By Leonard Chan

In May of 1894, White supremacist groups forced Chinese and some Japanese farmworkers out of farms in Fresno, Pleasanton, and the Vaca Valley. They stole, beat, and shot at the Asian workers, and, with the tacit approval of the law and judges, were allowed to seize many of the Asian workers as prisoners for deportation.

This is just a small sample of incidents that reveal the dark racial climate of what was happening throughout California and other Western states during that time. Author Jean Pfaelzer, in her groundbreaking book Driven Out: the Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans, does a marvelous job of retelling this horrible facet of Old West history (this is a must read for anyone that is the least bit curious about how Asians fit into the 19th century American experience). From the years 1849 to 1906, Pfaelzer states that there were over 200 similar incidences in California alone.

This article is not about all the atrocities that were being committed against Asian in the West in the 1800s. This introduction is meant to give you some context to the rest of this piece. On January 31, 1895, approximately eight months after the earlier described incidents, a Chinese man in the town of Oroville, California, chose to break bread with his Caucasian neighbors.

By Arthi Kruba

In my childhood days, I usually liked eating fried Indian desserts. However, there are quite some non-fried easy-to-make desserts that I like. One such dish that quenches my sugar cravings is 'Rava kesari'.

This dessert is quite common in South India. In some parts of India, it is also called as 'Kesari bath' or 'Suji kesari'. 'Rava' or 'Suji' means semolina. Kesari refers to the saffron color.