Alert! It’s a newsletter takeover
We’ve passed the mic over to Sachiko and Shu to tell us more about how they view food as a medium for storytelling and their fundraising work with Recipes Against Racism (plus a recipe from the book!)
Hello subscribers old and new! This month’s free subscriber newsletter will look a little different. Today we’ve been taken over by Sachiko & Shu to showcase their new project Recipes Against Racism. This digital cookbook features recipes donated by top UK restaurants and chefs and 100% of the proceeds will be sent to the UK-based anti-racism organisations Stop Hate UK and End the Virus of Racism. Read more about the project below in our Q+A with Sachiko & Shu founders Claire Sachiko Fourel and Lex Shu Chan, plus a sneak peak at one of the recipes featured in the cookbook!
Q+A with Sachiko & Shu
Sachiko & Shu was founded by self-described ‘Third Culture Kid Asian Londoner duo’ Claire Sachiko Fourel and Lex Shu Chan. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic the pair put on food-led storytelling events that spoke to their cultural experiences. With live events paused for the indefinite future, Claire and Lex decided to direct their energy towards their latest project, Recipes Against Racism, to raise awareness about the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes amidst the coronavirus pandemic and raise funds for anti-racism organisations. In this Q+A Claire and Lex explain how they met, the cookbook, and why they feel food is such a strong medium for storytelling.
How did the idea to start Sachiko & Shu come to you both?
We met in law school in 2006 and bonded over our choice of obscure choccie bars whenever we found ourselves at an off licence. This then catalysed a series of conversations which made us realise our mutual love of food and what it meant to our cultural identities. We both come from different backgrounds: Lex is Canadian born, Hong Kong raised, British educated, and Claire Sachiko is French-Japanese-American, born in London, French educated, but as we shared stories of our respective Asian heritage and how we balance our multi-layered cultural identities, we realised that we were more connected than either of us could imagine.
As part of a generation who have come of age in a digital-first world, we were finding that our lives were increasingly virtual — our dinners delivered to our doors at the click of a button, our social lives organised through online calendars and conducted on WhatsApp groups, our dating lives dictated by the rigmarole of digital communication. It left us craving something in-the-moment and real, like the story of how our friendship developed. We therefore started organising our own kind of events for exactly this purpose, as a way of storytelling and most importantly, building communities.
After a few years of informally organising a range of events from raves to supperclubs, this organically led to us setting up officially as Sachiko & Shu. Our aim, which hasn’t changed, has always been to create inclusive experiences based on community and collectivism. The idea is that everyone is welcome — friends, friends of friends, friends-of-colleagues-of-friends, whoever — but it’s not just about showing up. We focused on creative collaborations as a way of creating experiences, so that everyone can contribute to, take pride in, and most importantly, enjoy the output. That might mean enlisting a line-up of DJs and engineers to create the sound, set designers to dream up the space, chefs to come up with one-of-a-kind menus, and guests to bring ingredients or objects to be transformed into something special.
Why do you feel food is such a good medium for storytelling?
Food is of course about sustenance, after all, we all need to eat to survive. However, what is clear from all cultures is that it also plays into our national and individual psyches, and takes on a significance that transcends just being about mere calorific intake. Humans are also always looking for a way to tell stories and to create narratives to understand themselves and their roots, and make sense of the human experience that is life. You can see both the comfort derived from food and the urge to tell stories about food in the reverence given to family recipes passed down almost as lore through the generations, in the symbolism food has in the celebration of particular holidays or even in the fierce debates between Brits and Aussies over Marmite vs Vegimite or Cadbury’s vs TimTams. For diaspora communities who might sometimes long for family, food takes on a particular role in allowing that community to stay connected in a small way to the homeland and for bringing the comfort that only the nostalgia of childhood can confer. What is also particularly interesting for us both as “Third culture" immigrant kids is the way food can represent the many cultures passed down through the generations that we have within us, the way that they all intersect together and how they help us make sense of our roots and cultural identities. In Claire’s case for example, how to make sense and marry Japanese / American / French / British food cultures and how does she navigate this multiplicity of identity?
