#usersimba

[wheezingghoulbois]

Day 1 of Steven Lim Week- Why I love Steven Lim


4 characteristics

[waittip]

Steven Lim Appreciation Week - Day 6

Watcher Era Steven (I’m late, I’m sorry)

✨Steven’s laugh and chaotic fun vibes ✨

Bonus:

[noa-nightingale]

Thank You, Steven.

We are wrapping up Steven Lim Appreciation Week! In accordance with today’s topic, I want to express my gratitude. Here is my Thank You to Mr Lim.

Listening to Steven, watching his content, seeing him interact with other people, witnessing how he handles mistakes he made - it not only makes me appreciate the wonderful person that he is, it also helped me in many different areas in my own live.

I went through a lot of personal growth thanks to his work. It made me into a better person, it made me into a more emotionally mature person, and a better ally. It helped me on my own spiritual journey (although my beliefs are very different from his). It has helped me to love myself more. It has made me want to connect with parts of my family history, my ancestry that I had previously felt detached from.

His awkwardness is something that I relate to a lot, and seeing that he is still loved and adored not only by the fandom but also by his co-founders, coworkers, friends, makes me feel like I don’t have to be ashamed of my own awkwardness - I don’t have to be so hard on myself, I don’t have to feel like everything that I am is a mistake.

And I am also grateful that he not only helped me in a million different ways, he also helped many others, and I think this week proves that. Many stories are very different from mine but that’s part of the beauty of it: We come from different perspectives and backgrounds and we relate to him in different ways. There are so many different kinds of love and appreciation for him.

I want to thank him for so many different things but here is one of the most important one: I want to thank him for giving me back a tiny bit of faith in humanity. I thought I had lost it. And yet it is still here, and his urge to help people and to do good is a big part of that.

The experiences I had with Watcher have been very transformative for me. The experiences I had with Steven and his content have been very transformative for me. Sometimes it was pure happiness, sometimes it was pain, but it was always authentic.

Thank you, Steven, for being the person that you are and for the things that you do. I will always be grateful for it.

[wheezingghoulbois]

Day 2 of Steven Lim Week- Why I Love Steven Lim

his love for matcha and his pink hair! 💖🍵

[wheezingghoulbois]

Day 3 of Steven Lim Week- Worth-it Wednesday!

“Cheers!”

[wheezingghoulbois]

Day 4 of Steven Lim Week- Watcher Time!!

homemade was the steven show that made me really understand and enjoy his content. i adore the exploration of culture and the connection food has to family stories. homemade also is just a warm blanket in video form and i adore it.

[wheezingghoulbois]

Day 5 of Steven Lim Week- Watcher Time 💖

too many spirits has a very special place in my heart, especially steven’s cocktails on the show. i love how he just creates these concoctions and doesn’t test them, instead subjecting his friends to bad drinks, like the best of friends will do to each other alksfjalksjf.

[wheezingghoulbois]

Day 6 of Steven Lim Week- Free-For-All!

Okay so I tend to attach very specific landscapes to people. Some people are the first snow in winter, or the most gentle morning woodland sunrise, but for Steven, he’s a field of sunflowers on a golden afternoon. I think sunflowers in particular encapsulate him because they are a flower that represents unconditional love and positivity, which are traits that describe him well 💖🌻

[wheezingghoulbois]

Day 7 of Steven Week- Thank you Steven!

Thank you Steven for being such an amazing creator and inspiration to so many people. Your kindness and creativity is unlike anyone else and your work showcases every value you hold dear in the best way possible.

[waittip]

Steven Lim Appreciation Week - Day 2

Why we love Steven.

$7 Cake Vs. $208 Cake • Japan

[waittip]

Steven Lim Appreciation Week - Day 3

Worth It Wednesday

Japan 🌸

„To do something over and over and over again and still have the same joy is incredible and I get to be a part of that“

I always loved the Japan episodes of Worth It and I knew I wanted to make an entry for the Steven week about them... but I couldn't really tell why.

