Asian Culture Center serves up cooking demo

There was something cooking on Friday night at the Asian Culture Center, and guests were in for a fiery treat.

“The food is amazing,” said Rebecca Horne, who works for University Division.

Horne was not the only one drawn to the culture center’s cooking demonstration for the food. With more than 15 guests attending, it was a full house.

Mai-Lin Poon, Asian Culture Center graduate assistant and chef for the night, heated up her skillet and said she was ready to share her Chinese culture and cooking with everyone who came out.

Cooking her rendition of Mapo Tofu, a spicy Szechuan pork dish, she said she hoped she could use food as a way for people to learn about and develop an appreciation for a culture other than their own.

She said she also hoped the event would spark people’s interests in learning about other cultures.

Junior Lan Le was one visitor who came to experience the culture that would remind her of home.

Le is from Vietnam and said her culture can be very similar to Chinese because China colonized Vietnam in the past, mixing the two distinct cultures.

Once all the ingredients were ready – vegetables, pork, tofu, soy sauce and a lot of chili sauce to spice it up – Poon was ready to begin.

The dish, Poon said, is a quick and easy one to make. Poon had other reasons for choosing this dish as well. This specific dish had some sentimental value to it and is one of her comfort foods.

“This is a recipe that my mom would make for me and adapted for me when I was little, because I was such a picky eater,” she said.

But Poon doesn’t see this as a true Chinese dish.

Nevertheless, audience members said they were impressed with Poon’s cooking demonstration, and with more food being made in advance, everyone was able to have a spicy plate of Mapo Tofu.

More cooking demonstrations are in the works for the future; the next one is being planned for the end of February.

“I don’t want people walking away thinking this is a definite version of Mapo Tofu and a prime example of Chinese cooking,” she said. “I think people often do this when they go to an Asian restaurant. What they don’t realize is that the recipes are adjusted and ‘Americanized’ to fit the palate of most people and because they sell better.”