Immigrants Heritage Pointless Prize

[Serdar]

Immigrants Heritage Pointless Prize recognizes immigrants' remarkable achievements and contributions in the United State's development because the US has always been a nation of immigrants.

Ride for at least two miles to find any sign of immigrants' heritage. Your findings can be art pieces, restaurants, bakeries, or other services run by immigrants. Take a photo of your bicycle (or part of it) in front of your finding, and post on your Strava feed with the hashtag #ImHer. Posting on the forum is optional, but I will highly appreciate a brief post with a story and photo of that place for the educational purposes of other forum members.

Prizes:

I will award three cyclists who make the most #ImHer submissions. The first-place prize is one of the books by Isabel Allende - a writer who immigrated to Spain from Chile. The second-place prize is merchandise from Abyssinia Market & Coffee House. Stay tuned for a third-place prize. And keep submitting your discoveries. I am happy to use them as ideas for prizes.

Leaderboard(s):

You can see the leaderboard here. But this leaderboard with extra points will have an upper hand at the end of this pointless yet meaningful competition. If there's a tie, the tiebreaker will be who rode the most miles for this prize. Ride on!

[komorebi]

Great idea! I'm looking forward to highlighting some of my favorite immigrant-owned businesses and hopefully discovering some new favorites.

[Kbikeva]

Serdar, I just saw this today after I did my inaugural FS ride. I'll start it tomorrow.

However, I have to say that in El Paso, I'm not sure who the immigrants are! There are people who come and go across the border daily, with loads of family on both sides who have been in this area for generations. In the 1920's there were a number of Lebanese immigrants to the area so there are some prominent families with Arabic-sounding names, but again, now they've been here generations. I recently visited a lovely bakery specializing in Mexican pastries. Most of the signs were in Spanish and people were coming in and out carrying big cooking pots. It turns out people were stopping by to pick up their Sunday morning "Menudo" -- a dish that uses tripe and is supposed to be an excellent hangover cure. In Northern Virginia, that business would probably be classified as "immigrant", but here it is just one more piece of local culture!

At any rate, thank you for offering this opportunity to use my eyes to see the influence of immigrants around me!

[komorebi]

Here's my bike picking up dinner at Peter Chang's in Arlington:



The Washington Post ran a profile of Peter Chang in 2015, describing how a boy who once earned less than 10 cents a day pulling weeds in China ended up building a restaurant empire in America: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifes...b0f_story.html.

[Serdar]

Serdar, I just saw this today after I did my inaugural FS ride. I'll start it tomorrow.

However, I have to say that in El Paso, I'm not sure who the immigrants are! There are people who come and go across the border daily, with loads of family on both sides who have been in this area for generations. In the 1920's there were a number of Lebanese immigrants to the area so there are some prominent families with Arabic-sounding names, but again, now they've been here generations. I recently visited a lovely bakery specializing in Mexican pastries. Most of the signs were in Spanish and people were coming in and out carrying big cooking pots. It turns out people were stopping by to pick up their Sunday morning "Menudo" -- a dish that uses tripe and is supposed to be an excellent hangover cure. In Northern Virginia, that business would probably be classified as "immigrant", but here it is just one more piece of local culture!

At any rate, thank you for offering this opportunity to use my eyes to see the influence of immigrants around me!

Kelley, thank you for the great question. I will accept all these people you described as immigrants. Whether they have been in the US for a long time or stayed for a shorter time, I consider them contributing to the United State's development. Thanks again for asking, and I will look forward to your submissions from El Paso.

[Serdar]

Here's my bike picking up dinner at Peter Chang's in Arlington:



The Washington Post ran a profile of Peter Chang in 2015, describing how a boy who once earned less than 10 cents a day pulling weeds in China ended up building a restaurant empire in America: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifes...b0f_story.html.

Thank you for your photo and a short story! #ImHer leaderboard can be seen here.

[bikedavid]

Riding by Dukem, one of the many Ethiopian restaurants in DC. DC has the largest Ethiopian community outside of Ethiopia and perhaps its greatest contribution has been introducing everyone to Ethiopian cuisine including injera the spongy bread. Dukem has been here for as long as I can remember and, being open late, a great alternative to jumbo slice.

[Serdar]

Riding by Dukem, one of the many Ethiopian restaurants in DC. DC has the largest Ethiopian community outside of Ethiopia and perhaps its greatest contribution has been introducing everyone to Ethiopian cuisine including injera the spongy bread. Dukem has been here for as long as I can remember and, being open late, a great alternative to jumbo slice.

Thank you for your submission, David! I love Ethiopian food and especially injera. I tried it first time from a food truck near the State Department building back in 2013.

[CBGanimal]

Not sure you’ll take immigrant heritage from another country?

Went to visit my favorite Asian place and the owners are super nice!



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[camiller]

This Korean church and school is located on Shirley Gate Road in Fairfax.