While watching the episodes again I started to realize why I was so drawn to the atmosphere of these episodes - it's happiness.

The happiness of coming home again and the happines of finally doing something you wanted to do for forever. The happiness of bringing other people joy and wanting them to take that feeling with them. The happiness of watching someone do the thing they love and become a part of it. Most important of all, the happiness of company and shared memories - like Andrew said "How to be happy? Can't do it by yourself"

[wheezingghoulbois]

Day 2 of Steven Lim Week- Why I Love Steven Lim

Steven Lim is an incredible human.

He’s smart, funny, creative, passionate, relatably awkward- literally all amazing traits. But the one trait that stands out to me is his love. Love for his friends, his family, strangers, his community- Steven loves unabashedly and whole-heartedly. He doesn’t hold back. His love for others is what pushes him to create, we see this in every show he’s made: in worth-it he helps showcase small businesses that may  need the business boost, in homemade we see passed down recipes of families and their culture and heritage present in every step of the process, in grocery run we see thought out and important but fun interviews about the Asian American experience, hidden narratives is about the struggles of Asian American restaurants during the pandemic, in dish granted we see steven put love and hard work into the perfect meal for his friends. Steven’s shows are never solely about entertainment. He is always using his platform to advocate and help others, because he cares. He loves others openly and freely and consistently does whatever he can to help them. He ties in culture and representation into all of his shows because he realizes its importance and is passionate about it. He wants to help make the world a better place, and has found an outlet that allows him that opportunity, and he’s seizing it. Most of his shows are calming and feel like you’re wrapped up in a warm blanket because you can feel the gentle but intense love put into the art. He’s put his whole soul into his work, and you can really see it, and i love that about him.

[noa-nightingale]

Steven Lim Appreciation Week: Watcher-era Steven

We are celebrating Watcher-era Steven and I want to talk about Hidden Narratives for this day of Steven Lim Appreciation Week!

From the description: “Steven Lim speaks with Asian American leaders across industries about how the coronavirus has impacted our community.“

There are six episodes and one of them is also on youtube. Keep in mind that these episodes were created in March/April 2020. More on that at the end of the post.

Quick disclaimer, I am not Asian American and it would be inappropriate for me to lead any kind of conversation about this podcast; therefore I attempted to keep this relatively surface-level. But I have to admit that I got carried away with this pretty quickly and I am not sure if I stayed in my lane. It was meant to be a short, appreciative post but it got out of hand - if I overstepped boundaries, please let me know.

A warning, this podcast deals with heavy and difficult topics, including racism, grief, pain, people losing their businesses, people hurting. It is also very focused on people coming together and how they can help each other - but these topics are still not easy. I still wanted to write about it because I think that Steven deserves all the appreciation in the world for his work.

The first words that come to mind when thinking about this podcast are “heart” and “dedication”. It has a lot of heart - and despite the not always happy topics, it is such a wonderful, beautiful podcast. You notice the hard work Steven put into it, the passion, the care.

In the intro of the first episode he said he was nervous when he made the podcast but that he hoped that people liked it because it would make him feel good. He explained where the idea came from: His friends talked about how the virus effected their livelihood, and he felt hurt and helpless. And he realized that he could share their untold stories.

Episode 1: How Coronavirus Shut Down A Restaurant in 24 Hours

In the first episode, Steven talks to his friend Deuki Hong, chef and owner of Sunday Hospitality Group, whose restaurants shut down in March 2020. He talked about the emotional impact of things happening so fast, trying to keep his employees safe and worrying about his team, having to question a lot of things he had been taught, and having to deal with the uncertainty.

Steven mostly asked questions and listened. Deuki Hong had to make some difficult decisions, and Steven was never judgmental about it - the podcast allowed for a very honest conversation about a very difficult situation.

The first episode very much was about trying to look out for each other, and that is a sentiment that continues throughout the entire podcast.

