Monday, August 10, 2020 - Colonization of Hospitality

Video Subtitles:

hi everybody happy monday august 10th
i am going to do my installment of
dignified hospitality today
uh telling a little story about um
an old friend of mine who is now
working with tea actually in hawaii
and found a really great article
in honolulu magazine about her business
on the island of kauai where she's
making
all types of products syrups and it's
also a catering business so she's
doing a lot of private catering of
course right now a lot of that's kind of
died down so she really is like uh
doubling down on her line of
products and all of the ingredients are
sourced from like local farms
which is really incredible and she's
been working with us
on some teas she's bottling some ready
to drink
lightly sweetened and flavored teas uh
using
some of the heritage assam teas as well
as some of the setemboa teas so it's
really exciting
and um the title of this article
is gita snyder of slow island company on
being black in the food industry
so i thought i'd spend today kind of
doing a little bit of a feature
on her story and then also
looking at some other stories about
colonization or you know the
appropriation
of power
uh within the food industry and how you
know
in bringing dignity to the hospitality
industry
uh we could do leaps and bounds and
wonders
of work uh to support um
you know marginalized communities uh in
our country
so yeah gita is cool i actually met gita
in
grad school when i was in mba and she
was going to the community college's
culinary program on honolulu yeah
yeah everything was in honolulu um
and we were both members of the solar
decathlon team which is a really great
sustainability initiative by the
department of energy to build
zero emissions uh sustainable homes it's
an interdisciplinary program between
different
departments and agita was our food
hospitality uh contact within the team
because
as part of the competition not only did
we have to prove
if the structure of the house and the
energy efficiency of the house was
sustainable
but that the actual livability of the
house was sustainable as well
so um we part of the competition was
hosting a dinner party
and gita was going to be responsible for
coming up with the dishes that were
going to be made
all from everything harvested as part of
the house because the house had
a full integrated um aquaponic system
so growing all types of greens and herbs
as well as
having tilapia fish i think that was the
fish that we were working with and she
actually made some really great dishes
unfortunately the project fell through
so i don't have an exciting
you know finale to this story about
how everything was but um good
friendships are built
like this one which is incredible you
know that's a lot of the power
of collaborative work is that sometimes
you don't always get the results
that you're going for but there's other
benefits you know
widened perspectives widening
understandings
of things and um so agita and i
stayed in touch both having you know a
passion for food and sustainability and
you know in hawaii there's a really
great um
food sovereignty movement uh where
different you know professionals within
the agriculture field as well as the
hospitality field
i work together to you know bring more
autonomy to the the food system there in
hawaii
um but yeah she's got her brand now and
so her catering business is
you know kind of slowed down and uh so
yeah she's been talking to me about
scaling up and i believe she's part of a
um like a food accelerator
you know like we see all these like tech
accelerators like venture capital funds
that give like
seed funding to early stage startups uh
well there's like a really interesting
one on the island of kauai
that's for all like made in hawaii
products so she's a part of that
accelerator which is really exciting
because she's like getting access to all
the resources
and opportunities um you know of
networking into
the different distribution channels to
get her products into
as well as getting them into restaurants
which of course right now is
slower business
um i'm just gonna share this
so in this article it's like an
interview style i'm not gonna read the
whole thing
actually first before i do that i wanted
to define colonization because like this
word has been thrown out uh
especially in the context of t i think
and i'm grateful
that that's the word that all you know
the activists within the community have
chosen to use and have been using um
but you know i just wanted to define it
first so we can move forward so
i don't know this is oxford dictionary
the action or process of settling among
and establishing control
over the indigenous people of an area
and i think there's variations on that
definition too that we can apply
to what i'm talking about today and then
some sub definitions under that is the
action of appropriating a place or
domain for one's own
use and i think that that's
like a lot of the conversation that
we're having within the tea
industry in the t community is around
that definition and then the final
definition
is the act by a plant or animal of
establishing
