One of the best compliments Adam Sudmann has received about his food is that it’s weird.

“This couple just came in, tried the food, then got up and left,” Sudmann said. “That made me laugh.”

Sudmann is the founder of My Lucky Tummy, a pop-up food market that features dishes from around the world. A few times a year, the organization hosts a buffet-style community dinner where local cooks prepare their favorite foods from their home countries. My Lucky Tummy’s mission with events like these is not only to get people to try new cuisines, but also to facilitate conversation between community members of different backgrounds.

The next dinner is this Saturday, Jan. 27, at All Saints Parish Bishop Harrison Center on Lancaster Ave. It will feature food from Ethiopia, Iran, Laos, Vietnam and Savannah, Georgia.

Sudmann came up with the idea to share food among communities several years ago, after traveling to places with large, open-air markets like Morocco, Mexico and India. He originally planned to set up shop in Ithaca, but he couldn’t find the right people to cook what he was envisioning.

Sudmann found what he had been searching for when he was in Syracuse visiting his wife’s family and got lost on the city’s North Side.

“We saw a lot of people who were walking around who were from different places,” Sudmann said. “And we thought gosh, this is a talent pool. Maybe we should do something in Syracuse. Let’s explore it since I don’t know anybody.”

He started by going to different grocery stores and refugee resettlement agencies on the North Side, which has a large population of refugees, and inquired about good cooks in the neighborhood. Although many of his cooks are refugees, not all of them are. He wants the focus to be on people, food and culture, rather than singling out the refugee experience.

“Saying everyone here in this situation is a refugee just further siloes people,” Sudmann said. “So some people who attend the events have the idea that the people making and serving the food are always refugees, and I don’t like that idea. I like to blur those lines because I think that’s healthy.”

One of the cooks, who describes herself as ‘My Lucky Tummy’s biggest cheerleader,’ is Ngoc Huynh. Huynh grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska, which she said also has a significant refugee and immigrant population. She was disappointed at the lack of diverse food options when she came to Syracuse University to study broadcast journalism.

“When Adam started doing My Lucky Tummy, it was very exciting because we do have different types of cuisines and ethnic foods in Syracuse, but a lot of people don’t know about it,” Huynh said. “Part of the reason is because we don’t have a lot of different restaurants.”

After Huynh’s first time attending a My Lucky Tummy dinner, Sudmann approached her and asked if she knew any Vietnamese cooks in the area. Although she had never cooked for anything like this before, Huynh agreed to make a dish she’d recently seen her mother make. The dish, Vietnamese pork sausage with congee, is a traditional recipe that Huynh said isn’t served in many restaurants, except in areas with large Vietnamese populations.

It was exactly the kind of dish Sudmann was looking for.

Getting involved with My Lucky Tummy provided a bonding experience for Huynh and her mother. Huynh said she had always taken her mother’s cooking for granted, so she was glad to have this experience. She got to learn from her mom about traditional recipes and then share them with the community.

Sudmann values conversation about food and culture, which is why he decided to limit the number of tickets for the upcoming dinner to 300, rather than the 450 he’s done in the past. When there are too many people, he said it can get too hectic and takes away from the ability to connect with one another.

As of Jan. 21, this Saturday’s dinner is already sold out.

My Lucky Tummy will continue to host a few dinners each year, with the next one scheduled for April. But Sudmann’s ultimate goal is to have a brick-and-mortar restaurant that can serve as a gathering place for the community.

“My favorite part [of My Lucky Tummy] is all of the different foods,” Huynh said. “They’re not restaurant dishes. They’re very unique to their family and unique to how they grew up eating, and I think that’s pretty incredible to be a part of.”

Published on January 21, 2018 at 7:55 pm

Contact Caroline: cbarthol@syr.edu