i'm minh (pronounced like ming), she/he/it/ NOT they, i'm 20, from vietnam originally but i live in wales, uk. i'm half vietnamese and half central european. i'm disabled and chronically ill, i have limited energy and varying use of my legs. i also sometimes struggle with verbal and spoken communication.
heads up: i am not a fan of standardized or "correct" english, i talk with a dialect and don't plan on changing that, and i'm pretty dyslexic, so please don't expect perfect grammar or polite language :) i try to be direct so if i'm actually trying to offend (very unlikely) you'll know.
work wise i'm co-director of my mum's restaurant, i live hours away so mostly just help her out with last minute tech panics and graphic design, but i sometimes work there when i'm back visiting. i do various freelance odd jobs, at the minute mainly around queer/trans youth charities and research within europe. i'm hoping to gain my climbing instructor qualification when i can and i'd like to work as a coach. i'm very into accessibility and inclusion, that's mostly what keeps me going.
other than food i like most flavors of music (eg [bandcamp], [youtube] and [youtube]), climbing, being outdoors and hanging out with crows. i'm very interested in DIY wheelchair design (big up erik kondo! [open source wheelchairs]) and eventually i'll get around to actually building some for myself. i've started skateboarding (badly! with crutches) about a year ago, and WCMX which is like wheelchair BMX. both are difficult and scary but so much fun.
i've done a lot of different sports throughout my life and it's really interesting learning which skills and body parts work better with disability. using a wheelchair has definitely improved my balance and spacial awareness etc. that's a whoooole other rabbithole tho.
as i get more ill i've started making some art again, getting back into sewing, zine making, making music and stuff, but i struggle to sit still, hate feeling like i'm stuck inside, and i get agitated/distracted easily. so a bit of a challenge lol.
my mum is a vietnamese chef and i have family in many countries, so i grew up with a lot of different cooking styles around me. i think a lot of it just kinda absorbed into my brain, same with language (i've lost a fair amount but nowadays i speak good spanish, and bits and pieces of welsh, vietnamese, british sign language, french/german/italian/etc).
i was really really picky as a kid so nowadays i try to eat a more varied diet and there's only a handful of veg i struggle with.
i obviously love vietnamese food a lot, and southeast/east asian food more generally. most of what i make isn't specific regional dishes, more fusion food i suppose, like my mum does. i am also trying to connect more with my european heritage, and i really like hungarian, polish and german food. i'm yet to come across a cuisine i dislike though. arabic food hits the SPOT. etc. i travel a fair amount but it's difficult to find much ethnic food where i live.
currently some of my favourite foods are: phở (vietnamese aromatic broth with rice noodles, beef is best imo and i will always prefer traditional northern style), jerk chicken, paella, bún chả (northern vietnamese grilled pork with cold rice noodles and toppings), typically primary filling is grilled meat or cold cuts), . i change my mind pretty often. udon is up there too and pretty much anything with rice. also italian and spanish food, dios mio... ligurian pasta... (liguria is where genova/genoa is located in northwest italy, think pesto alla genovese but theres so much more to it than that, fucking magical)
i spend a lot of my time cooking, especially more so recently as i become more housebound. i'm very lucky to have a dishwasher and a gas stove, it saves a lot of energy, but my kitchen isn't accessible sadly. i really love to cook for my friends and share food, and sometimes i cook together with people but i kinda prefer to cook by myself. i can get really intensely focused and irritable when i try to share a kitchen.
this is what i actually look like:
for those who know me or if you want to get in touch, my public instagram is @paracli.minh and my discord is @crowboygirl (messages are fine but i don't accept friend requests from strangers). anyone can contact me via email: minh@anche.no :)