'Off the Menu: Asian America' available for online streaming

You can watch Grace Lee's food documentary on PBS.org until January 5.



The feature documentary Off the Menu: Asian America, produced by CAAM and KQED, is a road trip to the kitchens, factories, temples and farms of Asian Pacific America that explores how our relationship to food reflects our evolving communities. From Texas to New York and from Wisconsin to Hawaii, award-winning filmmaker Grace Lee takes audiences on a journey using our obsession with food as a launching point to delve into a wealth of stories, traditions, and unexpected characters that help nourish this nation of immigrants.

This is not your typical food travelogue. If you missed the public television broadcast of Off the Menu: Asian America, the film is currently available for streaming in its entirety on PBS.org until January 5.

Check it out:

The Folks Behind 'Off the Menu: Asian America' Share Their Favorite Food Stories

Guest Post by Momo Chang



I'm on vacation! This week, I'm taking a much-needed break to recharge the batteries and get a change of scenery. To keep things going around here, I've enlisted the help of several friends of the blog to submit guest posts on various topics of their choosing. Here's Momo Chang of the Center for Asian American Media.

Hello, my name is Momo Chang, and I’m the Content Manager at the Center for Asian American Media, and a freelance journalist. CAAM is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing stories that convey the richness and diversity of Asian Americans by funding, producing, distributing and exhibiting works in film, TV and digital media. As part of my job, I’ve had the great fortune to work on a multimedia food project entitled Off the Menu: Asian America, a companion website of food stories, essays and recipes to support the film by the same name.

Off the Menu: Asian America is a PBS documentary directed by award-winning filmmaker Grace Lee, which premieres nationally on Monday, December 8, 2015 (check local listings). Co-produced by CAAM and KQED, Off the Menu is a road trip into the kitchens, factories, temples and farms of Asian Pacific America that explores how our relationship to food reflects our evolving community. To celebrate the release of the film, we’re also holding an #OfftheMenuAsianAmerica recipe contest.

I asked some of the filmmakers of Off the Menu: Asian America and some of the talented folks who contributed their personal essays, photos, artwork, recipes and articles to the website, about their favorite foods or food moments with the Angry Asian Man blog. Here’s what they said:

Grace Lee's 'Off The Menu: Asian America' - L.A. Premiere

Sunday, October 25 at the Japanese American National Museum


Grace Lee's 'Off The Menu: Asian America'
If you're in Los Angeles, Visual Communications and the Japanese American National Museum invite to the L.A. premiere of Off The Menu: Asian America. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Grace Lee, the documentary is an exploration of food in changing communities, families traditions and faiths.

The documentary follows Grace as she travels around the country, from Houston to New York's Lower East Side, and from Oak Creek, Wisconsin to Oahu, seeking stories that reflect an evolving Asian Pacific America and the role food plays in people's lives. This is not your average food travelogue.

It's happening Sunday, October 25 at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo. The evening will also feature a post-screening conversation, moderated by writer and sociologist Oliver Wang, with folks from the city's culinary scene, including Chef Minh Pham of Porridge+Puffs, food writer Christine Chiao, scholar Karen Tongson, and Youa Yang of Yang Farms.

Here are some more details about the screening: