Kai Nguyen
Kai Nguyen, a Vietnamese student at Syracuse University, attended the Fall Workshop held at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. To contact Kai Nguyen, email her at atnguyen@syr.edu
The Fall Workshop is a three-day event that challenges its members to tell compelling stories from the world around them through media. Kai's project was to cover the international pop-up dinner party, "My Lucky Tummy" by Adam Sudmann through her photography. For more information about the Fall Workshop, visit http://fallworkshop.syr.edu/2017/
"The event started out as a lark and a bit of an experiment - a way to use my professional background (event direction and production in NYC) to fulfill my yen for travel, for meeting people from faraway places. It felt particularly comforting and interesting to cook in a room alongside people from all over, all of us foreign to one another, all of us curious and eager to find familiarities and find out new things, too." - Adam Sudmann, founder of My Lucky Tummy
For more information about My Lucky Tummy, visit http://www.myluckytummy.com
“My Lucky Tummy is a pop-up dinner party with diverse international food happening twice a year. This year, one took place at St. Peter's church in Cazenovia, NY on October 21. It sold out over 200 seats.”
“Adam Sudmann (blue cap) is the founder of My Lucky Tummy. While keeping up with every detail of the party, Adam also made sure every guest felt welcomed from the check-in counter.”
“Adam himself rarely cooked but he made sure everything is right and ready for the event, down to the last details such as the number of the lids for the pans.”
“Adam relaxed with his coffee for a bit after picking up vegetable from the local farmer market. Several days before, his car was packed with groceries, fresh vegetable and cooking equipments up to the ceiling.”
“Adam moved to Syracuse after quitting his job in the city as an event planner. Here he found the talented home cooks from all around the world to help him achieve his dream of introducing international cuisine to the public.”
“Adam picked out chillis from the storage basement of Paw Lay Moo's grocery store. Her’s is one of about twenty international food markets on the Northside of Syracuse, from which Adam always tried to get the most authentic ingredients for the recipes.”
“Paw always gives Adam instructions on how to cook Burmese recipes every time he comes to her store. She was telling him how much herb he actually needed.”
“Adam and Sarah Robin, a Pakistani cook, checked the ingredients necessary before they started cooking.”
“Adam kept track of everything in his notebook. He was noting down "13" which was the number of hours that a cook worked that day.”
“Adam tried the Nga Poung Htout, a Burmese dish made from prawn and banana flower wrapped in banana leaf. Though worried about quantities, he sometimes tried the food before serving it the next day.”
“Planning a dinner party for hundreds of people, Adam stays behind very late and sleeps at almost minimum hours. Once he stayed up to 6 am, took a nap and then continued working at 8 until midnight.”
“The Saturday dinner was also a fundraiser for the Common Ground's Resettlement Efforts of Cazenovia. The town with a 97% white population has been trying to make itself more welcoming to immigrants and refugees especially during the current political climate.”
“Chaat Papri is a popular street food put together by Sarah of Pakistan. Made with yogurt, potato, chaat masala, and topped with homemade cumin-ajwain cracker, pomegranate, and mango, it can be eaten an appertizer.”
“Community members from Homs, Syria, at the party. They both wanted the Pakistani cracker.”
“Many guests were both curious and hesitated with one of the entrees called Chao Long Gio, a Vietnamese dish made from blood sausages with laksa, pork organs, and congee. It's cooked by Ngoc, her sister and mother.”
“Ahmad of Homs, Syria, played the Oud, a traditional instrument for Middle Eastern music. Ahmad only speaks Arabic.”
“In the midst of all his busy work, Adam still tries his best to do his job as a father. Before going to the kitchen, he picked up his son Elliot, 2, at the kindergarten.”
“Adam and Elliot.”