Photo credit: Melinda Wang

Made by Huizhong Yan, curry puffs, cold noodles, tea eggs and a steamed bun sit in containers. Yan has been teaching at Westside Chinese School for over 30 years and makes food for her students to sell every Saturday.

Editor’s Note: Multimedia Editor Melinda Wang (’26) translated Westside Chinese School teacher Huizhong Yan’s interview from Mandarin to English. Wang is also a member of the Westside Chinese School community. 

While many indulge in a few extra hours of sleep on a Saturday morning, Huizhong Yan’s day begins in the early hours of the morning — usually around 5 a.m.

As the sun begins to rise, Yan’s work is already done in the kitchen. She steamed pork and cabbage buns while shredding chicken to make her signature cold sesame noodles, and she brought out the dishes she prepared days in advanced. Her tea eggs, for example — soaked in a mixture of soy sauce, tea leaves and spices — were prepared Wednesday night to allow for proper marination.

Yan has been a teacher at Westside Chinese School, a Saturday school for Chinese-learners in Mar Vista, for over 30 years. In addition to her role as the instructor for the only high school class, encompassing grades nine through 12, she occasionally leads cooking lessons after class. She said she has always had a passion for making food and sharing it with her students. 

After a few morning hours of prepping a variety of other Chinese dishes, she divides the portions into packages, which her students sell to eager customers to build up the class fund.

“Originally, I saw children coming to school without having eaten anything in the morning, so I thought I’d make them something simple to eat. Later, I realized that we needed to collect class funds, and we used to sell things during school fairs, but it’s better to make a little each week,” Yan said. “If we have class funds, we can motivate older children to come to the Chinese school … The main thing is that I value the atmosphere of everyone in the class being together.”

Junior at North Hollywood Senior High School Jasmine Walia, who has attended Westside Chinese School for four years, has purchased food from Yan for three years. Walia said she enjoys Yan’s cold sesame noodles, which are $5 per portion, or the curry puffs, which are $3 per portion. Every dollar earned, in cash and Venmo, goes directly into the class fund, and the high school class has used this money to go to Haidilao twice for their end-of-year celebration. 

“Making all these foods is definitely a very arduous process. It requires a lot of time, patience and energy, which I think is so meaningful that she’s willing to do this every single week to provide food for us and funds for our class so we can do fun things,” Walia said. “Our original plan was to use the funds to go out at the end of the year and eat some good food … Over the years, the class fund has evolved to providing rewards for students to do more in class, such as the sticker system. So we get money at the end of the year for the stickers that we earn, and the money amount per sticker increases the older you are.”

Yan’s menu rotates, so customers don’t always know what will be available. Westside Chinese School parent Cozette Csoke also has purchased food from Yan for years and said that once she knew Yan’s business existed, she searched for it every weekend. 

“It’s very authentic and good and reminds me of what my mom used to make for us,” Csoke said. “I was born in the U.S., so I’m half Chinese and my mom’s Cantonese. And she used to make little things here and there, and I’m not as good in the kitchen, so it’s good to eat other people’s stuff.” 

After a period of discontinuation to try other recipes, Yan brought back sticky rice dumplings for her students to sell the week of Feb. 16.

“Before, when she was first selling, she only had fantuan. That’s what I got every week,” Csoke said. “That hasn’t happened for a while. The noodles are good too, though. She switched from fantuan to the noodles, and now I’ve shifted to the sticky rice. It’s evolved.” 

While buyers won’t always know what food will be available, they can put in requests for dishes. Yan said she tries her best to adhere to such requests so the food she makes doesn’t go to waste. 

“I’ve found that some parents, especially those from the north, prefer noodles, while southerners prefer glutinous rice,” Yan said. “Generally speaking, people like the cold noodles, especially people from other cultures. I’ve also seen some non-Chinese customers like steamed buns, which surprised me, and made me think, ‘Okay, hopefully they will also tell me what they enjoy eating.’”

As class treasurer, Walia is in charge of managing the money earned from selling Yan’s food. Walia said taking account of the money is a big responsibility, but it has helped her hone her money-handling skills. 

“It’s a little bit worrisome when I can’t find the money pouch, because there’s over $1,000 in there, and it’s money accumulated even from three years ago because we never spent it all,” Walia said. “She refuses it — not even to reimburse the ingredients. Last year we had a few $100 extra, and we wanted to give it to her as a year-end bonus, but she wouldn’t even take $20. It was kind of infuriating, but it shows her dedication.”