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How Asian immigrants are transforming San Francisco Bay Area’s food culture
- The tech boom has propelled an influx of immigrants, particularly Asians, creating a unique opportunity for food entrepreneurs
- But starting a food business in the Bay Area – known for its sky-high rents and wages – is not easy
Reading Time:5 minutes
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When Tracy Goh moved from Malaysia to San Francisco in 2012, she didn’t know anyone in her adopted city, so she began hosting pop-up dinners in her flat to make friends.
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But what started as small social gatherings soon grew into events with 20 to 60 diners, as her food – especially her laksa – started winning fans. Goh soon decided to leave her marketing job to take up cooking full-time.
In 2017 and 2018, she served more than 1,000 bowls of laksa in rented restaurants and shared kitchens, hoping to educate San Franciscans about the spicy noodle soup she had enjoyed at hawker centres back in Malaysia.
“The idea was to encourage as many people as possible to try it,” says Goh, 37. “I wanted to get the word about laksa out there, to get people to talk and learn more about it.”
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Koji Kanematsu tells a similar story. After moving from Tokyo to San Francisco in 2006, he couldn’t find his favourite food, onigiri (rice balls), a snack found in every Japanese convenience store.
So Kanematsu quit his job as a mobile app developer to become a food entrepreneur. He started by selling onigiri as street food but now has several restaurants.
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