Humans are also inherently social creatures, always seeking connection with others. Food is a central medium to do this; dinner parties and restaurants become theatres in themselves, which is why we have all missed the drama of eating out so much! We bond with others over shared likes or dislikes or family recipes. We all eat, we all seek comfort, we all seek connection, we all seek stories to explain our place in the world to ourselves. This is why we feel that food is such a good medium for storytelling.
What prompted you to start the Recipes Against Racism Project?
Both being Asian minorities, we have experienced racism and microaggressions over the years and have been alarmed at the rise in anti-Asian hate crime since the start of the pandemic. The global awakening of consciousness of the systemic racial injustices faced by our Black siblings has also highlighted that there is much more to be done in the coming years and beyond in order to ensure that anti-racism is firmly entrenched in society. We both work on social justice and diversity and inclusion issues in our day jobs as lawyers and wanted to use our skills to highlight the racial injustices which have been perpetrated against our communities, while bringing people together through our love of food, creating communities and positive shared experiences.
The pandemic obviously inhibited our ability to organise physical events, so we had to think of a new way to connect. Pandemics and lockdowns can create physical and emotional distance and lead to an atmosphere of disconnection and fear. Many of us have eaten alone, or with the same person, for the best part of a year, so we thought this project was an alternative way to enable us to break bread together by cooking the same recipes and connecting virtually. We are so fortunate to be living in London, a city which has been a melting pot of so many cultural identities for thousands of years with such a vibrant food scene. When the participating restaurants and chefs responded so enthusiastically to our call to action, it concretised our belief that many people wanted to contribute to the anti-racism global movement by uniting through food, and that even though this project was a departure from the physical events we were used to organising, it would nevertheless be a great way to to create and connect communities.
Why did you choose to raise funds for Stop Hate UK and End the Virus of Racism?
After much consideration and research into charities tackling the issue of racism in the UK, we decided on Stop Hate UK and End the Virus of Racism as we believe they are both closely aligned to our fundraising and awareness goals and both offer excellent support services for their beneficiaries on a national level. We feel that the chosen organisations both fulfil an immediate need and a long term need in the Asian community. Stop Hate UK provides an essential service through their 24 hour hate help line which has supported the Asian community throughout the pandemic, and as lockdown lifts, it is anticipated that hate crimes might increase, meaning the need for this service is immediate. Stop Hate UK work hard to tackle all forms of identity-based hate crimes and discrimination, which is very much aligned with our mission of building power through inter-community solidarity. In parallel, End the Virus of Racism has been set up to address the lack of charities in the UK focused primarily on racism against people of Asian heritage to benefit them moving forward and for years to come. End the Virus of Racism will direct proceeds from Recipes Against Racism towards providing mental health support and the provision of guidance to legal aid in East and South East Asian languages. We recently came across a research paper by Dr Daniel Fujiawara on the impact of racism on the mental health and wellbeing of Asian people, and felt that there was definite alignment between both us and End the Virus of Racism on the need for long term mental health support for the community. We therefore decided it only made sense to partner with both charities to ensure that both the immediate needs of the community, as well as longer term strategic aims far beyond the life of the project, were met.
What are your favourite recipes in the Recipes Against Racism collection?
Lex: That is so difficult to choose as our purpose was to showcase the diversity of Asian cuisine, so I love them all equally but just in different ways! I am also very mood-driven when it comes to food so it depends on when you ask me, but if you were to ask me what I felt like having for dinner tonight, I would probably go with the jiaozi from Chen’s Table and the claypot rice from Poon’s. I haven’t visited my grandparents in Hong Kong for a while, and these are both recipes which remind me of home and which I find incredibly comforting - and a bit of comfort is something we all need after the year we’ve had!
Claire: It’s so hard to choose and they say you should never have a favourite! As a fourth generation Japanese Yonsei, I’m very partial to my rice as any good immigrant Asian, so I’d have to go for the Oyako donburi or the Taiwanese Minced Pork with Chishang rice which is similar to something my mother made growing up (even though she isn’t Taiwanese!). If I want to seriously challenge my skills in the kitchen, I’d go for the Oil Blanched Red Mullet which mixes French cuisine (the other side of my heritage) with a nod to Korean flavours. It brings haute cuisine to your home!
