Asian dog-eating stereotype persists in US, but Lao & Thai restaurant wants to ‘open minds’ to new foods
- In 2023, David Rasavong was forced to close his restaurant over a baseless accusation grounded in a racist stereotype about Asian food using dog meat
- But, after several months, Love & Thai in Fresno, California, has reopened with a new outlook and cultural pride is evident throughout
David Rasavong’s cultural pride is evident all throughout his restaurant.
It is on the wall of family portraits and where a stunning mural depicts his family’s journey from Laos to California. It is on the menu filled with Lao and Thai dishes such as the crispy coconut rice salad of Nam Khao and the stir-fried rice noodles of Pad See Ew.
And it is in the fact that Love & Thai restaurant in Fresno, California is open at all. A baseless accusation grounded in a racist stereotype about Asian food using dog meat brought a six-month barrage of harassment so heated that Rasavong, 41, closed down its previous location over fears for his family’s safety.
His earlier restaurant had itself only been open for seven months when a so-called animal welfare crusader in May implied on social media that a pit bull dog tied up at an unconnected home next door was going to be served on the menu.
A day after the initial commentary, vitriolic statements, voicemails and calls rained down. Rasavong’s body still tenses up when recounting, in particular, a call from an elderly woman.
“She was so disgusted by me and yelling and screaming, and the only thing I can remember hearing her say at the end was ‘Go back to the country you came from, you dog-eating mother-effer,’” Rasavong said.
Within days, he closed that restaurant because it no longer felt safe, between the harassment and people loitering in the car park outside business hours.