September 29, 2020 • 45 mins
Esther talks with chef, nutritionist, natural wine lover and author of the cookbook “Everyday Korean” Seung Hee Lee about how her passion for sharing Korean Royal Court cuisine turned into a side hustle pairing Korean food and wine with "Korean Fusion" pop-ups around the world. Now based in Atlanta, Georgia, Seung Hee uses her popular Instagram handle @koreanfusion to discover innovative ways to introduce people to the mouth watering flavors and dishes of Korea, converting people, one dish a at time.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
South have a very specific identity when it comes to
culinary scene and Korean food, you know what, very very
similar because Korean food also is like surviving hunger, surviving poverty,
surviving winter, and eating you know, from nose to tail,
Like I think all of those things that really resonated
with me. When I first had Collared, it reminded me
(00:24):
of like number. It was like so soulful, like what
my grandmother would make with reddish greens, you know, Sigi
reminded me exactly of that um Also like chitlings, you know,
Korean's always eat you know, working constance or fried with
all the greens. Just all of those things I really
appreciated and I kind of wanted to respect the Southern culture.
(00:45):
Welcome to get down with kay Town. I'm your host
esther Troy. What's up, party people. It's another glorious day
down in the South here in Atlanta, and I've been
up since six am cooking up a storm, preparing another
great episode for you all. This morning I had the
pleasure of fire only meeting someone in flesh that I've
been following on Instagram for a long time, the founder
(01:06):
of the handle Korean Fusions. How he Lee, what's up?
How he? Hi? How are you? We finally meet in person?
I mean, we live in this era, right, right, I know.
I mean I'm sure this happens to a lot of people,
but it's amazing when you become friends through social media
but like never get to actually meet a person until
years later. It's such a great thing. No, I love it, right,
(01:28):
It's amazing. Like I just really love Instagram and social
media for this kind of stuff, like same connecting. Yeah,
because like you have the same interest and then you
can tell easily by just you know, looking at Instagram posts,
and then I don't know, I kind of get to
decide if I want to be friends with this person, right,
oh man, so judgmental just a little bit, and you
know you kind of grow together on Instagram, which I
(01:50):
think it's a really cool thing to see. It's community. Yeah, yeah, exactly,
it's community in a different way where you don't actually
have to be living close to each other. Yeah. I
think that's what I meant when I said, like, we
live in this era of like digital connectivity, which is
pretty cool. I love it. Okay, going back to its Honey,
you are the author of the cookbook Everyday Korean, a writer,
(02:13):
teacher with a PhD and human nutrition Born and raising
Korea study traditional Korean royal core cuisine, which we can
go into later. And you also teach cooking classes here
in Atlanta. Yes, Korean cooking classes. Korean cooking classes. I
usually do actually wine pairings together because I think it's
really interesting. You know, a lot of people say Korean
food is spicy, so you drink reasoning with it, you know,
(02:34):
it's like very dismissive. And I find it actually very
condescending because the person who's recommending the wine does not
know the cuisine well enough, you know, And so I
kind of wanted to debunk that myth by pairing, you know,
Sunday with champagne. I love that, Yeah, like beating bat
with like San sare you know. I kind of wanted
to break that stereotype barrier. Yeah, but this is not
(02:58):
your full time job though it is my side hustle. Yes,
I work as an epidemiologist, but I love it. I
love cooking so much. I every free time I have
I dedicate to cooking. That's amazing. So you took Korean
cooking classes in Korea for fun? Then it was just
for I was born and raised in Korea, and I
studied food and nutrition in college. And my mentor said,
(03:20):
if you are considering to study abroad, you really need
to learn real Korean cooking because everyone's going to be
asking you about Korean food. So on weekends I took
Korean royal court cuisine classes koreme juniory um at, Taste
of Korea, Okay, hungle gem and um. What is royal
court cuisine? Well, you know that Korea once had kingdom
(03:45):
and food for the king basically, and there are certain
rules and things that needs to oll. Elements that needs
to go on a dish, for example, And I often
use this example because I think it resonates with a
lot of them. So five color oban sec needs to
be present on the dish, which represents north, southeast, west
and center and center is yellow, which represents the king.
(04:08):
And if you think about it, not a lot of
food is yellow from the get go, and that's one
of the reasons why Koreans make yellow egg yolk crep
and egg white crep to represent those colors separately exactly,
and that's why you see them as garnish. A lot
in Korean cooking, especially Royal cuisine up exactly, love that,
love that, and um, well, how is your experience doing
(04:29):
these cooking classes, learning the Royal cuisine and how did
that affect your cooking now? Yeah, So the whole idea
was to maintain tradition from the olden recipes, you know,
and how it can be translated into modern um cooking.
Because a lot of the recipes were written for two
people who live in the palace, so it would be
(04:50):
two buckets of soy and you know, like a jug
of water if well water, and it just doesn't make sense.
So how can we make that for family of four?
So we need to retell break those recipes to two
cups of soy and you know, a cup of tablespoon
of you know. And over time, soy sauce also has changed.
Right back in the day, it was made from scratch
(05:11):
and it was a lot of saltier. Now it's you know,
factory made, and there's different levels too, exactly, So we
needed to we couldn't just scale it down proportionately. We
had to adjust back and forth to how much soy
we're going to put in for to really let this
this shine. And that was like a work in progress.
And it was kind of like a research group that
(05:33):
wanted to showcase certain recipes that were not just royal
but also like very traditional back in the day. How
can that be, you know, presented in the modern world
and it's that your cookbook everyday Korean? Or is that
just you or like your group? So that was the
group of Royal Court Cuisine. And then I came to the
(05:54):
the United States, okay, you know, for my PhD. And
I thought I knew how to cook currying food in now,
but all the ingredients were different. And so if I
were to make kimchi the same way I would in Korea,
it will be so mushy here because the cabbage is
not thick enough and it contains more water, so it
needed less of less salt, like less time to you know,
(06:14):
marinate in salt. All of that needs to be relearned.
And from that process I also figured out Americans use
oven because you know, Koreans don't have oven. Oh my gosh,
that was always a thing, like in Korea, none of
the kitchens have ovens exactly. So I thought, oh, I
can make kaibe jean, you know, brave short ribs in
the oven, Like how cool is that? Mind blown. So
(06:35):
I kind of basically, you know, progressed in American kitchen
set up with very traditional Korean cooking in mind, and
that's how it became everyday Korean where it's not threatening
for American home cooks to you know, create Korean dishes,
some very traditional but some Korean flavors that is um
(06:57):
more familiar to American population and like brugogi meatballs for example,
or like kimchi ke so you know, like things like
that that people have eaten before and add coucha karu
or cong like sneak it in so that people can
use those Korean condiments that they committed to like every day.
(07:17):
That was my thought, So hence the birth of Korean Fusion. Yes,
I love that you have that handle. By the way,
can we talk about your Instagram a little bit, just
because like obviously it's an iconic Instagram when it comes
to Korean fig and your dishes are so beautiful, but
not all Korean all the time. Can you like talk
(07:39):
about how you started the Instagram and how it became
like a real community to you. Yeah, for sure. So
I started off Korean Fusion as I was working on
my cookbook and I really wanted to see, like what
recipes people want to learn how to make, So it's
almost like a hand in hand. You created it for
research and then it just became less exactly yes, and
(08:00):
I would ask questions like what are you afraid of
when it comes to making Korean food? You know, like, oh,
people were saying, I'm really worried that kim chi jar
would explode. It's okay. I wanted to really incorporate that
into the book, that it's not always going to explode.
Here are tips on like how to burp you know
you're kim chi, or use like a plastic container versus
jar when you're beginning to ferment, you know, things like that.
(08:21):
And then the whole fusion thing. I know, a fusion
is the effort, but I really like, I don't know
what there's not. It's it's not a negative word, you know,
I personally don't think so, because how else are you
going to explain the marriage of you know, food combination
that tastes good just because previous generation have messed it up. Like,
(08:42):
I don't think that connotation has to carry on. So
for example, my co author Kim Tonay, she lived in
France for a long time. So whenever I make something,
she's like, oh, if we add crime fresh, I think
it would be really delicious, you know. And to me,
that's a true collaboration of two delicious things, you know,
married into one. And like couchan Krema that I have
(09:03):
on my book one of the most popular things because
it's so easy. It's cram fresh, mix it up and
you use it as a creditative. Yeah, and you know
what if two things come together and it tastes amazing,
Like who cares what you know, what where it came
from and what the word is. But yeah, it's true.
There's no other word that can translate to fusion, I think,
(09:27):
so right, Yeah, so I'm owning it proudly. Obviously you're
doing a great job. Thank you. Um so, yes, So
talking about that back to your cookbook just or just
your handle and like so you were speaking to your
audience and already getting those tips before even writing the book, right,
(09:49):
using Instagram as a platform, yes, and then interacting with people,
you know, like I begin with like five followers, you know,
and that community grew actually really really strong, and those
people that interacted with are still like my fans to
this day, and they still give me feedback, and like,
I feel like I know them personally now because it's
been over like five six years. And you know, as
(10:13):
I grow and as my followers grow, I understood that
true Korean food, as much as it's important, I thought,
you know, that's a little too foreign for a lot
of my followers, and I really want I learned that
I need to kind of help them walk a little
before they can run when it comes to Korean food.
