Celebrating Asian Cuisine at LUCKYRICE

Do you like Asian food? Yes? Good, me too. Oh and I’m not saying that because I happen to be Asian. I think Asian food, and love of it, is universal. Personally, I’m Chinese but I enjoy everything from Japanese to Vietnamese to Indian to Turkish to Mongolian.

This is exactly what LUCKYRICE is all about: appreciating every aspect of Asian cuisine. With the recent explosion of intrigue in Asian culture, and especially its cuisine, LUCKYRICE comes at a most opportune time. Its main objective, believe it or not, isn’t to cultivate more interest in Asian cuisine (I mean, let’s be honest, how can you make Asian food more popular than it already is?). As Founder, Danielle Chang describes her newest venture, “LUCKYRICE is a celebration of Asian culture through the lens of food.”

LUCKYRICE will kick off the celebration with a bang, with their first live event next week on April 29th. Classifying the LUCKYRICE Festival as a live event would be deceiving and unjust. The Festival is more like an 11-day journey through Asia… but right in the heart of the Big Apple. To make this possible, LUCKYRICE has gathered an amazing council of culinary experts, with big names like Daniel Boulud, Masaharu Morimoto, and Anthony Bourdain.

The LUCKYRICE Festival event lineup is strong and is meant to take you through an Asian culinary experience on many somewhat opposing levels – from refined gourmet to casual street food, from nibbles meant to delight your taste buds to intellectual treats for your mind, from experiencing food first hand to making it with your hands.

The two highlight events that Ms. Chang is particularly excited about take place on Friday, April 30th. On one side of the city in Brooklyn at The Archway under the Manhattan Bridge is a recreation of an Asian night market, an event that hasn’t been recreated in America before! If you have been to Asia, you probably remember the night street food scene. Now you get to relive that experience at New York’s very own night market, hosted by David Chang of Momofuku fame! Across the river at the Rubin Museum of Art, prepare to be enlightened by an intimate conversation about the impact of Buddhism on food between acclaimed chefs David Chang and Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin.

On top of mouth watering and spiritually enriching events, the Festival has 2 important non-profit partners: City Harvest and Asian American Federation. LUCKYRICE isn’t only about celebrating Asian culture and food – it also recognizes the importance of giving back to the community. A portion of proceeds will go to benefit the two organizations and City Harvest will also receive 100% of Restaurant Week proceeds.

I don’t know about you, but my stomach protested with vigor as I’m writing this post. I cannot wait to experience Asia in the comfort of my own city – and neither should you! Several Festival events are already sold out (the dumpling workshop with Anita Lo being one of them – my family’s dumpling-making heritage weeps!), so if you plan on eating your fill of delicious Asian food next week, you better snag those tickets fast!

As for LUCKYRICE and Ms. Chang, the show does not stop with the Festival. She has her sights set on launching LUCKYRICE on a national level next year, with San Francisco and Los Angeles on the horizon. With the momentum gained from an undoubtedly successful New York event, I think Californians better start dieting now!

Full Event Line-up
Opening Night Cocktail Party
The Bowery Hotel
Thursday, April 29, 2010
8:00pm -11:00pm (7:00 -8:00pm Media/VIP preview)
$50 General Admission / $88 VIP

Buddhist Cuisine: A Conversation With Chefs Eric Ripert + David Chang
The Rubin Museum
Friday, April 30, 2010
6:00pm -8:00pm
$50 General Admission

Night Market: Asian Street Food in America
The Archway Under the Manhattan Bridge, DUMBO
Friday, April 30, 2010
6:30pm -10:30pm
$50 General Admission

Family Workshop: Making Dumplings with Anita Lo
The Museum of the Chinese in America
Saturday, May 1, 2010
10:30am-12:00pm
$50 General Admission

Grand Feast of Asian Flavors
The Mandarin Oriental NY
Saturday, May 1, 2010
6:00pm -10:00pm / VIP and Media Reception: 6:00pm -7:00pm
$150 General Admission / $250 VIP

Talk + Taste: Asian Cuisine Cooking Demos
International Culinary Center
Sunday, May 2, 2010
12:00pm -6:00pm
$50 General Admission

12pm – 1pm: Zak Pelaccio
Fatty Crab and Fatty ‘Cue representing the rich flavors of Malaysian cuisine
1pm – 2pm: Jonathan Wright
Executive Chef of The Setai in South Beach, Miami
2pm – 3pm: Willin Low
Chef of Singapore’s popular Wild Rocket Restaurant
3pm – 4pm: Eddie Huang
Chef of Baohaus, New York’s buzzed-about Lower East Side Asian eatery representing Taiwanese cuisine
4pm – 5pm: Ching He Huang
Host of “Chinese Made Easy”, the new television series launching in May on the Cooking Channel by Food Network
5pm – 6pm: Jennifer Maeng
The founder of Temple Restaurant represents Korean cuisine

Afternoon Tea + Asian Dessert Pairing
The Mandarin Oriental NY
Sunday, May 2, 2010
3:00pm-5:00pm
$88 General Admission

Restaurant and Bar Week
Monday, May 3 – Sunday, May 9, 2010
For one week only, over 50 select New York City restaurants and bars will offer specially-designed Asian-inspired lunch and dinner tasting menus.

Purchase tickets now for LUCKYRICE Festival

Asian food eye candy:

Photos courtesy of Appetite for Good

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