Culture spread through food

The room is set up similar to a cooking show, with a chef up front and chairs set up for the audience to observe. Moving quickly, she makes Mandalay, tossing brown noodles, chicken, vegetables into one skillet and tofu and bamboo shoots into another. Aye Soewin, owner of Burmese Gems Restaurant, prepared this dish and another composed of stewed eggplant Friday at the Asian Culture Center's first monthly cooking demonstration of the year. This is Soewin's first time cooking in front of an audience. \n"I've never done anything like this before," she said. "I've been cooking at (Burmese Gems) for two years, and (the ACC) called me to cook for the class."\nEach month, the ACC, 807 E. 10th St., will be featuring a different chef who will prepare a meal of his or her choice, discuss the varieties of the food and talk about how to prepare it. After the demonstration is over, audience members will taste the food and exchange recipes. Organizers invite all participants to bring their favorite Asian recipe and share it with the rest of the class.\nThis first-ever demonstration is part of an upcoming series designed to share Asian culture and ethnic food with the Bloomington community.\n"With cooking demonstrations, you learn not only about how the dish is prepared and cooked, but also about the people and culture of the place where the food originated," said ACC Director Melanie Castillo-Cullather.\nStudents and the Bloomington community make up the audience.\n"The whole demonstration was a big success. We were very excited because this year we are trying to do more with the Bloomington community and Monroe County as well as Indiana University students, and we had someone come all the way from Ellettsville," said ACC graduate assistant Theresa Chen. "It was really nice to see that more people are hearing about us and getting involved." \nThe classes are set up for about 20 people, and 13 aspiring ethnic cooks came to watch the demonstration. \n"The demo went very well, and we have a lot of food left over," Chen said. Admission is free and open to anyone, although early registration is required to ensure seating. \nThe ACC will feature Ay Schooner, the owner of the Esan Thai Restaurant, 221 E. Kirkwood Ave., who will prepare Yum Woon Sen -- a Thai dish of vermicelli noodles tossed with ground pork, shrimp, onions, chili, lime juice and cilantro from 5 to 7 p.m. on Oct. 24. The Nov. 21 chef is yet to be announced.\n-- Contact staff writer Lee Cleary at lgcleary@indiana.edu.