The Unqualified Culinary Critics

0:00:00
Hello, and welcome to the Unqualified Culinary Critics. We are a Vegas-based podcast that celebrates food and culture. Join us as we talk about our food and cultural experiences, and we do hope that these stories connect in some way to each one of you as well.

0:00:16
Thank you so much for coming back and listening to this very special episode on Pride in Our Heritage. Ashley and I are going to be talking about our cultures and our heritage and what makes us so prideful and happy to be part of them. So I am Mexican. I was born and raised here in Las Vegas and I actually did grow up going kind of back and forth between here and Mexico. And Ashley is Chinese, Filipino, and let's get started. All right, so something that I'm really proud of about my culture is, I'm gonna just be obvious and just say the food, because I feel like Mexican food is some top-tier food. You know, it's so diverse and there's so many like different things that you can make like even with just tacos like you know tacos are really diverse like you can have tacos with like carne asada, chicken, you can even do like frijoles you know like beans and stuff like that like there's a lot you can do with that yeah what about you Ashley? what's like the when you think about your cultures what's like the first thing you think about that you're just

0:01:39
like yeah I love that part of my culture. You know like everything that you just said so far about your culture like don't get me wrong I like it too like I mean I'm for like anything you know I'm for like any culture so just hearing about your culture even though it's like you're just starting out right now with the show just talking about food like Mexican food is one of my favorite cuisines too just besides the stuff that I eat and I'm just glad that you're talking about your upbringing about again like growing up in Vegas and then going back and forth to Mexico and here and all that fun stuff so it's like it's really cool to just hear about other people's um upbringings and their heritage and such but with me I like as you mentioned in the recording and in previous episodes I am Chinese I am Filipino I have a little bit of Spanish blood as well. I did grow up partly here but like I mentioned before I'm not originally born here because like I said I'm born in California but I grew up in a predominantly diverse area in California which is East LA so the thing that would stand out to me is just the culture and the food simultaneously. I can't pick one or the other because they play such a big part in me growing up entirely. So yeah, I would say both. That would stand out to me.

0:02:53
Well, what's something that you feel like makes your culture stand out? Like for me with like Mexican, with like being Mexican, I feel like besides the food, we have a lot of like really cool like festivals and traditions and stuff. Like, you know, I know everybody knows about like Dia de los Muertos and stuff, but like, for example, I mean, I think that that one alone is like super cool. And I like how there's different versions of it in different cultures. Like, I know Filipinos also have like their own version of Day of the Dead. And yes, we do.

0:03:29
Yeah.

0:03:29
All throughout like South America and just Central America, all that sort of stuff. So it's cool but I feel like the way that we do it is so interesting because you know we have like our ofrendas and stuff like that and then that's not like the only cool thing that I think we have like for example for spring break they get two weeks off like when I lived over there I remember we had two weeks off from school and during those two weeks we would just you know do religious kind of like religious ceremonies in a way, like religious traditions and practices. And then we'd have like a big parade and stuff right before Easter and then on Easter as well. And you know, like, during those two weeks, it just be like, you know, learning about Jesus and all that sort of stuff, like the things he went through. And then it was really cool, you know, like doing the parades. I remember in my dad's town, they do like, they have somebody dressed up as him and stuff and then they just have him like getting like on a float and Yeah, it's pretty interesting and I feel like a lot of people don't know that we do that like unless you're actually Hispanic or come from like a Latin American country. Nobody else really does spring break like that I mean, I don't know if maybe like in Asia they might do something like that But it's you know, completely different religions most of the time unless they're like a country that was colonized.

