When it comes to The AIM Companies™, some Members use business cards or testimonies to share information and promote good health. Mr. Hua Te Su uses the thing he knows best: authentic Chinese cuisine.
When many people think of Chinese food, they picture the popular Americanized version: fried, greasy dumplings, buttery noodles, and sugary sauces. The terms “healthy” and “Chinese cuisine” don’t typically fit together. But Mr. Su’s secret to a healthier menu is in the barley: the AIM BarleyLife®, to be specific.
Mr. Su began apprenticing under a Shanghaiese chef in Taipei at the age of 14. He lived in the restaurant, spoke the Shanghaiese language, and learned the techniques for making ancient Shanghaiese cuisine. He and his wife Helen opened their first Chinese restaurant in Seattle, Washington, in 1990, and they opened up a larger restaurant in Issaquah, Washington, in 1997.
The search for pure, good nutrition is what led him to discover the endless benefits of barley. Mr. Su had learned the extensive nutritional value of barley, and in 1993, he started looking for a product to use in his dishes. One day, a neighbor came in to eat and saw Mr. Su working hard at juicing barley, so she introduced him to AIM’s green barley powder.
Today, Mr. Su uses one-half of a canister of BarleyLife for every 10 pounds of flour for his hand-shaven noodles and homemade pot stickers; both are very popular among customers, who say they like the barley flavor. Mr. Su and his family also eat the noodles and pot stickers themselves.
Mr. Su now has two restaurants in Seattle and one in Issaquah. His children – Kathy, Betty, Christine, and Dan – all work in different capacities of the family business. Mr. Su’s daughter Kathy Tsow is an AIM Associate Director. One of the restaurants in Seattle sells nothing but noodles. They used to sell white noodles, pumpkin noodles, carrot noodles, and barley noodles, but now only the white and barley noodles are sold, since those are the most popular among customers. Mr. Su also teaches a monthly class on how to make the noodles, and some of the students are also his customers.
When Mr. Su places an order with AIM, it is usually 80 canisters of BarleyLife powder at a time. He displays a container of BarleyLife on the counter of the restaurant in Issaquah, and there is a picture of AIM’s flagship product on the menu. The BarleyLife dishes are described as “barley green hand-shaven noodles.” He says he has had so much success with using the barley dough that he is afraid of the customers’ reactions if he were to change the name.
Shanghai Garden has been publicly recognized numerous times for its unique and savory dishes. Other than the barley noodles and pot stickers, some of the most popular dishes are beef with dried orange flavor, crisp shrimp with chili sauce, and pan-fried scallops. Mr. Su also makes his own ice cream, experimenting with flavors like sour plum and dried dragon fruit.
Mr. Su has been invited to attend a recognition ceremony for his restaurants in Las Vegas more than once but has always turned down the offers because he says he is very busy. And because the noodles and pot stickers with BarleyLife have gotten so
many good reviews on the internet, Mr. Su has received order requests from other states for several hundred barley noodles per week.
Mr. Su and his family have successfully proved that cooking with barley can enrich a food’s taste and nutritional value. Their healthy innovations have made a positive impact on an enormous amount of people, thanks to Shanghai Garden and BarleyLife.