A Spoonful of Ginger

Good food and a good cause. Always an excellent pairing.

I recently attended the 5th Annual “A Spoonful of Ginger” Food Tasting Event to benefit the Joslin Diabetes Center’s Asian American Diabetes Initiative. A number of local chefs participated including Jasper White and Henning Vatborg of Summer Shack, Joanne Chang of Flour Bakery and Myers + Chang, Charles Draghi of Erbaluce, German Lam of Glam Foods, and many more. It was held in the The State Room, atop 60 State Street, with a beautiful view of the city at night.

The mission of the Asian American Diabetes Initiative (AADI) is to raise awareness about diabetes and enhance the quality of life and health outcomes of those living with diabetes in the Asian community through research, education, outreach and improved diabetes treatment. Asian Americans are nearly twice as likely to develop diabetes as the general population – more than 10 percent of all Asian Americans have diabetes and even more remain undiagnosed.

I am sure almost everyone know someone with diabetes. I know and have known numerous people affected, to one degree or another, by diabetes. One of my cats even has diabetes and requires insulin injections twice a day. I have enough trouble injecting my cat that it is almost hard to imagine how people with diabetes must inject themselves or loved ones. Diabetes research is a worthy cause and deserves recognition and support.

Prior to the ribbon cutting, opening the evening, there was a very nice taiko drum set. The two drummers were very talented and it was fascinating to watch their performance and hear the throbbing drums.

Mayor Menino was on hand to help with the ribbon cutting and opening ceremonies. Councilor Sam Yoon was also on hand at the festivities.

Near the end of the evening, all of the chefs got together for pictures. Though it was difficult to get all of the chefs into a single picture. Kudos go out to all of these chefs for the excellent food they prepared. Attendees were able to move from table to table, sampling food and returning for seconds for those dishes that were especially delicious (or even thirds!). Complimentary wine, beer, and soft drinks were also provided.

Despite all of the people at the event, the wait for getting food at any table was very short, if even at all. Everything seemed to run very smoothly, one of the best organized events I have attended in some time. I even had the chance to speak a bit with some of the chefs. Overall, I was very impressed with this event and very much enjoyed the food.

Here are some photos of several of the tables I visited.

This table was shared by Chef German Lam of Glam Foods, LLC and Chef Charles Draghi of the Erbaluce Restaurant. You can read a separate post about Chef Lam tomorrow, so you will be able to learn more about him. I spoke with Chef Draghi and he really intrigued me about his new restaurant. For example, their rack of wild boar is one of their signature dishes and that certainly appeals to me. Plus, he mentioned that his wine list contains many less common Italian wines, something to intrigue any wine lover. I am currently trying to plan a visit to Erbaluce to check it out.

This was the enticing sliced beef at the table of Chef David Wong of Shabu-Zen. This is Asian hot-pot cooking, similar in some ways to fondue.

I am a fan of Joanne Chang's Flour Bakery in the South End. So I expected that whatever they served would be delicious. And I was not wrong as these upside down apple cakes were excellent.

Chef Hing Soo Hoo of Chinatown Cafe had one of the most eye-catching tables with this poultry. The meat was quite flavorful and moist, and seemed very popular.

I can't turn down raw tuna and Chef Ting San of Oishii Boston provided cubes of tuna on a stick with the crunchy rice pearl. I must admit I ate a fair number of these.

There was plenty of other delectable food at this event but I wanted to offer a sampling of some of what I found. And as you savor the photos of the food, please also give some consideration to the Joslin Diabetes Center’s Asian American Diabetes Initiative. Help support this worthy cause.