What makes the Bay Area such a unique place for Asian American food? In the new CAAM-funded digital series Meals That Made Us, Director Nisha Balaram sets out to explore how Asian Americans are using food to shape identity, nurture one another, and imagine new futures. Set against the rich culinary backdrop of San Francisco and its surroundings, the series ventures far beyond the city’s elite restaurants. Everyday people find meaning in unexpected places, whether it’s foraging as a connection to ancestral experiences, elevating institutional meals with cultural care, or creating third spaces that nourish bodies and hearts. Moving between intimate interviews and sweeping cultural commentary, Meals That Made Us shows that cooking and eating are evolving traditions that are both connections to the past and the groundwork for new communities.

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