0:04:52
From my understanding, what my mom told me, the Philippines, they were colonized by the Spaniards. I don't know exactly what year, what century, but that's why I have a little bit of some Spanish blood too, along with my ancestors, so that's where I got it from. To just kind of go back a little bit as to the Day of the Dead, we do observe that holiday. I think one thing that would stand out to me right now, just at the top of my head, is Chinese New Year. And Chinese New Year to me is something that, I will admit, I don't really go big on the holiday. I remember when I was growing up, I would go to California, where the area that I grew up. So Monterey Park is where I grew up a little bit, and then I grew up in Montebello, but Montebello's where I'm originally from. So like I said, it is a diverse area which is like I said something that I stands out to me along with the food. So the Chinese New Year thing they would have it somewhere in LA and many families would come in and we would just like all sit in a banquet. There's a lion dance like for many multiple performers would come in dress as a lion like they would all like wear the Chinese lion thing over their head and there's people playing in the back and I remember being so scared of that because some traumatic stuff happened with a lion and me I guess they were playing but I was seven and I wasn't too fond of it I remember that part the food I mean they got like they have like cold cuts with like various meats I know chicken and beef is one of them because I eat like the beef part there's like walnut shrimp they have like some fish, some fried rice, and then they would have these festivities where you would have like a red envelope and they would just pass and inside those would have like numbers in it and you would get a number. Everybody in a table has a number and then if somebody calls your number you might like win something like you could even win like free money pretty much like $10 something like that. Sounds kind of cheap but it's actually sometimes that stuff can just mean a lot more. Not just the money, but just the experience, the fun, and then they have like entertainment, all that kind of stuff. I remember doing that growing up and I just like,

0:06:56
I enjoyed doing that stuff, especially with my family. Yeah, yeah, no, I mean, $10 is $10, man. I'd happily take that. Yeah, no, that's so interesting because like, I remember, you know, learning about Chinese New Year in school and stuff and the Chinese Zodiac. And I remember that's something that they taught us because I went to a school here that was mostly, the majority were Latinos. So it was like, most of us were Mexican or Salvadoran or like that. And so they tried to teach us about new cultures. And then I remember they teach us about Chinese New Year and we had to do this project where we had to like make our Chinese zodiac animal from clay and I'm a tiger and everybody else was a rabbit and I remember Oh nice. So upset. Yeah, I was so upset because I love rabbits like rabbits are one of my favorite animals I was like, I want to be a rabbit But yeah, like it's it's cool that they would teach us about different cultures like that. And I don't know if they did this at any of your schools growing up, but we would also have our World Day where each classroom would get a different country and then they'd decorate their classroom using things from those cultures and then spend an entire month learning about that culture. And then on a certain day, the last day everybody would go around the school touring different classrooms to learn more about

0:08:33
those countries. Well I don't recall like doing what you just said I think we handled it differently so we did have like a period where we would learn about each other's cultures and I remember this was in fifth grade, which is over many moons ago for me. I would say that, I remember we would put a picture of ourselves, there would be like a world map, there would be pictures of ourselves, and we would put a picture of ourselves from the countries that our ancestors came from. So I remember I had a lot of classmates who are also Filipino, and because there's nobody whose ancestors are from China, so they decided to just put mine on the... yeah. That's not a bad thing. I don't think against that at all. They would do that and then we would just all like... there was some sort of... I think we had to put like a yarn that's like it's supposed to attach to our picture and then to the US or something. I don't see... many moons ago. I don't even remember but I remember one thing though. We would bring food from our heritage so we had like a little little potluck and everybody would be like eating stuff from everybody else's Cultures or food and all that so I remember that so it was pretty fun a little bit somewhat unrelated But there was another time that we like celebrated multicultural events And I remember if you don't notice I play some music and I remember an orchestra We were like wrapping up and this was in high school. So what we did was we just like, they had a meeting, they're like, let's do around the world. That was the theme. So I remember sitting in the table of Norway, but I don't know much about Norwegian culture, and I would say that, I don't remember the food that I ate there, but I would definitely say that we did eat all kinds of dishes from around the world. I had fun at that event. We weren't playing any music, we weren't playing violin or bass or any of that we just sat down and we ate and we also shared out with band so they're more to marry

0:10:32
you know but yeah yeah that sounds like fun it is yeah I remember the like festivals that we would do we would do them every year at my school but yeah so I have a question because like you know I'm only like Mexican, like that's my only nationality. So I was wondering, like, do you feel like you have one culture that you connect to more than the other, or do you feel like you connect to all of them? Like you connect to being Filipino and Chinese and Spanish, or is there one that you're just like, yeah, you know, like I have elements from this heritage

