May 27, 2026 • 53 mins
Sarah Ahn documents her mother, Nam Soon's, Korean home cooking with stunning imagery and detailed recipes in her debut book, "UMMA: A Korean Mom's Kitchen Wisdom and 100 Family Recipes." (America's Test Kitchen). The family's story, from Sarah's parents emigrating from Korea and settling in Southern California, is intertwined with Nam Soon's home-cooked recipes and kitchen secrets. The book portrays a beautiful bond between mother and daughter through cherished family recipes.
Fearless Fabulous You is broadcast live Wednesdays at 12 Noon ET on W4WN Radio - Women 4 Women Network (www.w4wn.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).
Fearless Fabulous You Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
Fearless Fabulous You is broadcast live Wednesdays at 12 Noon ET on W4WN Radio - Women 4 Women Network (www.w4wn.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).
Fearless Fabulous You Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
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(00:21):
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Speaker 2 (00:44):
Welcome to Feerless Fabulous You. I am your host, Melanie Young.
I love bringing you the stories of empowering women who
are living their lives to the fullest and doing things
they enjoy, and today is one of those stories. I
love to eat. You know, I have a show, The
Connected Table, which documents our culinary adventures around the world. David,
(01:06):
my husband and I we love Korean food, We love
all Asian food, and frankly, when we go back to
our former home in New York, we make a beeline
down the Chinatown into Koreatown and forget all those famous
restaurants you know of European nature because we go to
Europe a lot. We love going to the wonderful Asian
neighborhoods and having authentic food. And apparently we're not alone
(01:32):
because I read that Korean food in particular has had
a ten percent growth in restaurants and interests in the
past here, which is kind of interesting. And there are
a lot of Michelin restaurants that our Korean and wonderful,
wonderful small places that you have to discover with friends. Today.
We're not going to talk about dining out though, We're
(01:53):
going to be talking about cooking in and we're going
to talk about a wonderful story between a daughter and
her mother and coming together to cook and bring you
the wonderful traditions that each grew up with in different generations.
My guest today is Sarah On. She has written a
(02:14):
book with her mother, whose name is nom Un soon On,
so Sarah On and Non soon On. The book is
called Omah, which means mother in Korean. I have learned
because I don't know the language. Unfortunately, this book, which
is stunning. It's been produced by America's Test Kitchen, has
(02:35):
just all the perfectly tested recipes and images and stories
that you would expect from any books coming out from
America's test Kitchen. It just so happens that Sarah On
is a digital storyteller and she created Honest Kitchen ah
n e s t Kitchen Final on Instagram. It's got
over seven hundred thousand followers, and she there she shares
(02:58):
her Korean heritage to create American heritage with her followers
and the stories of cooking and watching her mother cook,
which she has documented beautifully both on TikTok and Instagram
and also in this book Uma. Sarah is also the
digital I don't know what the term is nowadays, is
a digital marketing specialist content specialists. Thank you. She has
(03:22):
one of those great jobs that we love and would
like to all have, telling stories to get more people
like you listeners interested in getting behind the kitchen and
stove and cooking, but also going out exploring and expanding
her palate. So, Sarah, welcome to the show, and congratulations
on your book. It's your first book, right.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Thank you so much, Melanie. Yes, it's my first book
and I'm extremely proud and honored to share about it
with you.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Well, it's a very touching book. Before we went on air,
I told her that my mother didn't cook. I don't
have any warm, fussing memories of cooking with my mother
other than literally one dish, which is like a pavlova,
and it's that one dish. But I do have collections
of family recipes for my grandmother, which I treasure. You
have taken the story of your family and woven it
(04:14):
through the story of food to create this book. Let's
first talk about your family because you were born here
in the United States, as I understand, correct me if
I'm wrong, but your parents immigrated over from Korea. Talk
to us about that story and when this will happened
(04:34):
and their background.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Yeah, so I was born and raised in southern California,
but my parents immigrated here, my dad in the eighties,
my mom in the nineties, and they came here because
Korea it could be a bit rigid there where they're overworked.
For example, my mom worked at a entertainment ages agency
and she worked probably sixty hours a week. And if
(05:02):
you know, it was a type of culture where if
your boss doesn't leave the office, you're not allowed to leave.
When you apply for these jobs, you had to submit
a picture of yourself. If your boss and team wants
to go out for a little get together after dinner.
You have to go, and you're kind of shunned upon
if you don't. And it's a very rigid society as
much as it is fun as well. And so they
(05:25):
came to America to pursue the American dream, and they
also came here because they do prefer the education system
in America. Then Korea it's a bit rigid. And then
they just had to start over once they came to
America where they gave up their office jobs. My dad
was an engineer in Korea and today my mom used
to own a restaurant here and my dad currently paints
(05:46):
homes for a living.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Wow, So they really started over and had to start
from scratching and southern California. We're in southern California, Sarah,
Orange County, specifically right below La Okay beautiful area. Pricey
it must be, you know, they had to start over.
And and so frugality was very important in your family
and using every aspect of food, and you talk about
(06:11):
that in the book and write about it. There's several
I mean, the book is a book of your family's
story and heritage, and there was one chapters I was
flipping through and I'm flipping through lots of different ones,
and it's called the Luxury of eggs. And I'm going
to tell you why this resonated with me, particularly today, Sarah.
As you know, there's an avian flu and a terrible
(06:32):
egg shortage. It's impacting everybody here in the United States.
So eggs have become a luxury, and you write about
how they were luxury over there, and you know, I
would kind of ranted today about maybe they should cancel
the Easter egg hunt roll because eggs are such a luxury.
Your mom cooked, you cooked, You lived with them, and
you cooked it home. You ate home cooked meals every day.
(06:53):
So talk to me and share with us some of
your earliest memories of dishes that just you love and
we're seasoned with love.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Yeah. So my mom, like myself, she grew up with
a mother who cooked with love, and so that's something
she's always been familiar with. And her mom expressed her
love through that way by cooking for them and through
the food. And my mom she naturally picked up on cooking.
It's just kind of ingrained in creating culture where it's
very common to cook at home. Certainly, not all but
(07:26):
it is a big part of our our culture, our
cuisine and cooking, and ever since my mom was a
young woman, particularly in her thirties, her mom noted that
she has this talent for cooking and that she hasnt
sonmut is flavor of hands. It's where your hands flavor
the food in a way that someone else who's following
the same recipe can't really replicate. And so I grew
(07:49):
up with that son mat taste in her food my
entire life, which is amazing. And the earliest memory I
have of her cooking is I remember in our condo
when I was a little kid, at like five years old,
she would make kimchi in our backyard and squat down.