itself in an area um you know i was like
reading these definitions before
starting i was thinking
this one is actually probably a really
interesting you know perspective
to take on um you know what i'm talking
about today specifically about
you know the perspective of being black
within the food industry
um you know it's like a power a power
control
um you know dynamic that's
uh you know very toxic um and
disempowering to certain
communities not all um
but yeah so i'm not going to read all of
the
you know there i'll put a link to this
article though so for those watching on
the internet you should be able to
read the full article if you are
interested in knowing more
about gita and her work read the article
you can see all the answers
but i'm just gonna like get to the juicy
part because there's another article and
another story i want to talk about so
i'm not gonna
you know put too much time into this but
i am gonna make myself some tea
first
so nice
bitcoin security system's about to go
off
all right so the question i wanted to
go over and she has some like really
great insights to read in the rest of
the questions about
her own story and identity of being
black
um and and you know kind of in context
with the rest of the questions but she
had some like really good insight to
talk about
the general perspective of that
experience
okay so here we go the question is
what's your experience with racism in
the food industry
and her answer and gita if you like come
across this while i'm talking about this
please like
you can join in it'd be great to hear
directly from you i probably should have
just like reached out to
her and had her you know come and have
the chat with me maybe i'll do that as a
follow-up
but for now i'll just be quoting what
she says
she says i went to culinary school with
a handful of young black men but no
black women
there's also no representation i mean we
have a population of three percent black
people here so the likelihood of there
being a large volume of black women in
culinary here is unlikely to begin with
and again this is in hawaii
but if it's racism of white people
against black people i don't feel that
my day
to day here i don't feel in my to day
here on the mainland there's definitely
more
relegation of brown people to lower
ranking positions in the kitchens
so you have these chefs like dan barber
who talk about social justice and
environmental justice and all of these
things all the time
and if you're in their kitchens you will
almost never see a brown person
in a position of power on the line
the people who are in the chef positions
are all white
however some of the extremely skilled
positions in
like butchery or pasta making are being
executed
in the back by people of color but
there was definitely a feeling of
hierarchy a feeling that despite the
skill levels
the likelihood of any one of those chefs
ever
moving to a position of prominence and
that kitchen
wasn't um even on offer
and then let's talk about pay and pay
rates between the ranks
that's not equitable so part of the
reason why i'm not in the restaurants is
because i hated that lifestyle i thought
it was pointless
if you're passionate about food there
are other ways to be able to express
your passion
so i've looked for those ways and one of
the things that i want to do with my
experience and my position is to be a
beacon for women of color who want to do
something and food that isn't
necessarily
you know climbing your way up through
the ranks of men
young women who might be interested in
going to culinary school
need to know that there are alternative
pathways to express your creativity
other than being the next chef to
cuisine at a hotel
so with my business slow island one of
the things i'm trying to do when i get
established is create a mentorship
program
i think what i do with food preservation
and catering are interesting avenues for
culinary
when i was in culinary school we did not
spend a lot of time exploring that
the curriculum was primarily focused on
restaurants and hotels
um that's pretty powerful
you know like she had a lot of insight
there and
a pointed thing i mean at the end
talking about
um even
rethinking the curriculum in our schools
to
build a stronger foundation for this
change and
and the the systemic
you know issues that um
yeah maybe in these trades or in these
crafts such as food
cooking hospitality that
there's more than just one
and especially understanding the context
of a culture
and like the culture that someone's
coming from how they can best
serve their community may be different
than somebody from a different culture
so that's kind of interesting that like
maybe
our education and our systems need to be
more
culturally not sensitive that's the
wrong way to look at it but culturally
respectful within
proper cultural contexts um
and that's related to another story that
i read about a couple
a couple days ago there was an article
um
in cukhed uh i don't know i think it's
this is like
maybe the bay area npr um
or something like npr public radio but
very interesting article
about a woman named
oh this is korean her name is hoon joel
albert and she runs a kimchi company in