(10:34):
And so I created dish like kimchi slaw and people
call it like gateway draw up to Korean food because
you know, it's in a slaw form. People can put
it on tacos. It's a side dish for you know,
good Fourth of July barbecue party, tastes good. And then
what it's really kimchi, you know, and I want to
know a little bit more about kimchi. Then, like I thought,
that's that was necessary and perhaps missing at that specific
(10:57):
time point, um when Korean we've got really popular. I
don't know if you recall it, kimchi was on everything. Yeah,
kimchi on a burger, kims on a hot dog. Still
is it's still like right, But I also thought, well, yeah,
It's okay to put kimchi anywhere you want to, but
like you need to make kimchi the right way first.
And that's how I felt really passionately about when some
(11:18):
of the media outlets would have kimchi recipe with like siracha. Yeah,
like I said, exactly, it's it's like, okay, like this
cannot happen. I really need to write a book where
it's showcases, you know, a range of kimchi, because like
I believe, kimchi's like pickle. You can make kimchi with everything.
Is that what you're working on right now? Are you
(11:38):
working on a kimchi book? No, it's actually in the
every Day koreans A kim To chapter, okay, where there's
like easiest kimchi slaw to all the way to like
really super legit you know, petchi kimchi. Yeah, and there's
everything in between, the cucumbers, turnips, and I actually just
give everyday Korean kimchi paste where you can put it
on everything like green mangoes, hia onion, you know, because
(12:02):
you can really came to fight anything you want, exactly.
I love the word by the way, right, So do
you think that your location or geographically where you are
(12:23):
obviously you're in Atlanta. Do you think that had a
lot of effect on the way you cook or your
cuisine or yeah, I mean for sure because South have
a very specific identity when it comes to culinary scene, right,
and sure identity and cuisine and Korean food, you know what,
very very similar because Korean food also is like surviving hunger,
(12:47):
surviving poverty, surviving winter and eating you know, from nose
to tail. Like I think all of those things that
really resonated with me. When I first had collars, it
reminded me of like number and it was like so soulful,
like what my grandmother would make with like reddish greens,
you know, higgy. It reminded me exactly of that. Um.
(13:08):
Also like chiplings, you know Koreans always eat, you know,
porking testes, you know, stir fried with all the greens exactly. Yeah,
and just all of those things I really appreciated and
I kind of wanted to respect the Southern culture, you know,
like even fried chicken. Um. But also I kind of
use that as my way in to this community because um,
(13:31):
whenever I do Korean fried chicken pop up, for example,
like lines out the door because Americans are very familiar it.
Lands Lantern is very very familiar with what fried chicken is.
But there's no judgment when it comes to different kinds
of fried chicken, right because they just love fried chicken
in any form. And I think they see or I
(13:54):
see it as an opportunity to, Okay, here's something that
you're very familiar with that we also eat Koreans. But
then here are other foods that Koreans eat that you
might want to try. So it was a very interesting
platform for me to use that anchor point of like
intersection between Korean food and the Southern food to introduce true, true,
(14:14):
true Korean flavors. And I can see guests you know,
excited or like concerned and scared and you know, but
tasted and just very I don't know, casual, you know,
comfortable setting. I got returning customers for different kinds of
pop ups when I did like really legit just full
(14:34):
blown Korean flavors, Like I see guests who came to
my fried chicken pop up, and I think that's like
a really important step that I was able to observe
over time and gain a little more strength in introducing
really traditional dishes that are not common in restaurants. You know.
I love that because I feel like if you were
(14:56):
in l A or New York and you landed in
those cities, it would have been very different for you.
But you landed in Atlanta, and you're really just like
spokesperson and this person who's like introducing Korean flavors, this
is like kind of similar to what I do because
I always find that there's always like an entry point,
(15:17):
there's always like a gateway. And you introduced Korean flavors,
maybe in the disguise form in the beginning, but in
the end, your goal is to like feed them in
testines or stuff like crazy dish that or like k junk,
which is like marinated raw crab. I actually did that.
Um it was my grandma pop up. And I did
(15:38):
marinated shrimp, which I mean, you don't see that anywhere,
and it's like my death row food. It's the last
thing I want to eat. Yeah, it's so good, and
you know with white rice, and I love Young exactly.
And then just like suck the head right, and it's
also Southern car culture to suck the head of the stream.
(15:59):
Can you describe what's who Young is? For our listeners
that might not know sure, So say what John starts
with very fresh raw shrimp. It's cured in this brine
made with all the aromatics you can possibly think of, ginger, onion, garlic,
and all the sweet things like apples, oranges, lemon, in
(16:20):
soy based brine with a little bit of rice wine,
and you boil it and then you have to chill it.
You pour it over the shrimp and then put it
in the fridge for twenty four hours. And then after
twenty four hours you have to drain this soy brine,
boil it all over again to kill any unnecessary bacteria
that might be growing, chill it again, and then pour
(16:41):
it back onto the shrimp. And you repeat there for
three days in a row. And labor of labor of love. Indeed,
so you have to have like a timer set for
like every twenty four hours, and you can't go out,
you know, you have to be there for the shrimp
um and it becomes this jellyfied shrimp flesh that my
co author cleverly calls it the sea jelly, the jelly
(17:06):
sea jelly. And the texture just changes, yeah, the strip
and it just melts in your mouth in a such
a pleasant way, and then the all the row and
the gunk that's in the head becomes also jellified and
becomes a sweet, salty, ocean e deliciousness, basically so good.
(17:27):
So it's similar to kjong, which is a soy fermented crab. Yeah,
but I feel like jong is something like a little
bit new right, Yes, Like it's a modern a modern
dish indeed, and it's easier to eat and easier to serve,
and it doesn't take as long as kidjoun because kidjo
usually takes up to seven days. Awesome. Kidun could be
(17:49):
a little bit like messy and like all the ship,
but like, hey, it's like easier to peel and it
gives a similar level of sensation. I love it. Now
I'm hungry. I love talking about food. So going a
little bit back, because you spoke about your pop ups
a little bit, but can you elaborate on your pop ups?
(18:09):
And so how did it all start? Man? So my
book came out and then I was doing cooking demos
and more people wanted to taste my food, and you know,
my friends were like, I will pay you, can you
cook for me and my friends? And it's like really okay,
and it kind of evolved, um, but I think my
biggest opportunity that I was very fortunate to get was
(18:34):
wine community really embracing um my Instagram and my cooking
because I've been doing that. As I was working on
my cookbook, I would feat drinking wine and you know,
come up with good pairings and then a lot of
somilais you know around the world like got really interested
in like my pairing techniques and then so they would
invite me to do pop ups. So I actually started
(18:55):
off doing international pop ups first and like Copenhagen and
Soul Yeah, the um actually like go Togo like in
their winery, and I did it in London, you know, Paris,
like I did more or less European because that's where
the wines are at exactly. So it was gonna be
like a wine pop up right with Korean food. And
(19:15):
if you think about it, food people might not be
drinking wine, but wine people always eat. Yes. Yes, I
love that. Yes. So that's how it all started. And
then Atlanta here UM, a restaurant called Amano, really embraced
me from the very very beginning. He would you like
to try pop up here in Atlanta, and so I
got every last Sunday of the month, you know, as
(19:36):
my slot to do different pop ups. And I really
wanted to get Korean food known. And I when I
say Koream food like proper Korean food that I think
is proper um. But I started, I had to start
off a little slow, you know. I started with, like
I said, Korean fried chicken, and I did it like
three consecutive times and realized that my soul was like
(19:58):
like sucking out of my body because I'm like, I'm
not here to sling chicken, you know all night long.
That's not really what I'm trying to do pop up for.
And that's when I really incorporated like uh seated dinners
and you know, all the themed based and sequential like
dining experience where each dish come out, everybody in the
(20:21):
dining room eat the same time, and I come out
and explain why I made that dish. So in the
springtime it will be all the number um. And then
you know, when my was my grandmother's ninety nine birthday,
I did all the dishes that she taught me how
to make, like you know, foraging, so with different concepts
foraging fermenting, salting, drying. So I've made acorn jelly because
(20:43):
I remember, you know, foraging acorn, you know, around my
apartment complex, growing up with my grandmother and making acron jelly.
And she's the one who taught me how to make
tin jan and kujong from scratch, you know, and like
drawing certain vegetables just so that we can have it,
you know, all about the winter and just things like that.
I wanted to honor her teachings. So it was an
(21:06):
opportunity where everybody got to hear all my story. And
I think that's the add on to my pop up.
It's not just food. But people think it's a show
that they're watching. It is an educational platform where they
get to learn about very detail and specific things about
certain Korean dishes, and it's a story, your story exactly.
Food is still personal, you know what I mean, especially
(21:29):
when it comes to like the cult cultural heritage sense,
like Korean food especially. I feel like every person's Korean
food is obviously a little bit different, like especially as
a chef, right, I think that's just so beautiful. And
I love the story of your your grandma because that's
how I learned to cook and it's it's different obviously
(21:50):
because you probably learned in Korea, but I like learned
here in like New Jersey, and I love that. So
your pop ups and you're still doing it. Now. Have
you ever thought about opening a restaurant? I get that
question a lot, but I understand the importance of hospitality
and you know, accommodating customers, and I just I know
I can't do that. It's a different realm. Like people say, oh,
(22:13):
customers always right, and like that's bullshit. I'm always right.
