Andrew Food for Thought

In this episode, I'm joined by my old college friend Chika Agwu. Chika highlights several black-owned restaurants in the various cities he's lived in, including New Orleans, Houston, and Boston. His featured restaurant is Desi Vega's - a high-end steakhouse in New Orleans that serves up prime steaks and great seafood. We also spend some time reminiscing on our college days at Indiana University, and discuss the restaurant and bar scene in Bloomington.

In this episode, I'm joined by my old college friend Chika Agwu. Chika highlights several black-owned restaurants in the various cities he's lived in, including New Orleans, Houston, and Boston. His featured restaurant is Desi Vega's - a high-end steakhouse in New Orleans that serves up prime steaks and great seafood. We also spend some time reminiscing on our college days at Indiana University, and discuss the restaurant and bar scene in Bloomington.

Patrick Yoo grew up in Southern California, an area with one of the largest Korean populations in America. As a Korean American growing up in a place with great Korean food, Patrick always had an appreciation for the cuisine - especially for Korean BBQ. In this Episode, Patrick features a KBBQ restaurant called Kang Ho Dong Baekjeong, located in Koreatown in LA. Patrick describes some of the nuances between different styles of KBBQ, and explains what he looks for in a restaurant. He also shares about the importance of KBBQ to the Korean-American experience.

Danny Chang makes his second appearance on the podcast in this impromptu episode recorded at Fogo de Chão in San Francisco. Danny and I went to Fogo on a Tuesday night for the happy hour and enjoyed indoor dining in SF for the first time since the pandemic started. In this episode, we talk about the experience at Fogo, and some of our recent dining experiences. 

Will Alonso is a part-owner / general manager of a tea shop called Yifang Taiwan Fruit Tea. Yifang is a Taiwan-based tea franchise that offers a wide variety of teas, including brown sugar, mango, and taro. Will opened his location about a month ago in the Inner Sunset neighborhood of San Francisco. In this episode, Will gives an overview of the shop, talks through some of the popular drinks on the menu, and describes his journey to becoming an entrepreneur.

I'm excited to welcome my Uncle Moses Valdez to the podcast this week, with a special appearance from my Grandma at the end of the episode. Mo and I dig deep into our family history in South Texas & Northern Mexico, and revisit memories from a trip we took to my Grandma's hometown, San Benito. Mo highlights two restaurants - El Sabor De Mi Tierra and La Especial Bakery, as we give an overview of the food in the region known as "The Valley". My Grandma also adds her perspective on growing up in Texas in the 1940s, and the wide variety of crops that were grown in the area at that time.