Creating a legacy: Asian food businesses in New York immortalised in cookbook full of personal stories and favourite recipes

Made Here is a 352-page cookbook that features profiles of individuals from 43 Asian food businesses in 24 New York neighbourhoods – and their recipes

It is the latest of several initiatives by non-profit group Send Chinatown Love, a collective of volunteers keen to help small Asian businesses keep going

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“Made Here” is a publication by social enterprise Send Chinatown Love that contains recipes and profiles of individuals from 43 Asian food businesses in New York. Alice Liu of Grand Tea & Imports (above) in Chinatown is grateful for Send Chinatown Love’s support during the pandemic, and contributed a recipe. Photo: Anrong Xu

Published: 7:15pm, 17 Jan 2024

When Kent Zhang Zhiqiang was growing up in Beijing during the tumult of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), his family could not afford to buy meat. Luckily, his mother was creative in the kitchen, concocting dishes that tasted like meat but were actually vegetarian.

One of her recipes was vegan sweet and sour ribs, made with glutinous rice flour in between slices of vegan “ham”, made from soy.

“When my relatives and friends stepped into my home, they would say, ‘Wow, they have a lot of meat!’” he recalls in Made Here, a cookbook that features the recipe.

The recently self-published 352-page book contains profiles of individuals from 43 food businesses in 24 New York neighbourhoods, immigrants not only from China, but also other Asian countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Korea, India and Thailand.

“Made Here” contains profiles of individuals from 43 food businesses in 24 New York neighbourhoods.

There are also second- and third-generation Asian-Americans featured. All of them recount personal stories, and pass along a favourite recipe.

Food writers and editors, along with photographers, illustrators and designers, all volunteered their time and expertise to produce the culinary tome.