I'm always right. It's your food, so like chefy that way.
It's careae food, Like don't tell me to make that
dish like vegan, like it's not possible, Like just don't
eat it, don't come don't don't come by. And I
know this attitude can be a very like you know,
throwing off fish, but and not inclusive. And I don't
(22:36):
mean to be like that. I really want to use
it as like the way I learned Korean food is
very respectful of the environment, very sustainable, and we're not
the type of people who would eat sixteen ound steak
for one person for one meal, like that's for family
of four for four days. You know, and like I know,
sustainability is very very important to me, and that's why
(22:58):
I want to utilize like all the parts that people
don't want, you know, like all the awfuls or all
the you know, like feeds and like tongue and tail,
like people don't want. That's a lot of cream quisine. Yeah,
and make that delicious. That's truly a chef, right if
I can make something so awful looking delicious versus like
something so perfect like tenderloin, you know, like who's a
(23:19):
better chef? And I just don't want to compromise the
flavor that I want to preserve. Therefore, restaurant probably is
not the best, you know idea in the world. I mean,
some restaurants still do it right. They do. Know it's
a tail and it depends. But that's it's very difficult
(23:40):
to do obviously. It's just and you know what, I
I didn't mean to cut you off, but like a
good restaurant, it's consistency. You have to have the same
dish every single time. It's a business in the end. Yeah,
and for me, I'll probably like die in the corner,
like shriveled, because like I want to make something new
something different every time. Your ideal restaurant would be like
(24:03):
a ten seat restaurant that tamed the menu changes every day. Yeah,
you know what my dream is like. I mean, somebody
will probably like steal my story now, but I want
to have what I call dinner and bed. So it's
not bed and breakfast, but you eat dinner first and
you get to bed because you will be drunk and
(24:23):
hammered and you shouldn't be driving. But like you know,
it's like a destination worth visiting, and then you eat
and then you know, you just crashed there. Yeah, Ben
and dinner kind of like a bed and breakfast, so
it's like your whole yea, you just cook whatever I want, Yeah,
and you're you know for see. That kind of reminds
me of like huzuchi, right or yeah bug, can you
(24:47):
describe what membug or Hazu mean? Buk is like very
similar to airbnb concept these days, right, Um, it's been
around in Korea for forever that ever. Exactly, it is
a form of housing where somebody opens their home and
you get to crash in one of their rooms and
then you get food the next morning or the night
of Yeah, you have to cook for your your your guests,
(25:10):
and you just like kind of book on the fly.
You just like go whatever is available that day, you know, right,
And these are like real homes and this happened like
the countryside of Korea always. Yeah, you just like walk
into a random person. I mean, you'll give me macka right. Oh,
I love it. I love it. It's hilarious. What about
(25:45):
the budding Korean population in Atlanta right now? Crazy? Can
we talk about that for a second, because what is this? Like? Why? How? Well,
first of all, I don't know if you know, but
Georgia apparently the third most spoken language in Georgia is Korean.
That's that's freaking crazy. Yeah, And there's a huge Korean
(26:07):
population just you know, a few miles north of Atlanta
called Duluth, and that whole region a lot of Koreans.
It's they've always been there. But I have they always
been there or did it just come come about in
the past like ten years like how you know what?
Don't quote me on it, but as far as I
was told, they were always there. And I think with
(26:27):
the growing popularity of k pop and Korean you know, cinema,
people want to know more about Korean food in general,
because that's how you know, that's how you get to
learn the culture, right, you listen to the music, you
watch the TV, and now you want to eat their food. Um.
And there are really great Korean restaurants in Atlanta, you know,
(26:47):
like even inside the city, and people get to taste
it more, people want it more. And that's just how
culture lives on, right. And it's it's growing by the
day because I hear from like all sorts of angles nowadays,
like oh, this person is from Atlanta. Oh they're moving
to Atlanta. Um. And I just like meet so many
(27:08):
Korean people from Atlanta now and I thought it was
really random a few years years ago, but now it's
just become such a norm. And I've just recently heard
that Atlanta has I think it's like the third largest
Korean population in the States, like obviously New York in
l A and then Atlanta start. I mean, that's just
(27:28):
like crazy, like in the South here, like I love it. Well,
what I've been told and I'm not so sure if
it's true, but my what I heard is that Koreans
who became pretty big in New York or New York
I think, or Chicago wants like backyard right now, they've
made it and they want a backyard. They want space,
(27:49):
and Atlanta is that place where you can get you know,
you can get a dog, you know, you have a
backyard and you have you know, two car garage, and
you can go your own vegetables. Yeah, and like things
that is near impossible in city like New York. Exactly. Yeah,
obviously that's why they say that Koreans love to retire
(28:11):
in Atlanta. Exactly. I think, yeah, this is like a
retire Korean and this is your city now and you're
you're what's the future like for you? And like what
what do you have planned? Do you have? Atlanta is
growing at me and I appreciate how people are growing
with me um in the scene, food scene, wine scene,
(28:32):
and every time I just try to do a different
pop up. So this new up and coming one is Parasite. Yes,
you just talked about this. I love it. Yeah, And
you know, something that's relevant every time. And we don't
really want to give people the opportunity to understand Korean
culture through food, and we're actually showcasing the entirety of
food that shows shows on UM Parasite, not just to Okay,
(28:55):
can we talk about your different dishes that you're gonna do,
because I think I read it obviously you're doing jap
because that's the main thing I mean iconic did. So
I'm going to start off with huaptang, which is like
drunken muscles because there's a scene with like soju right
by the convenience store when the guy when the guys
(29:15):
are meeting like two boys and he's offering the tutor job.
Exactly were they eating that? I didn't even know that
they weren't eating that, but they were drinking soju, And
for me soju it's like, okay, you're drinking sojo, you
need like suit cook and that's huaptang. So that's why
I'm doing drunken muscles with cooked with soju. And then
there's a whole when the whole family goes into Kissa
(29:36):
Shitan love that part. Yeah, yeah, And this cultural significance
might not have come through in the movie if you're
not Korean, and I really want to use that platform
to explain what that meant, Like Kissaitan, like how fast paced?
Can we talk about Kisa? She done real quickly? Sure
that our listeners that don't know, Yeah, so kisa hi
Kisa means like driver, like usually the taxi drivers or
(29:57):
bus drivers. And Shipdang is a restaurant and because they
usually don't have a lot of time to sit down
and have a real meal, it's like a buffet style
and then you just pay a certain amount, usually very cheap,
like three dollars. You get a tray and you just
pick up whatever you want to eat. You eat, you leave,
you go back to your job. And it's just one
of those very low brow, you know, the dishes bunch
(30:21):
on and all the dishes change every day. Whatever is
you know, available at the market. Yeah, very commoner food
and kind of like what you'd be eating at home.
So it's nothing fancy or anything like that. And we're
gonna kind of replicate some of the dishes that are
often seen in Punch, but like different kinds of bunch
(30:43):
and you know, like, oh, I love I grew up
on that ship Yeah, is like a Korean meatball that's
been like kind of coated and egg and then fried. Yeah,
oh I want to now. And then like so you know,
like the kink sauces that's like very pink like pink yeah,
very retro you know, that's also caught on a bias
(31:07):
and then like egg and they can. Yeah, so things
like that, and um, it's like my childhood food exactly,
you know, and nothing fancy but homie and just kind
of true. I love that you're doing that at your
Parisite pop up because that's scene. It's very memorable for
me too. Yeah, and so like sound true and you know,
(31:29):
cut Jetty and things like that, and then chop out
guy of course. And then we're gonna have a peach
dish as a dessert. Oh, you have to have that
iconic peachy. So we're gonna have You're gonna still everybody's
heart with um and peach Georgia peach, right makes sense.
We're gonna have something to finish with peach. And then
we're gonna have as based drink of course, because like
(31:54):
their messchest scene for the tutor and then also at
the very end when the Oh it might be a spoiler,
but when the guy drinks the messire before he goes on. Yeah,
make sure it's like such an iconic symbol in that movie. Exactly. Sure.
It is a Korean plum by the way, and um,
(32:15):
it's like the green plum that's superstour that usually is
fermented or made into liquor, liquor or a syrup. Right,
very important part of Korean cuisine. Yeah, so all those
things will be featured in this pop up. And I
don't know, I just want to use this platform to
like really rehash like what it means, because we were
(32:39):
just talking about like how angry or it should never
be called rammed on or whatever that is, Like, no,
someone just made up that word, by the way, like
the translator, the translator made up that word, and where
did that word even come from? Yeah, and it's just
causing freaking havoc because it's creating more confusion people. I
(33:00):
wouldn't know chap, sure, but people still don't know ramdon,
like the fun what is that? No, ramdon came from
like Ramian and udon, Right, it's so random, see what
we did there. But no, it's not called randon. It
should never be called ramdon. First of all, it's not raman,
(33:21):
it's not udon, right. Yeah. Also like don't butcher, oh
word that is specific for a dish? Yeah, like you
can't translate the name of a dish. Yeah, I mean chappa.
