Coffee Stained Stories

November 1, 2020

“Moving in and out of places is not easy, and sometimes it is really heartbreaking because you get to a place and you call it home.

So you feel like your heart breaks in a way, cause you’re leaving a place that has become home to you. But at the same time, it becomes filled with the people that you met, the experiences that you had that you couldn’t have had back home. You know, back home, for example, I could have never gone dog sledding! And all the people I met were very inspiring, and they pushed me to pursue my dreams.

So it’s heartbreaking to leave places that you’ve called home and the people you’ve met, but they fill your heart, and your heart becomes bigger. And you feel like you’re more enriched.”

October 16, 2020

“When I first started working [in the US], I was talking to a coworker, and he was trying to explain to me how health insurance works here. It’s super complicated. And the cashier lady at the cafeteria said, because she’s not a full-time employee at the company, she pays something like $400 a month in premiums. I was just like, that’s crazy.

I’ve known about the US healthcare for the longest time, because we talk about it in Canada as well, but when you live here, it’s crazy. My company supposedly has a really good healthcare plan, and I still have to pay hundreds of dollars out of pocket to see outpatient doctors. I think that’s a deterrent for a lot of people to see a doctor.

It makes you appreciate what we have in Canada more. I think it speaks to different priorities as a country. Canada doesn’t have the dynamism that the US has, but I think that’s a feature, not a bug.

But I think it’s also critical not to delude yourself into thinking that Canada is this wonderland. When I first joined, it was right after Trudeau’s blackface scandal. A few of my teammates from India came up to me, and said: Erik, I’m so surprised. I thought Canada was a post-racial wonderland.

Clearly, Canada’s PR department has done a good job. Speaking as a Chinese Canadian, I’ve faced a level of casual discrimination [in Canada]. I haven’t felt the full weight of systemic discrimination, but you hear certain words here and there. It’s very subtle, but it’s there. And there’s always those who remind me that they don’t think I’m an actual Canadian.”

August 11, 2020

“People are more inclined, over the last few years, to be interested in politics in a way they haven’t been in the past. There are many issues that are galvanizing people to become far more active and interested in politics. I think that’s a very positive thing.

I think a silver lining of what’s happening around the world is that it’s pushing people to understand that if they don’t do something, nothing will be done. In the US and outside, the election of Trump has galvanized people in our generation to engage with issues and say what they believe in, far more than if Hilary Clinton had won the election. There are far more people of colour, sexual minorities, women, who are pursuing office at higher levels or engaging in grassroots levels in politics.

The debate about race and structural racism have come to the forefront. Many people who might not have seen themselves in the curriculum and have not been interested in hearing about the history of white people around the world in the last few centuries are now engaging in these protests, or simply reading more about it. And I think that can only be a very positive thing.

The fact that climate change has become a big issue. Many young people take a more activist approach, and read more about it. A more informed society is a very healthy society. And I think the more we are informed and more engaged with each other, the more we can change things, and change things for the better.

So teaching politics in a way is easier now, because they’re more interested in what’s happening. Again, they might not be interested in the way we were in the past. They might not be here to talk about the cold war. But they want to hear much more about what’s happening with regards to climate, the environmental issues, talk about the history of racism, structural racism, inequality, and colonialism. I think that’s a great thing, simply wanting to be more engaged and wanting to understand what’s happening.”

July 21, 2020

“Both of my parents are very well-versed and trained in the pastry chef experience. They are both immigrants. My dad is from Belgium, and apprenticed in a lot of Belgian bakeries.

My mother is from Hong Kong. She wanted to be a hotel manager, but she discovered pastry cheffing, because that was an aspect of being a hotel manager. You had to know how to be a chef and a pastry chef, and she was just totally entranced by the pastry chef experience!

They met in San Francisco at a culinary school. They both trained for a lot of years, and after they graduated and apprenticed in several other bakeries, they decided to come to Vancouver and open up their own store. And they’ve been doing pastry since we opened in 1995.

[…] I’ve gone to Belgium three times, I think. My grandparents lived in Tubize, which is a small town about an hour away from Brussels. My family is a little bit stereotypically Belgian in that my grandfather was a beer brewer and my dad owns a waffle place!

Fun fact, Belgians love Canadians. Canada helped out Belgium in World War II. So there are many Canadian monuments in Belgium. It was very funny because my grandma was like, this is my granddaughter and she’s Canadian! She was very happy and super proud to show me off.

I think I’ve been to Hong Kong three times, as well. My mom’s family is all there. We always went in the winter, thank god. I don’t know how I’d do in Hong Kong in the summer. Even in the winter, it was still quite warm. It was really fun.

Hong Kong is very diverse, and really has its own culture. It’s both British and Chinese. A little bit Portuguese because of Macau, too. I always say my favourite Hong Kong breakfast is macaroni noodle soup. It’s a big thing in Hong Kong. Ham and bits of corn and macaroni noodles in a soup, and it’s so good!

I’m very proud of both [Belgian and Hong Kong] cultures, cause I’ve had to explain them a lot to people.”

May 12, 2020

“After my grandpa passed away, I thought, damn, maybe this is the moment I moved back to Taiwan. At least I would get to see my parents often, and see my grandma. And I wanted my kids to know about my family. If you haven’t seen your great-grandma, when she passes away you’ll have no feelings. It’s like you didn’t even know her. I didn’t want that with my kids. I wanted my kids to know where they come from, where their parents come from.”

April 25, 2020

“I decided to move into street food around October. I do West Indies, so Caribbean food. What’s really good in London is at the Carnival, everyone opts for jerk chicken. Once you have the grill going, everyone’s running. You can’t go wrong, really. I decided to do jerk chicken and fried dumplings. A fried dumpling is like a donut – in Saint Lucia we call it bakes, Jamaican people call it dumplings. And the rest of the Caribbean has johnny cakes, which are much bigger.

Jerk chicken mainly comes from Jamaica. One of the most important things is having the pimento sauce, cinnamon, and ground seasoning of cloves. That will give you a really good jerk. You put it on the grill, and you get a nice authentic flavour occurring, and it’s just really good.

I left Saint Lucia when I was twelve years old. And my grandparents also had their street food stall. Every Friday and Saturday you’d have what’s called a fish night, or where you just have local street food that is really awesome. You’d have things like fried chicken, jerk chicken, grilled lamb, grilled pigtail, all of these things. You’d have lots of these lovely treats.”