Deuki Hong said near the end of the episode: “When people are hurt, they just want someone to talk to, a shoulder to cry on, whatever that is, so be that person, just be kind, cause yeah, there’s a lot of hurt people right now.”

There is a GoFundMe set up for the team called Sunday Family Dream Fund. It is still open and has not reached its goal - the first episode of Hidden Narratives came out in March 2020 and the last donation to the GoFundMe was 8 months ago, so I am not really sure what the current state of affairs is. (I will come back to this at the end of my post.)

Episode 2: Why This NYC Restaurant Is Staying Open In A Pandemic

Steven mentions in the beginning of the second episode his “close emotional connection to the food industry” and that it is one of the reasons he started his podcast with two stories from two different restaurants. He also wanted to look at the topic of keeping the restaurant(s) open vs. closing it from two perspectives, and says that he does not know if there is a right or wrong answer.

Steven talks to Jimmy Ly, chef and co-owner of Madame Vo and Madame Vo BBQ. Jimmy Ly made the decision to keep his restaurants open. Steven started the conversation with: “Jimmy, thank you for sharing your story and I hope that those listening can gain a little more compassion, a little more empathy and a little more understanding.”

I found it touching that Steven’s first question was “How are you doing?” - it was asked in a way that allowed for an honest answer. This is also something he continues throughout the podcast, and it is very obvious that Steven is a very thoughtful and considerate person.

Jimmy Ly talked about his decision and for him, too, it is about his staff and his obligation toward them - the wanted to take care of them. Steven summed it up with “It is a choice for them between their livelihood and their safety”.

He talked about the measures they took to keep their staff as safe as possible and about adapting to the situation as best as they can.

Jimmy Ly said, if somebody on his team contracted the virus, he would shut his business down. It was obvious that none of the decisions he had to make and has to make are easy. They also talked about how Asian owned business were hit the hardest, and the drop in business for many.

The end of the episode got emotional - Jimmy Ly talked about how people who had to close their small businesses would most likely not be able to open them again. He said he and many others worked hard and that it is unfair that they could lose everything.

Steven talked about the impact Madame Vo had on him and that he could tell that Jimmy Ly cared about his restaurant, staff and customers and the food and that he poured love into it. Jimmy Ly said that Madame Vo means family to him.

The episode description includes the link to the Madame Vo website - Madame Vo Kitchen is still open while Madame Vo BBQ is “temporarily closed”.

Episode 3: FBI Warns Asian Americans Of Racist Outbreaks Due To Coronavirus

In the third episode, Steven talks to Benny Luo, the founder and CEO of NextShark, about the surge of racism against Asian Americans. He said despite growing up one of the only Asians in his school and being attacked for it, he has never seen so many Asian Americans being attacked in his life before.

From the description: NextShark is “one of the leading sources of global Asian and Asian American news”.

Benny Luo talked about the cases of racism against Asian Americans rising and that him and his team work the hardest they have ever worked in the history of the company to be able to report the stories.

He also talked about the impact of being confronted with those stories regularly - that it is psychologically draining but that his team feels a responsibility to do this work and that he is proud of his team.

Benny Luo told about someone writing to the team about the momentous moments happening for Asian Americans in the past years - and how it felt like it all came tumbling down. He said it is hurtful but that he also hopes it will be a time in history where the entire Asian community will come together.

But he also highlighted the good - there are people doing important work, in the medical field and in other fields, and it is important to be proactive - and these stories should be covered too.

Steven called the conversation “enlightening and therapeutic”. Benny Luo said to Steven: “You’re a creator, you’ve been a representative for us, being an Asian face on a really really big platform and (...) you doing interviews like this with me and you speaking up, I mean, those things have a lot of impact so no matter what it is, I think that you’ve made a big contribution in helping advance us forward.”

Here is the NextShark website.

Episode 4: On Andrew Yang And How Proving Our "American-ness" Won't End Racism

The fourth episode deals with the controversial op-ed by Andrew Yang that advises Asian Americans to show their American-ness to combat racism. Steven said that he was hurt by his words but also by the way Andrew Yang was treated as a result.

