“I always remember when I was little, in our church nursery, she’d bring me a little thermos of pilau and I’d always eat that with my mom there. With samosas, I would wrap them with my mom and help her fry them."

“Samosas are kind of taken from Indian cultures, but we have our own twist. How my mom makes it, it’s a tortilla outside and then inside is a ground beef mixture. It’s seasoned and it has vegetables then she fries it and it’s really cool.“

“When I was little, these were things that my parents would make. It was like baby food I would always eat, like pilau and stuff like that. So I think as we got older, it’s continued because I don’t know how I’d not eat pilau and samosas all the time. So I know when I’m older, I’ll probably be cooking it just as much.”

“My mom makes this really good Vietnamese dessert with banana, coconut and tapioca pearls. We also have this thing called spam musubi which isn’t really a Vietnamese thing but my family still likes it. It’s really good.”

“The dessert [banana tapioca chè] is more like a special occasions type of thing …I grew up eating that dessert a lot”

“There’s always so much food and it just ties back to memories and brings the whole family together.”

“I have so many memories of just being in the kitchen with my family. It definitely brings my family together.”

“Every time we have the Apple dumplings its for a big family event or just something really exciting is going on. So that dish just alwasy brings back happy family memories.”

“I remember the first time my mom really taught me how to make it. I’ve been cooking since I was little. My mom taught me how to cook, [along with] my grandma and my aunt. It’s kind of a thing being a woman in my family: you learn how to cook and you learn how to cook how my family cooks. “