I showed it on social media media. It's like an
ergonomic squat she does. It's also just known as the
(08:11):
Asian squat, where their feet is both flat on the
ground and they're squatting and making kimchi. And I just
remember she had a separate basket that I would and
I would use the scraps of the cabbage to mimig
her and copy her movements as a little three or
five year old. So that's my earliest memory is making
kim chi with my mom.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
I love kimchi. My husband makes kimchi.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Oh my gosh, I respect that so much.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
And it's good, you know I did. I had a
love hate with kimchi. And it's interesting. After I wander went,
after I would treat me for breast cancer, my whole
palette change. My sense of smell increased, and suddenly I
craved for men in foods.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
It was like a chemical change. And don't like made
of pork, but love formenic foods, love kimchi, which is
a staple in Crinkly. Let's talk about we have out
here in New Orleans. We go to an Asian food
market in the West Bank called the Hong Kong Market,
and it's just filled with all around, and it can
be intimidating if you don't know what you're buying. For
(09:10):
those who are curious about stocking the essentials for cooking,
doing home cooking and cooking from your book, what would
you say you're essentials?
Speaker 3 (09:24):
I would say the top five essentials, which we mentioned
the book. There's a whole guide of how to get
through a Korean market, so you don't feel intimidated. But
in our book, in the welcome to our kitchen page.
We do list the top five essentials, which are gocha gottu,
Korean chili pepper flakes, gotcha jung, which is Korean red
chili paste. So it's the flakes, and then the sticky paste,
(09:46):
soy sauce, toasted sestame oil, and plumb extract syrup.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
We have maybe half of those at home. There's also here. Yeah,
the toast is SATs so we have. We have the
gotcho jung, the fermenta red chili paste. We have neutral
cooking oils. We have the stilled white vinegar. This is
building page thirteen, building a Korean pantry. We have the
rice wine, the soy sauce, good soy sauce. I was
(10:15):
fascinated that corn seems to be important. There was corn,
there was a corn beverage and corn syrup, and we
grew up, you know hearing I say, I think we
have a fear of all that. So talk to me
about the corn aspect of the ingredients.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Yeah, so corn syrup and just the corn ingredient itself.
It's commonly used in curry cuisine. I'll start with the corn,
like picking a corn latte. Corn has this flavor profile
that is just fascinating, and it's kind of like here
where we have dishes like corn pudding where it's a
bit more sweet. Koreans love corn as a desserts. It's
(10:54):
I can't even describe the slapor as a corn, but
we all know what corn tastes like, and when you
pairt it with a sugary drink or sugary dessert, it's
just wonderful. And it's become a big culture in Korea
to use, I mean, to present and to bake corn
recipes because we just love it and they present so well.
In Korean cafes. When it comes to corn syrup, we
(11:15):
don't use high frictose corn syrup. We just use plain
corn syrup. And unfortunately in America has this bad rep
because people mix those two things together. But in Korea
it's not at all the case. They don't have any
of that bad rep. It's simply used to add as
a sweetener, but also add a glaze to the food
so it looks very presentable and appealing to the eye,
which makes you want to eat it. And so that's
(11:38):
the reason why Koreans use it. It really sucks that in
America there's such a bad rep for it because it's
not any different from using something like sugar or butter,
where it's just a sweetener.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Well, I was taken by that because of and I
wanted to bring that up to do that important clarification,
because corn, particularly when it's a little lesser frect, it
get sweet. I mean, it is a sh sugar. And
we in the South, you know, corn bread is just
super corn, pudding, corn pone. We use corn and many
(12:09):
many things. Do you use fresh corn or can corn?
Is corn an agricultural crop? A strong one in Korea?
Speaker 3 (12:16):
I would say it's a strong one because we eat
corn just straight off the like just on the cob,
and they sell out the Korean marketing whenever it's on sale.
Curreans flocked to buy it, especially when it's in season,
and so we eat it just like we steam it,
and then we eat it as a dessert. We don't
put butter on it, we don't put anything on it.
It's just simply something that we enjoy.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
That is so interesting because I bring it because it
seems it's one of those little kernels that came out
in the book and the beverage I'm referring to, which
is quite fascinating, and I want to try to make.
It's called the Anksu sou lat and it is a
you use canned whole kernel corn, milk, sweet and condensed milk.
(13:01):
I'd pretaty go lower on that. I don't't have a
sugar thing, heavy cream, vanilla syrup, and you have an
ear corn, a sharred slice of an earine corn on top.
And I was like, wow, I never thought about that
in my corn life, which is usually on the cop
or in chili or in bread. So I never thought
of it as very very interesting. But your mom essentially
(13:24):
is a home cook. You grew up having home cooked
food every day. And you talk about you were going
through a lower time in your life where you were
rethinking everything and you were I don't know how old
you are now, but talk to me about that point
of your life, because it seemed like food provided you
(13:45):
an emotional substance as well as a physical one in
terms of what you were going to do.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Yeah. Absolutely so when I graduated a college, I'm twenty
nine years old now. But when I graduated college and
I leaned in my first full time job, which was
in public health, because that was my major.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
You had an NPA, you had a public health a
degree or master's of public health.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Not masters, but that was kind of the track I
was heading towards the track that I was on. I
landed a good job in public health, and I just
remember feeling incomplete when I worked this job, and when
I came home and I questioned, like, is this what
I'm going to do until I'm sixty five, until I retire,
(14:29):
and a lot of people I got so many mixed
answers of people saying, no, Sarah, this is life. You
need to accept it, and you need to suck it
up and just deal with it, because at the end
of the day, we all have to work. We all
have to, you know, provide income for ourselves so we
are fed and have a roof over our head. So
I would come home just feeling so confused, and then
(14:51):
eventually evolved into feeling empty, and then it evolved into
feeling absolutely miserable, where I woke up feeling heartbroken, and
when I came home, the only thing that really comforted
me was my mom's food because she saw how confused
I was with life, and she knew the only way
to make me feel, you know, temporarily at Peace was
(15:13):
a warm meal for dinner, which was so sweet of her.
