Can food heal and bring people closer together?

I know food can certainly bring families closer together. Which leads me to the big question I've been reflecting on for some time now "Can food heal divisiveness and racism in society?"

With everything that has been happening for some time now, it feels our world has become fuelled by crime and diversion, with systematic racism on the rise.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began there has been a rise in stigma, discrimination and anti-Asian hate crime towards Chinese or Asian/Oriental people around the world. Hate crimes targeting Asian Americans have increased by as much as 150% in some major cities in the U.S., and 1900% reported by the NYPD in 2020.

In the U.K, anti-Asian hate crimes have become worse since Brexit and police data has indicated a 300% increase in the first quarter of 2020, compared to the same period in 2018 and 2019. The death of George Floyd sparked the #blacklivesmatter movement, and the death of an elderly Thai man in San Francisco sparked the hashtag #StopAsianHate, which was widely shared on social media by many influencers, along with celebrities such as Gemma Chan and Henry Golding.

One case highlighted by the media was of Michael Lofthouse, a Silicon Valley tech CEO who resigned after facing backlash over a verbal attack video footage of him shouting racist comments at an Asian family in a restaurant, and was widely shared on social media. I myself have been subjected to racist slurs and comments by passers by on the street whilst growing up in Sydney, Australia and since I moved here to London, but thankfully I've not faced any serious violent threats.

Back to my question, "Can food bring people closer together in leading us towards a more tolerant world, where our differences can be sampled, tasted and appreciated, just as it does with food?" After all, Asian food is well perceived and popular around the world, especially Chinese food.

There is a Vietnamese saying: "ăn cơmTàu, ở nhà Tây, lấy vợ Nhật" which translates as “eat Chinese food, live in a Western house, marry a Japanese wife”.

This is not very culturally appropriate I know, but most Vietnamese find this amusing and there is a back story to it. It begins with the early days of Chinese settlement in Vietnam when the majority of restaurants were owned by Chinese serving Chinese food and when for many poor Vietnamese, eating in a restaurant had to be a special occasion. Even today, most Vietnamese restaurants are for casual dining and often those aiming towards finer dining, don't only serve Vietnamese dishes but include those of Chinese or Pan- Asian.

Chinese Influence on Vietnamese cuisine

The story continues that during the Colonial period, European houses were more elaborate and grandiose in comparison to Vietnamese style housing, and where most people could only ever dream of living in one, let alone be able to afford to spend even one night in a hotel.

Continuing with the saying of marrying a Japanese wife, this was supposedly something men aspired to have, from the mere fact of observing in films how Japanese women were being portrayed as subservient and obedient to their husband at all times. This saying can indeed be offensive to some people who do not know the explanation behind it, or have further understanding of how it came about.

Vietnam and China have been in a love-hate relationship for thousand of years, however most Vietnamese do love eating Chinese food, and our cuisine is heavily influenced by this. Vietnamese food is also very popular with Chinese people.

Although Vietnamese food is relatively new on the world's food cuisine map, whenever people discover I am Vietnamese, the first thing they usually tell me is “I love Vietnamese food!” or “I love Pho!” which is a popular Vietnamese noodles soup. This shows me people are much more open to connecting by using food as an ice-breaker.

* Insert Pho recipe which can be transformed into Bun Bo Hue (spicy beef noodles soup) to promote our Chilli & Lemon grass shrimp paste

Sharing food in social gatherings, or to sit around a table to celebrate special occasions does bring people closer together, regardless of race or religion. In my opinion, one of the best way to promote our cultural differences is to reach out and share our cuisine with each other, which can start creating healthier dialogue and a much needed understanding of each culture.

For this reason our goal at Ladudu is to introduce a range of Vietnamese sauces and seasoning to save cooking time at home. With the flavours we have to offer, our aim is to help people be inspired and/or simply get creative in easily making deliciously authentic Vietnamese dishes.

Our Social mission is to bring people together from different cultural backgrounds, to sit around the table and bond via a number of food initiatives. Each initiative will highlight differences in taste so we discover how, when we add our own flavours to make it more acceptable for our own palate, we all benefit by embracing these differences, rather than unkindly turning our backs through lack of understanding or an ill-informed choice.