In the episode, Steven talks to Taylor Weik, a Japanese-American writer who wrote an article in response to the op-ed. From the description: “Taylor shares more context on why Yang's call-to-action was dismissive to the history of Japanese-Americans and details the negative impacts of Yang's article on the Asian American community.“

In his reflection of the episode, Steven said he did not know how to feel when the article came out - he did not agree with Andrew Yang and he thinks what he said was harmful but people also dismissed all of Andrew Yang’s previous accomplishments. Steven said he can understand the outrage. He said that he thinks that Andrew Yang can learn and that they can grow as a community.

It was clear that this was a difficult topic for Steven but he did his best to have a balanced and fair conversation and to not condemn.

Episode 5: Why American Healthcare Workers Aren’t Safe From The Pandemic

In the fifth episode, Dr. Shuhan He, an emergency doctor and the co-founder of GetUsPPE.org, talks with Steven about the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers.

They had a conversation about what exactly PPE is and why it was so hard to get. They not only talked about the importance of PPE in hospitals but also in nursing homes. Another topic was the importance of wearing masks.

Steven said: “A lot of people are grieving and (...) I’ve been feeling a lot of pent-up sadness and I don’t know how to channel the energy.” He asked how people can help.

Here is the link to Dr Shuhan He’s organisation GetUsPPE. Once again Steven mentioned people coming together and doing good.

Episode 6: Should Churches Gather During a Pandemic?

The sixth episode is very personal to Steven - his Christian faith is the most important thing in his life. He talks to Pastor Drew Hyun, pastor and leader of Hope Church Midtown in New York City. Steven attended Hope Church when he was still in New York.

They talked about churches gathering - Pastor Hyun’s churches are meeting remotely. He said that people were missing connectivity and that’s why they decided to make services interactive and using Zoom instead of having live streams. They also switched their style of services to a style that would allow more interaction.

Pastor Hyun said what makes the situation so painful is that people share the collective grief but are still physically isolated. Steven asked how people are doing spiritually - Pastor Hyun said there was a hunger, and that people are starting to think about faith and life and God.

He said they would not be gathering because they want to be a loving community - a loving community would serve the vulnerable, deliver food to the elderly, raise money for small businesses, serve non-profits. He wanted to lean into love and generosity.

Steven talked about the challenges with his own faith - why would God allow such a devestating thing? He said he can at least channel all the energy of grief, and that giving back has been therapeutic for him. He also mentioned that churches are now more accessible than ever.

They talked about some churches not being willing to stop gathering in person - Pastor Hyun said it is a grief to him and that the most loving thing that churches can do is not to gather.

Again, the end of the episode got emotional - Steven asked how Pastor Hyun personally was doing and he told about how he tried to support the restaurant of a friend and walked out of it crying. He said it would be easy for him to fall into despair and cynicism - but that he clings to the thought that God will do something. He talked about people suffering and how hard it is to watch - and that the situation is challenging.

Steven said he would keep him in his prayers. Pastor Hyun said: “Thanks for what you’re doing and I think it’s beautiful - you’re telling the stories of pockets of light in the midst of what’s happening.”

In his reflection, Steven said that he had been struggling with the situation every day but where he can find joy and peace and confidence is God and the belief that God has a plan for him.

A few closing thoughts: I admire Steven’s dedication. I think this quote from the end of episode 3 sums it up: “I spend my evenings editing this, it’s not part of our overall business plan and probably, you know, we’re losing money from it. It’s not supposed to be my priority. But I’ve been given the green light by my co-founders, by my head of development to continue making this show.”

That’s incredible hard work right there. And it deserves to be recognized.

The podcast was created in the early stages of the pandemic. I don’t know how the people who shared their stories are doing now, about a year later. I would love to have some updates - I thought about doing some research myself and create sort of a follow-up but, again, I don’t know if I am the right person to do it.

