Food & Cooking
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My Experience at “Food Terminal,” Malay Cuisine

Bertie A. Kinser

As I tumbled out of the Uber and joined my friends on the sidewalk, I was instantly captivated by the glowing neon sign that read “Food Terminal.” After the grand welcoming to the restaurant, I stepped inside only to be amazed by the sheer size of the place. Flood lights and tables seemed to stretch across the entire block, and servers were bustling around to deliver food to hungry customers. The atmosphere was electrifying, hyping me up even more as we sat down.

Having only truly lived in Atlanta for the last two weeks, I haven’t had much satisfying Asian cuisine. Despite my low expectations, I remained excited about the street food-esque setup of the restaurant. But right after glancing over our menus, we started shouting simultaneously at each other, obsessing over the pictures on the menu and the many iconic dishes that reminded us of home. Then I

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Food & Cooking
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The complexities of Hong Kong cuisine in Houston’s Asiatown

Bertie A. Kinser

Tucked away in the corner lot of Diho Square, sandwiched between a veteran sushi restaurant and a vegetarian buffet, lies Houston’s only cha-chaan-teng.

Hong Kong’s Cafe, established in the spring of 2006,  is one of the last bastions of Hong Kong cuisine in the city, serving up dishes of British-Chinese fusion cuisine. Translated loosely, cha-chaan-teng means “tea restaurant” and is as ubiquitous in Hong Kong as diners are in America.

These humble restaurants are a signifier of the island’s unique culinary landscape, known for fast, affordable meals. But here in Asiatown, Hong Kong’s Cafe is more than a restaurant; it is an institution that embodies comfort for a portion of Houston’s Chinese diaspora.

According to a 2015 census of Clutch City’s foreign born population, less than 2,000 Houstonians come from Hong Kong. The recent pro-democratic protests of 2019 have led to a mass exodus of Hong Kongers to other countries,

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Food & Cooking
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Taipei Asian Cuisine to open in Pensacola on North Davis this summer

Bertie A. Kinser

There are a surplus of Chinese takeout restaurants in Pensacola and quite a few more Chinese buffets, but coming up at the end of June, a slightly elevated, sit-down Chinese restaurant will become an option for foodies, courtesy of a well-established local chef and business owner. 

Chuck Nippon, the owner of Nippon Sushi at Cordova Mall, will hit on another one of his entrepreneurial goals when he opens Taipei Asian Cuisine this summer on North Davis Highway. 

“There’s really no nice Chinese dining restaurants here,” Nippon explained Thursday morning. “I wanted to have a really nice, clean and classic Asian restaurant for local people. So when they want to have some really nice Chinese food, some original food, they have some place to go.” 

Taipei Asian Cuisine at 5912 North Davis Highway in Pensacola will open this summer.

There will be a fusion element to the new restaurant, which will seat more than 150 people when factoring in Taipei’s outdoor seating space. Nippon’s

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Food & Cooking
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How (American) Chinese cuisine gave birth to the Minnesota-invented pizza roll

Bertie A. Kinser

You’ve probably eaten Totino’s pizza rolls, those bite-sized nuggets of fried dough, filled with tomato sauce, gooey cheese and a variety of savory fillings. You’ve even watched the Saturday Night Live sketches featuring Vanessa Bayer. But did you know that Totino’s did not invent the pizza roll? It was another Italian-American Minnesotan building on the work of other food innovators.

Chop suey and American Chinese food

The story of the pizza roll really begins with Chinese restaurants in the United States. According to Jennifer 8. Lee, in her book “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles,” Chinese food joints, which first opened on the west coast, had spread to New York City by 1900. Lee observed, “Diners were being drawn by something dazzling! Something sophisticated! Something exotic! Something that had taken the country by storm. Something called … chop suey.”

Lee describes chop suey succinctly: “Thin squiggly white bean

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