Today we’re interviewing Grace Huei Tan, Business Development Manager at Oatside, a plant-milk company. Grace also does projects with Malaysia coffee companies and marketing.
So Grace and I have been online penpals for years and I remember she reached out when I first started My Food Job Rocks, but I don’t remember why. Over time, we’ve worked on a few small things together such as a My Food Job Rocks article miniseries where I asked guest students to write their experience in food science from different countries. It’s so amazing to finally see her in person.
I really enjoyed this episode for a lot of reasons. Grace is exceptional at talking about what she loves to do and you’ll learn about her really a fun journey in the food industry as she has gone through being a celebrity from winning a food competition, to traveling around the world showing people Asian flavors, and now has landed in the marketing field.
What I also found insightful was Grace’s viewpoint on Malaysia and the food industry and how the country perceives education, careers, and health.
You’re also going to get a bit more of a deeper insight on Malaysian lifestyle. From the diverse groups that are here, to the delicious food Grace goes out of her way to go. I think what’s really impactful is a common thread is starting to bubble up with that a lot of talent leaks out of Malaysia into countries such as Singapore, Australaia, or the United States.
Grace also knows where all the good food is in Malaysia so make sure to get a notepad handy when you plan your trip to Malaysia!
What’s Up With Adam
So I get a lot of anxiety when my calendar is empty and my December was pretty lonely and boring. The majority was that I was at my parent’s house and everyone else was doing holiday stuff so I just started to find things to do online socially or in person socially.
This week? I have too many things to do and now I’m anxious over that!
Whenever I drive 30 minutes to somewhere, people always comment how far it is but whatever, I enjoy the drive and I enjoy meeting people.
Anyways, since this episode dives into Mayalsian culture a bit, I wanted to talk about my experience at the Jalan Ahor Malaysian night market that’s opened like 24/7. This night market was pretty much right next to my hotel and encompasses the whole street. I stumbled upon it my first night and I went there the 3 out of 4 days I was in Malaysia. It’s huge and bright and so cool. Lanterns are stretched between buildings, smoke enriches the sky and bring neon food buildings show some amazing food out there. There’s so many different things to try and I highly recommend it. Lots of food on sticks. What I also noticed was that there were a lot of tourists from Europe there and it was kind of the first time I’ve seen actual tourists perusing around.
Finally, at the end of the street, there is a row of foot massage buisneess with exposed chairs and a line of people in polos hunting down anyone they see offering a foot massage. Being a tourist, I got one and it was probably the best foot massage I received after a long month of traveling.
Enjoy this interview with Grace, we do this 5 hours after my interview with Sew at my hotel suite in Malaysia.
Useful Links
Culinology
Research Chef
New Orleans IFT
Phil Saneski
Taylor University
Family Mart
Durian
Pandan
Coconut Shake
Mr. Coconut
Malacca City
Nasi Lamak – Coconut Rice
Rose Water Bandung
Chiffon Cake – Bengawan Solo
Klang
Bak Kut Te – Malaysian style
Zihungun – tapioca noodles
Hokemi – similar to tapioca noodles
Penang
End of Episode
Probably not the right podcast to talk about this, but I do want to get off my chest some of my opinions regarding the Sam Bankman-Fried and the FTX scandal. I think there are some interesting lessons here for all young people. For those that don’t know about it, look it up for more juicy detail but basically, a 30 year old man had a cryptocurrency exchange company worth $25 billion dollars, was on the top of the world including on Forbes, had investors like Sequoia, and Blackrock under his thumb, and was on track to get the US government to approve cryptocurrency under his rules.
Unfortunately, Sam’s company collapsed and $8 billion dollars of investments from firms and individuals were completely wiped off the table. In a series of investigations and stuff (again, if you have time, it’s like a real-life drama unfolding before your eyes) SBF was sued and a lot of documents were made public.
One of them showed the lavish spending of FTX which includes $15.4 million spent on luxury hotels, $30 million spent on a Bahamas penthouse, and $2500 dollar lunches which what seemed like it was used to bribe local authorities. They spent $4 million dollars on private planes, which everyone knows are environmentally disastrous and it was used to purchase to ship packages for the company
Sam preached Effective Altrusim, a pragmatic view that takes data and finds the most effective way to give back to the world. In fact, a good chunk of food tech companies are motivated to create companies to use their products to impact humanity in a positive way so therefore, I have a lot of friends there and these people are very rational, thoughtful and frugal, though most do lack perspective because they generally come from wealthier families.
Anyways, Sam (who’s from a wealthy family) is a huge supporter of Effective Altruism and in general, has marketed himself as a billionaire that wears oversized shirts, and shorts, doesn’t shave or cut his hair, and drives a used Toyota Corolla.
I find this disgusting as someone who kinda knows what’s going on in the Effective Alturism, funding, and entrepreneurial space that someone who wanted to have this persona of being an everyday authentic philanthropist turned out to be so fake.
It’s a common case of money and power corrupting and clouding foresight. SBF is the same age as me and would I do the same? Yea probably. We sometimes make decisions “for the greater good” for things that don’t really matter and lose foresight on how destructive we can actually be to the world. Seen it multiple times, firsthand.
We never know people’s true intent unless it’s blasted all over the internet through a series of big mistakes. However, there are tons of folks with less money doing great work and most do things with good intentions.
Don’t let money corrupt your mission.