the bay area
which she had recently scaled
this article is also very interesting
and i will leave the link
in the comments
and you know the article is really
having a lot of criticism towards
the silicon valley like tech startup
community specifically but i think that
there are like just a few pointed i'm
not going to go into detail about that
like i'm not going to be smack-talking
these like tech bros because
that's not what this is about um but you
know there's a couple of
like lines that she gives in the
interview of this article
that you know reflect a lot on
who is the best equipped to be
successful in the food industry to be
successful
in running a kitchen to be successful in
uh providing food to the community
and that um ultimately i'm gonna get the
exact line but ultimately it's like
you know she so here's the story i'll
say the story i'm just not going to do
all the smack talking but she like
scaled up her kimchi operation moved
into this like really large processing
facility that had all the commercial
kitchen and everything
and um you know because of those like
high startup costs she decided to
lease out her kitchen to other companies
which is a great idea
like these like community kitchens but
um
you know i think 2017 or maybe 20 no no
it was
later than that but um she opened up her
kitchens and like all these like tech
startups these food delivery tech
startups
uh and like meal prep kitchen um you
know apps
like moved into her kitchen and they had
the money you know they were flush so
they were able to pay good rent to her
and then um you know due to lots of
things like they
you know like shut down the company and
then they
drop out of their leases and she's you
know the one that suffers from it
and so in this article she you know make
some very important commentary that like
all of these tenants looked exactly the
same just like you know
white maybe i'll go up and say the exact
word she says that they look like
they're from like a j
crew you know ad they all looked
the same and they all behaved the same
as well
as far as not
running their business like a business
um
there was one particular story she said
that
one of the companies bought some very
expensive equipment
for dispensing sauce into like a little
cup
and like that was the only job of this
this machine and that they paid like six
thousand dollars for this machine
it came in they experimented at one time
and
just because like the dollop of sauce
didn't like look
just beautiful enough that they wanted
they like
ditched the machine and stopped using it
and it was like nothing to them
and she was saying you know making
commentary that like that privilege
is what ultimately caused the demise of
these companies
and um that the the people
in her opinion i wanna okay that's the
one i wanna say the exact right word she
said
oh she says they are young white she
says the kind of people you see in a j
crew catalog
that's exactly what she said about the
the entrepreneurs that like moved in as
tenants
to her space
but she's talking about
people um people of color
you know and i don't think that she was
making this thing about race
she says many of the people she knows
trying to make a living selling food are
immigrants women and people of color far
different from the food tech would be
entrepreneurs so um you know like i
don't think she was trying to make it
an issue on you know race or anything
but like that's a very powerful sentence
right there
that like um and before that says she
struggled to characterize a different er
like the the successful local food
businesses that she was used to working
with
up until when she opened this big
kitchen and all these startups came in
um you know it was like humble people
just
you know working slowly building up
their stuff slowly
sharing food and sustenance with just
like their local communities
of course with local sensitivity like
there's not even a question about that
there's not even a question about is
this really authentic or not
authentic um you know i think this is
already
this is all you know connected so you
have like this
system as gita pointed out that has a
power dynamic
of you know whoever is going to
succeed and being you know in any type
of leadership position within the
kitchen
it's always going to be white people you
know she's the one that said that i
don't you know i don't know maybe we can
get the exact stats on that but you know
i'm sure the stats will match up with
some type of significant difference
um so but then there this
article this lady's saying that like
immigrants and women and people of color
are the ones that are like the most
successful at running food businesses
so why don't we have them in those
positions of leadership
um is maybe because the industry is
incorrect
the system is incorrect you know and
um you think about this woman making
kimchi this is very cottage industry
type of
thing yes this story is about her
scaling up into this big commercial
facility and like having to deal with
these
you know corporate entities now but like
her her whole upbringing i think what
they say the company started
and 2003.
