Sherry Cola Used To Hide Her Mom's Cooking. Now, It's Her Love Language.
Sherry Cola is beaming. But we're not at some glitzy Hollywood party — it's 9 a.m. at an old strip mall in San Gabriel Valley and she's giving me a tour of her family's beloved order-at-the-counter restaurant. She points out each dish with pride: curry chicken, crispy pork chop, spicy bamboo shoots, wok-fried peanuts, tofu skin meatballs, the list goes on. 'Every order comes with a milk tea and seaweed soup, on the house,' she adds with a smile. Cola said she used to work the counter after school, sometimes making the milk tea for the customers. But it wasn't always like this — the food, yes, but not the pride.
'I remember bringing dumplings with extra, extra chives [to school] and feeling embarrassed they smelled,' she says. 'Embarrassed that my parents had an accent. I'm ashamed I was ashamed. It was a testament to how hard they worked despite not knowing the language. They made something from nothing — and that is the American dream. Now, I get to carry on that legacy.'
These days, Sherry isn't behind the counter as often as she was in high school — and for good reason. She's busy filming the next season of Apple TV+'s Shrinking, Netflix's Nobody Wants This, and starring alongside Keanu Reeves in Good Fortune. But she still finds ways to show love for her roots — like bringing her mom as her date to red carpet premieres, including the recent Bride Hard premiere.
In this episode of Fam Style, Sherry and I sit down over plates of nostalgic Shanghainese comfort food to talk about family, cultural identity, coming out — and why the food she once hid is now her greatest source of pride.
Fam Style spotlights Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) changemakers across entertainment, food, art, and culture. Over shared meals at AAPI-owned restaurants, we sit down with creators, artists, and innovators to talk about identity, ambition, community, and the stories that shape us. Through intimate conversations and the language of food, we highlight the nuance, joy, and resilience within the AAPI experience — one dish at a time.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Korean actress and singer Lee Hye-Ri to visit Malaysia this August for 2025 fan meeting tour
KUALA LUMPUR, June 27 — Korean actress and singer Lee Hye-Ri, better known as Hyeri, will be in Malaysia for her '2025 HYERI FANMEETING TOUR - Welcome to HYERI's STUDIO' on August 17 at Zepp Kuala Lumpur. The tour, which has already made stops in Korea, Japan, and Macau, will mark Hyeri's first-ever fan meeting in Malaysia. It offers fans a rare opportunity to meet her in person rather than through a screen. The year 2025 is a significant milestone for Hyeri as she celebrates the 15th anniversary of her debut. She recently starred in the hit Netflix K-drama Friendly Rivalry, playing the role of Yoo Jae-yi, a genius high school student, breaking away from her usual sweet image. Her performance captivated audiences worldwide, earning praise for her powerful and compelling portrayal of the character. Hyeri's popularity continues to soar, with her Instagram following now surpassing 10 million—further cementing her growing global influence, including in Malaysia. Fans may also recognise Hyeri from the popular girl group Girl's Day, formed by Dream T Entertainment in 2010, which includes members Sojin, Minah, Yura, and Hyeri herself. Hyeri promises a memorable experience at her Malaysian fan meeting, which she is preparing with great effort to ensure it is unforgettable for fans. Tickets are priced at RM798, RM698, RM598, and RM498 and will be available for purchase from July 8, 2025, at 11am via
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘Sirens' Debuts At No. 1 On Nielsen Top 10 As ‘The Last Of Us' Season 2 Concludes & ‘All American' Season 7 Generates Interest On Netflix
Netflix landed atop the Nielsen streaming charts in the final full week of May with the debut of its latest dark comedy Sirens. The series premiered on May 22, racking up 1.4B minutes streamed in just the first few days of release. Per Nielsen, it was the only title to surpass a billion minutes viewed from May 19 to 25. Interesting, Nielsen also says Sirens attracted a largely Millennial and Gen X audience, with adults 35-64 accounting for 57% of its watch time. More from Deadline 'Adolescence' Composers Aaron May & David Ridley On Using The Victim's "Innocent, Vulnerable Voice" As The Base Of The Score 5 Songs With 'Monsters: The Lyle & Erik Menendez Story' Music Supervisors Amanda Krieg Thomas & Anna Romanoff In Petra Costa's 'Apocalypse In The Tropics,' Rise