Agedashi Aubergine Tofu Soba Salad
From Tombo: “This is our take on a Japanese classic. Agedashi is the method of frying then soaking vegetables in a dashi sauce. In this recipe we use aubergine, seasonal vegetables and tofu served on a bed of soba noodles. I have always adored aubergine cooked this way which acts like a sponge absorbing all that umami rich sauce.”
Serves 2
Ingredients
½ an aubergine (cut lengthways)
50g french beans
½ red pepper
250g firm tofu
15g corn flour
300ml (approx.) vegetable oil for frying (oil to be 3cm deep in a pan)
180g soba buckwheat noodle
Garnish
3g grated ginger
5g spring onions finely chopped
1 pinch shichimi chili powder (optional)
Dashi Sauce
200ml dashi stock (kombu if you are vegan). Alternatively use vegetable stock.
40ml soy sauce
30ml mirin
10g sugar
Method
On a plate, place the tofu between sheets of kitchen paper. Place another plate on top of the tofu and add some sort of weight (e.g. a bowl of water), this helps to draw out the moisture from the tofu. Leave for 30 minutes then drain and pat the tofu dry and cut into 3cm blocks. Set aside.
Get 1/2 an aubergine and cut in half horizontally then slice into 12 wedges. Make shallow slits length ways into the flesh of each wedge (this will help to absorb the dashi sauce later on). Soak the wedges in a bowl of water for 10 minutes. Drain and pat dry with kitchen paper.
Trim the french beans, slice the red pepper into 5mm thick slices. Dry with kitchen paper.
In a saucepan combine the dashi, mirin, soy sauce and sugar. Simmer on a low heat for 3 minutes. Then pour the sauce into a shallow dish large enough to hold the vegetables and tofu.
In a frying pan, heat the vegetable oil to 170C and fry the aubergines. Place them skin side down first and fry for 3 minutes turning occasionally. Then transfer to the dashi sauce.
Fry french beans and red pepper for 2 minutes. Transfer to the dashi sauce.
Lightly coat the tofu cubes with corn flour and fry for 3 minutes until pale golden. Turn occasionally then transfer to the dashi sauce.
Cook the soba noodles according to packet instructions. Drain well and rinse with cold water to cool.
Assemble in a bowl starting with the soba noodles followed by the vegetables and tofu. Pour the dashi sauce over and garnish with chopped spring onions, grated ginger and a sprinkle shichimi chili powder.
Recipe and imagery ℅ Sachiko & Shu.
Donate to get your copy of Recipes Against Racism here.
Additional Reading/Viewing:
In case you missed it on the website: In a rare joint interview, co-founders Anna and Chloe spoke with Catherine Chong of Farms to Feed Us about farming and sustainability and how ground water quality and access affects the food we grow and the planet as a whole. Listen here
Anna and Chloe also hosted a tutorial on IGTV discussing our Water season and its focus on the transitory nature of water as a vessel for migration and trade.
Check out the new ESEA Archives book club. This virtual book club is set to look at the work of ESEA authors be an over all wonderful space to look at how storytelling shapes identity. Their first session looks at the works of poet Mary Jean Chan and is today (7 May) at 6:30 PM GMT.
Anna conducted a series of interviews for Resy celebrating the labour of Asian women who are leading conversations and actions against racism. Read the series here.
Anna has been verrrry busy this week conducting and participating in events for the East Asian Ticket Club, as well as speaking on a panel discussion about ‘New Food Media’ alongside Jonathan Nunn and Steven Satterfield of Vittles and Whetstone, two publications we definitely recommend supporting. She will also be chairing a panel called ‘Stories From Inside the Coffee Cup’ where she will lead the discussion between coffee experts and academics about the narratives of coffee with a special focus on coffee produced in Sarawak. You can book a £5 ticket for this online event here.
Chloe splurged on a ‘fashion’ cake from LA-based Nüchi (aka Lexie Park) for her sister’s birthday and though she didn’t get to taste it, was informed that ‘it slaps’. Read more about Park’s goal to create a marriage of fashion and food in her work here.