0:11:13
more present in my life than from the other. Well the thing is, I would say equal, but admittedly at the same time, it's more of Chinese and Filipino to me because I don't know too much about the Spanish culture, so I know that I have so much homework to do for the rest of my life to learn about the Spanish culture, so that's something that I will admit, and admit fault to. My father was Chinese, well my mother too was Chinese as well, but she was a little more Filipino, so she's kind of mixed today, so that's why I got it from her. So my dad's side was mainly Chinese that I know of right now, and then on my mom's side, it's Filipino, there's Chinese, and there's some Spanish blood as well. So I would identify more towards with Chinese and Filipino, because of the stuff that I ate, everything that I learned from them, that kind of helped shape who I am today.

0:12:06
That's interesting.

0:12:08
Yeah, because I've always wondered, like people who are a little bit more mixed, if they feel like, you know, like, I personally, I think it's cool, because I feel like you get the best of all worlds, since you're mixed with more than one culture because it's like you get to explore so many more different things because like me like I like I just have this one culture that I was raised into and that I that I grew up in and stuff like that and it's like I had to learn about other cultures and other traditions and stuff rather than already you know like being born raised into that.

0:12:45
But you know it's always good to learn other cultures whether it's in school or from somebody that you met, like, along the way, you know, in your life. So I mean, either way, it's good to learn all kinds of cultures in general. So yeah.

0:13:01
Yes, I agree. It's always important. And then like, I mean, even within like, one culture, like everything is so diverse, regardless of what country you come from, like, even with like, Mexico, like the culture, because my family's from Jalisco, the culture from Jalisco is going to be different than Michoacan, then Oaxaca, then Yucatan, like all these other states. And even within the states, like even from like city or town to town, because like, for example, my parents, the towns they're from, they're from different towns, but they live like 40, 45 minutes away from each other. So it's still like, you know, the same region. And I remember my mom saying how like the first time, well, not the first time, but like, you know, as she started going over to my dad's town and started, you know, like after she got married and stuff, she would obviously eat with my grandma, my dad's mom. And she found how interesting it was how she would cook because it was different than how they would cook, even though they would make these, like the same recipes, or not the same recipes, the same dish, the recipes would be very different. And it's just interesting, because that's just 45 minutes away from each other, and there is those differences. And I remember my grandma, my dad's mom, would make these garbanzos that she would, I don't even know how she would make them, because I don't know how to cook but she would make them and they were so good and I remember I would ask my mom I'm like okay you make like our bonsons like that she'd be like I don't know like I don't know I don't know how she made them I don't know how she did that and yeah I don't know I just think it's so cool when you come from a culture that's so diverse because there's so many like different things that you can learn and do and I feel like people who have more than one culture probably feel that way too. Like regardless.

0:14:56
Yes, I agree because like my mom she grew up in an area kind of like southeast of Manila and the dialect of the language that she speaks is different. Like Tagalog from my understanding is like the universal language in the Philippines. However where she grew up is another dialect. She's from the Pico region, so she will speak Pico or Picolano. I don't see I don't know I gotta do my homework some more. So she speaks Tagalog and she speaks Pico as well. I'm learning a little bit from her as to like what they mean and I'm still learning it right now. So I can I also can echo you in regards to like different regions and also diversity that kind of stuff. So I have a question for you since you're talking about like languages and stuff. Do you speak either of those languages or do you speak Chinese or Spanish or any language that comes from your cultures? So I will admit and like I said I got to do my homework by a lot. I speak very little Cantonese and a little Mandarin. Same thing with Tagalog and Pico. I don't know much Spanish either. See, I gotta do my homework. My main language is English, so that's my first language. And I started learning a little bit of some French a few years ago. So, just because I wanted to learn about the culture that they provide as well. So, I'm not too multilingual, but I do speak a little bit of some of the languages and I do understand some of the terms, but not everything.

