Moonlynn Tsai
Moonlynn Tsai is a Taiwanese-American restaurateur and spent her childhood helping out at her parents’ Chinese-American restaurants in California. Before committing to a career in hospitality, Moonlynn dabbled in various odd jobs, including buying and selling snuggies and shake weights on eBay. Over the past decade, she has combined her passion for community building and bringing restaurant concepts to life such as Original Gravity, San Jose’s first craft beer bar, Michelin Bib restaurant Pine & Crane in Los Angeles and was the investor and former co-owner/operator of the critically acclaimed restaurant Kopitiam on East Broadway in New York City. She now focuses on food insecurity within the homebound Asian and Asian-American elderly communities through Heart of Dinner while building story and community-driven food concepts and has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, Oprah Magazine, Vogue, and The Wall Street Journal.
Heart of Dinner
Heart of Dinner is a “mission led, volunteer powered” organization that has since evolved from the supper club based in Los Angeles created to combat loneliness. After COVID struck NYC, Moonlynn Tsai and Yin Chang (the duo behind Heart of Dinner) knew they has to do something to support their community who was battling the affects of a pandemic, loss of business, and racism/xenophobia due to COVID. After reports of anti-asian hate, especially targeted towards the elders in their community, Heart of Dinner set out to provide for the most vulnerable population of their community during a time when building community and sustaining wellness was essential.
Since mid-2020, Moonlynn, Yin, and thousands of their volunteers have been able to serve tens of thousands of meals to elders. Their goal is to get 250,000+ meals served, while building community, creating meaningful connections, and creating the bedrock for a more resilient community for the future to come.
AS OF MAY 2021, HEART OF DINNER HAS:
Generated $200,00+ for local businesses
Delivered over 70,000 meals
Serve more than 500 elders weekly
Create a healing and inspiring space for more than 3,500+ volunteers
Three-Cup Chicken
Yield: 4 servings
Time: 20-30 minutes
Directions
Cut the chicken (tofu or mushrooms) into 2 inch pieces
Heat up a clay pot or pan on high heat and add the sesame oil. Add the ginger, garlic, and stir-fry until aromatic. Add in the chicken and do a few quick stirs.
Add the soy sauce, dark sweet soy sauce, Shaoxing wine and continue to stir-fry the chicken. Cover the lid, lower the heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes.
Add the basil leaves and stir well with the chicken, dish out and serve immediately over rice!
Ingredients
1 lb. chicken drumsticks or chicken thighs or half block tofu or king oyster mushrooms
2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
2-inch piece ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
8 cloves garlic, peeled
1 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoons dark soy sauce
1 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
1 bunch Thai basil leaves