{"id":2512,"date":"2023-05-18T17:40:42","date_gmt":"2023-05-18T17:40:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.campariacademy.com\/en-us\/?p=2512"},"modified":"2023-05-18T17:47:14","modified_gmt":"2023-05-18T17:47:14","slug":"asian-ingredients-go-mainstream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.campariacademy.com\/en-us\/inspiration\/asian-ingredients-go-mainstream\/","title":{"rendered":"Asian Flavors Go Mainstream"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ingredients like Pandan and Ube are popping up on cocktail menus around the country. Are they being used correctly?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The seemingly sudden boom in Asian ingredients and flavors appearing in cocktails sometimes brings out mixed emotions in Asian-Americans. \u201cIt\u2019s been this bittersweet movement<\/strong>, because I think, for a lot of Asian-Americans, and for people of color in general, we often grasp at any kind of representation,\u201d Campari\u2019s Mary Palac<\/strong><\/a> says. \u201cInitially, we\u2019re excited to see things and flavors that we grew up with, out in the wild and people enjoying them. But there\u2019s also this little twinge of a reminder that it wasn\u2019t always like that.\u201d Palac, who was born in the Philippines before moving to America, adds, \u201cWe all know that that feeling is, of bringing the weird food to lunch at school or getting teased for how your house might smell. So there\u2019s both this feeling of pride at seeing your culture becoming mainstream but almost this wariness <\/strong>and protectiveness of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s several ingredients that Palac sees crossing into mainstream culture. Among them: ube, pandan, yuzu, sesame, boba and MSG. \u201cWe are seeing ube-flavored drinks in chain stores now and different foods flavored with ube.  It\u2019s a very near and dear ingredient to my childhood. Every party growing up had some kind of ube dessert.\u201d She adds, \u201cMSG is a really interesting one. That\u2019s the true embodiment of this bittersweet journey of a really problematic connotation surrounding Asian food and MSG, which was based on flawed research. Now people are realizing that it\u2019s not as harmful as previously thought.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thirsty for a deeper dive into the ingredient histories and questions around representation? Watch Mary’s conversation with bartenders Darwin Pornel and Christian “Suzu” Suzuki-Orellana here.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read on for Mary’s list of bartenders she cites as inspirations in making cocktails with Asian flair.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1 – Caer Maiko and Sharon Yeung of Daijobu Pop Up<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve gotten to see their pop-up a few times all over the country. They really do such an excellent job of treating Asian ingredients with this equal sense of respect and whimsy<\/strong>. They tie into both modern Asian culture with Hello Kitty references<\/strong>, but when you taste their drinks they are familiar flavors that you grew up with. They had this warm tea drink that used mochi<\/strong>. They made their own mochi for it. They made a sealed boba<\/strong> drink, coffee flavored boba.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daijoubu Cocoa Flavored Boba<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Recipe by Sharon Yeung<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n