Name: Annabelle Loi
What you do: Actor
Food rule you had when you were a kid: None.
What are you working on right now: Documentary featuring Chinese Canadians and the effects of modern-day racism
Day in the life: I eat whenever I’m hungry, which is all the time. I usually have no breakfast; I wake up super late. Dinner is the biggest meal of the day. I also have a habit of eating super late at night (3am or 4am).
Annabelle and I became friends when I moved to Toronto. Coincidentally, we both move from Vancouver and had a love for eating and trying new foods. However, as Annabelle tells me, she knew we would click when she picked me out of a crowd at a party because I was wearing pants, not a dress, like her. This was a particular club-going crowd. I suppose I was oblivious to what the social situation required! But Annabelle, a fashion communications graduate and actor, is very sharp in picking up social cues. This has also led her to her work in exploring what it means to be Chinese in Canada and Chinese representation in media. Find out more about Annabelle on her site and especially her thesis work, The Art of Being Yellow.
When Annabelle and I are together, we are usually at a restaurant. We’ve never made food for each other. I was very excited when she agreed to invite me over and cook something for this project, more so, when she told me she was going to make shakshuka from scratch.
Before this meal I was feeling lightheaded, so Annabelle made me some Fruit Loops and milk. Honestly, I was expecting her recipe to be more like this. What this shakshuka recipe does reveal is her value of quality foods, understanding different cultures and growing up in a country that was not her parents’. Not everything is Fruit Loops.
Shakshuka
Makes 4
Ingredients: 
- 1 onion
- 1 yellow pepper
- ½ pack of bacon
- 1 container of mushrooms
- ½ head of garlic
- 2 jalapenos
- 4-5 large tomatoes
- Spices (red chili, cumin, Italian spices, paprika, pepper)
- 2 teaspoons of pasta sauce (Ragu)
- 4 eggs (1 per person)
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- 2 pieces of toast
(This recipe was based on a general recipe Annabelle found online and updated with what she had in her fridge).
Steps:
- Cook bacon in a pan. When bacon is cooked to desired crispness, lay the bacon on paper towels. Annabelle’s seem to be of the chewy type.
- Prep your veggies! Dice onions, yellow peppers, jalapeños, tomatoes, mince garlic and slice mushrooms.
- Add onions and garlic in pan. Add olive oil and heat on medium heat.
- Add all over vegetables after about 3 minutes.
- Add spices (a few shakes of each).
- Continuously stir and let it stew for about 20 minutes.
- Crack 2 eggs (or one per person) on top of the shakshuka.
- Cover the pan for a few minutes until the desired hardness of the eggs.
- Turn off heat.
- Serve in a bowl with 1 egg and a piece of toast each.
- Add bacon if you are blasphemous.
What are we making today?
We are making my version of shakshuka.
For all the time I’ve known you, I’ve never seen you cook. We usually meet up for dinner at a restaurant. Why did you choose to pick this dish?
It’s probably one of the easiest dishes to make, relatively healthy since most of the other things I make are instant noodles or I eat raw because I can’t cook. This is one of the things I can make, not well, but it is one of my staples.
What do you mean when you say raw?
Salads. Salads and salads. Or zucchini spaghetti with tomatoes and guacamole. I eat healthy at home because I can’t cook and eat out at restaurants all the time.
Would you describe yourself as a foodie?
I hate using the term, but by all definitions, yes. Someone who enjoys food and ventures out to try different foods. I enjoy good food. I won’t eat shit food. I only eat shit food to satisfy my very basic need of having food in my stomach. I like eating out and eating well.
What is it about dining out that you enjoy so much?
I really enjoy being able to try foods I wouldn’t be able to make and cook. I wouldn’t be able to get some foods to the quality that some restaurants can provide. I travel to eat as well. I used to travel quite a bit when I could afford it. I would never know how to prepare an artichoke or a poached egg very well.
I’ve taken cooking classes before and I’m just not up to par. I have limited abilities when it comes to cooking. So, eating out is my way of getting quality food, plus, as a kid, I enjoyed going out to those Chinese restaurants and having fancy food. I got that from my dad; we like to try weird shit.
My parents never taught me how to cook. As a result, I don’t know how to make this shit and would really like to.
I was talking to another friend and her parents didn’t teach her how to cook. My parents didn’t teach me how to cook much.
Yes, I think I would be different if I cooked from an early age and rely on other people to do it for me.
Did your parents cook at home?
My mom does. My dad sometimes does when he is here. My mom is technically retired and she cooks or my grandma cooks.
How we eat now is different from our parent’s. They would rarely go out to eat. It was considered a waste of money. Cooking is almost a lost skill when our parents’ generation moved to Canada.