So she would cook me something every night to make
sure I was okay, And then she eventually sat down
with me and she told me, you're on the right track.
The fact that you're questioning your life at such a
young age and finding what you want to do versus
just doing everything that you've been told to do already
shows me that you're ahead of life, so you'll figure
(15:35):
it out. And that really comforted me and led me
to working out in America's Test Kitchen and in food media.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
You know a lot of people you know are still
figuring out your life when you're much older. It never ends, Sarah,
You're always figuring out your life, and I think it's
sad young people feel pressured to go get that job,
make that money, maybe go into a job that sucks
your soul for a really long time. And I'm always
happy to find those people, especially women, because I think
(16:05):
women have a lot more challenges because they're usually the
family caregiver or you know, their parenting. It's a lot
to find something that you actually love doing, and if
you can make money doing it also great. When did
you start honest Kitchen. How did that come about? Because
we all know everybody a lot of people dream of
creating your own social media presence, but it's not a work.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
So yeah, I have a lot of commentary about that. Yeah,
I have a lot of commentary about that. So I
started Honest Kitchen technically in twenty eighteen. That's when I
had graduate college and I started working. And when my
mom was making these foods I love. I think they're
just so comforting in that moment, especially that I started
documenting how she made them so that if she wasn't
(16:51):
home for some reason, I could make them. But most importantly,
I can make them in the future when my mom's
no longer around, and I could feel that comfort again.
So officially started in twenty eighteen, and then in twenty nineteen,
I started my blog because my notebooks just got too heavy.
They got way too messy. My mom didn't use measuring
spoons at that time, so there's so many scribbles in it,
(17:12):
and I was like, Okay, this is super outdated. I
need to transfer this somewhere. So I was like, you know,
might as well put it onto a blog where it's
public and I can easily access it and Google it
if I want it, and that's what I did, and
I got a following on my blog and then it
really wasn't until I started my social media in twenty
twenty two where I combined those recipes with my storytelling
(17:37):
and that's when on his Kitchen really blew up.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Yeah, I mean, were you actually were working with TikTok
on a journey in South Korea with your mom and
she met her, she met her sister, she saw her
sister over there. What you write about and what was
that like going there with your mom and that reunion
and going in a completely you know, interesting way because
you're looking for the stories to bring back to your
(18:06):
large following.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
It was both so privileged heartwarming, but both heart and
also heartbreaking because I think like when you get a
glimpse of luxury that like people can just get visit
their family once a year, it's like, wow, people can
really live this way, and like we've been missing out
(18:30):
on that. So it was it was heartbreaking in that sense,
but it was heartwarming and that we've created an opportunity
for ourselves where we're being invited to go out to Korea,
which is such an honor and we wouldn't be there
without our support of our followers and the work that
we do and the teamwork that my mom and I have.
So it felt so real to finally see my and
(18:53):
I get like emotional about it because it's such a
heavy question. Yeah, but it felt so surreal seeing her,
And yeah, I love that moment so much.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
I was very touched by it as well, because there's
that link because I think, where do you live now, Sarah?
Speaker 3 (19:11):
I live in Orange County. Okay, here's in California.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
So Orange County is, you know, and I lived in
New York. It could be a bit of a bubble
in many ways because yes, you know, you there is
there are such pockets of privilege and you leave that
to see how many other people of like most of
the world, and it's humbling and and eye opening in
(19:36):
so many ways. So I'm curious, how did your mother
feel about you doing all this documentation of what really
is just her everyday life.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
She didn't have any She was pretty neutral about it,
like she knew that, you know. She just feels really
honored that people have an interest. In fact, she is
more so confused why people watch us, because she doesn't
get like we live a very ordinary life. Like I know,
Orange County. I agree, it's an absolute bubble, but I
feel like an outcast living here because my dad paints
(20:09):
for a living. He has this huge white work fan
paints all over it, and I guess it doesn't look
the most appealing in our neighborhood, and neighbors have come
up to us. This is way back then, and thankfully
we don't have neighbors like this anymore, and they would say, like,
can you hide like your car somewhere else, or like
put your paint somewhere else, or doesn't ruin the neighborhood,
(20:31):
and so yes, so for us, like we live a
life where we work extremely hard. And my mom also
understands this is the life for many and so she's
just fascinated by the fact that people have interest in it,
especially because on social media and like reality TV, people
love to see the luxury. They love to see what
(20:52):
the rich people are up to. This is a bad example,
but like keeping up with the Kardashians.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
What are they up to?
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Because we can't relate to them. It's so unattainable.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
That's entertaining or selling Sunset and the OC Yeah exactly, yeah,
but we're on the opposite end where it's like, oh
my gosh, we're finally seeing something behind the curtain that
everyone's doing working hard and working a true honest life,
and people really like that.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
I like it. I mean, you know, watching selling sunset
while getting a manny pitty is like you know, eating
you know, truffled French fries or something and trampade. You
don't do it very often. It's not how you really live, right,
And you know what, I love the dishes. There's you
know again, this is about cooking everything, no waist cooking,
(21:45):
which is many cuisines. I mean, I love Jacques pa
Penn because his last book and probably his last book
was on economy cooking, which spoke to me even more
than technique. What have you learned from your mother? And
and throughout the book I want to there are these
(22:06):
wonderful i'm a i'm as kitchen wisdom and it's about
handling food but not being wasteful as well. So I
am very passionate about not wasting food and using every
aspect of it. Are there specific recipes here that illustrate
(22:26):
that in terms of how economy and thrift but also
attention to not wasting food is an example.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Yeah, I think there's a lot of examples through that,
Like I feel like it's hard to actually just even
pick one because Korean cuisine is founded on that exact concept.
