Working hard or hardly working? Maybe a little of both. Full day of learning, studying, and most importantly tasting for the Certified Sake Advisor test. Never stop learning. #ahmas #ahmaskitchen #ahmastaiwanesekitchen #atl #atlanta #foodporn #foodie #streetfood #taiwan #taiwanese #atleats #truecooks #cheflife #igersatl #igersatlanta
Ask and you shall receive...keep a lookout for #taiwanbeer within the next month. #ahmas #ahmaskitchen #ahmastaiwanesekitchen #atl #atlanta #foodporn #foodie #streetfood #taiwan #taiwanese #atleats #truecooks #cheflife #igersatl #igersatlanta
Hope everyone is having a great summer so far! Just a little update that we will be closed from Wednesday, June 29 through Wednesday, July 6. Thanks for all the support and we look forward to serving you when we return from our short break!
Getting some beautiful short ribs from @heywoodsprovision ready for a 48 hour sous vide. #heslosthismarbles 💦
What do we do when we're closed you ask? Stay in bed for as long as possible before going in to prep. Always nice to spend time with our fluff monster. #5moreminutes #lazybum #husky #direwolf
There's something beautiful about a organized workspace. This picture sums up our experiences with @chefjasonliang at @brushatl. No frills. No BS. Just pure ingredients. #nuffsaid #atleats #truecooks #cheflife #foodporn #foodstagram #sushilovers #sushiporn
Driving to Dekalb Farmer's Market when we see smoke steadily rising from behind a small shack. You know it's about to be a good day. Best Caribbean food we've had in atlanta so far, especially the jerk chicken. Boss man put his foot in it.
Fresh batch of Hokkaido milk bread just finished for coffin bread and Taiwanese sandwiches. This one came out nice. One more test batch tonight...Thank you @joucijuicy for modeling the bread! #ahmas #ahmaskitchen #ahmastaiwanesekitchen #atl #atlanta #foodporn #foodie #streetfood #taiwan #taiwanese #atleats #truecooks #cheflife
Coffin bread for breakfast this morning. Peas, carrots, shiitake, shrimp, Xiang Chang, scallion. Sex in your mouth. #nuffsaid #ahmas #ahmaskitchen #ahmastaiwanesekitchen #atl #atlanta #foodporn #foodie #streetfood #taiwan #taiwanese #atleats #truecooks #cheflife
A server was craving French toast today and we've been testing recipes for Hokkaido milk bread. So naturally this occurs. Apparently Asian bread makes really good French toast. Just missing the condensed milk and walnuts 😜. #ratchet @welovebuhi
Day 5 of late night recipe testing/working out for possible menu items and #southeats2016 after a 14 hour shift. Master Chef Swag says there's a method to the madness. #ketonefree #highgluten #younggrasshopper #doughboy #sleepwhatssleep #ahmas #ahmaskitchen #ahmastaiwanesekitchen #atl #atlanta #foodporn #foodie #streetfood #taiwan #taiwanese #atleats #truecooks #cheflife
It's one thing when you get a good review from a food critic. It's something else entirely when someone captures the essence of who you are and what you hope to accomplish. Moments like this make everything worthwhile. Thank you Marian Liou for sharing our stories!
We Love BuHi is honored to share the stories of the chefs and restaurants participating in SouthEATS 2016, an Asian food festival celebrating Asian Heritage Mon...th and benefiting Asian Americans Advancing Justice Atlanta.
Sometimes it takes awhile to figure it out. Sometimes you never figure out. Sometimes, most times, there are no recipes, no formulas, and the only way you figure it out is by feel, by heart, by your gut.
That's how it's been for brothers Alex and Andy Chen and their father Shane, another Taiwanese trio making magic, making it up as they go, at a sliver of a restaurant in Midtown - Ah-Ma's Taiwanese Kitchen, which they opened together in July 2014. Although Mr. Chen has worked in Chinese restaurants and managed half of North Carolina's Panda Express locations, Andy, 26, and Alex, 21, had no prior restaurant experience beyond growing up, as many immigrant kids do, in their family's restaurants (named China Luck and Golden China). Their journey together has been one of experimentation, a constant give-and-take between the sons' creative vision and their father's knowledge and experience, and as many failures as successes.
The boys were raised in Gadsden, Alabama, a small town about 60 miles from Birmingham with only a handful of Asian families. Andy and Alex never wanted to be Asian, not really. Even after relocating to Atlanta when Mr. Chen was assigned to manage a Panda Express here and again to a nameless town between Durham and Raleigh when he was named an area manager for the chain, supervising twenty stores covering half of North Carolina, they always expected to return to Alabama. It was only after their mother passed away following a long bout of breast cancer, after their heavy Southern accents had begun fading away, and after being inspired by Eddie Huang's seminal book "Fresh Off the Boat," which perfectly encapsulated their own Taiwanese-American journey, that the boys began reconnecting with their heritage and culture, especially through food.
The Chens' culinary philosophy can be summed up as going forward to go backward, experimenting with tastes and feel in order to reconnect with their ethnic background and the fundamental elements of what Taiwanese cuisine means to them. Without any formal culinary training, Andy and Alex have found their restaurant experience both more challenging and rewarding than expected. They are committed foremost to educating themselves, by continually improving and developing their own skills and knowledge, without compromise. In that sense, rather than attempting to please as many people as possible, rather than figuring out what is "authentic" for others, they are inspired by their future selves to keep pushing and growing and to be true to themselves, at this particular moment, in this particular place.
We are lucky to have Ah-Ma's Taiwanese Kitchen as one of our featured restaurants. Join us in celebrating the Chens' moving journey at SouthEATS 2016. Get your tickets today at southeats.eventbrite.com.