Of course, it's not a real word. It's Chappa get,
which is one specific instant ramen noodles in Korea, and
(33:42):
no Gurdi, which is a completely different, you know, instant
ramen noodle in Korea, and it's mixed together. The whole
concept is that they're both instant Raman is so cheap
and this rich person wanted to have it. You know.
It's like such a you know, low brow dish, so
that like she ends up putting you know, expensive beef
on it. But if you say rammed on, it's a
(34:06):
quote unquote English speaking audience have a certain expectation what
ramen should look like it. Butcher's basically the whole concept
of Joppa gouty and that's seed in general exactly, and
like the symbolic meaning of why that does just even
in the movie exactly. So okay, not to get so deep,
but yes, getting so deep, yes, because this movie obviously
(34:28):
symbolizes a lot of what Korea is very you know,
class oriented, and you have to look a certain way
and you have to behave a certain way, and everybody's basically,
you know, acting and they're feeding onto each other. Right. Anyways,
you guys need to go watch the movie if you
(34:49):
haven't yet like who are you? First of all, I
mean it's it's a great movie. It gets it makes
you think quite a bit. Um. I actually thought it
was because I did a lot of touring when I
was in college. Oh that's right, yeah, I mean that's
like it's such an iconic job to write as a
college student, you know, and if you are anywhere near
being self sufficient, you have to And I remember like
(35:10):
doing seven eight, you know, tutoring job like a given
day or given month, you know. And I've seen very
very rich people like wow, you know, and you went
to those types of homes. Yeah, it's really resonative with me.
When when these two brother sister combo like uses their
(35:30):
name Kevin Jessica so funny because so symbolic, it's very pretentious.
Did you did you have that name to did you
have like an English name? But to me, that speaks
volume because of how Koreans perceive America or you know,
just like a whole United States, and that's something more
(35:51):
prestigious than their Korean name, right, And when I came
to the United States, I debated whether or not I
was gonna have a you know, English name or keep
my Korean name, and a lot of people actually suggested, like, oh,
you really should just go by song because that's easier
for people to remember. And I got this advice from
(36:12):
Korean American professors here in the US. Right, So I
really debated, like what what do I do? What do
I do? Do I like go by Jennifer? Right? Was
that your like choice of names? My choice of name
was Marianne because that was my French name when I
lived in the United States, and that was like the
closest English name I was told for the longest time.
And Obama became the president, I was like, if a
(36:34):
baroque can be president of the United States, I can.
I can be Singhali and just be fine. And that's
what I did, and I'm proud of proud that I did.
And I did go by song for a long time.
And now I'm kind of going back to my real
name sin He. So it's syn it is sing He
because I was looking at your Instagram and you had
the post on your name and wanting to go back
(36:56):
to your original full name, which is but then you
you said that you were going by song, so I
was like, Okay, maybe she pronounced it, maybe it's sung here. Yeah,
because people were able to say Samsung, and so if
that's gonna be the closest thing to call me something
that you know how to say, because the EU is
a little bit difficult for understood. Yeah, and but Sung
(37:18):
sungam is Rising Sun and he means to make other
people's happy. So every day I try to live up
to my name. So well, suhey, you are doing an
amazing job. And right now I'm going to give you
a piece of happiness because I've made you your favorite dish.
And this is a segment that I do at the
end of our episode. I love cooking, obviously Mi chef,
(37:41):
so I cooked from all my guests and which is
why I asked you what you're toughly three favorite And
of course I had to pick the smelliest thing to make.
And I kind of feel bad, sorry, um Chest and
Chad that I think up your house with Chung Chung.
Oh my god, said Chungku Jung is like probably the
(38:03):
smelliest curran dish like ever. And I know created food
like can be very stinky, but like this one is
the next level stinky, but next level delicious too. But
it's Legit smells like feet, Yeah, but it's like apoix,
you know, like French cheese that's stinky, but people still
love it. Why can't we like chunkle jung and be
okay with it? Stink You're the better more flavor. I
(38:26):
hope you like it. Oh my god, I'm gonna real.
I am for real. I read this just for you.
Chungle jung. Can you just describe what chungku jung is,
Why it's your favorite dish, your fondest memory of it,
whatever you want to say. So chunku jung is fermented soybeans,
and the reason why I love it is because my
(38:47):
grandmother would always make it in my room. She obviously
favored me, and so she would ferment this cooked soybeans
on like a tray made with hay, and then she'll
cover it with newspapers and then blankets and then put
it in the warmest part of my room, and it'll
(39:07):
obviously stink up my room, and I really didn't care.
My grandmother would say that go taste test if it's ready,
so I would go under the blanket. Taste is, Grandma.
I think it needs like five more days. I love
it because the strength you tell chumkujong is done by
pulling the beans and there's like a string that's coming out.
And my friends always made fun of my hair because
(39:28):
it smells like chunkujong all the time, but I knew
the glorious day of getting rewarded with chungkujang made it
into stew. So a little bit different than twin jan, right,
tunjang is soy bean paste after you make soy sauce.
In Korea, at least, people call it Korea misa, but
(39:48):
if you really understand how it's made, it's actually not
true um and it's a wild fermentation versus control fermentation
that of Japanese misa and chambuta. I like it because
it's the beans are hell whole and then the slimy,
stringy almost like a spider web like thing just creates
a more luscious texture when it's boiled, and I just
(40:10):
love can I just like it's sorry, didn't interrupt you,
but now I'm like super intimidated because I literally bought
this chung jung like indiscrean supermarket. You know it's okay,
but yeah, but I know what it means though, because
it's so pungent, and nobody actually wants to make it
at home because you are gonna smell like that for
the next five days. Oh my god, yes, please please,
(40:34):
chadn't just gonna smell like chungles jung for the next
five days, which is hilarious. I mean you can smell
that from a mile away. Um okay. So I made
it a slightly different, like I almost made it like
a ting dungee gang. Yeah, but you can't hide the chunk.
Don't smell. You can't hide that smell. And also because
you can't get really good chung here. I see sitaki
(40:57):
mushrooms or pugo puss, I see raddishes, I see um
ucchini tofu. Oh my god, girl, m hmm. There's something
too of the broth. You made really yummy broth. Um.
I made it with anchovies and dried shrimp and and
(41:22):
all the stems of the mushroom. Fuck. Oh my god.
So it's like funcus cheese, you know, like blue cheese,
like three year age blue cheese. You know, like think
about that, like some people love it, some people don't.
It's an acquired taste. But if you love it, there's
(41:43):
nothing like it. And to even deepen that fermenty flavor,
I added blundy. That's that's where you're delicious broth too.
So Googunji is like a very very aged kimchi. And
I added that to the chunglejong because a lot of
chumleng does actually have Luigi in it too. Yeah, and
(42:04):
I say, like, you know, I know we people say aged,
but like ripe right, like you know, like ripe cheese
right like yeah, like like I know some people like
French people love ripe cheeses. That's like just running and
like funky. And when I did pop up in Paris,
(42:28):
that's what they loved. They like the funky stuff. Yeah,
are so blown away, it's like really like you like that,
It's like yeah, it's really good and it's like soul food.
I should have been a freaking cream restaurant in France,
in Paris. You want to do it together, let's do it.
I'll have the I'll have the wine, and I'll do
the um. In part of it, how you're eating? Do
(42:52):
you see do you hear how she's eating? That's how
you're susy eat? What I mean like like that s yeah? Sorry,
Oh my god. The whole slurping this is like chum
it's hot as fuck. That's good. Hot as in temperature.
(43:14):
It's not spicy. I added spicy. Yeah, I added a
little bit of peppers, but it's not that spicies. I
want it more spicy. I should have known. Okay, so
I should have known are we getting this? Because then
I would have worked up my appetite. I'm I'm pretty
sure you're a happetite worked already. It's like, I can't
(43:38):
believe you guys don't watching me eat because I love it.
It would be so painful for me if someone's eating
like this in front of me. Do you know this
is like my favorite thing in the world. You know
why I name my restaurant mack Blar. Mock Clark comes
from the word much bar. It's muck bar. Actually it's
not mak bar, it's muck bar. And bart comes around
(44:00):
the word muk bong because at the time of when
I was deciding on what's called my restaurant, I was
trying to think about, like what inspires me most about food,
and it's it's my love of watching people eat. Literally,
I love me to watching people eat. That's why we
both cook. Ye find your heart. I feel full watching
(44:23):
someone like just inhale food. That's what I'm watching the same.
I'm like, I'm loving this so much right now. She
literally is the entire thing. Isn't that what's expected? I
mean some people are like, especially the men on the shoot,
They're like, you know, it's I mean, it's so disrespectful
(44:44):
if I didn't finish it, speaking from a true like chef, yeah,
and I'll tell you if it wasn't good, make you
cry probably, And I'm just kidding. Oh my god, So yeah,
gonna let you finish the food. Thank you so much
for being here. She's eating too. I mean we're gonna go.
(45:06):
I'm gonna go to have a bowl now to Thanks
so much for having me. And we can find you
obviously at Korean Fusion yes um on Instagram or the
Korean Fusion dot com perfect and make sure you get
a copy of our brook everyday Korean And that's our show.