Of Christian Nationalism Presents Urgent Warning For Brazil, And America - Sheffield DocFest Second place went to NCIS, which nabbed the No. 1 spot among acquired titles for the first time in several years, amassing 824M minutes viewed. While this may be the highest it has climbed in quite some time, make no mistake: NCIS is a stalwart on the Nielsen Top 10, having made 265 total appearances. In fact, it is actually the all-time top acquired program by number of appearances on the list, trailed by Grey's Anatomy. Hulu's The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives picked up steam as Season 2 ventured into its second week post-premiere. The series came in at No. 4 with 810M minutes viewed, with the new season accounting for about 86% of viewing. This interval also just barely captured the Season 2 finale of HBO's The Last of Us. The series picked up another 707M minutes viewed this week, which includes the same-day viewing on Max for the May 25 finale. However, it's likely the series will make at least one more appearance on the Top 10 before it trails off as audiences wait for another season. Nielsen considers The Last of Us an acquired title, since it also airs on HBO and therefore Nielsen's streaming measurement doesn't fully capture the viewing for each episode. On streaming alone, Nielsen says TLOU generated 3.6B viewing minutes over the course of Season 2. Another acquired title that performed quite well during this week was The CW's All American, thanks to Season 7's arrival on Netflix. The series shot to No. 8 among acquired titles that week with 559M minutes viewed. Nielsen says 55% of its total watch time this week came from adults 18-49. Black viewers were also major contributors, accounting for 30% of viewing. See more below. Best of Deadline Sean 'Diddy' Combs Sex-Trafficking Trial Updates: Cassie Ventura's Testimony, $10M Hotel Settlement, Drugs, Violence, & The Feds A Full Timeline Of Blake Lively & Justin Baldoni's 'It Ends With Us' Feud In Court, Online & In The Media 'Poker Face' Season 2 Guest Stars: From Katie Holmes To Simon Hellberg
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Slumlord Millionaire: how landlords, politicians and developers are fueling the housing crisis
The trouble began when the ceiling above the toilet collapsed. The Bravo family lost hot water and heat – sometimes the temperature would drop to 20F – and they had to boil water to bathe. Nathan, the youngest in the family, has asthma and needs a machine to help him breathe. A doctor blamed mould and cockroaches. Related: 'A cynical ploy to hold power': how the US right has exploited racial division 'It was because of a leak,' says his sister Samantha Bravo-Huertero. 'When someone doesn't fix it, it does start filling with mould. It's disgusting to see. The landlord, her solution was to paint over it. You've covering it but it's still there. Like, you're not fixing it!' It's a story that could be told in any of the world's poorest countries. But it is happening in the 21st century in 'the greatest city in the world', as Lin-Manuel Miranda put it in Hamilton. The Bravo family live in New York – Sunset Park, Brooklyn, to be precise – and are experiencing the dark side of the new gilded age. Their 15-year struggle with an abusive landlord who targeted Latino families is among the stories told in Slumlord Millionaire, a documentary directed by Steph Ching and Ellen Martinez that explores the housing crisis in New York, focusing on the impacts of gentrification, predatory landlords and developer influence on the city's residents. 'We wanted to showcase how interconnected all these systems were and dig more into the roots of why this housing crisis exists and how it continues to persist,' Ching, 37, says via Zoom from Brooklyn. 'Looking at how real estate money feeds into the politics of our city. There are these same issues that impact not only tenants but also homeowners.' New York is the US's biggest city but increasingly unaffordable for the average American. Some 69% of its residents rent. A third of New Yorkers spend more than 50% of their income on rent. The average Manhattan rent now stands at $5,000 a month. The median rent nationwide has surpassed $2,000 a month for the first time in history. As rents increase, some landlords have become more aggressive in trying to get long-term tenants to move out of their homes. A major theme of Slumlord Millionaire is the unethical and often illegal methods used to push out existing, often rent-stabilised tenants to make way for higher-paying residents. These tactics include neglect (ignoring repairs, turning off heat and gas, doing nothing to eliminate vermin infestations), creating uninhabitable living conditions (rats 'will come marching in, almost like troops', says one woman), and engaging in verbal and physical harassment. The 86-minute film exposes the influence of wealthy real estate developers on local politics and legislation. This is exemplified by the onslaught against Moumita Ahmed, who ran for election to the city council in Queens with a pro-tenant agenda. Ching explains: 'Her campaign was viciously attacked by a Super Pac [political action committee] that was started by these billionaire developers who put a million dollars into it. 