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Casual Rice

casual rice

Cranmer Road

I’m Xuan (pronounced Sawn). I was born in Vietnam from Chinese Vietnamese parents and I am proud to be one of the original Vietnamese boat people now living here in the UK. In the late 1970s, the aftermath of the Vietnam war and the growing oppression of the ethnic Chinese living in Vietnam forced my family to flee their home. We left Vietnam on a small overcrowded and ramshackle boat that wasn’t fit for the open water and sailed the perilous South China Sea to Hong Kong. At age 2 my first and only memory of Hong Kong is a hazy image of the orange skies. After 6 months we left the tropical heat of Hong Kong and immigrated to the cold, or you could say dreich (Scots for dreary) climate of the Scottish winter. We lived in the quiet outskirts of Glasgow for four years before moving and settling in London, which was a hubbub of culture and activity. By the age of 14 I had lived in four vastly different countries and each of these places have influenced the person that I am and the food I love to cook and eat. My own cooking adventure started at an early age – washing the rice grains for steamed rice and undertaking the long and meticulous task of cleaning and snapping the tails off bean sprouts for my parents spring rolls. This you can say was my training for the future food lover in me – or feeder. As a child of refugees, love was often shown through food rather than words. From these duties and by always keeping my belly full, my parents quietly passed on their own rich food heritage and family history to me through the years. In my 20’s I became a sushi chef at a vibrant restaurant in Central London, and spent 4 years learning the meticulous art of preparing, filleting and slicing fish for sushi, maki, nigiris and sashimi. I have since run a number of supper clubs in London and Dundee, including a charity Chinese hotpot that raised over £2,000 for the charity – Sarcoma UK. This year, I’ve taken the next leap in my food adventure and launched my online cookalong classes, which have been great fun and allow me to reach new like minded food enthusiasts far and wide. Casual Rice is all about sharing my love for food and my own culinary heritage through authentic but informal Vietnamese and Chinese meals I devoured when growing up, with Japanese influences from my sushi training days. The name Casual Rice comes from The Mandarin Way, a book by the inspirational Cecilia Sun Yun Chiang. A pioneering woman who in the 1960’s opened one of the first authentic Chinese restaurant in North America. In her book she writes “when we sat down to meals as a family, we adopted a much simpler mode of eating … such meals were known as “pien- fan”, “casual rice” or what might be termed home cooking”. As the saying goes, food is a universal language that brings people together. I am hoping through this website and cookalong classes I am able to share personal recipes from my own home, that you can make and share in your homes with your loved ones. Thanks for visiting.

Good Evans Kitchen

good evans kitchen

Did you know it is estimated that over 40% of us feel pangs of loneliness at some point in our lives. Despite how common, few of us are fully aware of the ways it impacts us. Loneliness effects our emotional and social disconnection to those around us. However, making small lifestyle changes such as eating well or being more mindful within cooking can help sleep, energy levels & your general wellbeing. If like me you know only too well that sumptuous feeling of being cooked for, or that satisfying fullness when you’ve enjoyed your favourite pasta dish in front of your latest ‘must watch’ series, or been out for dinner with a friend to your favourite little restaurant. That satisfying, uplifting and joyous moment of enjoying good nutritious delicious food with others is a memorable moment I often recall fondly – we often attach good memories to food, or tastes and smells that makes us feel good. Are there times recently when you’ve faced isolation? Do you live alone? Are you now working from home on your own? Have you had health difficulties that have changed your daily/weekly routine? Do you run a self-employed business? Are your children now back at school and you need to come up with nutritious dinners again? Do you miss being part of a team or having the family home? Come and join us here at Good Evans Kitchen, where we put your wellbeing first and cook mindfully as we teach you how to create and enjoy dishes that will enrich your knowledge and grow your self-confidence immeasurably.