July 5, 2022 by Yvonne Bee
Part 1: Restaurants
May was Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Heritage Month and serves to remind us of the resilience and sacrifices the first Asian immigrants faced while settling in the United States. The Wire’s goal has always been to center the voices of disproportionately-affected minorities, women, and marginalized groups. To conclude Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Heritage Month, we set forth to showcase the various types of Asian businesses and cuisines in San Luis Obispo County.
We would like to acknowledge that the Cal Poly Multicultural Center’s Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Community and Programs uses the term APIDA to deliberately recognize South Asian (Desi) folx with many regional ethnicities under the classification of Asian in higher education.
San Luis Oriental Market
Location: 1255 Monterey St. #C, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
Fani Gau is the owner of San Luis Obispo’s only Asian supermarket, San Luis Oriental Market. Fani graduated in the culinary arts and after marrying into her husband’s Chinese-Cambodian family, she had the opportunity to take over her parents-in-law’s business. Her husband Peter Gau works at a pre-dental company but frequently helps Fani with accounting, back office, ordering and driving to get products. Though Fani is Hispanic herself, she combines the nature of her eleven-year marriage with her culturally blended Asian and Hispanic family in the store.
Peter and Fani Gau. Photo Courtesy of Fani Gau.
Before the San Luis Oriental Market, Peter’s parents ran a donut shop. It was not until the city took over lots of property and businesses closed that they decided to open an Asian market that nobody has done in San Luis Obispo before.
“We opened it because there was nothing like it, and if [my in-laws] wanted to shop, they had to drive to SF or LA, which are really far away,” said Fani.
Photo Courtesy of San Luis Oriental Yelp Page.
The San Luis Oriental Market first opened in 1992. Today, Fani actively seeks to know what’s popular to keep customers interested while keeping the foundational Asian kitchen items in stock. Fani always values customers’ feedback for in-store products and what the community would like to see.
“90% of the items, my husband and I, were handed and tried ourselves before putting it on the shelves” with customers either bringing food samples or showing pictures of food from their trips abroad, Fani said.
In the future, Fani wants to add more fresh produce, deli and hot food items that are typically found in Asian supermarkets in larger cities, like Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Fani and Peter are also actively looking to change their store’s name. Despite Peter’s parents first choosing the store’s current name, today, Fani and Peter “understand that the word, ‘oriental’ is politically correct when searching for certain products online, but is offensive if it is [directed] at a person as an insult.”
Fani further clarifies that “because I’m not Asian, I don’t want to make anyone feel uncomfortable, and because of what’s happening in these recent years, I want to make [the market] more inclusive by rebranding.”
For more information on San Luis Oriental Market, check out their Instagram account (@slorientalmarket).
Papa’s Thai Cafe
Location: 1308 Monterey St, San Luis Obispo, CA
Pim, David, and Pim’s baby cousin. Photo Courtesy of Yvonne Bee.
Pim and David are the managers of Papa’s Thai Cafe, a family-owned cafe where Pim and her boyfriend, David operate the storefront and financial aspects while Pim’s parents cook and maintain the kitchen.
Originating from Thailand, Pim and her immediate family immigrated and have been working in the culinary industry for most of their lives in Santa Barbara. There, Pim met David, a Santa Barbara local, and the two set forth to share their love of Thai culture throughout the Central Coast. Though David is white, he continues to promote the flavorful delicacies of Thailand in store. They settled in San Luis Obispo after being awed by the beautiful surrounding environment and small, social college town life.
“We have always loved this building and spot in town, but compared to Santa Barbara, people here are really friendly. After seeing so many San Luis Obispo students go out, we opened our restaurant,” said Pim and David.
Papa’s Thai Cafe officially opened on Jan. 30, 2020. Shortly after opening, the COVID-19 began pandemic, the impacts of which are still seen with a shortage of workers and customers.
Photo Courtesy of Yvonne Bee.
To this day, Papa’s Thai Cafe is “doing their best to keep our business running by serving their favorite Thai dishes to the San Luis Obispo community daily and it’s worth it,” Pim said.
Their cooking style draws direct inspiration from their frequent travels to and from Thailand. Pim and her mother frequently extend their menu in an attempt to capture the authentic tastes of certain Thai flavor palates. Some recent new items are their Green Thai Iced Tea, which is infused with matcha and green tea, and their Blue Thai Iced Tea, which has Butterfly Pea Flower Tea.
Pork Pad Thai. $13.85 | Blue Thai Iced Tea $3.50 | Photo Courtesy of Kristi Leung.
Pim said her favorite dish is PRA RAM, which consists of a bed of spinach topped with chicken curry, broccoli, cucumber and onions drizzled in cashew nut and peanut sauce. For a more traditional dish, Pim and David recommend KHAO SOI, a curry and crispy egg noodle dish with chicken dipped in a blend of chili paste and coconut milk and decorated with onions and cilantro.
For more information, check out their Instagram account (@papas_thai_cafe) or order online at https://papathaicafe.com/.
Bing’s Bao Buns
Location: 3845 S Higuera St. Suite 108, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
Michael and Sam Whittaker. Photo Courtesy of Yvonne Bee.
