Feast Meets West Heritage Radio Network

Eric Tran didn’t set out to open a restaurant during a pandemic, but here we are. Eric took over the lease for Falansai and now operates the Bushwick restaurant as a reimagined 2.0 version, making his interpretation of delicious Vietnamese dishes with a focus on whole animal butchery and seasonally and locally sourced ingredients. We talk about the food, what it was like to open with a takeout and delivery focus to start, and what’s in store for Falansai as the city reopens.

Early last year, Eric Huang left his sous chef position at Eleven Madison Park to open his own restaurant. However, the pandemic forced Eric to switch gears. It led him back to his family's restaurant, Peking House, where he started Pecking House—a delivery concept for chili fried chicken dinners, so successful it has an 8-week long waitlist. Tune in to hear Eric talk about his new culinary path, one that he never expected but is far more rewarding and fun than he ever thought it would be.

Hetty McKinnon, the internationally renowned cookbook author and food writer, joins us to chat about her latest book To Asia, With Love. It’s filled with a mix of comforting Asian dishes that her Cantonese mother prepared for her growing up, as well as her modern spin on favorites for her own family. We talk about her incredible culinary journey across continents and the powerful ability to capture identity in home cooked meals.

We’re thrilled to be back! For our first episode of 2021, we chat with Joe Boo, Founder of Asian Veggies, a business born out of the pandemic. Joe started Asian Veggies, a New York City based grocery delivery service, as an effort to save his dad’s wholesale vegetable business in Brooklyn when COVID hit. In the span of a year, the delivery service has expanded from selling 40 to 650 products. Tune in to hear about the incredible journey of Asian Veggies and what’s next.

For the last episode of the season, we chat with Tracy and Tiffany Pham of Red Boat Fish Sauce, a product beloved by chefs and home cooks around the world. Tracy and Tiffany tell us about what makes their fish sauce special, what the company is making beyond fish sauce, and what it’s like to work with the Red Boat founder, their dad, Cuong Pham. The sisters also reveal a new product launching this summer.

We catch up with a former guest, Joanne Kwong, President of Pearl River Mart. Joanne tells us about the changes she's made at Pearl River Mart due to Covid, as customers shop online instead of in-stores, and the wide range of projects she’s taken on for her local communities, including her participation in Mayor De Blasio’s Small Business Sector Advisory Council.