With rates of hate crimes and discrimination against Asian people rising not only globally, but close to home, many UNB students are looking for ways to support the Asian community.
One way to do this is to support locally owned Asian small businesses. Dr. Felisa Chan is a Research Associate at UNB and is the Program Coordinator for the Asian Heritage Society of New Brunswick. Chan identified a number of Asian owned businesses and provided profiles on each.
Khan’s Kitchen: The Khan family moved to Fredericton from Alberta to help their mother, Shabeela Khalid, establish a Pakistani restaurant. Shabeela’s husband Mohammad Khalid Khan and son Danial Khan do the serving while she makes delicious food from her and Mohammad’s country of origin. Khan’s Kitchen has been open since the beginning of April and is already a neighbourhood hit!
Pinoy Point: Alex Paelma and Jigs Lam started Pinoy Point on Saunders Street and scaled up to a full-service seven-day-a-week food booth when they moved to the Cultural Market at 435 King St. in March. Jigs is currently in the Philippines, called to duty as a lawyer in their home country, but Alex is there just about every day and has brought on some wonderful staff to give him breaks from the counter.
Warung Indonesia: Natali Caswell and Dellya Larasati own Warung Indonesia and have been expanding their operation from one day a week at the Boyce Farmers Market, although their loyal guests also likely know them from their times at The Garrison Night Market as well. They feature primarily vegan offerings with delicious peanut sauce.
Sambal Bali: Tessa Tristianti owns and operates Sambal Bali, an Indonesian snack
food/street cart. Her menu is primarily delicious, delightful, compact flavor blasts like deep-fried crepes and puffed tofu. All items are available with a hot pepper, and she encourages everyone to try it “Indonesian style” with a big brave bite of pepper alongside the selected snack.
Infusion Heritage: Toma Shegufta is set up in front of the Cultural Market with a small artisan crafter booth, supplied by crafters from her home country of Bangladesh. From bookmarks through jewellery, wall hangings and décor, Toma has a direct link to the makers of these precious items and can tell you a story about each one.
The Cultural Market at 435 King St. hosts many Asian-owned businesses and provides a wide range of other international goods, crafts, services, and foods.