Christina Nguyen was driving and listening to a Gucci Mane song one weekend in 2017 when she caught a glimpse of a Panda Express sign.
Inspiration struck.
“I was like, wait a minute, wouldn’t it be funny if I combined Gucci Mane and then lo mein?” she said.
This idea led her business’s first print: a colorful illustration of the Atlanta-based rapper with the Chinese egg noodle dish tattooed on his cheek. “Gucci Lo Mein” remains Nguyen’s favorite creation to this day.
But her punny ideas didn’t stop there.
Nguyen, who attended college in Austin at the time, was driving back home to Dallas that day and had several hours on the road to herself.
“Just to pass the time, I was like, ‘How many more puns can I come up with?’,” said Nguyen, who is now 30 and a UX designer. Sometimes, ideas just sometimes come flooding to her, she added.
Her brainstorming session on the road ultimately led to the creation of her online shop, Tiny Taste Maker, which sells posters based on puns referencing Asian food and hip-hop artists.
On Saturday night, Nguyen was selling her art among other vendors at the second annual Asian American and Pacific Heritage block party in the Bishop Arts District.
“I love it because people always get a kick out of it,” she said. “Whenever they get [a poster], they start laughing.”
A Vietnamese American born in Oklahoma and raised in Texas, Nguyen was exposed to a variety of foods and cultures growing up, which she said opened her eyes to people from different walks of life.
“It’s great having pride in your own culture and your own ethnic background,” she said. “But sometimes we don’t really celebrate the intersections and similarities between a lot of our cultures.”
Nguyen believes her art serves as a tribute to different cultures, and that that’s why so many people are drawn to it. In five years, Tiny Taste Maker — Nguyen’s nickname is “Tiny” — has sold hundreds of prints and dozens of enamel pins. Some of her more popular prints are “Biggie Rice Balls,” “A$AP Pocky” and “Wonton Snoop.”
“In a weird way, they’re relatable,” she said. “A lot of people look at my illustrations … either recognize that rapper from hip-hop culture or they’re drawn to the foods that I’m drawn to.”
She also describes her prints as informative “in a light-hearted way.” On her website, each print’s information is displayed as a recipe card with “ingredients” that contain a short description of the featured rapper and food. Writing these blurbs has prompted Nguyen to learn about foods from different regions of Asia.
“During the process, I’m educating myself on what other Asian foods are out there that I can kind of combine with other popular cultural artists,” she said.
Her current posters mostly include references to Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese and Korean food, but she hopes to expand to other Asian cuisines.
Passion for food
Nguyen’s passion for Asian food stems from her heritage. Her favorite Vietnamese dish is her mom’s bún riêu, a crab noodle soup made from a tomato-based broth. While served in a variety of ways, it’s common to garnish it with greens such as water spinach or bean sprouts, she said.
“It’s my mom’s signature dish,” she said. “I don’t think anyone has ever tried my mom’s bún riêu and didn’t like it.”
However, Nguyen’s relationship with Asian food had a fraught start. In elementary school, she was embarrassed about the food her mom packed, concerned about what her classmates thought about its smell and appearance. She wanted to have what her friends were having: pizza or Chick-fil-A.
But after moving to Austin for college, Nguyen sought out Asian food establishments to feel at home and connect with her roots, especially when she got homesick.
“Asian food and Vietnamese food was just my version of feeling at home,” she said. “I think now it’s just kind of like learning to celebrate the things that make you uniquely you.”
Nguyen noted that many Asian dishes contain a unique combination of sweet, spicy and salty flavors — often unforgiving and “in your face.”
“It’s almost like you don’t know what to expect, but it’s always homey and delightful and you can feel the love in it,” she said.
Art as a unifier
Like many other cities, Dallas has seen a rise in hate crime against Asian Americans. But Nguyen said Asians have had to deal with discrimination for a long time.
“It’s almost like these things have always been happening,” she said. “We just have never paid attention to it, and I think that’s why it’s so powerful now.”
She added that people, Asian American or not, should continue rallying behind those who feel victimized or marginalized. One way to do so is by celebrating Asian art, which she said can help shed light on other aspects of the community.
Ultimately, she hopes her art brings people together and help people from different backgrounds recognize each other’s humanity.
“At the end of the day, we’re all humans,” she said. “That’s the one commonality that we have.”
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May 30, 2023 at 10:13PM
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Vietnamese American artist celebrates her heritage with pun-based posters - The Dallas Morning News
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