Sam and Michael Whittaker are the owners of Bing’s Bao Buns. Sam runs the front of the house, serves food, preps the Bao filling, and makes sauces and appetizers, while Michael makes the dough from scratch and hand wraps the Baos. They opened Bing’s Bao Buns because “it just felt right and filled a void for us and other people” and “introduced the Central Coast to ethnic foods they never knew existed,” Sam said.
Sam was born in South Korea and was adopted in the 1980s by an American couple on the East Coast. Though her parents are white, they made efforts to incorporate her Korean heritage into her childhood, especially in her teenage years when she was first introduced to Korean food by her mother’s best friend, who is Korean and made traditional Korean meals for them to enjoy.
As a first-generation American and mother of two kids, Sam finds it her responsibility to reconnect her family to her culture for herself, her kids and their future through Korean food.
Sam’s husband, Michael grew up on the East Coast as well. He is Irish and English but shares Sam’s love for Asian cuisine. Michael’s love of cooking grew through his childhood task of making dinner for his family once a week and alternating shifts between his siblings. Sam also encouraged him to broaden his horizons and explore his love of cooking.
After Hurricane Sandy, Sam and Michael moved from the East Coast and moved to San Luis Obispo.
“We happened to stumble across San Luis Obispo and loved the small community vibe this place gave off, especially with the Farmers Market and good quality food,” Sam said.
However, there was a lack of ethnic food that they missed.
Sam and Michael were originally working full-time at Apple and made food for their coworkers on the side. The city eventually told them they could not sell food from their home, so in 2018, they began to work towards opening their own restaurant.
Photo Courtesy of Yvonne Bee.
Today, Bing’s Bao Buns focuses on fast, reasonably priced and locally sourced food, to give back to the community as well as challenge Sam and Michael to be adventurous with their dishes. Their menu changes on a weekly basis depending on local produce, and they collaborate to decide on the menu based on their own food preferences and customers’ feedback. For AAPI Heritage Month, Bing’s Bao Buns served all Asian regional foods such as Korean Fried Chicken and Thai Leek Bao, which was perfect for spice-lovers. Sam also recommends their Kimchi Pork Carnitas Bao.
Gateway Bao $4 | Three Bao $11 | Photo Courtesy of Yvonne Bee.
They are dedicated to serving fresh Baos daily with Michael making them around from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. Michael is their only chef and self-taught bao-wrapper, so Bing’s Bao Buns sells out of Baos daily and limit customers to 3 Baos a day. Their current record is selling out of 150 Baos in 35 minutes.
In the future, they hope to open for more hours and make more Baos by first finding more kitchen staff with experience.
For more information, check out their website at https://www.bingsbaobuns.com/ or their Instagram account (@bingsbaobuns).
Baht
Location: 3845 S Higuera St. Suite 105, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
Photo Courtesy of Charles and Thanya Pokpoonpipat.
Charles and Thanya Pokpoonpipat are the owners of one of San Luis Obispo’s first Thai restaurants, BAHT.
Baht is the official currency of Thailand and “one of the first words people learn when they come to Thailand,” Charles said. Charles and Thanya named their restaurant BAHT since it was the Central Coast’s introduction to Thailand’s street food.
Charles was born in New York and traveled to Thailand frequently — he even went to elementary school there. His mother’s Thai restaurant, Jaiya, opened in 1978 in New York City and served as a training ground for Charles’ culinary career.
Thanya was born and raised in Thailand and later moved to New York to pursue a Master’s in fashion marketing at Parsons University. She and Charles became close when she began visiting Jaiya.
Charles and Thanya eventually decided to start their restaurant in San Luis Obispo because of their love for the natural beauty of the Central Coast, in comparison to New York’s hustle and bustle.
Green Papaya Salad. $12.5 | Photo Courtesy of Yvonne Bee.
Coconut Shrimp with Thai Chili Aioli. $11 | Photo Courtesy of Yvonne Bee.
Due to their initial challenges of finding ingredients for Thai dishes and specific flavor palates, Charles and Thanya began outsourcing their ingredients to bring Bangkok’s street food to the Central Coast.
To keep things interesting, a weekly menu rotation is offered. Their sauté dishes range from Pork Shoulder Dish, Sukhothai Noodle Soup, Pork Belly Dish and Jungle Curry. Charles’ favorite dish is the Shrimp Pad Thai, while Thanya loves the Drunken Udon with Sliced Strip Loin. They recommend their specialty, the Thai Puffer Egg dish that has a runny egg floating above a bed of rice and curry.
Shrimp Pad Thai. $16.9 | Photo Courtesy of Yvonne Bee.
Drunken Udon with Sliced Strip Loin. $17.5 | Photo Courtesy of Yvonne Bee.
BAHT opened its door in San Luis Obispo’s Public Market in December 2021 and hopes to further expand to a bigger space to introduce the Central Coast to the vast range of Thai cuisine.
For more information, check out their website at https://bahtgroup.com/ or their Instagram account (@baht_slopm).