Because Korea was an impar rich country honestly not too
long ago, where they had the Korean War and then
the Japanese occupation, foods like white rights, which I talk
about in the food was considered a luxury and they
(22:59):
did have access to it until the nineteen seventies. So
finishing every grain of white rice was the norm when
my mom was growing up, because that like having a
sack of white rice was once in a blue moon,
was like having a luxury car in your driveway. So
nothing is wasted generally in Koreane cooking. A good example
(23:21):
of that is when you see kimchi, you make the
kimchi like your husband does, and then after that you
when the kim cheese is fully fermented, there's so many
dishes you make from it, from kimchi stew to kimchi
pancakes and more, and so nothing is ever wasted in
Careye cooking, and that it's hard to even pinpoint which
(23:41):
recipe because it's almost like.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Every recipe, no, almost every recipe is and again back
to the luxury of eggs, which was an example, you know,
you write, your mom says, when I was growing up,
my meals always consisted of rice and kimchi, sometimes a
salted shrimp. Usually it was barley rice, which is probably
more economical rice. And now it's a healthier alternative. And
that's true. I mean, in Louisiana, everybody's white rice, and
(24:04):
I'm not trying to wean everybody off of it, but
I was fascinated with that. And also there was a
section on snacks, because snacking was not very common and
the snacks were very humble snacks.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Yeah, so growing up, my mom lived also an ordinary life.
And she recalls, and you know, there's some wealthy Koreans
as well, like anywhere, And she recalls one of her
classmates that she befriended and became close with. Her parents
would bribe her with chocolate to practice her piano lessons.
(24:38):
And when she saw that for the first time, she
just couldn't believe that concept that someone has chocolate in
their house. Because everyone around her and her community, they
were lucky enough to eat silkworms, which is a snack
that Koreans season and kind of saute in a big pan,
(24:58):
and those were the snacks that she grew up with,
or if once in a blue woon, her parents would
buy her a dalgona. I don't know if you've seen
squid games. It's like the sweet treat that you make
from sugar and baking soda.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
And they have not seen squid games. But I'm still
on the silkworms you had me. I saw that book,
I was.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Like, yeah, so those were those snacks growing up, and
then yeah, it was It's just Korea has evolved so much.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Well, pork is an important product? Is that the primary
meat that because you know many cultures pork is not
the primary product. I think pork here so I read
was important. It was the nose to tail concept or yeah,
so pork.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Is actually the most common eating meat in Korea. And
it's also Korea is one of the biggest importers of
pork because we consume so much of it. And when
I was when I learned about that, I was like,
why why is this the case? And I learned that,
I mean I kind of came to the consensus that
in Korean culture, if you go there there's a lot
(26:08):
of Korean barbecue joints where they sell just pork and
it's a great way for people to come together and
celebrate after work or birthday when a family comes over,
because pork is much more affordable than beef, and so
it totally clicked with me with Korean barbecue culture, the
night culture in Korea especially like maybe you go clubbing
(26:28):
and then you want to eat something and it being affordable.
Koreans love their pork.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
Well, there's some wonderful recipes here, you know, for you know,
Korean barbecue ribs. One that I you know, having just
gone to a restaurant last night, the served stufft neck.
You have one upon me every make braisee marinated pork neck.
But that's where I thought, wow that you know again
it's economy cooking using the you know, nose to tail
(26:56):
concept in here. And you know, salt raised pork back
ribs and kimchi very filling, fried pork ribs with coom
and seasoning, salt, very filling. But then you had something
that seems very humble here called a beef pancake so
go gee June and it almost looks he says, it's
(27:18):
a simple dish that you enjoy is a snack. But
pancakes or savory pancakes a large part of Korean cuisine.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Oh absolutely, I don't think Like when my mom tried
the pancakes that I had, the American pancakes, my parents
were so confused, They're like, why are we eating dessert
for breakfast? But yeah, savory pancakes it is very common
where you have kimchi pancakes, beef pancakes, vegetable pancakes, seafood pancakes,
(27:49):
and so forth.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
I knew that, but I wanted to ask up because
there was a restaurant in Tennessee that did a savory pancake.
I can't It was what started with a y the
name of it.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
It was almost yachich. Did I have ales in it? Yes? Yeah,
it was yacht chichen. Especially pancake.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Oh, it was so heavily. I don't have a I
don't have a sweet tooth, so my I don't really
traditionally like sweet pancakes for I don't like anything sweet
for breakfast. It just makes me gag. So the idea
of savory pancakes, I mean, I'm gonna, you know, when
I have a breakfast this morning, I had yogurt and
black beans and chopped up tomato. Yeah, I mean, I
(28:37):
I love I still love Asian food in the morning.
I mean happy to have savory and and and and
also substantial in the morning. Uh and and I think
that is something I noticed in the book. Yeah, there
are some sweets in here, but there were a lot
of things that Americans would eat for dinner in the
(29:01):
break and the dessert end, Like we talked about, the
corn is an example.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, the dessert section, that's I love
sweet Smelanie, So I totally Yeah, you relate to my mom.
So you would love savory pancakes, whether it be the
beef pancakes, Kimsen pancakes. That's what my mom's eating for
breakfast too. But the dessert section, that's where my heart
(29:26):
is at.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
So give some exhaust, share some examples of some of
those desserts.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
So the dessert section these so my mom's a cook,
she does not like. She didn't grow up with snacks,
so she of course wouldn't know how to bake. Our
oven is filled with pots and pants. I've never seen
her use it once other than the mini conventional oven
we have on our counter. So the desserts in our
book was developed by my uncle who is a professional
(29:52):
Korean trained pastry chef who owned his own bakery for
a good amount of years. Very successful include iconic Creane
desserts that were popular in the nineteen eighties, from peanut
struicel bread to Creane milk bread, and they also include
current trending pastries that are just having people wait out
(30:15):
the lines at Creane cafes, similar to the corn latte
where we have salt bread and milk cream donuts that
has two inches of cream in between these donut sandwiches.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
The peanut butter strusl bread. I have a peanut eater,
peanut butter eater in the house, David. It's just like thing,
and I was fascinated by it because it looks like
when you open it up, there's a photo in here,
it looks very spongy inside or is that jruically inside?
(30:47):
What's inside that peanut butter? Because it looks very soft,
not like a cookie inside, it looks like something else
going on.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
You're you're exactly correct. So on the outside, is this
very crummy, just beautiful fle peanuts struicel When the people
at America's Test Kitchen actually taste taste tested this. They
loved it so much they packed it all up and
took it home, and I tell them, oh, this is
a peanuts treuste, and they're like, we had no idea
there is peanut butter in this because it was so
balanced where it wasn't overwhelming. Yeah, but then inside is
(31:18):
this yeasted dough. That's this bread that's super like angelically delicate.