They didn’t have to teach us or had the time. They had to work two times harder in a new country and had less time to teach us. They didn’t even teach us how to clean. We would clean, but not do a good job. Partially they also moved here, so we could have a better life and not have to do that.
What was your most memorable dining experience?
I was by myself in Paris. I was walking around and got lost. I found a little cafe. I had steak tartare and a cocktail. It was amazing.
We go out to eat a lot. Sometimes we’ll have hardy pho and sometimes fine dining. When do you have a craving for one and one for the other? Or is it the same craving?
It’s the same craving. It really depends on who I am eating with, like how I wouldn’t call some people for certain things. Sometimes you’re my designated fancy food friend or only vegan stuff friend. I have some vegan friends who won’t go out with me unless I go to a vegan restaurant.
I don’t have cravings for “high-end food”, but will have cravings for shitty food, but that’s generally because I’m feeling down and just want to have shitty food to match how shitty I feel on the inside. When I say shitty food, I mean McDonald’s.
What is a meal you could have over and over again?
Viet food or sushi. The food I order is generally “healthier.” Also, I avoid milk, not because I’m lactose, but I don’t feel good after.
You studied fashion and social media. Do you see any food inspiration in your work there?
Social media, absolutely. I would love to work in food in social media, but I feel I don’t know enough. Because I am a foodie doesn’t mean I’m qualified.
Food has never influenced my fashion choices, other than planning events for fashion, or other event planning.
I feel food and fashion are moving is similar streamlines. The trends in each are pretty similar (sustainability, ethics).
There is a connection between food and drinks though. There are a few brands, like Bacardi, that hire fashion ambassadors or people who used to head fashion houses to help their brands, because there is a connection with drinking.
They are both very social industries.
You do a lot of work in identity. Like fashion, do you think food can define a person?
Yes, food definitely defines a person. You are what you eat. Your food choices and how you eat your food is telling of who you are. I have a friend who will only eat chicken nuggets and shows how stubborn he is. Choices you make in food can be reflected in choices you make in life.
You recently went to a food commercial audition and you had to act with an empty bowl. What is it like working with food (or lack of food) on camera or in auditions?
It was so weird. Any audition that requires me to mime is weird. I’m not a mimer, I’m an actor. I want my props. Most auditions won’t require you to mime, but most commercial auditions will. Commercial acting is a whole thing in itself. No actor likes it. It’s soul-sucking. You don’t even need to be trained to do commercial work, but it pays well.
What city do you think is the best for dining? What do you think a city needs for good dining and become a hub for food?
Personally, Vancouver. It is near fresh seafood and it is diverse that it has genuinely authentic cultures and restaurants. When I want Greek food, I can get Greek food. Toronto is different, it’s still great, but there are more fusion restaurants than Vancouver. I like that authentic touch, where there is focus on one region.
Do you think that fusion food is not speaking true to the cultures or is not done well in Toronto?
Fusion food is done really well in Toronto because you have people that are second, third generation who are starting up these restaurants or collaborating with others to make something with a twist. They also come from a place where they are both Western and Ethnic, so you have this fusion in their personalities and the way that they cook. Vancouver is more of an immigrant city. It’s becoming more fusion, but right now it’s pretty much authentic.
I travel to eat because I like authenticity. I feel every time you have fusion, you lose a little more of that culture and flavour. When you cook a Mexican dish you had in Mexico here, it will be different. The vegetables will taste different, like how the fruits in China don’t taste the same.
At what point does something become not authentic?
I think the way it is cooked determines if it’s authentic, but I understand there are variations. When you are adding things that aren’t supposed to be there, you’re stepping into fusion.
But there are also a lot of cultural influences on food. Korean food has a mix of Chinese and Japanese, which is why their food is the way they are. It’s hard to say what is and what isn’t.
What is Canadian food?
Canadian food is hard to say as well. Being Canadian is being from somewhere else. There are certain things that we have developed as a country that is unique. There is no traditional dish.
Shakshuka is a Jewish/Middle Eastern dish. What’s with the bacon?
Is it Jewish? The first time I had it was at this place where they had different types of shakshuka, with beef, pork. It was a Middle Eastern place that had a mix of everything. In my head, you can add whatever you want!
Is this fusion?
This is me…trying to cook. I’m not a cook. This isn’t fusion. This is me trying my best with what I got.
Are there any foods you won’t eat?
No, but there are foods I’m not partial too. If it goes well and is cooked well, I‘ll eat it.
I go in cycles.
What do you think is influencing people’s food decisions now?
They are more aware of the impact on the environment and their bodies. People are more conscious of what they eat and where they buy from.
And yourself, is there anything you would like to change?
I would love to be able to cook. It hasn’t improved in the last four years and I don’t think it will. I wish I could cook at home. It would save a lot more money. Or I wish I made more money, so I could eat out more than I do right now.