Thanks for listening. If you like what you heard, please
(45:26):
subscribe and leave us a five star review. Get Down
with Kaytown is a production of I Heeart Radio and
was created by our executive producer, Christopher Hasiotis and me
as to Troy. Follow me on all social media at
toy Bites and I'd also like to thank our producer,
editor and mixer Marcie to Pina. For more podcasts from
I Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
(45:49):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
South have a very specific identity when it comes to
culinary scene and Korean food, you know what, very very
similar because Korean food also is like surviving hunger, surviving poverty,
surviving winter, and eating you know, from nose to tail,
Like I think all of those things that really resonated
with me. When I first had Collared, it reminded me
(00:24):
of like number. It was like so soulful, like what
my grandmother would make with reddish greens, you know, Sigi
reminded me exactly of that um Also like chitlings, you know,
Korean's always eat you know, working constance or fried with
all the greens. Just all of those things I really
appreciated and I kind of wanted to respect the Southern culture.
(00:45):
Welcome to get down with kay Town. I'm your host
esther Troy. What's up, party people. It's another glorious day
down in the South here in Atlanta, and I've been
up since six am cooking up a storm, preparing another
great episode for you all. This morning I had the
pleasure of fire only meeting someone in flesh that I've
been following on Instagram for a long time, the founder
(01:06):
of the handle Korean Fusions. How he Lee, what's up?
How he? Hi? How are you? We finally meet in person?
I mean, we live in this era, right, right, I know.
I mean I'm sure this happens to a lot of people,
but it's amazing when you become friends through social media
but like never get to actually meet a person until
years later. It's such a great thing. No, I love it, right,
(01:28):
It's amazing. Like I just really love Instagram and social
media for this kind of stuff, like same connecting. Yeah,
because like you have the same interest and then you
can tell easily by just you know, looking at Instagram posts,
and then I don't know, I kind of get to
decide if I want to be friends with this person, right,
oh man, so judgmental just a little bit, and you
know you kind of grow together on Instagram, which I
(01:50):
think it's a really cool thing to see. It's community. Yeah, yeah, exactly,
it's community in a different way where you don't actually
have to be living close to each other. Yeah. I
think that's what I meant when I said, like, we
live in this era of like digital connectivity, which is
pretty cool. I love it. Okay, going back to its Honey,
you are the author of the cookbook Everyday Korean, a writer,
(02:13):
teacher with a PhD and human nutrition Born and raising
Korea study traditional Korean royal core cuisine, which we can
go into later. And you also teach cooking classes here
in Atlanta. Yes, Korean cooking classes. Korean cooking classes. I
usually do actually wine pairings together because I think it's
really interesting. You know, a lot of people say Korean
food is spicy, so you drink reasoning with it, you know,
(02:34):
it's like very dismissive. And I find it actually very
condescending because the person who's recommending the wine does not
know the cuisine well enough, you know, And so I
kind of wanted to debunk that myth by pairing, you know,
Sunday with champagne. I love that, Yeah, like beating bat
with like San sare you know. I kind of wanted
to break that stereotype barrier. Yeah, but this is not
(02:58):
your full time job though it is my side hustle. Yes,
I work as an epidemiologist, but I love it. I
love cooking so much. I every free time I have
I dedicate to cooking. That's amazing. So you took Korean
cooking classes in Korea for fun? Then it was just
for I was born and raised in Korea, and I
studied food and nutrition in college. And my mentor said,
(03:20):
if you are considering to study abroad, you really need
to learn real Korean cooking because everyone's going to be
asking you about Korean food. So on weekends I took
Korean royal court cuisine classes koreme juniory um at, Taste
of Korea, Okay, hungle gem and um. What is royal
court cuisine? Well, you know that Korea once had kingdom
(03:45):
and food for the king basically, and there are certain
rules and things that needs to oll. Elements that needs
to go on a dish, for example, And I often
use this example because I think it resonates with a
lot of them. So five color oban sec needs to
be present on the dish, which represents north, southeast, west
and center and center is yellow, which represents the king.
(04:08):
And if you think about it, not a lot of
food is yellow from the get go, and that's one
of the reasons why Koreans make yellow egg yolk crep
and egg white crep to represent those colors separately exactly,
and that's why you see them as garnish. A lot
in Korean cooking, especially Royal cuisine up exactly, love that,
love that, and um, well, how is your experience doing
(04:29):
these cooking classes, learning the Royal cuisine and how did
that affect your cooking now? Yeah, So the whole idea
was to maintain tradition from the olden recipes, you know,
and how it can be translated into modern um cooking.
Because a lot of the recipes were written for two
people who live in the palace, so it would be
(04:50):
two buckets of soy and you know, like a jug
of water if well water, and it just doesn't make sense.
So how can we make that for family of four?
So we need to retell break those recipes to two
cups of soy and you know, a cup of tablespoon
of you know. And over time, soy sauce also has changed.
Right back in the day, it was made from scratch
(05:11):
and it was a lot of saltier. Now it's you know,
factory made, and there's different levels too, exactly, So we
needed to we couldn't just scale it down proportionately. We
had to adjust back and forth to how much soy
we're going to put in for to really let this
this shine. And that was like a work in progress.
And it was kind of like a research group that
(05:33):
wanted to showcase certain recipes that were not just royal
but also like very traditional back in the day. How
can that be, you know, presented in the modern world
and it's that your cookbook everyday Korean? Or is that
just you or like your group? So that was the
group of Royal Court Cuisine. And then I came to the
(05:54):
the United States, okay, you know, for my PhD. And
I thought I knew how to cook currying food in now,
but all the ingredients were different. And so if I
were to make kimchi the same way I would in Korea,
it will be so mushy here because the cabbage is
not thick enough and it contains more water, so it
needed less of less salt, like less time to you know,
(06:14):
marinate in salt. All of that needs to be relearned.
And from that process I also figured out Americans use
oven because you know, Koreans don't have oven. Oh my gosh,
that was always a thing, like in Korea, none of
the kitchens have ovens exactly. So I thought, oh, I
can make kaibe jean, you know, brave short ribs in
the oven, Like how cool is that? Mind blown. So
(06:35):
I kind of basically, you know, progressed in American kitchen
set up with very traditional Korean cooking in mind, and
that's how it became everyday Korean where it's not threatening
for American home cooks to you know, create Korean dishes,
some very traditional but some Korean flavors that is um
(06:57):
more familiar to American population and like brugogi meatballs for example,
or like kimchi ke so you know, like things like
that that people have eaten before and add coucha karu
or cong like sneak it in so that people can
use those Korean condiments that they committed to like every day.
(07:17):
That was my thought, So hence the birth of Korean Fusion. Yes,
I love that you have that handle. By the way,
can we talk about your Instagram a little bit, just
because like obviously it's an iconic Instagram when it comes
to Korean fig and your dishes are so beautiful, but
not all Korean all the time. Can you like talk
(07:39):
about how you started the Instagram and how it became
like a real community to you. Yeah, for sure. So
I started off Korean Fusion as I was working on
my cookbook and I really wanted to see, like what
recipes people want to learn how to make, So it's
almost like a hand in hand. You created it for
research and then it just became less exactly yes, and
(08:00):
I would ask questions like what are you afraid of
when it comes to making Korean food? You know, like, oh,
people were saying, I'm really worried that kim chi jar
would explode. It's okay. I wanted to really incorporate that
into the book, that it's not always going to explode.
Here are tips on like how to burp you know
you're kim chi, or use like a plastic container versus
jar when you're beginning to ferment, you know, things like that.
(08:21):
And then the whole fusion thing. I know, a fusion
is the effort, but I really like, I don't know
what there's not. It's it's not a negative word, you know,
I personally don't think so, because how else are you
going to explain the marriage of you know, food combination
that tastes good just because previous generation have messed it up. Like,
(08:42):
I don't think that connotation has to carry on. So
for example, my co author Kim Tonay, she lived in
France for a long time. So whenever I make something,
she's like, oh, if we add crime fresh, I think
it would be really delicious, you know. And to me,
that's a true collaboration of two delicious things, you know,
married into one. And like couchan Krema that I have
(09:03):
on my book one of the most popular things because
it's so easy. It's cram fresh, mix it up and
you use it as a creditative. Yeah, and you know
what if two things come together and it tastes amazing,
Like who cares what you know, what where it came
from and what the word is. But yeah, it's true.
There's no other word that can translate to fusion, I think,
(09:27):
so right, Yeah, so I'm owning it proudly. Obviously you're
doing a great job. Thank you. Um so, yes, So
talking about that back to your cookbook just or just
your handle and like so you were speaking to your
audience and already getting those tips before even writing the book, right,
(09:49):
using Instagram as a platform, yes, and then interacting with people,
you know, like I begin with like five followers, you know,
and that community grew actually really really strong, and those
people that interacted with are still like my fans to
this day, and they still give me feedback, and like,
I feel like I know them personally now because it's
been over like five six years. And you know, as
(10:13):
I grow and as my followers grow, I understood that
true Korean food, as much as it's important, I thought,
you know, that's a little too foreign for a lot
of my followers, and I really want I learned that
I need to kind of help them walk a little
before they can run when it comes to Korean food.