'Everyone is familiar with big real estate money in politics, especially on a national or even state level. But for it to trickle down to these smaller local elections was eye-opening to us and shows how much hand the real estate industry has in all of our politics and, as a result, the legislation that gets written in our city.' Meanwhile, the 421-a tax break, an incentive programme intended to encourage development, has disproportionately benefited luxury housing developers at a significant cost to the city, resulting in billions in lost potential revenue. The rent guidelines board, appointed by the mayor, determines rent increases for nearly half of New York apartments, illustrating a direct link between political power and rent affordability. A mayor bankrolled by the pro-developer lobby could choose to stack the board with anti-tenant individuals. Martinez, 37, who used to live in a rent-stabilised unit, says: 'I remember my rent going up a random amount and I had no idea that this was actually a thing that you could go see and also that it was so directly tied to the mayor. 'There's a lot of candidates in the race for mayor right now who are promising rent freezes and that is something they are able to achieve because they do appoint this board of people that determines the rent each year for stabilised units.' Slumlord Millionaire also sheds light on the lesser-known but devastating issue of deed theft, in which scammers target homeowners, particularly in historically Black neighborhoods, and steal their properties through fraudulent means. One example is Janina Davis, a former supermodel who is trying to reclaim her home after a deed theft scam. Ching adds: 'We did want to show how it's not just tenants versus landlords. It's these big money real-estate industry developers against your average resident here. 'Janina was a smaller landlord but she had been able to buy this beautiful brownstone in Brooklyn. She actually wanted to expand her building. She wasn't in any sort of financial issue or anything. A lot of times when people talk about deed theft they think people are not educated enough and it's their fault that they got scammed. 'But Janina is super well educated – graduated from Howard University with an economics major – and she was scammed out of this building by these developers who gained her trust and went into business with her and, through the course of years and all this paperwork, stole her home from her.' The low prosecution rate for deed theft allows scammers to operate with little fear of significant consequences. The crime is often racially motivated. Martinez comments: 'The racial dynamic is very clear. The deed fraud case is overwhelmingly people of colour targeted. Historically Black and brown neighborhoods in Brooklyn are being targeted. 'We have a scene, it's a hearing to discuss deed fraud – there's some politicians there – and literally it's an entire room, basically, of African American people that were victimised by deed fraud. It's extremely clear. People are now calling this a new form of redlining, where they don't want certain people to own homes.' Despite the overwhelming power dynamics, the directors point to the resilience and efforts of residents, activists and non-profit organisations fighting back. Examples include the Bravo family's advocacy for the Asthma-Free Housing Act and victory at the Human Rights Commission, community organising efforts in Chinatown against luxury towers, and Ahmed's campaign as a renter advocating for tenants' rights. Ching reflects: 'This is an issue that is happening throughout not just New York City but in other cities in the country, especially in places that are predominantly people of colour. Remember that you are not alone. There are resources that exist. Definitely use the voice that you have. Any form of community engagement is very helpful.' Slumlord Millionaire is now showing at DCTV in New York with more cities to follow. It will premiere on PBS on 28 July
