Starting out as an Instagram account in 2020, Lauren Tran, the creator and baker behind Bánh by Lauren, never imagined her business would end up hosting pop ups and collaborating with restaurants across the country. Now, she and her husband, Garland, prepare to open up a storefront in Chinatown. Over Zoom, I talked with Lauren on the process of making her desserts and what factors she had to consider when opening a physical location. Our conversation has been edited for clarity and flow.JK: In recent years, terms like “authentic,” “real,” and “traditional” have been often used to describe Asian American food. What do these words mean to you? Do you care whether your cooking fits within any of those terms?LT: For me, I actually I try to stay away from the term, authentic, because I just feel that: we're authentic to who? It's very subjective. You know, everyone, especially being Asian American, Vietnamese American, I feel for those people like my parents who immigrated, who are refugees coming to the states. Once you come to America, you're trying to make food like your Vietnamese food that you grew up with, but you don't have access to everything that you had in your home country. And so you have to adapt, and things like my parents' food is definitely different than the food that they had in Vietnam, but it's because they didn't have the same access. If I was to make some Vietnamese food like savory food, it's authentic to me, like to what my parents made, but it wouldn't necessarily be authentic to how it's made in Vietnam. So I actually really try to like stay away from that because I think once you're in a different country, your access is different. Produce is different, meat's different, farms are different; so many things are different.

Bánh by Lauren

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Continue storytelling with ArcGIS StoryMaps and keep your content. Request that Esri migrate your account to ArcGIS Online by May 31, 2025, and complete migration by June 30, 2025.

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After one year, you will need to purchase an ArcGIS Online subscription to continue using ArcGIS StoryMaps. Check out the StoryMaps <link>retirement page</link> for more information on the ArcGIS Online subscription options.

ArcGIS <link>StoryMaps</link> is the professional version of StoryMaps and is available as part of <link2>ArcGIS Online</link2>. Both products share similar storytelling capabilities, so if you are familiar with StoryMaps, you'll feel right at home with ArcGIS StoryMaps. Visit the <link3>retirement page</link3> for a detailed comparison between StoryMaps and ArcGIS StoryMaps.

If you do not migrate your account to ArcGIS Online, you can save any content you would like to keep before the June 30, 2025, retirement date. The options for saving content include saving stories as a PDF and saving frames using a screen recording. 

Esri is retiring StoryMaps. On June 30, 2025, StoryMaps will go offline, and StoryMaps content will not be available to edit or view. For more information, please visit the <link>StoryMaps retirement page.</link>

Introducing ArcGIS StoryMaps and ArcGIS Online: <link>AGSM Introduction video</link>

You are invited to migrate your account and content to ArcGIS Online where you can continue storytelling with maps. With ArcGIS Online, you’ll get access to ArcGIS StoryMaps and the easy-to-use story builder you are familiar with, plus so much more!

If you migrate your account to ArcGIS Online, you will have access to your existing stories, collections, and themes via ArcGIS StoryMaps, as well as an array of additional ArcGIS capabilities. (Your frames will be migrated and accessible when support for frames is added to ArcGIS StoryMaps.)

For more details about migrating your account and content to ArcGIS Online, please visit the StoryMaps <link>retirement page.</link>

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Both of these options include access to ArcGIS StoryMaps and the other ArcGIS Online apps and capabilities. Please note that there is a price difference between the two options that you will need to pay if you want to keep your account active when your free subscription expires. See the FAQs on the <link>StoryMaps.com retirement page</link> for more information about these subscription options.

Selecting Request migration below means that you are deciding to change your StoryMaps.com account to an ArcGIS Online subscription. During the free subscription, you will have access to your existing stories and collections via ArcGIS StoryMaps, as well as an array of additional capabilities offered by ArcGIS Online.

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