Apex for Youth, the nonprofit dedicated to empowering low-income Asian American youth, is $1.8 million richer thanks to last Thursday's Taste of Asia festival. The annual soirée, which was founded by Cote/Coqodaq/Bar Chimera restaurateur Simon Kim, is something in between a gala and a tasting event, given that its entire proceeds are donated to the charity. Now, I’ve been to many charity galas and even served several years on the event committee for the annual tasting-event fundraiser for the nonprofit Just Food. But the lineup of restaurants, the quantity and quality of food they were serving, and the smoothness of operations at Taste of Asia, on a blissfully mild October night in Madison Square Park, kind of blew my mind. Now consider that the event was completely sold out, and tickets started at $1,000.

It was my first time attending Taste of Asia, which is now in its fifth year. I got the invite by surprise from Kim’s PR agency less than two weeks before the event. I’m not sure why I was invited; tickets sold out soon afterward, and it felt too rushed for me to attempt to turn around some sort of pre-event coverage for any of the media outlets that I freelance for. But I went anyway, curious. This is a festival that is, aside from supporting the charity, ostensibly about celebrating Asian restaurants (as huge and varied a swath as that is). I’ve been writing about Asian food and restaurants for a while, and it seems like there has never been a time when Asian restaurants have been more popular, lauded, esteemed, awarded, or successful, particularly in New York. Asian restaurants occupy 42 of the spots in The New York Times’ latest list of 100 best restaurants in New York City, and that’s not even including the restaurants cooking food from Middle Eastern or Central Asian countries on the list. You had Asian American chefs winning four of the last five years’ worth of James Beard Awards for Best Chef – New York (Hooni Kim, Vijay Kumar, Junghyun Park and Chintan Pandya). And the highest-ranked New York restaurant on the World’s 50 Best list for North America is Atomix.

So my first question to Simon Kim, whom I met briefly as he was leaving the VIP section on Thursday night, was something to the effect of, “Why did you think we needed a festival dedicated to Asian food?”

His response takes us back to a much darker place in time: 2020. In a word, it was because of hate. Taste of Asia came out of the Stop AAPI Hate movement, when the entire Asian American community was reeling from daily reports of violent attacks on the subway, murders in the street, slurs, beatings, and precipitous declines in business for the Asian restaurants brave enough to stay open. So yes, there was every reason and then some to celebrate Asian American restaurants five years ago. And there still is today. Kim pointed out that he and many of his fellow restaurateurs and event co-chairs have children, so supporting the next generation of proud, resilient Asian Americans is ultimately what this event is all about.

It seemed that many of them brought their kids to Taste of Asia as well, because there were a ton of kids running around, and the longest line of the night seemed to be for a booth that was making cotton candy.

But let’s talk about the food! One of my first and favorite bites of the night was an umami-rich mushroom lettuce wrap from Sunn’s, which had no line leading to chef-owner Sunny Lee. A few restaurants were serving up sophisticated bites of fried chicken, but the one most intensely saturated with brick-red chili oil belonged to Pecking House, where owners Eric and Margaret Huang were hanging out with a similarly slow stream of diners to pass out plates to. It might not be surprising that the only restaurants that did seem to be commanding lines (and they moved fairly quickly) were the Michelin-starred ones, like the sushiya Icca, which was serving not one but two pieces of nigiri.

I asked Eric, who’d participated in Taste of Asia for the last four years, how it had changed over the years, observing that it seemed like there was a high percentage of high-end restaurants rather than more modest places like his. Yes, he said, “But isn’t that the story of restaurants in New York in general?” Touché. For what it’s worth, Taste of Asia itself might be a good case study in that gradual upscaling he was referring to. The festival added a VVIP ticket tier this year for $3,000. (From what I could tell, the VIP and VVIP tickets got you earlier access into the fest and the ability to hang around in an enclosed pen to bump elbows with other very important people.)

There was a whole corridor where grilling was going on. I could smell it from the moment I popped out of the 23rd Street subway. Cote Steakhouse was grilling galbi, Kono was grilling teba (chicken wings) two ways, Win Son was grilling marinated pork collar, and so many others were grilling foods that I didn’t get to. That was one of the perks of holding the festival outdoors. The sheer volume and diversity of food was certainly another. There were also drinks, like a honeydew daiquiri from Bar Goto and Korean rice wines from Hana Makgeolli, and desserts, like a variation of the signature Lysée dessert from Lysée, with pastry chef Eunji Lee on hand to explain it (listen to her interview on our podcast for more!).

What will Taste of Asia look, or taste, like next year? Will there be even more Michelin stars amongst the participating restaurants, and what might a VVVIP ticket fetch you? Consider this your teaser until next fall.

From the mountains of Nagano to the quirky bars of Tokyo, Matt recounts his summertime eating adventures in Japan:

L.A. is known for iconic delis like Langer’s and Canter’s, and this year a couple new places opened to much fanfare and media coverage: Max and Helen’s from Phil Rosenthal and chef Nancy Silverton, and Mish’s Deli from chef Eric Greenspan. Long lines are something both have in common, so I waited a few months and tried my luck at Mish’s on a Monday for lunch. Lucky for me no lines, just a delicious pastrami on rye with mustard! The cut of pastrami is thicker than what you would get from a Langer’s, but it's a classic deli sando that I would put up there with the best. Will have to go back for the matzoh ball soup.

We’ve been hit with an insane heatwave over the past month in LA, and this weekend, it finally cooled down with some rain. I was in the mood for some comfort Chinese in the San Gabriel Valley, so I decided to try a random spot I found on Google Maps, Hong Coffee and Bakery. The menu isn’t a cafe or bakery menu; I ordered Hainan chicken over rice, wonton noodle soup, and beef brisket lo mein. The lo mein was the standout, and the chicken and brisket were perfectly tender and seasoned. Love this mom-and-pop shop!