she she um she started the company in
2003
right so she's been like over 15 years
just humbly building her business as a
cottage industry type of a thing so of
course she's like getting exposed to
a lot of great other dignified micro
entrepreneurs that are also
you know just humbly building their
business up and bringing really
authentic
food to the community
and um you know something else that was
quite viral over this past week
is um you know uncle roger uncle roger
and the fried rice
um the meme is strong enough i don't
think i have to share the meme here
uh it was shared heavily among um
you know my network of um
asian american as well as asian friends
that just found it really funny because
it was like kind of true you know like a
very stereotypical
criticism of somebody not
cooking their food that like is just
simple like every day for them like not
cooking it correctly
um this is really funny video if you if
you haven't seen it
if you're like one of the few people
that haven't seen it just look it up
uncle roger fried rice it's
pretty funny but it has like spun off
into a whole you know debate
um and and reiterating what
uh the problem of uh colonizing
within our food um
you know that these like celebrity chefs
i think the the other story was there
was a chef
who was it
someone was trying oh gordon ramsay of
course leave it to that guy
he opened a restaurant was like
authentic asian and it's like fusion
you know which is fine you know if
you're very you're very honest like this
is fusion and this is like our own new
thing and we're not trying to make it
but he was marking it as
authentic asian cuisine and then what
was actually
uh in the kitchen was fusion
um you know which is influences of
japanese chinese
thai you know everything it could be
delicious food but
it's not authentic and so there's a lot
of criticism that
you know people are just trying to like
take ownership of that thing
and um
that's no good either i mean as
consumers as food lovers
we we're gonna want the more authentic
thing
not the whitewashing or if it's white
watch just be honest like this is white
watch thing you might like it come enjoy
it
i don't know if it's going to be like
directly like that but you know just
more authenticity and honesty in
communicating the value that that you're
bringing um
and in the case of you know gita's story
and her activism and
affecting the future potential for
especially women
or for black women to get educated or
you know she says here you don't even
have to get educated
maybe you don't have to go to culinary
school maybe you can find ways to
express your culinary art and and
you know providing sustenance to the
community in other ways
um but the thing that's going to be
important
is making sure that like their culture
can authentically be
uh expressed as well as
like someone else wouldn't be able to
appropriate that culture someone else
can do whatever they
want but like do it under the context of
their new culture of their new thing
versus trying to appropriate this one
thing
and you know like the regulatory um
systems that we're working within are
you know like there's there's a lot of
potential changing those things to help
with this
and the kimchi story is a really good
example of that right so
i mean even if you were to go to korea
i've never been to korea but i'm or
i i would assume that like the even the
large-scale kimchi production
companies are still quite um
rudimentary or still quite simple and
you know very low injury um
barriers of entry for like really
authentic
production of the product and sharing
with the community
i i would think if someone else knows
you know otherwise please let me know
but like that's what i would think it'd
be but here
because we're working with and you know
local food code or
federal fda code
you know there's a lot of products that
can't easily be authentically made
or executed because of those limitations
um i don't know if kimchi i mean she had
to invest in this huge facility that was
the only way that she'd be able to scale
up
was um and then bringing in other
companies to
financially support what she's doing and
it was a culture clash
you know other than you know she
probably would want to just be able to
scale up her business in her own way
there was probably some
regulatory hindrance of why you know i
don't know if that's exactly the case
i'm just making an assumption there but
like things like um
like i think like soy sauce like
traditionally fermented soy sauce i
think is a very difficult
um you know process to do
within you know food codes and so that's
why we see a lot of
you know kind of alternative processing
methods that have been developed
which could be great you know i've had
uh chemically
fermented soy sauce i mean we all kind
of have it like kind of all the time i
think
i mean kikkoman so that's why kikkoman
is great because kikkoman is still
like traditionally um you know naturally
fermented
uh versus you know someone else and i
don't even know if those are good
examples
um but there's lots of examples of like
doing uh raw milk is one of those things
you know like
whatever there are a lot of oh whoa it's
the one and boy and hawaii was the poi
so the poi is made from the tarot root
and they like mash it into like um
and they mash it into this uh this paste
and ferment that and that's the base of
what ends up being
the poi that you have at the luau you
know you eat with your fingers
like the traditional way you're supposed
to ferment it
but because of you know local food code
like
all of these like uh cultural um
preservationists like had to abandon
you know those production methods and