(10:34):
And so I created dish like kimchi slaw and people
call it like gateway draw up to Korean food because
you know, it's in a slaw form. People can put
it on tacos. It's a side dish for you know,
good Fourth of July barbecue party, tastes good. And then
what it's really kimchi, you know, and I want to
know a little bit more about kimchi. Then, like I thought,
that's that was necessary and perhaps missing at that specific
(10:57):
time point, um when Korean we've got really popular. I
don't know if you recall it, kimchi was on everything. Yeah,
kimchi on a burger, kims on a hot dog. Still
is it's still like right, But I also thought, well, yeah,
It's okay to put kimchi anywhere you want to, but
like you need to make kimchi the right way first.
And that's how I felt really passionately about when some
(11:18):
of the media outlets would have kimchi recipe with like siracha. Yeah,
like I said, exactly, it's it's like, okay, like this
cannot happen. I really need to write a book where
it's showcases, you know, a range of kimchi, because like
I believe, kimchi's like pickle. You can make kimchi with everything.
Is that what you're working on right now? Are you
(11:38):
working on a kimchi book? No, it's actually in the
every Day koreans A kim To chapter, okay, where there's
like easiest kimchi slaw to all the way to like
really super legit you know, petchi kimchi. Yeah, and there's
everything in between, the cucumbers, turnips, and I actually just
give everyday Korean kimchi paste where you can put it
on everything like green mangoes, hia onion, you know, because
(12:02):
you can really came to fight anything you want, exactly.
I love the word by the way, right, So do
you think that your location or geographically where you are
(12:23):
obviously you're in Atlanta. Do you think that had a
lot of effect on the way you cook or your
cuisine or yeah, I mean for sure because South have
a very specific identity when it comes to culinary scene, right,
and sure identity and cuisine and Korean food, you know what,
very very similar because Korean food also is like surviving hunger,
(12:47):
surviving poverty, surviving winter and eating you know, from nose
to tail. Like I think all of those things that
really resonated with me. When I first had collars, it
reminded me of like number and it was like so soulful,
like what my grandmother would make with like reddish greens,
you know, higgy. It reminded me exactly of that. Um.
(13:08):
Also like chiplings, you know Koreans always eat, you know,
porking testes, you know, stir fried with all the greens exactly. Yeah,
and just all of those things I really appreciated and
I kind of wanted to respect the Southern culture, you know,
like even fried chicken. Um. But also I kind of
use that as my way in to this community because um,
(13:31):
whenever I do Korean fried chicken pop up, for example,
like lines out the door because Americans are very familiar it.
Lands Lantern is very very familiar with what fried chicken is.
But there's no judgment when it comes to different kinds
of fried chicken, right because they just love fried chicken
in any form. And I think they see or I
(13:54):
see it as an opportunity to, Okay, here's something that
you're very familiar with that we also eat Koreans. But
then here are other foods that Koreans eat that you
might want to try. So it was a very interesting
platform for me to use that anchor point of like
intersection between Korean food and the Southern food to introduce true, true,
(14:14):
true Korean flavors. And I can see guests you know,
excited or like concerned and scared and you know, but
tasted and just very I don't know, casual, you know,
comfortable setting. I got returning customers for different kinds of
pop ups when I did like really legit just full
(14:34):
blown Korean flavors, Like I see guests who came to
my fried chicken pop up, and I think that's like
a really important step that I was able to observe
over time and gain a little more strength in introducing
really traditional dishes that are not common in restaurants. You know.
I love that because I feel like if you were
(14:56):
in l A or New York and you landed in
those cities, it would have been very different for you.
But you landed in Atlanta, and you're really just like
spokesperson and this person who's like introducing Korean flavors, this
is like kind of similar to what I do because
I always find that there's always like an entry point,
(15:17):
there's always like a gateway. And you introduced Korean flavors,
maybe in the disguise form in the beginning, but in
the end, your goal is to like feed them in
testines or stuff like crazy dish that or like k junk,
which is like marinated raw crab. I actually did that.
Um it was my grandma pop up. And I did
(15:38):
marinated shrimp, which I mean, you don't see that anywhere,
and it's like my death row food. It's the last
thing I want to eat. Yeah, it's so good, and
you know with white rice, and I love Young exactly.
And then just like suck the head right, and it's
also Southern car culture to suck the head of the stream.
(15:59):
Can you describe what's who Young is? For our listeners
that might not know sure, So say what John starts
with very fresh raw shrimp. It's cured in this brine
made with all the aromatics you can possibly think of, ginger, onion, garlic,
and all the sweet things like apples, oranges, lemon, in
(16:20):
soy based brine with a little bit of rice wine,
and you boil it and then you have to chill it.
You pour it over the shrimp and then put it
in the fridge for twenty four hours. And then after
twenty four hours you have to drain this soy brine,
boil it all over again to kill any unnecessary bacteria
that might be growing, chill it again, and then pour
(16:41):
it back onto the shrimp. And you repeat there for
three days in a row. And labor of labor of love. Indeed,
so you have to have like a timer set for
like every twenty four hours, and you can't go out,
you know, you have to be there for the shrimp
um and it becomes this jellyfied shrimp flesh that my
co author cleverly calls it the sea jelly, the jelly
(17:06):
sea jelly. And the texture just changes, yeah, the strip
and it just melts in your mouth in a such
a pleasant way, and then the all the row and
the gunk that's in the head becomes also jellified and
becomes a sweet, salty, ocean e deliciousness, basically so good.
(17:27):
So it's similar to kjong, which is a soy fermented crab. Yeah,
but I feel like jong is something like a little
bit new right, Yes, Like it's a modern a modern
dish indeed, and it's easier to eat and easier to serve,
and it doesn't take as long as kidjoun because kidjo
usually takes up to seven days. Awesome. Kidun could be
(17:49):
a little bit like messy and like all the ship,
but like, hey, it's like easier to peel and it
gives a similar level of sensation. I love it. Now
I'm hungry. I love talking about food. So going a
little bit back, because you spoke about your pop ups
a little bit, but can you elaborate on your pop ups?
(18:09):
And so how did it all start? Man? So my
book came out and then I was doing cooking demos
and more people wanted to taste my food, and you know,
my friends were like, I will pay you, can you
cook for me and my friends? And it's like really okay,
and it kind of evolved, um, but I think my
biggest opportunity that I was very fortunate to get was
(18:34):
wine community really embracing um my Instagram and my cooking
because I've been doing that. As I was working on
my cookbook, I would feat drinking wine and you know,
come up with good pairings and then a lot of
somilais you know around the world like got really interested
in like my pairing techniques and then so they would
invite me to do pop ups. So I actually started
(18:55):
off doing international pop ups first and like Copenhagen and
Soul Yeah, the um actually like go Togo like in
their winery, and I did it in London, you know, Paris,
like I did more or less European because that's where
the wines are at exactly. So it was gonna be
like a wine pop up right with Korean food. And
(19:15):
if you think about it, food people might not be
drinking wine, but wine people always eat. Yes. Yes, I
love that. Yes. So that's how it all started. And
then Atlanta here UM, a restaurant called Amano, really embraced
me from the very very beginning. He would you like
to try pop up here in Atlanta, and so I
got every last Sunday of the month, you know, as
(19:36):
my slot to do different pop ups. And I really
wanted to get Korean food known. And I when I
say Koream food like proper Korean food that I think
is proper um. But I started, I had to start
off a little slow, you know. I started with, like
I said, Korean fried chicken, and I did it like
three consecutive times and realized that my soul was like
(19:58):
like sucking out of my body because I'm like, I'm
not here to sling chicken, you know all night long.
That's not really what I'm trying to do pop up for.
And that's when I really incorporated like uh seated dinners
and you know, all the themed based and sequential like
dining experience where each dish come out, everybody in the
(20:21):
dining room eat the same time, and I come out
and explain why I made that dish. So in the
springtime it will be all the number um. And then
you know, when my was my grandmother's ninety nine birthday,
I did all the dishes that she taught me how
to make, like you know, foraging, so with different concepts
foraging fermenting, salting, drying. So I've made acorn jelly because
(20:43):
I remember, you know, foraging acorn, you know, around my
apartment complex, growing up with my grandmother and making acron jelly.
And she's the one who taught me how to make
tin jan and kujong from scratch, you know, and like
drawing certain vegetables just so that we can have it,
you know, all about the winter and just things like that.
I wanted to honor her teachings. So it was an
(21:06):
opportunity where everybody got to hear all my story. And
I think that's the add on to my pop up.
It's not just food. But people think it's a show
that they're watching. It is an educational platform where they
get to learn about very detail and specific things about
certain Korean dishes, and it's a story, your story exactly.
Food is still personal, you know what I mean, especially
(21:29):
when it comes to like the cult cultural heritage sense,
like Korean food especially. I feel like every person's Korean
food is obviously a little bit different, like especially as
a chef, right, I think that's just so beautiful. And
I love the story of your your grandma because that's
how I learned to cook and it's it's different obviously
(21:50):
because you probably learned in Korea, but I like learned
here in like New Jersey, and I love that. So
your pop ups and you're still doing it. Now. Have
you ever thought about opening a restaurant? I get that
question a lot, but I understand the importance of hospitality
and you know, accommodating customers, and I just I know
I can't do that. It's a different realm. Like people say, oh,
(22:13):
customers always right, and like that's bullshit. I'm always right.
I'm always right. It's your food, so like chefy that way.