And so there's two contrasting flavors that you take when
you buy into this. And oh that' streuicel bread is
probably my favorite dessert in this book.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Interesting David cooks. I bake, and this is the type
of thing I would want to try when I could,
you know, because I like to bake. And even though
I don't have a sweet tooth, I do like to
bake sweet things because that's what I did grow up
doing with my mother was baking. She had a fan.
She had an epic sweet tooth. Epic. Are there any
desserts that have a special traditional meeting I'm actually let
(31:58):
me rephrase that. I live in New Orleans. Every week
there's other holiday, and every holiday has a special food
that goes with it. Right now, it's Latin fish fries
every Friday. Are there any foods that really symbolize very
specific Korean holidays that you can share with us that
(32:22):
maybe you had on special occasions.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Yeah, so that would be I think there's two. First
one would be the thuck mandu kook, which is rice
cake dumpling soup, and that is something that Koreans eat
on New Year's And there's a whole essay about it
where I discussed how the long rice cakes were a
(32:47):
symbol of longevity and health and prosperity, and that's something
that no matter what. Like you know how I mentioned
earlier that white rice was once considered a luxury. But
in Korea back then, even when there's struggling, no matter what,
Koreans came together collectively to take their white rice that
they worked very hard for and then they would take
(33:09):
it to the mill to make these rice cakes so
they can make this soup. It didn't matter what class
you came from, whether you're wealthy and you could have
this all the time or the lower class. They all
came together, waited on line to make this particular soup
on New Year.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
It's called taking rice to the mill. For tea yok
Is that how you pronounce it to tea? Yeah? Well rice.
I travel for New Year's every year. It's my birthday.
So I've kind of made a history of foods and
traditions on how the New year is rung in, and
rice and noodles are incredibly important symbols, rice noodles being
(33:49):
longevity of life and rice being abundance, and then the
green is more financial abundance, and that many cultures, that
is what you eat for New Year's, whether it's the
dishes in South Carolina and here in Louisiana. In many
(34:11):
places that's what you eat, some kind of a rice
ball in Italy, rice balls. Rice is very important, noodles
more so in Asia. But I've been fascinated by that
and more so since I've moved here to such a
multi cultural city in state, in New Orleans and Louisiana
(34:31):
where you see it, and you see it a lot
in California, because California. I'm curious. You know. I mentioned
at the beginning of the show that the Korean cuisine
has had almost a ten percent increase of interest in
many restaurants. What do you think is behind this?
Speaker 3 (34:51):
Yeah, so that would have to actually be accredited to
in Koreans called how you how you means the Korean wave,
the Korean movement where we're seeing a transition, especially in
media and entertainment, where you're seeing other cultures play a
role in it, and in Korean culture or excuse me,
(35:11):
Korean entertainment. What we're seeing kind of make its way
into American media is Korean movies in film. For example,
my favorite movie of all time, Parasite, won Best Film
at the Oscars, which was huge. We're also seeing Korean music,
particularly K pop and bands like BTS, where they have
this huge fandom that are outside of America, excuse me,
(35:34):
outside of Korea, coming from America where where I once
grew up not hearing Korean music played at the gym.
And then I remember, in like twenty eighteen, twenty seventeen,
I heard BTS, which is a K pop band, play
at my local gym, and I was like, what is
going on? And that's when I realized there is something
happening where creating entertainment and media is making its way
(35:57):
to American media.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
In a huge way. And then there's the whole beauty trend.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Oh yeah, don't forget I can forget about that.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Yeah, I've been fascinated. When I lived in New York
many many years ago, I used to go to Chinatown
and go to the emporiums, those wonderful emporiums, and just
and I would always go to the beauty section. I
was always fascinated by skincare. Probably I had problem skins,
so I was curious about how other cultures dealt with it.
And returning, we tend to go, as I said in
(36:29):
the beginning the show, to Chinatown, but also to create.
There's this wonderful Korea town near Macy's and I have
some wonderful restaurants there, and over the years it's become
very crowded, Like you just see many more people going
there from when I used to live there and it
was fairly empty and now everything's just packed.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
Yeah, the Korean skincare is huge, as well as Korean
food as well. But also yeah, it's it's just rising
up and more, and it's really fascinating to see just
how it's becoming part of American culture. And I hope,
I hope that it opens more doors for other cultures
to be seen as well. I hope.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
So, you know, I I My only experience going to
Korea was you know, en route to Asia and having
to get out of the plane and get my passport.
I said, can I have my passport stamp? Get back
on the plane, just to say it. But yeah, my
father was stationed there during the Korean conflict. He called
it a conflict. But I have a lot of photos
(37:31):
of him from there in Japan that I still have
those men.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
Was he there for uh?
Speaker 2 (37:38):
You know, I don't know. He was over there a
really long time because after he served, he hitchhiked around
Asia for a while before he came back, and it
remained with him for many years. Both my parents had
a lot. They went to Asia and around the world.
When I was a little girl, they left with my
grandmother and they were so Our house was Asian. We
(37:59):
had a lot more thaie than anything, but we had
a lot.
Speaker 3 (38:04):
Thailand is so fullow culture. It's one of my mom's
favorite cuisine.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
I was going to ask that, you know, because your
mom cooks every day at home, what is she like?
What does she like to cook? But she's not eating
Korean food, so she likes typhood.
Speaker 3 (38:16):
It's interesting she loves ty food and I just saw
a YouTube video about Thailand and I was showing my
mom and she's just begging to go there, and she
wants to go there one day.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Does she travel? Does she do your parents travel?
Speaker 3 (38:31):
Uh, we're not there yet. We'll hopefully get there to
maybe what the success of this cookook. If that happens,
we can travel.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Well you get that marketing going. We were talking about
that too. It's hard to you know. The good thing
is you have a lot you know, here's anyone out
there thinking about writing a book, much less a cookbook.
You really need to have a social media platform in place.
That makes a big difference.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
H Yeah, social media is changing so much of how
we market things now. Like even I admittedly have a
hard time I'm sitting down and watching a full documentaring
or show on Netflix, I'm more so inclined to be
on social media because that's just where we're heading towards,
and that's we don't I don't call it digital marketing anymore.
That is simply marketing.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Yeah, everything is digital, Like, you know, what are you
doing print marketing? I worked in public relations in the
days when there was no digital and kind of was
in it but got out as it just started to
really explode a cascade. I'm kind of glad I did
from that end because I can't imagine having clients today
in the demands and I do more social media and
(39:37):
everything that you know. The podcast, It's interesting. We've been
twying with doing all video, but most of our listeners
listen to the podcast where they're at the gym. They'll
be at the gym, we're taking walks, and I want that.
