and how to use them so you can add more umami magic to your life. Feast Meets West is powered by Simplecast.

We are chatting with Ali Azimov of Lagman House about his family's restaurant, and introducing our listeners to Dungan cuisine. As Ligaya Mishan pointed out in The New York Times, "Lagman House is likely the first and only restaurant in the city to offer the food of the Dungans, Chinese Muslims descended from seventh-century Arab and Persian Silk Road traders who married Han Chinese." Doron Wong of River and Hills Hospitality Group will also join us to share his experiences cooking and eating in Kazakhstan. Photo courtesy of Lagman House. Feast Meets West is powered by Simplecast.

We talk about the experience of bringing popular ramen concepts from Japan to New York. For both Tonchin and Ichiran, highly regarded ramen restaurants from Japan, NYC was the first destination for their US expansion. Anan and Toui Sugeno, the brothers behind Tonchin New York, and Annie Chen, the Assistant Manager of Restaurant Operations at ICHIRAN NY join us in the studio. It's HRN's annual summer fund drive, this is when we turn to our listeners and ask that you make a donation to help ensure a bright future for food radio. Help us keep broadcasting the most thought provoking, entertaining, and educational conversations happening in the world of food and beverage. Become a member today! To celebrate our 10th anniversary, we have brand new member gifts available. So snag your favorite new pizza - themed tee shirt or enamel pin today and show the world how much you love HRN, just go to heritageradionetwork.org/donate Image courtesy Greg Rhein Photography for Ichiran USA. Feast Meets West is powered by Simple

Instead of our typical chef and restaurateur guests, we have our first episode featuring artists. James Yang from New York and Jonathan Jay Lee from Hong Kong are a couple Asian-American illustrators with distinct styles inspired by city life, travel, and of course - Asian food. It's HRN's annual summer fund drive, this is when we turn to our listeners and ask that you make a donation to help ensure a bright future for food radio. Help us keep broadcasting the most thought provoking, entertaining, and educational conversations happening in the world of food and beverage. Become a member today! To celebrate our 10th anniversary, we have brand new member gifts available. So snag your favorite new pizza - themed tee shirt or enamel pin today and show the world how much you love HRN, just go to heritageradionetwork.org/donate Photo courtesy of Jonathan Jay Lee for Lee Kum Kee. Feast Meets West is powered by Simplecast.

Nikkei is the result of the culinary romance and intense cultural exchange between Japan and Peru. The cuisine grew out of the Japanese presence in Peru, which started when the Japanese farmers began emigrating there in the late 1800s. We talk to 2 Peruvian-American Chefs paving the way for Nikkei in NYC: Erik Ramirez of Llama Inn, Llamita, and Llama-San, and Mina Newman of Sen Sakana. Photo courtesy of Sen Sakana. Feast Meets West is powered by Simplecast.