They laid the two pieces next to each other because they were about food and nostalgia during the Lunar New Year.
I know both writers.
One I know by name, the other I know in person.
This was twelve months ago but I remember buying it at the WHSmith in Gold Coast airport as our flight was delayed.
My daughter saw my photo and byline and asked ‘Daddy are you famous?’
Who could forget that, right?
But I also remember this particular spread.
I told my daughter “C’mere, let me show you what is good writing and not-so-good writing.”
Look, the writer on the left, she talks about dumplings, and the importance of dumpling, and how finding the stories and preserving the stories and customs are important, right? But she never said how. She never said why her dumplings are special. She just called her relatives in America and confirmed that they are special to their people.
The next paragraph she said she had many favourite childhood memories during Lunar New Year, like getting into a car, being afraid of the lion dance, where her uncle’s restaurant was. She signed off by saying she was proud of her Chinese heritage and loved everything about it.
I told my daughter, this writer is like someone you meet at a coffee shop. Small talk, they don’t share anything of value yet do not hesitate to namedrop their heritage, their business, their status.
There’s no vulnerability, no pain, the title is ‘gok jai’ but we did not learn anything about - you know what - my daughter left me at ‘dumplings’. I was mumbling to my wife’s feet on the chair.
If she had stayed, she’d have heard me talk about the piece on the right, written by Diem.
Diem’s piece starts with a memory of her grandmother’s lawn being torched by her church friend’s bánh chưng production line. I didn’t know what bánh chưng was, but I knew *snaps finger* that it involved family, religion, and disaster.
She touched on how, unlike the Chinese, the Vietnamese have a cat in their zodiac. She talks about how to make bánh chưng, the different types, the history behind it. How Vietnamese Australians spend weeks making them leading up to the new year. How the elder generation passes this tradition to the young. And in the end, like a nice ribbon, there’s a tie-in with the fire in the beginning.
Reading it was, I imagined, like eating a bánh chưng - the fragrance from the banana leaves as you unwrap, then biting into the steamed glutinous rice and its juicy, substantial fillings.
The writing on the right is an example of how the left could improve.
I wanted to use this as an example of how to be a food reviewer last year but it was a little bit too ‘close’ - the media (and probably most of you) REALLY loves the first writer. It’s not a good look to bag on writers, especially when I’m not one (I contributed photography to the magazine). I know the editor is reading this newsletter, and I didn’t know the full story.
Taste is subjective.
And also, shit, why am I teaching you creative writing? Good from bad? Just to breed more competitors? Eww.
So what changed? You ask.
After a year, it doesn’t feel so close anymore.
And I don’t know how else to introduce Diem.
I want you to know she’s a good writer, and her writing shows vulnerability, pain, and inclusion, attempts to resolve a struggle with identity.
Most importantly, Diem’s real to me.
The easier way was to say I interviewed Diem at the beginning of 2022, to recall our conversations about imposter syndrome, on her old projects, which are all irrelevant now, because like Matt Damon,
she bought a bakery.
From Facebook Marketplace.
This was our online chat while I was in Fukuoka.
H: You bought a bakery!
D: Ha! Yes, Butter moved out of my home kitchen and into a converted office in Port Adelaide last year.
It was a lucky find by my cousin, Bridget. She scopes FB Marketplace and sends through interesting finds.
Moving into a commercial space was always a long-term goal, but it was brought forward because everything fell into place - the asking price for all the bakery equipment, the location, and the rent. It also doesn't hurt that I knew of the baker (Recco aka soiboii) – I loved and had romanticised the space well before I set foot in it. We met Recco on a Sunday and let him know we were interested the next day, didn't negotiate the price or anything.
During the council approval stage, our now business partner, Paul, reached out to see how we were going and asked if we'd be open to sharing the space. We said yes, because our offerings are different and the idea of growing a collective and a community appealed to us.
So, the original listing for the equipment was at AUD$50K, but Recco brought that down to accommodate the costs incurred during the council stage, and then we split that cost again with Paul.
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