0:16:24
Yeah, well, at least you're like, you know, you know a little that's what matters. Yeah. Yeah. No, but I definitely feel you on English becoming like your first language because me my first language was Spanish But um, you know growing up here and like now that I like that I'm not going back and forth anymore and that I'm here It really does like just dominate everything else like I still speak Spanish at home and like at work and stuff but um yeah like I don't know like I think in English I dream in English it's weird because you know like Spanish was my first language I that was all I really spoke up until I was like five. My mom says I actually learned English from watching cartoons and that like that I would try to speak to her in English when I was little but you know she didn't understand so she'd be like what? Like confused as to how I even like learned English. But yeah, it's um I was going to ask you because you know like we do have these cultures and like heritage that's from our parents and our families and stuff and we grew up over here in the U.S. Not in the same like situation as our parents or in the same places as our parents. So I was wondering how do you feel about like your cultures being Americanized? Like you know like for example with like Mexican we have like the Tex-Mex food now we have Taco Bell, Del Taco, like that sort of stuff. Like you know there's more of an American spin on some of these foods and some of these aspects.

0:18:04
I don't mind at all, personally. I try to be open-minded about the stuff that I see, especially with food nowadays, and I try to be open-minded now that I'm in my 20s, so I don't really have any preferences as to what they do. I will say I'm not too fond of Panda Express because I just am not into the spices that they make. I think that is a little more Americanized, like P.F. Chang's as well. Yeah. But, I mean, it's pretty simple. If you don't like it, just don't go there. You know, that's just a very simple, simple thing. So I don't have any issues about it. But if I want something that I feel is from my culture that sticks with me so much, then my mom would cook it, or I would go to a restaurant that serves the cuisines that I grew up eating as a child. Pretty simple as well. You?

0:18:52
I don't know. I personally don't mind that sort of stuff. But like, you know, I'm not going to be like, oh yeah, this is Mexican, like authentic Mexican food, Taco Bell. Yeah. But like, I don't I don't mind it. I think it's interesting to see, like how other cultures interpret these foods from our cultures. And like we said in the episode with Christian like I'll eat it. I don't mind it I'll eat it happily sometimes even but yeah but it's not you know and everybody already knows it's not actual Mexican food like I don't even need to state the obvious but I don't know it's just interesting because you can really see like I feel like things like that kind of bring out like what the cultures each cultures value in a sense because you'll have like the basic food like a taco and then you have like Taco Bell that goes ahead and like you know they make it the hard sell thing instead of like you know the soft tortillas and then the sauces they change the sauces up as well making them less spicy. So yeah, yeah, I don't know. I like, like I said, I just think it's interesting. Yeah, I'm trying to think of another thing besides like Taco Bell of like another example like Americanized Mexican food. I mean, Texan. Taco Bell?

0:20:16
Yeah.

0:20:17
Taco Bell?

0:20:18
Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, recently I discovered that I don't know if I've talked about it before on the podcast, but I discovered that there's a place that does BGF ramen, so it's like Japanese and Mexican food Mix like, you know infused. I want to try that place because I feel like that's very Personally, that sounds very appealing to me. I love you. Yeah, I love ramen Yeah, we should go together on that. Yeah, and then report back on one of our episodes. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah I agree. Yeah, okay so listeners hold us accountable to that. Yeah, yeah we're gonna have to do it pretty soon. Yeah, yeah so like it's interesting living here in the US because it's like not only is your food getting like, or culture, not just food, but everything in general. Because I would say that like Chicanos and Mexicans are very different. Like there is a very big difference between us. But it's interesting living at least here in this country because you know, you're not just getting your food Americanized, it's getting mixed with other cultures that you like are nowhere near each other like Japan and Mexico, nowhere near each other. But yet it happened and I love it.

0:21:35
Yes, it's good to like infuse those two cultures together. Because like, if there's one thing that I can say, I will admit one thing though. I personally feel that it's fine that our cultures are being Americanized as well. But I would personally ask that even to the listeners, like don't just randomly believe that that's the culture. No, it has to be like, I think that if you want to learn more about it, like learn more about the culture itself, not just the Americanized version of it, and just like do more research, try the authentic foods and all that kind of stuff so that you have more, you're more educated as to what it is that these cultures provide, that that's just hopefully a very easy way to understand it as to how I would say it. Yeah, yeah, no I agree and just you know be

0:22:20
respectful about different cultures. Yeah, absolutely.

