Food: Asian Fusion Tapas at Rabbit House, NYC

By Katya Kazbek|August 30th, 2019|Country: Japan, USA|

Japanese chef blends traditional izakaya fare with Mexican antojitos and a handpicked wine-list in a tiny Lower East Side spot that will soon move into a bigger location

Film: A First Farewell, dir. Lina Wang, 2018

By Katya Kazbek|August 27th, 2019|Country: China, Uyghur Nation|

Two small children growing up in an Uyghur village in China come of age amidst the eradication of their culture: a tender, stunning feature and an ode to her heritage from an Uyghur writer/director

Art: Mrinalini Mukherjee, Adi Pushp II, 1999

By Katya Kazbek|August 21st, 2019|Country: India|

Met Breuer holds the first US retrospective of the late Indian sculptor who created a cosmos out of hemp fiber: organic and abstract shapes mesmerize with their beauty and the labor behind them

Film: Song Lang, dir. Leon Le, 2018

By Katya Kazbek|August 14th, 2019|Country: Vietnam|

A gay love story between a gangster and a cải lương singer set in the 1980s Saigon: a stunning, enlightening and effortlessly cool debut feature with necessary Asian queer couple representation

Food: Ema Datshi and Suja at Weekender Billiards, Restaurant & Bar, INC.

By Katya Kazbek|August 13th, 2019|Country: Bhutan|

Bhutanese cheese smothered chilies and butter tea in a billiard club in Queens: a surreal and satisfying experience of a cuisine that deserves to be more popular

Film: Complicity, dir. Kei Chikaura, 2018

By Katya Kazbek|July 30th, 2019|Country: China, Japan|

A nuanced, deeply original take on the toll that immigration takes on individuals, centered around an undocumented Chinese migrant in Japan who starts working in a soba shop under a stolen identity

Film: Red Amnesia, dir. Xiaoshuai Wang, 2014

By Katya Kazbek|July 27th, 2019|Country: China|

Dark secrets that nice people hold are the most horrifying thing in the world, as director of "Beijing Bicycle" portrays in his moody thriller about the effects of the Cultural Revolution

Book: Akiyuki Nosaka, The Cake Tree in the Ruins, 1975

By Katya Kazbek|July 20th, 2019|Country: Japan|

A collection of sad and brutally honest short stories that give agency to casualties of WWII in Japan from the author of the story that became the basis for the "Grave of the fireflies" cartoon

Film: Screwdriver, dir. Bassam Jarbawi, 2018

By Katya Kazbek|July 18th, 2019|Country: Palestine, Qatar, USA|

A relentless study of PTSD through the eyes of a man who returns to Ramallah after 15 years in Israeli prison, which ultimately becomes a metaphor for Palestine's postcolonial future

Film: RocKabul, dir. Travis Beard, 2018

By Katya Kazbek|July 9th, 2019|Country: Afghanistan, Australia|

A dive into the underground rock scene of Afghanistan with a self-taught heavy metal band District Unknown at the forefront, made by the founder of Kabul’s first rock festival.