People from all over Nashville gathered this weekend for a taste of the city’s international food scene. The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition hosted its InterNASHional Night Market this weekend, highlighting local restaurants from a wide range of backgrounds.
Ambriehl Crutchfield WPLN NewsTIRRC’s event welcomed over 15 international businesses including Haitian, Ethiopian, Thai and Indian. Event goers used tickets to choose what to eat.
Grace Tseng and her mother started their business in January of this year. Their take-out Taiwanese dumpling business, called Mama Yang & Daughter, was able to avoid the pitfalls that many restaurants encountered during the pandemic
Tseng says when they opened, “it (was) takeout only, curbside pickup … I think people, at the time, were already used to that, and for us, it actually helped a little bit.”
Ambriehl Crutchfield WPLN NewsGrace Tseng and her mother, Mama Yang, opened their business at the beginning of 2021. Since they sell dumplings at farmer’s markets and frozen dumplings they were able to thrive during the pandemic.
Ambriehl Crutchfield WPLN NewsHermitage residents Elizabeth Null and Melanie Walkers talk about taking family to enjoy Mama Yang & Daughter’s food.
She expected some demand for the dumplings she and her mother make, but Tseng says she’s been surprised and delighted by just how much support she’s gotten from the Nashville community.
Since opening in an incubator kitchen, they’ve expanded to selling frozen dumplings at local farmers markets. Tseng says, usually, her mom doesn’t stay for full events, since Tseng has more English fluency to work with customers of the two. But at the night market, Mama Yang herself worked long enough to watch with pride as every last bite of their Taiwanese basil chicken sold out.
Ambriehl Crutchfield WPLN NewsMama Yang & Daughter served up Taiwanese-style popcorn chicken, a shake up from their well known dumplings.
Restaurants of many other nationalities were represented at the event. Among them was Ethio Coffee House, owned by Yenenh Abebe and his wife. They started the business in 2013, and the family has kept it running ever since.
Ambriehl Crutchfield WPLN NewsYenenh Abebe owns Ethio Coffee House near the airport. He and his wife opened the spot eight years ago, and he says it’s been a joy to watch his hard work pay off as it has grown.
Abebe says he’s faced his fair share of struggles, including waiting a couple of years to get approval for his kitchen. But he is brimming with optimism and says that he has seen his hard work pay off. Even with the challenges brought on by the last year and a half, he says he’s seen his business grow. In the future, he hopes to be able to expand the coffeehouse and make enough in revenue that he can give back through philanthropy.
More than a dozen other restaurants were featured in the sold-out InterNASHional Night Market, as well as musical performances from local cultural organizations. TIRRC says the event is one of their largest fundraisers.
Ambriehl Crutchfield WPLN News20-year-old Gustavo Flores has been performing for a year and has taken the stage at the Ryman auditorium and frequently performs at Plaza Mariachi.
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