Since the publication of her book, Chinese and Any Other Asian, writer and academic Anna Masing has hosted a series of salons speaking to, and expanding on the themes in her book – the varied experiences of East and South East Asian people in Britain. The final instalment is coming up in February and addresses food and its role in diasporic identities, and how it can be used as a lens through which to view colonialism, labour and power dynamics. Masing will host Foreign Flavours: The Power of Food, which includes a two-course meal and conversations with chef Budgie Montoya (Sarap and Alpas) and poet and novelist Stephanie Sy-Quia (Amnion), as well as another non-fiction author who is yet to be announced.
“One of the key things I’m looking forward to diving into is how food can be used to look at complex and difficult topics,” Masing tells Broadsheet. “I think that by looking at food we can see the practical applications of colonialism and appropriation, trace history, and see how cultures grow and develop. Food takes abstract ideas and makes them accessible – I am keen to hear how each of these writers do this, in their own work. I want to hone in on the idea of how food and identity work together. Food as a way of expressing identity can be really helpful and a shorthand, but also can feel restrictive and reductive.”
Guests will be served a two-course meal cooked by Montoya, whose cooking draws influence from his Filipino background, growing up in Australia and working in kitchens in Western counties. He’ll be making pyanggang chicken (burnt coconut chicken) and a cassava cheesecake, plus there’ll also be canapes and a drink on arrival.
Once the talks kick off, the panellists will dig into how and when food became important to them, how food appears in their everyday lives, how their East and South East Asian heritage relates to food, and whether they have developed their own diasporic food cultures.
“Budgie is a great chef, but he is also someone who goes out of his way to build and support the ESEA community,” says Masing. “His writing is incredible and explores some tough questions, both of the history of the Philippines but also his own relationship to that food. [Meanwhile], I realised that Stephanie was the perfect person to throw into the mix when I was re-reading her poetry book, Amnion. She uses food as a way to punctuate storytelling, and she shows how food is present in many important points in our life. They may seem like small details, but are crucial in building our own understanding of ourselves.”
Foreign Flavours: The Power of Food is at Spiritland, King’s Cross, on February 1, from 6.30pm. Tickets £44.04, plus an Eventbrite fee.