It's careae food, Like don't tell me to make that
dish like vegan, like it's not possible, Like just don't
eat it, don't come don't don't come by. And I
know this attitude can be a very like you know,
throwing off fish, but and not inclusive. And I don't
(22:36):
mean to be like that. I really want to use
it as like the way I learned Korean food is
very respectful of the environment, very sustainable, and we're not
the type of people who would eat sixteen ound steak
for one person for one meal, like that's for family
of four for four days. You know, and like I know,
sustainability is very very important to me, and that's why
(22:58):
I want to utilize like all the parts that people
don't want, you know, like all the awfuls or all
the you know, like feeds and like tongue and tail,
like people don't want. That's a lot of cream quisine. Yeah,
and make that delicious. That's truly a chef, right if
I can make something so awful looking delicious versus like
something so perfect like tenderloin, you know, like who's a
(23:19):
better chef? And I just don't want to compromise the
flavor that I want to preserve. Therefore, restaurant probably is
not the best, you know idea in the world. I mean,
some restaurants still do it right. They do. Know it's
a tail and it depends. But that's it's very difficult
(23:40):
to do obviously. It's just and you know what, I
I didn't mean to cut you off, but like a
good restaurant, it's consistency. You have to have the same
dish every single time. It's a business in the end. Yeah,
and for me, I'll probably like die in the corner,
like shriveled, because like I want to make something new
something different every time. Your ideal restaurant would be like
(24:03):
a ten seat restaurant that tamed the menu changes every day. Yeah,
you know what my dream is like. I mean, somebody
will probably like steal my story now, but I want
to have what I call dinner and bed. So it's
not bed and breakfast, but you eat dinner first and
you get to bed because you will be drunk and
(24:23):
hammered and you shouldn't be driving. But like you know,
it's like a destination worth visiting, and then you eat
and then you know, you just crashed there. Yeah, Ben
and dinner kind of like a bed and breakfast, so
it's like your whole yea, you just cook whatever I want, Yeah,
and you're you know for see. That kind of reminds
me of like huzuchi, right or yeah bug, can you
(24:47):
describe what membug or Hazu mean? Buk is like very
similar to airbnb concept these days, right, Um, it's been
around in Korea for forever that ever. Exactly, it is
a form of housing where somebody opens their home and
you get to crash in one of their rooms and
then you get food the next morning or the night
of Yeah, you have to cook for your your your guests,
(25:10):
and you just like kind of book on the fly.
You just like go whatever is available that day, you know, right,
And these are like real homes and this happened like
the countryside of Korea always. Yeah, you just like walk
into a random person. I mean, you'll give me macka right. Oh,
I love it. I love it. It's hilarious. What about
(25:45):
the budding Korean population in Atlanta right now? Crazy? Can
we talk about that for a second, because what is this? Like? Why? How? Well,
first of all, I don't know if you know, but
Georgia apparently the third most spoken language in Georgia is Korean.
That's that's freaking crazy. Yeah, And there's a huge Korean
(26:07):
population just you know, a few miles north of Atlanta
called Duluth, and that whole region a lot of Koreans.
It's they've always been there. But I have they always
been there or did it just come come about in
the past like ten years like how you know what?
Don't quote me on it, but as far as I
was told, they were always there. And I think with
(26:27):
the growing popularity of k pop and Korean you know, cinema,
people want to know more about Korean food in general,
because that's how you know, that's how you get to
learn the culture, right, you listen to the music, you
watch the TV, and now you want to eat their food. Um.
And there are really great Korean restaurants in Atlanta, you know,
(26:47):
like even inside the city, and people get to taste
it more, people want it more. And that's just how
culture lives on, right. And it's it's growing by the
day because I hear from like all sorts of angles nowadays,
like oh, this person is from Atlanta. Oh they're moving
to Atlanta. Um. And I just like meet so many
(27:08):
Korean people from Atlanta now and I thought it was
really random a few years years ago, but now it's
just become such a norm. And I've just recently heard
that Atlanta has I think it's like the third largest
Korean population in the States, like obviously New York in
l A and then Atlanta start. I mean, that's just
(27:28):
like crazy, like in the South here, like I love it. Well,
what I've been told and I'm not so sure if
it's true, but my what I heard is that Koreans
who became pretty big in New York or New York
I think, or Chicago wants like backyard right now, they've
made it and they want a backyard. They want space,
(27:49):
and Atlanta is that place where you can get you know,
you can get a dog, you know, you have a
backyard and you have you know, two car garage, and
you can go your own vegetables. Yeah, and like things
that is near impossible in city like New York. Exactly. Yeah,
obviously that's why they say that Koreans love to retire
(28:11):
in Atlanta. Exactly. I think, yeah, this is like a
retire Korean and this is your city now and you're
you're what's the future like for you? And like what
what do you have planned? Do you have? Atlanta is
growing at me and I appreciate how people are growing
with me um in the scene, food scene, wine scene,
(28:32):
and every time I just try to do a different
pop up. So this new up and coming one is Parasite. Yes,
you just talked about this. I love it. Yeah, And
you know, something that's relevant every time. And we don't
really want to give people the opportunity to understand Korean
culture through food, and we're actually showcasing the entirety of
food that shows shows on UM Parasite, not just to Okay,
(28:55):
can we talk about your different dishes that you're gonna do,
because I think I read it obviously you're doing jap
because that's the main thing I mean iconic did. So
I'm going to start off with huaptang, which is like
drunken muscles because there's a scene with like soju right
by the convenience store when the guy when the guys
(29:15):
are meeting like two boys and he's offering the tutor job.
Exactly were they eating that? I didn't even know that
they weren't eating that, but they were drinking soju, And
for me soju it's like, okay, you're drinking sojo, you
need like suit cook and that's huaptang. So that's why
I'm doing drunken muscles with cooked with soju. And then
there's a whole when the whole family goes into Kissa
(29:36):
Shitan love that part. Yeah, yeah, And this cultural significance
might not have come through in the movie if you're
not Korean, and I really want to use that platform
to explain what that meant, Like Kissaitan, like how fast paced?
Can we talk about Kisa? She done real quickly? Sure
that our listeners that don't know, Yeah, so kisa hi
Kisa means like driver, like usually the taxi drivers or
(29:57):
bus drivers. And Shipdang is a restaurant and because they
usually don't have a lot of time to sit down
and have a real meal, it's like a buffet style
and then you just pay a certain amount, usually very cheap,
like three dollars. You get a tray and you just
pick up whatever you want to eat. You eat, you leave,
you go back to your job. And it's just one
of those very low brow, you know, the dishes bunch
(30:21):
on and all the dishes change every day. Whatever is
you know, available at the market. Yeah, very commoner food
and kind of like what you'd be eating at home.
So it's nothing fancy or anything like that. And we're
gonna kind of replicate some of the dishes that are
often seen in Punch, but like different kinds of bunch
(30:43):
and you know, like, oh, I love I grew up
on that ship Yeah, is like a Korean meatball that's
been like kind of coated and egg and then fried. Yeah,
oh I want to now. And then like so you know,
like the kink sauces that's like very pink like pink yeah,
very retro you know, that's also caught on a bias
(31:07):
and then like egg and they can. Yeah, so things
like that, and um, it's like my childhood food exactly,
you know, and nothing fancy but homie and just kind
of true. I love that you're doing that at your
Parisite pop up because that's scene. It's very memorable for
me too. Yeah, and so like sound true and you know,
(31:29):
cut Jetty and things like that, and then chop out
guy of course. And then we're gonna have a peach
dish as a dessert. Oh, you have to have that
iconic peachy. So we're gonna have You're gonna still everybody's
heart with um and peach Georgia peach, right makes sense.
We're gonna have something to finish with peach. And then
we're gonna have as based drink of course, because like
(31:54):
their messchest scene for the tutor and then also at
the very end when the Oh it might be a spoiler,
but when the guy drinks the messire before he goes on. Yeah,
make sure it's like such an iconic symbol in that movie. Exactly. Sure.
It is a Korean plum by the way, and um,
(32:15):
it's like the green plum that's superstour that usually is
fermented or made into liquor, liquor or a syrup. Right,
very important part of Korean cuisine. Yeah, so all those
things will be featured in this pop up. And I
don't know, I just want to use this platform to
like really rehash like what it means, because we were
(32:39):
just talking about like how angry or it should never
be called rammed on or whatever that is, Like, no,
someone just made up that word, by the way, like
the translator, the translator made up that word, and where
did that word even come from? Yeah, and it's just
causing freaking havoc because it's creating more confusion people. I
(33:00):
wouldn't know chap, sure, but people still don't know ramdon,
like the fun what is that? No, ramdon came from
like Ramian and udon, Right, it's so random, see what
we did there. But no, it's not called randon. It
should never be called ramdon. First of all, it's not raman,
(33:21):
it's not udon, right. Yeah. Also like don't butcher, oh
word that is specific for a dish? Yeah, like you
can't translate the name of a dish. Yeah, I mean chappa.
Of course, it's not a real word. It's Chappa get,
which is one specific instant ramen noodles in Korea, and
(33:42):
no Gurdi, which is a completely different, you know, instant
ramen noodle in Korea, and it's mixed together. The whole
concept is that they're both instant Raman is so cheap
and this rich person wanted to have it. You know.