To conclude this already too lengthy post, I want to return to the main themes that could be found in all episodes: Coming together, helping each other, creating support, being kind, channeling negative emotions into positive actions, making positive changes.

That’s what Steven is doing with this podcast and with the rest of his work, and it is very very impressive, commendable and inspirational.

[noa-nightingale]

Steven Lim Appreciation Week: Celebrating Steven’s Commitment

✨✨

Steven Lim Appreciation Week continues! Today is free-for-all day and I want to take the opportunity to share some resources and projects Steven supports, is involved with or created - I want to highlight and celebrate his commitment to the things he believes in.

✨✨

1) Let’s start with Hidden Narratives! From the podcast’s description: “Steven Lim speaks with Asian American leaders across industries about how the coronavirus has impacted our community.” If you haven’t already, I highly encourage you to listen to it. It is a fantastic podcast.

2) He has a BLM carrd on his twitter; it’s worth looking into!

3) Hate Is A Virus. Here is the HATEISAVIRUS twitter and here is the instagram. And here is the description (from insta): “A community of mobilizers and amplifiers dedicated to dismantling racism and other forms of hate.”

4) Steven’s own youtube channel. It has tons of very interesting videos and I highly recommend it.

✨✨

And here are the links mentioned on Hidden Narratives:

GetUsPPE - a nonprofit organization dedicated to getting personal protective equipment to frontline workers.

NextShark - a news site providing global Asian and Asian American news.

The Sunday Family Dream Fund

✨✨

I think Steven’s work, both with Watcher and with projects outside of Watcher, is incredibly important and inspiring.

[noa-nightingale]

Steven Lim Appreciation Week, Watcher-era Steven: Homemade

I never had any real interest in food shows. When I started watching Worth It, it was unusual for me. I attributed it to the show just being that good, and a lot of that credit goes to Steven (although I like Andrew and Adam too). But it took me a while to realize how significant the changes it started in my life really were.

Those changes may have started with Worth It but Homemade really sealed it for me and Grocery Run contributed to them - first, I (very carefully) began thinking about cooking some Italian meals. I live in Germany but I have always been kinda-sorta proud of the Italian part of my family, despite feeling somewhat estranged from that part of my background.

Obviously, it is not a culture that makes an appearance in any of Steven’s Watcher shows - and yet the way he talks about and portraits food as a part of someone’s family traditions and cultural identity and as a way of coming together had a profound effect on me.

My experiments in the kitchen were short-lived; I still don’t have any real talent for it (I know how to put dried tomatoes in oil now though). But it did not stop there.

I started learning Italian again, after one failed attempt in the past.

I started collecting family stories, first from the Italian side of my family, then from the German one as well (and found out that there may be more to my ancestry than just German and Italian).

I recently bought a DNA kit - I don’t have any results yet but it will hopefully reveal more.

I even discovered more things about where my own spirituality/religious beliefs may carry me (although that process has started many many years ago, Steven definitely contributed to it in a small but important way).

And all of that I owe to Steven - Homemade almost singlehandedly was the catalyst for it (especially the Tamales episode and the Dumpling episode), and - to a lesser degree - also Worth It and Grocery Run (I was already well into the process when Dish Granted came out but let’s be honest, Dish Granted is also such a beautiful show - showing love to your friends through cooking, what’s not to love about that?).

I am sure this process is far from over. There are more stories to find, more recipes to try, more to learn about myself and my family, and one day I will (hopefully) speak fluent Italian.

When I started watching Steven’s food shows, I did not know what they would start in my life - it sneaked up on me, it was a gentle, quiet and soft beginning for something that would turn out a lot more meaningful than I could have ever anticipated.

But looking back, it all makes sense. It has been a wonderful journey and I am excited to continue it. I want to see where it will take me next.

Grazie mille, Steven! 💖🇮🇹

[waittip]

Steven Lim Appreciation Week - Day 2

Why we love Steven.

$1 Cookie Vs. $90 Cookie