Hollieats
Nutmeg Publishing spoke with its very own copy editor Hollianne Lao about Hollieats, her food column at UConn’s The Daily Campus, the University of Connecticut’s independent, student-run newspaper. Lao, an eighth-semester political science and human rights major, has written Hollieats for the Life section since fall 2020.
Nutmeg Publishing: What drove you to create the Hollieats column? Was it conceptualized as a sort of spiritual successor to Melissa’s Menu, or did you just want to write a food column?
Hollianne Lao: I actually had wanted to write a food column ever since I started writing for The Daily Campus in 2018. However, Melissa [Scrivani], our Associate Life Editor at the time, was writing Melissa’s Menu. I knew she would continue until she graduated, so instead, I wrote a book column during the 2019-2020 school year.
Melissa’s Menu was mainly recipes, but I wanted [my column] to cover anything related to food [because] I love talking about food. I do include recipes, but [reviews] are one of my favorite things to do, [in addition to] random thoughts on [different food-related topics]. I also like featuring different cultures’ foods. I’m just really inspired by the variety of media about food out there. There are documentary-like shows about food, food competitions, and then movies and shows that are centered around food like Chef and The Hundred Foot Journey, so that’s mostly where I wanted to go with my column.
NP: What were your goals in creating the column?
HL: [Hollieats] is a platform for me to discuss my outlook on food, to enrich and inform the student body, and support them in a different way than my usual Life articles. For example, I really enjoy featuring restaurants in Storrs and around campus because I like when my writing uplifts somebody, while still maintaining impartiality as a journalist.
Another goal was to use my platform to make the community more knowledgeable about different foods out there, especially because food is so important to me and my culture. I’ve been lucky enough to try different foods, but of course, there’s always more to learn and try.
People [also] know that I like food, and they often ask me about food: recommendations, suggestions, what I thought about a certain place, etc. So my column is pretty much a published version of what I would text or tell them.
NP: Were there any articles that were particularly challenging to write?
HL: I’m fully aware that when I’m passionate about something, I want to get as much as I can onto the page and get it right. I’m really passionate about diversity, inclusion, and representation . . . when I write for the Life section, I don’t get too many opportunities to explicitly discuss how I feel about certain topics because we’re meant to be unbiased reporters. But . . . I make sure to feature what I think is important, like cultural center events or social justice initiatives.
But how do I relate that to food? Most of the time, my pieces for Hollieats are pretty lighthearted — y’know, they’re about food — but there are at least two [that] I’ve written about diversity in dining. They were challenging to write because I have so many thoughts about diversity in the food industry, which includes the intersections of culture and gender. Last year, during Women’s History Month, I wrote about the gender gap in the dining industry, [inspired by] that paradox of saying “women belong in the kitchen,” but at the same time, women professionally working in the industry are neither as respected nor work in as many leadership positions. Or, they’re pigeonholed into working certain tasks or making certain foods.
[At the end of February 2022,] I wrote “Diversity in Dining, Part 2,” inspired by my visit to Brooklyn Dumpling Shop in Storrs Center. It [had just] opened, and my job was to cover the opening. Just review it. But I started writing [the review], and I had some thoughts about how [the owner] says it’s a dumpling shop, but the menu is just a bunch of, like, deli sandwiches stuffed into dumplings. That kind of rubbed me the wrong way, so I was going on and on about that in my review, and then I realized those thoughts weren’t super pertinent to my review. I do think it’s important to at least address in my review, but I don’t necessarily think [it’s] the best place to [write something in-depth about the issues with that].
I’m Chinese-Filipino, so how I felt about dumplings being so unrecognizable to me was a separate piece altogether. I ended up writing a long review and then a Hollieats entry about food appreciation and food appropriation. “Appropriation” sounds strong, but it manifests in different ways. I’m fully aware that there’s Americanized Chinese food, and that doesn’t necessarily offend me because people are aware that there’s more traditional Chinese food out there. But the fact that this place is calling itself “Brooklyn Dumpling Shop” and that [even the owner had said], “It’s not even a dumpling shop, it’s more like a deli shop,” [made me think], “Then don’t call them dumplings.”
That was a hard piece for me to write because I was trying to articulate how I felt, and I felt that I couldn’t do so properly [because I was so] passionate about it. When I combine my passion for food with my passion for more serious topics like social justice and diversity, it’s difficult to articulate how I feel.
NP: What was your favorite article to write?
HL: I’m really proud of the “Diversity in Dining” piece that came out [at the end of February]. [But] I wouldn’t say it was my favorite to write because it stressed me out.
[As for my favorite]: there’s this restaurant that my family and I have gone to a few times that we really like in Rhode Island called Matunuck Oyster Bar, and I have a really good experience every time I go. Writing a review was pretty fun because I got to reminisce about my experience and dream about going again. I also like this feature I did on the owner of Fresh Fork Café in Storrs Center because he’s a UConn alum — again, that kind of goes with [how] I enjoy writing features because I’m supporting someone in the community.
NP: Now, finally: you’re a senior. Would you want Hollieats continued in a new iteration after you graduate?
HL: I really hope so. There are so many people out there that are passionate about food, and I just hope that they put their own twist on it. It’s like how Melissa was also passionate about food, and she took the column in one way, [while I took it differently].
For me, personally, my goal is to start a food social media account when I graduate. I told myself not to do it now, or else I would get distracted, but I think that would be a fun way to continue what I like, whether I post on Yelp or on Instagram.
Photos by Elisabeth Helmin Written by Eileen Sholomicky“I’m fully aware that when I’m passionate about something, I want to get as much as I can onto the page and get it right.”