and and have
unfermented poi which is totally
different and not respecting the culture
so
you know i think that uh you know we're
talking about solutions right so this is
the
dignified hospitality manifesto so like
i i need to like keep myself accountable
for it
uh keeping keeping it focused on
solutions so right you have like
he does you know ideas of like altering
the curriculum uh to be culturally
respectful i think that there's also a
lot of room
for modifying our regulations
in protocols and cultures like
entrepreneurial
cultures um to be more culturally
sensitive
and just lower barriers to entry in
general you know i'm gonna always go
back to street food
every single time i think street food i
bring it i bring it back to that every
day
that yeah we've got to like we got to
make it
more accessible and um
you know street food is a part of a lot
of these people's culture
you know like maybe they grew up
you know where they immigrated from
exposed to that
knowing how to do that and do it safely
and do it well
um but instead they're washing dishes in
a restaurant
that's gone out of business now and what
are they gonna do
you know like i'd say let's
you know you have value to offer
so you know how do we educate people and
you know support the the system
you know for that future so that was it
that's all i wanted to talk about today
a short one but it's good
yeah this story was good both of those
articles uh i
posted in the like the facebook the
youtube the twitch so if you're wanting
to get links to those articles you can
go visit the video
you know there to get them um and then
the video
uh the viral video i spoke on
um which is a good laugh but then it's
also
kind of a cool little like thing to
research
oh dear
sorry my phone buzzy
don't try to call me
yeah it's interesting i'm like i i liked
talking about it from this context
because i've been talking about these
issues through tea
and it's very specific and we'll
continue talking about it uh through tea
um
but you know this is something that like
is so
like immediately relevant right now
um with the protest
or whatever just that energy that's
that's vibing through the community
right now
that we really do need to find solutions
now
and you know i think our food industry
which you know in past
conversations we've talked about the the
u.s food industry is estimated to have
20 million people
um you know within it from the farm
to the kitchens to the service spots to
the supply chain
all of those things and uh you've got to
you know you really think about it um as
gita mentioned
you know like we think of hospitality
and we always think of front of house
like who is this
who's the celebrity chef or who is the
high profile chef that's working tonight
or
you know at this kitchen uh who's your
your service staff
your your bartender um
and you know the the honest truth is
that like
if they're in any kind of position of of
power
they're going to be white likely
but you know the great majority of those
20 million people are probably
people of marginalized communities
people of color women
we talk about women in tea all the time
um so
you know there's if we can figure out
solutions for this
you know we would be doing a great deal
of uh progress
and help with um you know the current
relevant activism right now
so
awesome so tanya says i'm tired of
mass-produced food it's time to support
our local restaurants
yes but unfortunately our local
restaurant is having trouble serving you
right now
so like what are the other solutions as
well you know how do we keep
our um hospitality industry resilient
you know because even like like i wish
she was here actually i'm deaf i'm
definitely gonna hit her up
um and tell her to come do one of these
calls with me um
so she can talk in more detail but i'd
love to talk to her about
her experience with her catering because
it's like she says that she's not doing
the catering anymore and it's like there
are
freaking hungry people still there that
would like the catering
like why can't she and they're you know
and at the end of the day
is probably something to do with like
regulatory or
just you know like um speed bumps and
um problems within the system so
uh you know like she could be resilient
as well as several other people in the
community could be more resilient
you know if opportunities were more open
and start-up costs aren't so high but
that's something else uh that that's
been kind of reiterated over and over in
these conversations
is that uh those costs of entry are are
going to go down significantly just
due to all of the the restaurants
shutting down
and landlords desperate to get new
tenants
in those kitchens
he said out here business our building
outdoor seating yeah it's necessary
not only just like building outdoor
seating but like
alternative experiences higher value
experiences
unique experiences um the outdoor
seating being part of it
so i think that like the innovation
in that area is like
barely even been touched because we
potentially are going to be challenged
in this way for you know another year
and a half maybe
and the restaurants that are going to
survive which are the restaurants that
had enough capital on hand to manage
um and you know we're resilient are
going to be those
the ones to you know come up with that
innovation and make it happen
i don't know what it's going to be
but um
you hope not
well majority of restaurants have
already closed
that ship has sailed we're not taking
that one back
honest tanya uh yelp have puts out
a report uh every few weeks so we should
get the update
later but the latest update that came
