i'm minh (pronounced like ming), she/he/it/ NOT they, i'm 20, from vietnam originally but i live in cymru (wales). 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, when i was living in cymru i mostly did tech support (solving last minute sumup panics over the phone) and since moving back to live with her i work a few shifts per week. i really enjoy getting to talk to so many different people through this, and i have a lot of interesting conversations. once a week i have a space at a friend's recording studio where i teach guitar lessons and repair/restring instruments, and i'm going to learn to record and produce music so i can do that too. i also do some community activism and 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 belly and patties with cold rice noodles and salad), bánh mì (southern vietnamese baguette sandwiches) 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 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 live with my mum and have access to so many quality ingredients and cooking equipment, but our 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 (non business only please, see work page for that email) :)
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