Oops, summer really got away from us! But we’re back and this episode we’re talking with actor, producer, model working on both screen and stage (what doesn’t he do!) Gabriel Prevost-Takahashi about foods near and dear to him and everyone in our household: Karaage chicken and Japanese curry. Yes, it’s a perfect meal. We talk with him about his mom making this childhood favorite while also growing up with a chef/actor father.

Our first fine-dining restaurant kid, Gabriel shares what it was like growing up in a small but notable resort town and across multiple family restaurants, and how he almost followed his dad down the hospitality path. Plus, how he was literally discovered on a street in Tokyo, launching his modeling career!

This episode is from the live event we did back in May as part of KALW's celebration of AAPI Heritage Month with all around brilliant delightful human Bonnie Tsui, author of American Chinatown, On Muscle, and Why We Swim.

Bonnie shares her experiences growing up in Long Island, what it was like having an endless supply of imperfect fortune cookies (and their schoolyard trading value!) and her continued trek back to family in Queens.

She shares about her natural (or nurtured?) affinity for Chinatowns, how it led her to write her book, and Freesia and Sam share their own (sometimes overlapping) experiences with two of the Chinatowns in Bonnie’s book.

We also talk about Bonnie’s semi-successful experience making fortune cookies at home, about what the best type of fortune cookie is, and some audience members share their fortunes! We hope they came true!

Special thanks to:

Charles Lighthouse for hosting and recording

Michelle Liu for taking photos

Sara Corbett for additional assistance

We’re back with some Singaporean bangers courtesy of actor, director, and producer Yvonne Chapman of Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Air Bender and Hulu’s The Season. She shares her mom’s lahksa and curry chicken with us and gives us a glimpse into the Calgary Asian experience (spoiler: kids are still kids and will/won’t try things!)

We talk with her about growing up with Singaporean and Hong Kong influences, adding on more classes as a way to deal with the stress of classes, and her path from pre-med to finance to acting!

Of course we talk about Avatar and The Season, the badass Avatar Kyoshi, and the Venn Diagram of viewers who might be watching both at the same time (Freesia!!). Plus a shared childhood seaweed moment and shout out to the OG of reusable containers, Country Crock.