Why Asian Food Fest matters

The 13th annual Asian Food Fest takes place this weekend on Court Street Plaza and surrounding streets downtown. Cincinnati Regional Chamber president Brendon Cull said this will be the largest one ever, with more than 65 vendors serving a combined 180 different dishes representing 15 Asian cuisines − from Filipino to Korean, Vietnamese to Chinese.

To many Greater Cincinnatians, the most important thing about the festival, aside from the delicious pork buns, halo-halo and Korean barbecue, is that it gives them an opportunity to learn about restaurants, caterers and food trucks they might have never heard of before. It's also a great way to show support for the city's mom-and-pop restaurants. The Secret Menu area even lets visitors sample foods from amateur home cooks.

For vendors, the festival presents a chance to share their food with a diverse community of eaters who truly understand what they’re doing, as well as people who are tasting their food − or in some cases, their cuisine − for the very first time. And while some smaller vendors might not break even (or even lose money) during the event, most of the participants I spoke with said that the exposure it allows makes it worthwhile.

It's a time for introductions

For new restaurant owners like Mapi De Veyra, this year's Asian Food Fest will offer a chance to get the word out about Nice Nice Noodles, his new Filipino food stall at The Gatherall in Norwood. "This is a new brand, so anything like Asian Food Fest is an event that we will do," De Veyra told me.

De Veyra isn't new to Asian Food Fest. During the festival's second year, in 2012, he signed on to introduce his first pop-up concept, Mapi's Filipino Barbecue. More than a decade later, he still sees the growing festival as an essential way to grow his customer base. "I've seen this festival grow over the years," he said. "We were in a small park at first, and now it's one of the biggest festivals in the city."

Among the relative newcomers is Remedy Stewart, whose Little Chef Medy food truck will be back at the festival for the second year in a row. “The first one went really well," Stewart told me over the phone. “I served a little bit of everything, but my focus was on my Filipino heritage. I grew up with my grandparents cooking. It’s a thing I learned from them.”

Stewart honed her culinary chops by attending culinary school before moving to the United States with her husband a decade ago. “I thought, ‘Someday I would love to have a food truck,’ and here I am!”

Like her grandparents, Stewart makes everything from scratch, including her lumpia rolls that she stuffs with meat and mixed vegetables. Her Filipino barbecue (pork marinated in a combination of soy sauce, banana sauce and other ingredients) sounds particularly tantalizing. Though Qorinah Wardhani, the treasurer of Asianati, which co-sponsors the event with the Cincinnati Chamber, told me Stewart's fried fish heads (lightly fried salmon served with tomato, onions and soy sauce) are not to be missed.

It's a time to 'put on a show'

While Stewart is just starting her career in food, Johnny Chu, who, along with his father, Rich Chu, owns the popular Kung Food Chu's AmerAsia in Covington, is coming back after a multi-year absence.

I'll admit that I was surprised when I saw Kung Food on the list of vendors. After all, it opened in 2008 and, based on my recent visits, is doing just fine. Shouldn't the Chus be able to rest on their laurels and attend the event as guests instead of vendors by now?

“It’s always fun being on the outside looking in,” Johnny Chu told me. “All of those years that we were involved with Asian Food Fest, it took so much work to prep and stuff. We don’t have to do Asian Food Fest anymore. It was a great place to promote our business and serve good food, but over time, it takes its toll. We stopped for a while and it was great because we could just go and have fun and eat. We enjoy that.”

The Chus decided to come back not because they had to, but because they wanted to. “This year, we want to do it really big and we want to make sure our (employees) are having fun with it. We also want to knock it out of the park and put on a show.” Along with serving dishes such as Chinese pork sausage, beef stew over rice and a vegan tofu skin dish, the Chus will also be holding raffles for Kung Food merchandise, including T-shirts and hoodies.

It's a chance to come home

Chu said he is also rejoining the festival to support the Asian-American community. “We are not going to make money,” Chu said. “Our goal is to provide good food and provide the best experience for Asian Food Fest guests. As the years go on, this festival gets bigger and bigger.” But he said its aim has always been the same: to support locally owned mom-and-pop restaurants.

In many ways, the festival is also a part of Chu’s extended family. “We are all growing together,” he said. “We are growing with our customers and the community. I want to promote Asian Food Fest because there are a lot of restaurants here that are just like mine.”

Asian Food Fest takes place at Court Street Plaza in downtown Cincinnati on Saturday, April 27, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday, April 28, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. For a complete list of vendors and a complete menu, visit asianfoodfest.org.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Asian Food Fest is about more than just food, it's about the community