It's like such a you know, low brow dish, so
that like she ends up putting you know, expensive beef
on it. But if you say rammed on, it's a
(34:06):
quote unquote English speaking audience have a certain expectation what
ramen should look like it. Butcher's basically the whole concept
of Joppa gouty and that's seed in general exactly, and
like the symbolic meaning of why that does just even
in the movie exactly. So okay, not to get so deep,
but yes, getting so deep, yes, because this movie obviously
(34:28):
symbolizes a lot of what Korea is very you know,
class oriented, and you have to look a certain way
and you have to behave a certain way, and everybody's basically,
you know, acting and they're feeding onto each other. Right. Anyways,
you guys need to go watch the movie if you
(34:49):
haven't yet like who are you? First of all, I
mean it's it's a great movie. It gets it makes
you think quite a bit. Um. I actually thought it
was because I did a lot of touring when I
was in college. Oh that's right, yeah, I mean that's
like it's such an iconic job to write as a
college student, you know, and if you are anywhere near
being self sufficient, you have to And I remember like
(35:10):
doing seven eight, you know, tutoring job like a given
day or given month, you know. And I've seen very
very rich people like wow, you know, and you went
to those types of homes. Yeah, it's really resonative with me.
When when these two brother sister combo like uses their
(35:30):
name Kevin Jessica so funny because so symbolic, it's very pretentious.
Did you did you have that name to did you
have like an English name? But to me, that speaks
volume because of how Koreans perceive America or you know,
just like a whole United States, and that's something more
(35:51):
prestigious than their Korean name, right, And when I came
to the United States, I debated whether or not I
was gonna have a you know, English name or keep
my Korean name, and a lot of people actually suggested, like, oh,
you really should just go by song because that's easier
for people to remember. And I got this advice from
(36:12):
Korean American professors here in the US. Right, So I
really debated, like what what do I do? What do
I do? Do I like go by Jennifer? Right? Was
that your like choice of names? My choice of name
was Marianne because that was my French name when I
lived in the United States, and that was like the
closest English name I was told for the longest time.
And Obama became the president, I was like, if a
(36:34):
baroque can be president of the United States, I can.
I can be Singhali and just be fine. And that's
what I did, and I'm proud of proud that I did.
And I did go by song for a long time.
And now I'm kind of going back to my real
name sin He. So it's syn it is sing He
because I was looking at your Instagram and you had
the post on your name and wanting to go back
(36:56):
to your original full name, which is but then you
you said that you were going by song, so I
was like, Okay, maybe she pronounced it, maybe it's sung here. Yeah,
because people were able to say Samsung, and so if
that's gonna be the closest thing to call me something
that you know how to say, because the EU is
a little bit difficult for understood. Yeah, and but Sung
(37:18):
sungam is Rising Sun and he means to make other
people's happy. So every day I try to live up
to my name. So well, suhey, you are doing an
amazing job. And right now I'm going to give you
a piece of happiness because I've made you your favorite dish.
And this is a segment that I do at the
end of our episode. I love cooking, obviously Mi chef,
(37:41):
so I cooked from all my guests and which is
why I asked you what you're toughly three favorite And
of course I had to pick the smelliest thing to make.
And I kind of feel bad, sorry, um Chest and
Chad that I think up your house with Chung Chung.
Oh my god, said Chungku Jung is like probably the
(38:03):
smelliest curran dish like ever. And I know created food
like can be very stinky, but like this one is
the next level stinky, but next level delicious too. But
it's Legit smells like feet, Yeah, but it's like apoix,
you know, like French cheese that's stinky, but people still
love it. Why can't we like chunkle jung and be
okay with it? Stink You're the better more flavor. I
(38:26):
hope you like it. Oh my god, I'm gonna real.
I am for real. I read this just for you.
Chungle jung. Can you just describe what chungku jung is,
Why it's your favorite dish, your fondest memory of it,
whatever you want to say. So chunku jung is fermented soybeans,
and the reason why I love it is because my
(38:47):
grandmother would always make it in my room. She obviously
favored me, and so she would ferment this cooked soybeans
on like a tray made with hay, and then she'll
cover it with newspapers and then blankets and then put
it in the warmest part of my room, and it'll
(39:07):
obviously stink up my room, and I really didn't care.
My grandmother would say that go taste test if it's ready,
so I would go under the blanket. Taste is, Grandma.
I think it needs like five more days. I love
it because the strength you tell chumkujong is done by
pulling the beans and there's like a string that's coming out.
And my friends always made fun of my hair because
(39:28):
it smells like chunkujong all the time, but I knew
the glorious day of getting rewarded with chungkujang made it
into stew. So a little bit different than twin jan, right,
tunjang is soy bean paste after you make soy sauce.
In Korea, at least, people call it Korea misa, but
(39:48):
if you really understand how it's made, it's actually not
true um and it's a wild fermentation versus control fermentation
that of Japanese misa and chambuta. I like it because
it's the beans are hell whole and then the slimy,
stringy almost like a spider web like thing just creates
a more luscious texture when it's boiled, and I just
(40:10):
love can I just like it's sorry, didn't interrupt you,
but now I'm like super intimidated because I literally bought
this chung jung like indiscrean supermarket. You know it's okay,
but yeah, but I know what it means though, because
it's so pungent, and nobody actually wants to make it
at home because you are gonna smell like that for
the next five days. Oh my god, yes, please please,
(40:34):
chadn't just gonna smell like chungles jung for the next
five days, which is hilarious. I mean you can smell
that from a mile away. Um okay. So I made
it a slightly different, like I almost made it like
a ting dungee gang. Yeah, but you can't hide the chunk.
Don't smell. You can't hide that smell. And also because
you can't get really good chung here. I see sitaki
(40:57):
mushrooms or pugo puss, I see raddishes, I see um
ucchini tofu. Oh my god, girl, m hmm. There's something
too of the broth. You made really yummy broth. Um.
I made it with anchovies and dried shrimp and and
(41:22):
all the stems of the mushroom. Fuck. Oh my god.
So it's like funcus cheese, you know, like blue cheese,
like three year age blue cheese. You know, like think
about that, like some people love it, some people don't.
It's an acquired taste. But if you love it, there's
(41:43):
nothing like it. And to even deepen that fermenty flavor,
I added blundy. That's that's where you're delicious broth too.
So Googunji is like a very very aged kimchi. And
I added that to the chunglejong because a lot of
chumleng does actually have Luigi in it too. Yeah, and
(42:04):
I say, like, you know, I know we people say aged,
but like ripe right, like you know, like ripe cheese
right like yeah, like like I know some people like
French people love ripe cheeses. That's like just running and
like funky. And when I did pop up in Paris,
(42:28):
that's what they loved. They like the funky stuff. Yeah,
are so blown away, it's like really like you like that,
It's like yeah, it's really good and it's like soul food.
I should have been a freaking cream restaurant in France,
in Paris. You want to do it together, let's do it.
I'll have the I'll have the wine, and I'll do
the um. In part of it, how you're eating? Do
(42:52):
you see do you hear how she's eating? That's how
you're susy eat? What I mean like like that s yeah? Sorry,
Oh my god. The whole slurping this is like chum
it's hot as fuck. That's good. Hot as in temperature.
(43:14):
It's not spicy. I added spicy. Yeah, I added a
little bit of peppers, but it's not that spicies. I
want it more spicy. I should have known. Okay, so
I should have known are we getting this? Because then
I would have worked up my appetite. I'm I'm pretty
sure you're a happetite worked already. It's like, I can't
(43:38):
believe you guys don't watching me eat because I love it.
It would be so painful for me if someone's eating
like this in front of me. Do you know this
is like my favorite thing in the world. You know
why I name my restaurant mack Blar. Mock Clark comes
from the word much bar. It's muck bar. Actually it's
not mak bar, it's muck bar. And bart comes around
(44:00):
the word muk bong because at the time of when
I was deciding on what's called my restaurant, I was
trying to think about, like what inspires me most about food,
and it's it's my love of watching people eat. Literally,
I love me to watching people eat. That's why we
both cook. Ye find your heart. I feel full watching
(44:23):
someone like just inhale food. That's what I'm watching the same.
I'm like, I'm loving this so much right now. She
literally is the entire thing. Isn't that what's expected? I
mean some people are like, especially the men on the shoot,
They're like, you know, it's I mean, it's so disrespectful
(44:44):
if I didn't finish it, speaking from a true like chef, yeah,
and I'll tell you if it wasn't good, make you
cry probably, And I'm just kidding. Oh my god, So yeah,
gonna let you finish the food. Thank you so much
for being here. She's eating too. I mean we're gonna go.
(45:06):
I'm gonna go to have a bowl now to Thanks
so much for having me. And we can find you
obviously at Korean Fusion yes um on Instagram or the
Korean Fusion dot com perfect and make sure you get
a copy of our brook everyday Korean And that's our show.
Thanks for listening. If you like what you heard, please
(45:26):
subscribe and leave us a five star review. Get Down
with Kaytown is a production of I Heeart Radio and
was created by our executive producer, Christopher Hasiotis and me
as to Troy. Follow me on all social media at
toy Bites and I'd also like to thank our producer,
editor and mixer Marcie to Pina. For more podcasts from
I Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
(45:49):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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