I want everybody to be moving more so. I'm so
excited that people listen to our shows when they're moving.
That's important, Yeah, because I'm a big person that So
(40:00):
I'm going to tell you my favorite. Okay, I fell
in love with kim Chi after I developed this amazing
transformation in my palate. But I love b bim bop
and the gimbop and the sizzling bowls that you get.
Those are fabulous. The big bowld razzine. You have a
particular Uh, this is a melanie dish. It's called avocado
(40:24):
jang young non dupdop Uh. It's basically I'm sorry about
my pronunciation, but it's basically all the time.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
No, it's good trying.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
I'm trying. I'm trying, and I trying on. When I travel,
I always ask for the menu in the local language
because I study three languages. But I love you got
the poll up the role, you know, the wonderful row
fish and the sesamele. We love sesamewle, and you hallopenos
and avocados. And then there's that egg. I always get
the fried egg on the dish always, and I see
tomatoes and peppers. It's just it's a very healthy dish.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
Yes. And that recipe, Oh, that's such a delicious recipe
because it uses marinate and avocados that's been sitting in
this really flavorful soy sauce. That was the soy sauce
was marinated with koreane radishes as well.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
So do you you know buying soy sauce? You know
they're all over the blanks. Is there a special kind
of soy sauce you should be looking for, not necessarily
a brand, but a type, because there's soy sauce in
this show you so do so true? Am I getting
that right? There's different types of sud.
Speaker 3 (41:29):
What youre talking about? Do you t s u y u?
Speaker 2 (41:33):
I don't know what I'm talking about. I thought there
were different types of soy sauce. Yeah, so you know
what to buy.
Speaker 3 (41:39):
My mom actually has some very interesting and hot take
on it. She just uses good old regular Kikoman soy sauce,
and she tested out light soy sauce soy sauce for
this and that soy sauce for soups and stews produced
by Korean UH brands, and she just says, you know,
kiko Man soy sauce is just a good soy sae
(42:00):
I could work with. She doesn't particularly think that it
makes a huge difference to the point where you need
to go out and buy all these different soy sauces.
So she just makes it a bit more economical and
affordable by suggesting to use that in our book.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
No, I see a possible sponsor down the road. Another
dish that I love that speaks my name because of
its simplicity, And sometimes when I dine out at an
Asian restaurant with multi courses, I look for that one
simplicity dish that kind of so I'm not overkilling my palette.
And there's one. It's it's literally radish water kimchi noodles,
(42:38):
dong chi mi gupsu. Yes, it spoke to me for
its simplicity.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
That Oh man, that dish is out of this world.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (42:51):
It uses it uses radish water kimchi that you make
beforehand and water radish excuse radish water kimchi doesn't have
any each gotu does it have any spice or red
leaf flakes in it. So the brine in it is
extremely nuanced. It's it's so nuanced that when you make
this kimchi. It was This kimchi was ranked as Curry's
(43:14):
most favorite kimchi, second to the classic Knapa cabbage kimchi
that everyone is familiar with. Yeah, so then you use
that brine to make this noodle dish where all you
have to do is cook noodles and then you just
use that brine and then you're done. And that's a
great example of how nothing goes to waste.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
Well, I like doing that because we always preserve the
water from whenever they were cooking, you know, Like I
like vegetable water. So I love simple steam spinach. That
was what I when I was going through cancer treatment.
I had spinach, simple seamed spinach and lemon. That's all
I wanted every day. That was like my soooth food.
And I always take that water and repurpose it. I'll
(43:55):
drink it. I'll put it in the refrigerator and drink
it as my natural juice, or we'll cook with it.
It's great for cooking rice or pasta. And that's in mushrooms,
the same thing. You know. I love that vegetable water,
which is really what the radish water is. Yeah, and
it's just such a simple dish. It reminded me of
one I had she came over from China. It's amazing
(44:18):
Asian restaurant in Florence, Italy, and the dish I ordered
was that simplicity. And David looked at me like, is
that all you're getting? And I'm like, no, it speaks
volumes because of its simplicity, and sometimes a simple dish
can speak volumes.
Speaker 3 (44:32):
Simple. It's always the best dishes, Yeah, yeah, because there's
they can be as simple as they are that keep
be incredibly nuanced, and there's a beauty and simplicity always.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
Always now, of course, just you know, just for everyone
thinking about this, just to giving a little American bequest,
you do have a very interesting and I see David
making a recipe for Kimschi grilled cheese. Yes, fine, that
looks really good, and it's interesting you have two teasp
it's a sugar in there for sprinkling, which kind of
threw me, being not the sugar person I am, but
(45:05):
it looks really good. I'm sure we'll probably do a
simpler version of it because we have kimchi, we have cheese,
we have bread, so you know, but use moonster cheese,
garlic pew or onion powdered black pepper fish sauce, which
we love, and the kimchi and the sugar, I guess
for sprinkling. Why sugar?
Speaker 3 (45:25):
So fun fact, this was our hardest recipe to develop
in the book, but it's one of the easiest recipes
in the book. In Crean culture, sugar is used quite commonly,
and a lot of people actually critique creating cuisine for
being too sweet and putting sugar in everything, And arguably
someone could say that for this recipe, where it's like,
why am I adding sugar? But when we had tested
(45:47):
the recipe and let me backtrack a bit, adding as
we grow, sugar to sandwiches is very common in these
street sandwiches that you get or any sandwich really, and
when we have tested this recipe, we took final bite
of it without the sugar, and we're just like scratching
our heads. They're like something is missing, Like it's ninety
nine percent there, in fact ninety nine point nine percent there,
(46:10):
But what is it missing? And then I realized it's
the sugar sprinkling that crems do. So the sugar it
doesn't add any sweetness to the sandwich. It's just a
little sprinkle where it balances out the bite so that
you taste the butteriness of the sandwich, you taste the
taniness of the kimchi, you taste the yeastiness of you
taste the sour dough, and then that sprinkle of sugar
(46:33):
just just binds it all together.
Speaker 2 (46:36):
That's common in African cooking and Caribbean cooking as well.
You know with collar greens you add vinegar and sugar.
