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Coming to America, a modern retelling: Simone Tong

(Published on The Guardian 3/22/2018) The immigration journey of Simone Tong, owner of Little Tong Noodle Shop

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The immigration journey of Simone Tong, owner of Little Tong Noodle Shop

Simone Tong’s immigration story from Chinese origins wasn’t full of hardship. But it was full of grueling 16-hour days learning to be a chef in New York City. She’d traveled and lived in some of Asia’s biggest cities, but it was New York that struck her as home.

She decided not only to stay and build her own restaurant, but to create something with the essence of her homeland to share with her new home: a rice noodle shop named after her family – which shares a name with China’s revered Tang dynasty.

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Everything seemed so large.

Toilets are huge, everything’s huge.

Yellow Cabs.

The steam coming through.

Wow.

What a long journey in life. I was born in Chengdu, which, uh, is the capital of Sichuan Province, known for spicy food, panda, bamboos.

And then I moved around, because my parents moved around.

I'm watching NHL, NFL, NBA. The music, the movies, "Sex and the City," "Felicity," "Friends."

It’s exciting. That's where I learned my English. I try to, like, find a way to get to U.S..

[Speaking Mandarin]

Ok. Thank you.

I was traveling around the world. Tasting all the good food. And then I had this like epiphany.

Well there’s a story behind it, but basically, in summary, I had the epiphany I want to be a chef.

I've lived, and traveled, and studied in a lot of places in my life.

Oh, that’s the best.

It felt like I'm a foreigner everywhere I go.

But the minute I landed in New York, I realize every people that walk passed by, I haven't seen a similar face, a similar race.

It makes sense to me.

That's when I instantly felt like, I'm a citizen of New York, so I felt like home instantly.

I'm like, I'm gonna create something here. I’m gonna share with the people of New York.

Then we saw this mural that says, "Rise above."

And I'm like, wow, it's rise above, I'm gonna make rice noodles below. Rise above, rice below. So I'm like, "Let's take this space. We'll make it work."

In this country I actually learned to be confident that I'm different versus, oh, I need to be the same as, I need to be more conforming.

And that's why I'm happy with this country and in this city.

It is hard and challenging to survive here. New Yorkers are tough cookies

Not many people enjoy the challenge or the hard work, but I like it.

I think the longest distance in the world sometimes is what you envision and what the reality is. And the true beauty is when you actually seize it. It's different but it's very beautiful.

Um, hi. My name is Simone Tong. I’m the chef and owner of Little Tong Noodle shop here in East Village, New York City.

HSBC commissioned this article. The views and opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of HSBC.

The immigration journey of Simone Tong, owner of Little Tong Noodle Shop

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