0:22:25
All right.

0:22:26
So I know we kind of answered this at the beginning of the episode, but I want to go back to the question of something that we think makes our culture stand out because, you know, we've talked about like holidays, traditions, food, of course, but I still think there's so much more like different aspects of our cultures that really make us shine and stuff or, yeah, make them shine, that make them unique. And I think one of those things for Mexican culture is gonna be el baile folklórico. I remember, you know, when I used to go to school in Mexico, they would teach us how to do that for Mother's Day, we would do like a baile for them. And yeah, I just remember those dances being, like, even when I see them on TV or whatever, like, I just think they're so beautiful and I think it's so interesting how like each state has their own different version of it and one of my favorite ones is like the the one because sometimes they'll put masks on and um like the men will put mask on and do like the old man dance like like I just really like eat those and um yeah and I just I also just love the dresses that the women wear for that, for those dances as well. They're like big and beautiful and twirly. What about you?

0:23:47
Do you think there's anything else that stands out from your culture? So like the other thing that kind of stands out to me right now is just going to like family events. So like for birthdays, you know, on my dad's side, we would just go to a Chinese restaurant either in Monterey Park or here in Vegas and we would like order the stuff that we would eat you know like the one of my favorite dishes is like the it's called congee yi mien and that's just long life noodles I don't recall if it's lo mein or chow mein so I'm gonna need to look more into that but the cool thing about that dish to me is that like I said it's long life so you eat those noodles is long life. So I've heard from like my family, oh, eating noodles is long life. So that's something that I totally cherish. You know, I embrace that. But another thing that would come to my mind when we would be in those restaurants would be like having the peach buns come out. And I will say that peaches are also another symbol of long life in my culture. So it's good to eat a peach pretty much when you get those buns at your table. It's just basically the restaurant's just wishing best wishes and many more years to come. That kind of cool stuff.

0:25:01
Oh, that's nice. It's really cool.

0:25:03
That's cool. Yes, yes. Maybe on my birthday we can like go to a Chinese restaurant and hopefully they will do that. And then you can have my peach buns because like I said in the sweets episode, I don't eat a lot of sweets anymore so yeah yeah that sounds like it'd be a lot of fun yeah I maybe we should do it next year hopefully things are better yeah we can do that yeah we're already planning this see you guys this is how we plan our episodes like way in advance oh yeah planning is fun but things change you know but yeah yeah yeah those are pretty cool traditions. So I have a question with the long noodles, like, or long life noodles. Do you eat them in hopes that they'll bring you like a long life? Or like, is there an intention like that behind that? I will say, even when I was younger, and kind of a bit to now, that hopefully those noodles would give me long life, I mean longer lives you know. So I mean of course I gotta eat healthy and that dish I believe is healthy and some dishes have like specific ingredients and how to make it or like some various versions I mean. But I remember the last time I had it, which was not my birthday, it was last year, they had a vegetarian which I personally agree with and I I will say though that no matter how they make it, like any kind of noodles besides the long life noodles I would eat any kind of noodles in hopes that they would bring me long life in general. But yeah I do have like a question I you've been asking me a lot of questions and I haven't had the chance to ask like some questions of my own. So you mentioned in the past that you know we were talking about like we do come from like different parts of our own countries you know like you grew up back and forth in Mexico and here in Vegas and you talked about how there's like various versions of like certain dishes as well I do want to go back a little bit into language I don't know a lot about the Mexican culture to Hispanic culture etc do you speak like a different dialects to your parents or like like how does that work like your mom may be speaking one dialect and your father might be speaking another. Like, how does that work? Like, what's it like? Well, my parents are close. Like, they're from towns that are close enough where, like, the dialect is the same. But, like, there will be times where, like, my dad will say something and my mom's like, what does that mean? And my mom will say something and my dad's like, oh, what does that mean? But, like, for the most part, it's the same. Yeah, they're close enough where like just about everything's the same. And then like it helps that they both grew up in rural areas. So you know, they have like the same type of vernacular. Okay, that's good. But like it is different than like our Spanish obviously is going to be different than Spanish from from like another country. And then like our Spanish is different than like Spanish from Indigenous cultures like even within that region, okay That was just kind of asking because like you brought up the whole like the dialects or I did but you know I was just kind of curious Yeah, I am trying to think of another one, but for some reason it's not really popping into my head but don't get me wrong I am interested in your culture because like I said Mexican food, new heritage, new cultures and stuff that interests me and like I said Mexican food is one of my favorite cuisines so but yeah like do you do I know that you mentioned the past that there was a rice dish that your your mom would make and that's one of your favorite dishes that you would have on your birthday. Are there like any other dishes that stand out to you in your culture that kind of like are there additional dishes that stand out to you? That's your favorite that are celebrated or observed on specific holidays

