New Orleans' Vietnamese Community featured in Gourmet Magazine
"On the east side of New Orleans, three-and-a-half years ago, 90 percent of the homes in the Vietnamese community had gardens, says local activist Peter Nguyen. The green onions, Malabar spinach, daikon, cilantro, mint, Thai basil, and countless Asian vegetables that contribute to Vietnamese home cooking were grown there. Every Saturday at dawn, a few dozen growers gathered to sell their produce at the neighborhood market, and for the elders--many of whom were resettled in New Orleans after the Vietnam War--their gardens were a treasured link to the country they had left behind. But the younger generation wasn't much interested in what they considered to be the hard labor of growing, and the elders wondered how they could involve their children and grandchildren so that the traditions would continue. Then Hurricane Katrina blew through, and three decades of work tending the land was lost."
Read the full story on the Gourmet site »
The Asian Heritage Festival is held each Spring. This year the festival took place at Audubon Zoo and was a great success!
Thanks to a generous donation of land by Ms. Sudaporn Boonmonthira, plans are underway to build the center at 6245 Wainwright Drive, across from the UNO Campus.
APAS seeks to preserve the experiences of Asians living in the New Orleans area in part through the documentation of cultural practices (such as festivals) and the experiences of Asian individuals or oral traditions (such as storytelling).
Originally created by the late Shaie-Mei Temple, the "Asian Bayou" website is recreated here in its entirety.
APAS fundraising efforts for relief to communities throughout the world struck by natural disaster.
