{"id":8398,"date":"2020-08-02T06:48:07","date_gmt":"2020-08-02T10:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?p=8398"},"modified":"2020-08-02T20:30:19","modified_gmt":"2020-08-03T00:30:19","slug":"keeping-a-dream-alive-during-the-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?p=8398","title":{"rendered":"Keeping a Dream Alive During the Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a>Azalina Eusope cries every day. \u201cBut the food comforts me,\u201d said the 41-year-old chef and owner of\u00a0Azalina\u2019s<\/a>, a Malaysian restaurant business in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

\u201cTen years ago, my business started off in a survivor mode,\u201d Ms. Eusope said. \u201cI was selling food under a tent at the farmers\u2019 market. As a newly single mother, I needed income. I prepared the food, and at 4 o\u2019clock in the morning, with my kids sleeping in the car, brought it to the farmers\u2019 market and set up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fast-forward to March 15, when the\u00a0coronavirus quarantines hit<\/a>. \u201cNow I\u2019m back in survival mode,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Restaurants have been one of the hardest-hit businesses. A recent <\/span>report<\/a>\u00a0by McKinsey & Company predicted that of the more than 650,000 restaurants that were in business in 2019, about one in five \u2014 or more than 130,000 \u2014 will be permanently closed by next year.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Independents, like Azalina\u2019s, \u201cwill bear the brunt of the closures, both because of attributes that make most independents more vulnerable in this pandemic (minimal off-premise presence, limited digital capabilities, low emphasis on value-based menu items) and because of their unfavorable economics (thin margins and poor access to capital),\u201d according to the report. \u201cIndependents\u2019 share of U.S. restaurant locations could fall from 53 percent in 2019 to 43 percent in 2021.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read on The New York Times<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is devastating,\u201d said Bonnie Riggs, a researcher and former restaurant industry analyst for The NPD Group\u2019s food-service division. \u201cIn all my 40-plus years of reporting, we have never experienced anything like this, and no one knows what the impact will be on consumers and the consumer mind-set.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Azalina Eusope; photo courtesy of web-site<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ms. Eusope is a fifth-generation street vendor. She grew up on Penang Island off the coast of Malaysia and moved to San Francisco with her then-husband in 2001. \u201cI was so far from my family, and I didn\u2019t speak English very well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

So she turned to her childhood mamak cuisine, a style from Muslim Indians, for solace. Her version of the style\u2019s dishes includes laksa, a lemongrass curry noodle soup; hokkien mee, made with turmeric noodles and vegetables, a variety of curries served with coconut rice; and ayam masak merah, simmered chicken with green tomato chutney.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n