out from yelp was that
as of july 1st 61 of restaurants listed
within the yelp network prior to
pandemic
are now listed as permanently closed so
that that ship has held
oh yeah suki i like that she says do you
think
these outdoor dining options are a
gateway into true street food
future yes yeah i think it's gonna
normalize eating outside because i think
that that's one of the big fears like
stigmas that people have about street
food is
like i'm outside it's dirty there's you
know like there's potential for this to
be dirty
it's like really honestly
unless it's like a super dusty windy
area which you know most street food
vendors aren't going to be up during
that time
um you know it's gonna be just as clean
as if they're inside a kitchen i mean if
anything the kitchen could be
potentially more dirty
right because like some of these
kitchens like it's really hard to clean
all the corners of the building and like
they can develop microfilms of bacteria
that are just like
sprinkling into the air at all times
versus being in an outdoor area
free air flow you know everything is
possible but
you know i think the first step for
getting
people to like be open more open to
street food in
a mass and street food beyond it being
like a food truck i was like oh we got
street food already
food trucks i was like yeah but that's
still
not um as agile
as as except accessible as what
true street food means you know so uh
but yeah i think that's right suki
that like yeah potentially what it could
be is just like these cool
little like temporary and maybe people
can come up with that
that'd be cool maybe i should organize
something i could do that
it'd be extensive though that's what
sucks is that you have to get all of the
like special events permits and then you
have to
you know have the health department come
out and um
and then every each one of those vendors
has to have their own license you know
that they're paying
sometimes they're paying over thirteen
hundred dollars fifteen hundred dollars
a year to have
um you had to sell a lot of hot dogs to
make it
you know worth your time to do that so
um but yeah
something like that will come up but
yeah i think the outdoor dining is gonna
it's a step in the right direction of
like changing people's
expectation of what dining out can be
you know it could be a cool
fun i mean having night markets here
would be so fun it'd be such a great
addition to our communities i mean i
know right now
and what we're dealing with it wouldn't
be smart but
yeah i mean in the immediate context
what i'm thinking street food could be
is like
extremely local like just someone is
just like out in their front yard
just popping up a you know a table
selling something
um could be incredible you know and
could address a lot of the issues
you know talking about racism you know
like if people are out of work
uh and food deserts so that's a whole
other subject actually maybe i'll play
that video
there's a really great video on
oh dear maybe i'll have to search on
facebook but
um you know the the concept of food
deserts are places communities where
they don't
you know uh access like the ratio of the
the calories
that are accessible within um
you know your neighborhood are
you know unhealthy calories like maybe
only convenience stores are available to
you
for getting food and a mcdonald's
versus you know like really healthy
sources
of fresh food fresh produce as well as
like fresh healthy prepared food
because that's a big one you know like
with how culture is how like
convenience oriented and speed oriented
and efficiency oriented we are as a
society now
um uh we we have to think about
prepared food you know and if we don't
think about it we're gonna let
mcdonald's
do all the thinking for us and that
sucks you know
so there's that
oh here we go awesome found the video
okay so i'll play it
and then maybe for the instagram i will
um i'll just turn the camera around so
you guys can see it
but it's a video by taste made and they
looked at food deserts
in los angeles
from corner of her mouth to corner of
her ear
i wasn't prepared to play video for you
guys usually i'm more prepared but it's
okay
yeah suki we can just hope for the best
for sure
just set it up
here we go cool
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
now
[Music]
los angeles is a city of abundance
[Music]
but not everyone gets to share the good
fortune
and the picture is the same in low
income neighborhoods around the country
there's no access to healthy and
nutritious food
fast food and convenience stores don't
count discount grocery stores selling
low grade food don't count
what counts as fresh fruits and
vegetables are accessible and affordable
in every neighborhood
[Music]
the most sacred thing outside of air we
put into our body is food
a lot of our communities don't even know
how much it can enrich their lives
because they've never been exposed
i already knew about what food deserts
were but it just got a lot more real
when i was living here
about 23.5 million americans live in a
food desert
particularly in south la there's 1.3
million residents
and just 60 grocery stores as compared
to
you know on the west side um there's
about 57 grocery stores for 600 000
people
so it's like double the grocery store
[Music]
there's nowhere to get fresh food so if
you're in a neighborhood where the
monopoly
on establishments is you know just like
fast food places and liquor stores
even if you're doing relatively well
that's what you're gonna eat
[Music]
why is this a dollar is this really a
dollar like who
what subsidies are the soda companies
getting the corn farmers getting
