About the Blog

I spent much of my childhood either in the kitchen or at the the dinner table and some of my greatest memories come from these times. Growing up in an Asian American household and as the child of two Chinese immigrants, I was told countless stories of my parents' upbringing around the world. As is common in some Asian families, my parents grew up outside of China after the Communists took over the government in 1949. My mother was born and raised in the Philippines while my father was born in Taiwan and later moved to Africa with his family. These locations had a large impact on both of my parents and their memories of growing up. In my family, these memories would usually come up in the form of a story over a meal when my parents would recount their memories of the particular food being eaten or explain how a particular family recipe changed or evolved over time. After years of this, I realized that food has acted as a vehicle for storytelling in my family and can be used to explain the separate paths and experiences that each of my parents had on their journey to America. My goal for this blog is to retell the stories of my family's history using food. ​

About the Author

My name is Jillian Chen and I was born and raised in Upstate New York. I am your average college student who has an above average interest in food.I love to cook, eat, and try new foods, and I especially love to create new memories with close friends and family over food. Please use the contact page to leave me any feedback or suggestions. ​