0:29:00
Hmm

0:29:01
I'm trying to think I think la rosca for like the other little areas. So that's like the day that we celebrate like the Okay, so I might get this wrong, but that's like the day that we celebrate like the Kings that brought like Jesus presents and stuff or something like that. It has to do with Christmas and Jesus, but there's Like this bread that we eat and it's like this giant Oval thing but like oh my god. I don't know how to explain it. It's like this giant like oval thing um yeah it has like candied fruit on it and um kind of like have you had a concha before? No I actually don't know what it means. Oh so that's it's it's a type of bread it's a type of Mexican bread but like it has like this like it's not frosting but like the top of it has like this sugar kind of um I don't know how to explain that either this is why I once again am proving that I am unqualified an unqualified culinary critic but it it has like this kind of like sugar on it and it has that like the rosca has that and then they bake these plastic um little like mini Jesus dolls and the tradition is that like if you bite it if you get a piece and when you bite it or if your piece has like the little plastic Jesus doll because it's like a little baby and it's supposed to symbolize baby Jesus and if you get it then you have to make food like tamales or something like that for la calendaria so that's like in February. Is it like maldegra? Yeah it's like no no no it's different okay no it's different but yeah and so like if you get the little doll you have to make food for that for la calendaria and yeah it's it's it's fun it's interesting I always hated getting the little doll but like I remember as a little kid I would want the doll because I wanted to play with it but now that like you know as I got older and I understood what the doll meant I'm like oh no like literally people would try to hide it like they'll like keep it in their mouth if they like take a bite out of it they won't tell anybody they got it some people even swallow it oh not want to is that like edible though no it's not oh that's how desperate they they get to not get it I mean they can

0:31:35
just like excuse themselves but I mean there's suspicion in that.

0:31:39
Yeah but yeah it's like this whole thing and it's always fun but yeah like La Rosta that's a cool tradition that we have.

0:31:48
That's cool.

0:31:49
That's really cool because like you brought up like the baby and then you put in the cake. I will admit it kind of does remind me a little bit of Maldigra but different cultures you know because like yeah. yeah yeah I don't remember much about the holiday other than it means Fat Tuesday in English because you know I know some French like I said but I don't know much about the culture other than we just celebrate it and stuff so but yeah yeah all right so let us know in the comments like some cool tradition that you guys have in your cultures um whether it's something similar to these or something completely different and then also let us know what's something that you're proud of from your culture and your heritage. What's something that makes you, you know, proud to be from that culture. All right, thank you guys so much for everything. Make sure you follow us on

0:32:39
Instagram at Unqualified Culinary Critics and on Twitter at U-N-Q-C-U-L-C-R-I-T. And that's where you can let us know your thoughts and share your culture with us as

0:32:52
well.

0:32:53
Please do be very nice with your comments too because we are talking about a lot of things that mean so much to us so we do want to extend a courtesy call. Please be very nice.

0:33:04
Yes.

0:33:05
And thank you guys again so much for listening. And thank you guys again so much for listening. Stay tuned for the next episode.

Transcribed with Cockatoo