so that everything that's unhealthy is
really cheap
juice is ten dollars right exactly so
it's it's really confusing but something
that comes out of the ground should be
really inexpensive
something that it takes a lot of time to
process should be
more expensive we're not really in a
situation where it's like
there legitimately is a lack of food and
there's legitimately there's a lack of
resources there's a lack of pathways
[Music]
what we're trying to do with a lot of
the food that we have is we're slowly
trying to cut out
nitrates we're slowly trying to cut out
the sodium it's a weaning off quest
yeah you just can't do it overnight
there's a lot of customers in the black
community that suffer from high blood
pressure
yeah and we love songs so what we're
trying to do is we're trying to take
everything that we have
everything custom made for us like the
lynx
[Music]
also cool is that we had customers that
literally started from the hot dog cart
eating from us
they're eating the beef that they see
several years later they've changed into
the turkey of chicken
[Music]
you know i still i'm still amazed at it
this is the number two stuff so this is
the things that will be normally
discounted
okay so you can get some really good
stuff here look at some of these prices
like this whole case is um four bucks so
you can get four bucks how much is it
these are organic
normal maybe like 12. that's a big
difference
so we make it easy and affordable for
people to eat well
in areas where it's hard to get food and
we do that by having
pop-ups where people can get produce use
their ebt hello
welcome to the market you want to go
you're just going to grab whatever you
[Music]
want
all right so yeah that's a good video
right there that's on tastemade's
um all their feeds so if you want to see
that video i'll put the link to it on
the internet but
yeah it's a good one i really like that
explaining like what a food desert is
and how it affects
everything that we're talking about here
you know
that like uh a lot of currently
unemployed people could be
actually doing work that's self-serving
to them that could also be
you know affecting this
food desert issue so suki says that
video makes me so sad every city i go to
i need to go to either
the chinatown or asian grocery i could
never imagine living with fresh produce
or variety
yeah you know and there are some
communities that like they're they're so
accustomed to it that they don't know
different you know they've always grown
up in a place where
and within a family or within you know a
community where
you know having the dinner from the
convenience store
every night of the week is completely
acceptable
and so you know and i think street food
would be a very
easy cultural you know it would just
flow in with the culture there you know
if we were to start
you know like i'm sure this woman is
having trouble like they're offering
all these great produce at great prices
but there could be a lot of families
that wouldn't even know what to do with
it
right because of this issue of like so
much processed food being part of their
culture
but you know a street food stand
being vended by somebody in their local
community that they trust
serving food that they are culturally
already accustomed to
you know then they can support it you
know and and that could be
you know bringing sustenance to them and
their families so
yeah i'm not gonna i'm not gonna stop
saying it i think street food
is uh is the winning is the winning
solution for all of this
but you know i think that's it guys i
think i'm gonna sign out that
thanks sookie i'm so glad you were here
for this zuki
what would be your favorite like if you
were to open a street food stall what
would you do you know because usually
with street food what you do is you like
you just specialize in one dish and you
do it really really well
you know um and just
bang it out over and over again and
serve hundreds of people every day
um i don't know i you know maybe it'd be
dangerous to do something that i like to
eat because then i'd be
or not that i would be eating it all the
time but i probably get sick of it
so yeah i wouldn't want that to happen
like
scallion pancakes or something like that
that'd be really good
maybe dumplings i like uh in india the
momo
you know that's like their the nepalese
dump dumplings that are very popular
street food all throughout
india you know not just among nepalese
people
scallops with garlic sauce and shell oh
so you're going to have the fire going
you're going to have barbecue going
that'd be great
i always stop by that stall when i go to
the night market
anything with like you know grilled
seafood oh my gosh
like the the grilled octopus on the
stick i always get one of those
you know i'm not i'm not really big into
the um
like the taiwanese style the the octopus
or no it's a oyster pancake
i'd rather have like this the scallops
scallops garlic sauce and shell
right off the fire that sounds great
that would be completely out of code
here it'd be so hard to do something
like that here
so expensive you know to set everything
up
but all right guys well hey thanks for
being a part of the conversation
had a lot of fun today and i'll be
seeing you
uh friday at 11 a.m pacific
i'm that's when i'll be doing the live
stream on friday and i'm doing it with
ray from
grass people trees so that'll be a good
one
she's launched a new campaign
let's stop being sustainable
where you know we're going to dig deeper
into how we really can
you know find the peace in the world
that we want um
through being more than just sustainable
so yeah friday at 11 a.m
all right guys much love