Food from different cultures featured at the USU farmers market

Dozens of Utah State University students line up outside food vendors at the USU Farmer’s Market, but this time, it’s not just soap, jewelry and chocolate who have captured the students’ interests — it’s also the freshly cooked potstickers, steamed buns, chicken shawarma and falafels which now decorate the market’s landscape.

At the start of the fall semester, Anna Tao’s Chinese food and the Alharbi’s Arab-themed food appeared at the market, providing students with a taste of authentic food from different areas of the world.

Having moved to United States from China 30 years prior, Tao was homesick for authentic Chinese food since many of the traditional Chinese dishes — such as steamed buns, or baozi — were scarce in Cache Valley.

This summer, Tao began cooking food at the Cache Valley Gardener’s Market when she found that, “My food can help make some money, because here (it) is very hard to find food like that.”

To continue expanding her business, she asked Mitch Peterson, a business programs coordinator with the nonprofit Cache Refugee and Immigrant Connection, or CRIC, for any extra markets where she could work. After receiving a recommendation to the USU market, she moved her business to cook for students at the start of fall semester.

“The people here are very kind and nice, more than other states,” Tao said, adding that Peterson and CRIC have especially been helpful.

Founded in 2014, CRIC works to provide immigrants and newcomers in the valley with resources, such as driver’s license training, citizenship tutoring, money management, business applications and resettlement programs, according to Peterson.

Tao isn’t the only individual the nonprofit has assisted. Just this past year, the Alharbi’s started their own business under Peterson’s aid.

Originally from Kuwait, the Alharbis moved to the U.S. for education, according to Shouq Alharbi, the family’s 17-year-old assistant with the food vendor business. But in November 2022 when Hammad Alharbi, Shouq’s father, began to have severe hearing loss, his working prospects diminished.

“He really loves cooking, so he taught me how to cook, and I liked it too. I would help him too because of his hearing loss; I would help him like clean, cut vegetables and other things as well,” Shouq said. “And then he just gave me the idea that he wanted to open like a restaurant or even a food truck by chance, so we had the opportunity to look at the Gardener’s Market in Logan.”

However, getting a spot in the market proved to be difficult until Peterson provided them an opportunity to cook at one of the CRIC’s sponsored markets.

The entire family — including Hammad’s wife, Darin; and Shouq’s siblings Shonouku and Sari — would cook to create dishes like chicken and beef shawarma, mashkhool rice, falafel, tabbouleh and baklava.

After their successful venture at the nonprofit’s market, the Alharbi’s applied again to cook at the Cache Valley Gardener’s Market. They received an opening and began working throughout the summer.

With the experience of vending under their belts, the Alharbis decided to apply to work at the USU Farmer’s Market after receiving a work advertisement for it via email. They were accepted into the market shortly after.

In addition to giving connections and helping Tao and the Alharbis find a spot in the local markets, Peterson used his trailer to haul pots, pans, tables, canopies, cooking equipment and any other materials they may need.

“Ultimately, we want people to have stability, and this is one way that they are getting it for themselves. We want them to have economic and financial stability and familial stability and housing stability and educational stability,” Peterson said. “This is just one small thing we can do to help them get that and hopefully continue to grow.”

Nelda Ault-Dyslin, the founder of CRIC, said  having the nonprofit network with the small businesses will help financially and socially establish the families in the valley.

“I think small businesses are a great way to showcase how much immigrants, refugees, whoever, how much they do know, because they have all this experience and knowledge and how to make food and how to make it really good and all those things. It’s just how to implement it in a new context, and that’s what CRIC helps with,” Ault-Dyslin said.

The Alharbis and Tao aren’t planning to stop at the local markets — Shouq Alharbi mentioned she and her family are hoping to one day either open a food truck or even a restaurant, and Tao added she’s thinking about adding an online delivery service.

“They’ve got big ideas for what they want to do with food in the valley, and there’s a lot of momentum and enthusiasm for different international food right now,” Peterson said. “It’ll be really wonderful to see where this goes.”

Shouq said the expansion of her family’s business would especially help expose Logan residents to food they may have never tried before, helping them to understand other cultures and her family’s background.   

“In Logan, I think that if we bring more of our own cultures like Asian, Hispanic food, and more Middle Eastern, I think that it will make Logan more diverse than it is now,” Shouq said.  

According to Ault-Dyslin, the Logan audience will continue to be receptive to new cultures and foods, especially in farmer’s market settings.   

“The farmer’s market audience, whether it’s the campus one or the downtown — that audience is receptive to trying something new, and they’re excited by things that are new,” Ault-Dyslin said. “That’s why these opportunities in those settings are a great stepping stone.” 

Peterson also said exposure to the different foods has helped him and his kids learn and appreciate other culture’s stories and histories.  

“The more I’m exposed to, the more I understand, the more I’m willing to explore, the more I’m willing to be curious or ask questions or think through things,” Peterson said.  

One word to describe the experience of being involved with the Alharbis and Tao was “sonder,” Peterson said, a word included in John Koenig’s Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.  

Sonder, Peterson said, details the feeling of knowing that each life is as complicated as one’s own.   

“You go to the USU Farmer’s Market and see other people living a complicated life and having the wins and the losses, and having the struggles and the successes and showing up when they don’t feel like it,” Peterson said. “We realize people’s lives are complicated, and they’ve gone through more than we ever will … and maybe I can reframe my own life and my own challenges a little bit more.”