foods that save us
Words by Anh Nguyen Austen
Anh and her family in Dallas, Texas. This picture was taken to send home to her grandparents in Vietnam to assure them of their arrival and safety in 1983.
I love and wonder about what to eat every day. It is a privileged joyful wondering that goes back to my childhood as a refugee boat child.
In deep reflection, as both a refugee and historian, I asked my mother, “What did we bring to eat on our boat escape from Vietnam?”
She asks me, “Do you remember going to visit the lady who makes the dry crispy sesame rice cakes?”
I was too young to remember, but I picture this woman sitting at an open fire on the dusty streets of Bien Hoa, fanning the flames to crispen the black sesame rice cakes. I see her smiling through her teeth, stained black with areca nut, a traditional practice to ward away bad spirits.
As a child, I used to stare at these old Vietnamese women street vendors and their blackened teeth, not understanding their intentions. These days, I think of the lady my mother describes, and thank her for her loving kindness and stained smile. I thank her for providing us with one of the few foods to eat and survive three nights adrift before our boat was rescued in the South China Sea.
Anh’s Cashew cabbage Gòi which you can learn how to make in her Vietnamese cooking experience!
In my cooking experiences, I dedicate the creation of my appetiser to this memory of her. When I bite into the sesame rice cakes, I do not mind if the black seeds get stuck in my teeth as they remind me of her warding off the bad spirits. Who would've known our fate at sea would depend on the work of her hands and the intention in that smile.
I cook with Free to Feed in memory of her and all the hands that lifted me up to save me from drowning as a refugee. I hope you will be able to join me for a meal to give thanks to all those that rescue and help sustain us with foods we love and remember.
“On the morning of 20 June 1982, at a town named Vung Tau in southern Vietnam, 101 men, women and children set off on an overloaded fishing boat bound for the Philippines, joining countless others who fled their homeland after the communist takeover of 1975.”
Menios Constantinou, ACU Impact
A six-year old Anh being rescued from the sea by Medecins du Monde in 1982. See footage of this rescue (TW: potentially triggering content).
FURTHER READING
Read more of Anh’s very moving story, and how her personal refugee history and advocacy have come to shape her life (beautifully captured by Menios Constantinou for ACU).
The scholarly article about Anh’s boat journey, “Forced Migration, Oceanic Humanitarianism, and the Paradox of Danger and Saviour of a Vietnamese Refugee Boat Journey,” published in The Historical Journal (Cambridge University Press).