1. How did you decide on becoming a chef? (I learned about your baseball injury. You could have done anything in the world, but why a chef?) When I was growing up, I wanted to either be a professional baseball player or a sushi chef. When I injured my shoulder early on in my baseball career, I turned to sushi, which was always a very special food memory early in my life. I trained in the art of being a […]
Restaurants in Chinatown and beyond anticipate that this year’s Chinese New Year will be different from past celebrations. While business owners said they believe people will still find ways to keep the spirit alive, many spaces whose banquets bring in a significant amount of revenue will be cutting back on the festivities. The holiday will mostly be honored at home, owners said. “We haven’t been prepping in the sense that we have in the past, because of COVID and the […]
If you dine at local Chinese restaurants, you’ve probably been served a container of duck sauce, a versatile sweet and sour sauce that is commonly used for dipping fried foods, from eggrolls to chicken fingers, fried wontons to crab rangoons. It has become such a familiar sauce that you can find it at non-Chinese restaurants too, especially with an order of chicken fingers. What is the origin of this curious sauce? Theories abound about its origin, most believing it acquired its name […]
Councilor Ed Flynn hosted a panel discussion with Superintendent Brenda Cassellius to address the concerns with the immigrant Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community in regards to Boston Public Schools (BPS). This discussion provided a long-awaited platform for AAPI educators to express their concerns while sharing their vision for an inclusive and anti-racist education structure. Given the Boston AAPI community’s long history of being silenced and unheard within the system, Ed Flynn, District 2 councilor, reasserted that, “our Asian community […]
Weekend train service will be slashed for all but five commuter rail lines as part of the first MBTA service cuts to go into effect next week. Beginning Jan. 23, the commuter rail will only offer weekend service on the Newburyport/Rockport, Framingham/Worcester, Fairmount, Providence, and Middleborough lines. Trains will be added to the Middleborough, Fairmount, and Newburyport/Rockport lines to fill in previous service gaps and maintain more consistent train intervals. The service cuts were approved last month by the MBTA’s […]
The Trump administration proposed a new potential rule on November 17 to ban work permits and limit jobs for people who are under Orders of Supervision (OSUP). To be classified as being under OSUP means that a person has been ordered to be deported but is not physically able to return to their country of origin. The rule has not yet gone into practice, but local organizations and groups across the Northeast have united to challenge the ban. Before it […]
Note: This article was written before Wednesday, January 20, 2021, inauguration day of President Joe Biden. Updates to this article may be made and can be found on sampan.org. (Print) Note: This article was originally written before January 20, 2021, inauguration day of President Joe Biden. It has since been updated (see below) to include the latest events up until our scheduled publishing date, January 22, 2021. (Online) On Jan. 6, Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building and disrupted the […]
Mahaniyom, which in Thai stands for “beloved” or “very popular,” is a Thai Tapas Bar that opened up this past winter in Brookline Village, in the old El Centro space. Long time Shojo alum Chompon (Boong) Boonnak and Smuch (Top) Saikamthorn, along with Chef Suparerk (Pao) Thampitak and their team, wanted to bring a “taste of home.” They have introduced delicious and homey Thai foods, served along with creative, handcrafted cocktails. This team brings many years of restaurant experience from […]
That crispy skin! Who can resist its taste and texture? It might be the most popular element of Peking Duck, a Chinese dish of roasted duck. It can be found in a number of restaurants in Chinatown. The version at China King might be one of the most popular. During the 19th century, nearly all U.S. newspaper references to Peking Duck referred to the breed and not the dish. This breed was introduced into the U.S. during the 1870s and quickly became […]
A story of persistence to inspire positive change. Chi Nguyen is a Vietnamese actress currently based in Melbourne, Australia. In 2017, Nguyen graduated with a Bachelor’s from Victorian College of the Arts (VCA). Her notable works include the first Vietnamese-Australian comedy series Phi and Me (2019), her solo comedy cabaret “Lotus” (winning Best Cabaret in Melbourne’s Fringe Festival in 2019), and playing the recurring role of Jeanette Dao in Amazon Prime’s “The Wilds” (2020). Twenty-four year old Nguyen has wanted […]