You always had sugar because David, it'll make them. Why
are my collar green soap? And I'm like, you forgot
the sugar? Yeah, I got it. Balance it out. Sugar
adds the balance. A little sugar, little spice, little salt
adds a balance exactly.
Speaker 3 (46:57):
I remember I shared a video of my mom making
La Carby, which is creating short rips and we wash
our meat. And then people in the comment section had
so many opinions to say about it. But those who
also wash their meat commented, particularly those from African and
Caribbean backgrounds, and they're like argument. People will being like, no,
it makes absolute sense to wash our meat. We do
(47:20):
it too, and so it makes sense that they're doing it.
So there's cultural aspects that you see sprinkled in quite
literally throughout the book, whether it's adding sugar to your
sandwiches or washing your meat.
Speaker 2 (47:31):
Yeah, it's interesting how these cultural traditions span the globe.
So you know, I'd like to wrap this up with
taking a bathroom. How did this develop, its strengthen and bond,
the bond with your mom? I mean, what's great is
you've created this visual story that's going to last, you know,
long after she's no longer with us, you know, hopefully,
(47:52):
you know, I mean, she will have a very long life.
But you know, I lost my mom and I had
this video of her that we actually shot a week
before she died. It was amazing and yeah, somebody it
was the video. Well, it was a very good friend
of ours in Tennessee that wanted to start creating memorial
videos documenting people's life and they asked my mother she
(48:14):
would do it as a gift, and she said sure,
and they filmed and little did we know that my mother,
who made a living as a speech communication specialist and
a JOHNK professor, would lose her voice completely a week later,
which was the beginning of her death. The day she
lost her voice, of the day she really began to
start to die and we captured it and it was
(48:37):
amazing because she was still Literally her voice started to
fade two days later. I think she talked so much
about the video that a voice started to fade. But
I have it and it's treasured for that reason. How
old was she She was eighty eight.
Speaker 3 (48:51):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
And I you know, because when when someone you love dies,
what you missed the most their voices often.
Speaker 3 (49:02):
Wow. I'm very touched to hear this. That's such an
amazing piece that you have.
Speaker 2 (49:07):
Yeah, I mean the visuals I don't want to see
because she really fell into disrepair, but the voice was
always there. So my final question to you is how
do you think this amazing journey that you've taken with
your mother has strengthened your bond and also your appreciation
for your heritage.
Speaker 3 (49:28):
Such a great question. I think that through this book,
I learned about my mom before she was a mom.
I learned who she was as a daughter when she
had her own mom and her past that shaped her
into who she is today. And I see that wholeheartedly,
because my whole life, I've only known my mom as
my mom. I didn't know her as a daughter because
(49:51):
I never grew up with my grandma. But all the
stories that she told me of how she saw her
grandpa eat every grain of rice, of how she did
have any snacks, and how when she became a mother herself,
having a pantry flow of sax meant so much to her.
To talking about how her mom packed her twelve boiled
eggs all for her for her annual school field trip.
All of those stories made me appreciate her so much
(50:13):
as a person, the women that sacrificed so much for
their kids, and just her view of life and wisdom.
It's such an honor to hear that with her. And
we were sitting on the kitchen floor for many of
these stories, just staying up late at night after we
finished developing recipe, where she would share these stories and
they came about super authentically now woven into the book,
(50:36):
but to hear that firsthand and learn who she was
before she was a mom was such an honor.
Speaker 2 (50:43):
I think that's a wonderful thing for everyone listening to
think about, because I was thinking about it as you
were talking, Sarah. You know, I wish I had had
more of those conversations, had more conversations and less arguments.
That's all I'm going to say. A lot of our
life toward the end was about arguing and one upping
each other versus the conversations for many reasons. My mother
(51:06):
was a bit of a narcissist. But learning to have
less arguments and more conversations missing, which you are very
lucky and fortunate to have done and to have captured.
And I think everyone listening needs to think about that,
because that's really what you're going to miss when that
person is no longer alive. Yeah, the arguments are silly,
(51:26):
so you are lucky. I love the book again. I've
been talking with Sarah on she's a creator of Honest
Kitchen with her mom nom soon On. They have co
written Ama, which meant mom Ama means mother, a Korean
mom's kitchen wisdom and one hundred family recipes that are
very well document tested. Because we have a zillion America's
(51:46):
Test Kitchen books, they really are incredibly reliable and when
we moved it packed up our life. Yet again, we
didn't get rid of the America's Test Kitchen books because
they are just really good books to follow. And this
is a wonderful book. As you're talking, I'm thinking about
Mother's Day and I'm thinking about you know, those gifts
(52:09):
to new mothers and to you know, it's not just
about month, but it's a great gift for that, but
it's also a great way to learn about Korean cooking
and appreciate this amazing cuisine. So Sarah, congratulations again on
this book and all the work you've done to put
into it. You can tell it's been made published with heart,
and I wish you all the best and success in
(52:31):
terms of marketing and selling it.
Speaker 3 (52:33):
Thank you so much, Melanie, thank you for having me.
I really appreciate it and it was a great talk.
Speaker 2 (52:38):
I think so too, and I think everyone listening. I
hope you're inspired to go out and try something new,
whether it's in the kitchen or at a restaurant. Go
try food that is maybe something you're not familiar with.
Learn about other people's cultures and heritage. Take the trip,
drink the sip, and frankly, as you're talking, I'm thinking
about all the wonderful vignets and reasonings and diverts demeanors
(52:58):
that I would be drinking with these cuisines and champagnes
and bubbles. This is These are very wonderful dishes to
pair with, lots of incredible fruit friendly, fruity wines, bubbles, whatever.
Always think about what you're drinking with what you're eating,
because it's a it's a perfect pairing. You've been listening
to Melanie Young. As always, you have the choice in
(53:21):
life on how you want to live it. I say,
choose life on your terms, and always choose fearless and fabulous.
Thank you,
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(00:21):
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Speaker 2 (00:44):
Welcome to Feerless Fabulous You. I am your host, Melanie Young.
I love bringing you the stories of empowering women who
are living their lives to the fullest and doing things
they enjoy, and today is one of those stories. I
love to eat. You know, I have a show, The
Connected Table, which documents our culinary adventures around the world. David,
(01:06):
my husband and I we love Korean food, We love
all Asian food, and frankly, when we go back to
our former home in New York, we make a beeline
down the Chinatown into Koreatown and forget all those famous
restaurants you know of European nature because we go to
Europe a lot. We love going to the wonderful Asian
neighborhoods and having authentic food. And apparently we're not alone
(01:32):
because I read that Korean food in particular has had
a ten percent growth in restaurants and interests in the
past here, which is kind of interesting. And there are
a lot of Michelin restaurants that our Korean and wonderful,
wonderful small places that you have to discover with friends. Today.
We're not going to talk about dining out though, We're
(01:53):
going to be talking about cooking in and we're going
to talk about a wonderful story between a daughter and
her mother and coming together to cook and bring you
the wonderful traditions that each grew up with in different generations.
My guest today is Sarah On. She has written a
(02:14):
book with her mother, whose name is nom Un soon On,
so Sarah On and Non soon On. The book is
called Omah, which means mother in Korean. I have learned
because I don't know the language. Unfortunately, this book, which
is stunning. It's been produced by America's Test Kitchen, has
(02:35):
just all the perfectly tested recipes and images and stories
that you would expect from any books coming out from
America's test Kitchen. It just so happens that Sarah On
is a digital storyteller and she created Honest Kitchen ah
n e s t Kitchen Final on Instagram. It's got
over seven hundred thousand followers, and she there she shares
(02:58):
her Korean heritage to create American heritage with her followers
and the stories of cooking and watching her mother cook,
which she has documented beautifully both on TikTok and Instagram
and also in this book Uma. Sarah is also the
digital I don't know what the term is nowadays, is
a digital marketing specialist content specialists. Thank you. She has
(03:22):
one of those great jobs that we love and would
like to all have, telling stories to get more people
like you listeners interested in getting behind the kitchen and
stove and cooking, but also going out exploring and expanding
her palate. So, Sarah, welcome to the show, and congratulations
on your book. It's your first book, right.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Thank you so much, Melanie. Yes, it's my first book
and I'm extremely proud and honored to share about it
with you.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Well, it's a very touching book. Before we went on air,
I told her that my mother didn't cook. I don't
have any warm, fussing memories of cooking with my mother
other than literally one dish, which is like a pavlova,
and it's that one dish. But I do have collections
of family recipes for my grandmother, which I treasure. You
have taken the story of your family and woven it
(04:14):
through the story of food to create this book. Let's
first talk about your family because you were born here
in the United States, as I understand, correct me if
I'm wrong, but your parents immigrated over from Korea. Talk
to us about that story and when this will happened
(04:34):
and their background.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Yeah, so I was born and raised in southern California,
but my parents immigrated here, my dad in the eighties,
my mom in the nineties, and they came here because
Korea it could be a bit rigid there where they're overworked.
For example, my mom worked at a entertainment ages agency
and she worked probably sixty hours a week. And if
(05:02):
you know, it was a type of culture where if
your boss doesn't leave the office, you're not allowed to leave.
When you apply for these jobs, you had to submit
a picture of yourself. If your boss and team wants
to go out for a little get together after dinner.
You have to go, and you're kind of shunned upon
if you don't. And it's a very rigid society as
much as it is fun as well. And so they
(05:25):
came to America to pursue the American dream, and they
also came here because they do prefer the education system
in America. Then Korea it's a bit rigid. And then
they just had to start over once they came to
America where they gave up their office jobs. My dad
was an engineer in Korea and today my mom used
to own a restaurant here and my dad currently paints
(05:46):
homes for a living.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Wow, So they really started over and had to start
from scratching and southern California. We're in southern California, Sarah,
Orange County, specifically right below La Okay beautiful area. Pricey
it must be, you know, they had to start over.
And and so frugality was very important in your family
and using every aspect of food, and you talk about
(06:11):
that in the book and write about it. There's several
I mean, the book is a book of your family's
story and heritage, and there was one chapters I was
flipping through and I'm flipping through lots of different ones,
and it's called the Luxury of eggs. And I'm going
to tell you why this resonated with me, particularly today, Sarah.
As you know, there's an avian flu and a terrible
(06:32):
egg shortage. It's impacting everybody here in the United States.
So eggs have become a luxury, and you write about
how they were luxury over there, and you know, I
would kind of ranted today about maybe they should cancel
the Easter egg hunt roll because eggs are such a luxury.
Your mom cooked, you cooked, You lived with them, and
you cooked it home. You ate home cooked meals every day.
(06:53):
So talk to me and share with us some of
your earliest memories of dishes that just you love and
we're seasoned with love.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Yeah. So my mom, like myself, she grew up with
a mother who cooked with love, and so that's something
she's always been familiar with. And her mom expressed her
love through that way by cooking for them and through
the food. And my mom she naturally picked up on cooking.
It's just kind of ingrained in creating culture where it's
very common to cook at home. Certainly, not all but
(07:26):
it is a big part of our our culture, our
cuisine and cooking, and ever since my mom was a
young woman, particularly in her thirties, her mom noted that
she has this talent for cooking and that she hasnt
sonmut is flavor of hands. It's where your hands flavor
the food in a way that someone else who's following
the same recipe can't really replicate. And so I grew
(07:49):
up with that son mat taste in her food my
entire life, which is amazing. And the earliest memory I
have of her cooking is I remember in our condo
when I was a little kid, at like five years old,
she would make kimchi in our backyard and squat down.
I showed it on social media media. It's like an
ergonomic squat she does. It's also just known as the
(08:11):
Asian squat, where their feet is both flat on the
ground and they're squatting and making kimchi. And I just
remember she had a separate basket that I would and
I would use the scraps of the cabbage to mimig
her and copy her movements as a little three or
five year old. So that's my earliest memory is making
kim chi with my mom.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
I love kimchi. My husband makes kimchi.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Oh my gosh, I respect that so much.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
And it's good, you know I did. I had a
love hate with kimchi. And it's interesting. After I wander went,
after I would treat me for breast cancer, my whole
palette change. My sense of smell increased, and suddenly I
craved for men in foods.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
It was like a chemical change. And don't like made
of pork, but love formenic foods, love kimchi, which is
a staple in Crinkly. Let's talk about we have out
here in New Orleans. We go to an Asian food
market in the West Bank called the Hong Kong Market,
and it's just filled with all around, and it can
be intimidating if you don't know what you're buying. For
(09:10):
those who are curious about stocking the essentials for cooking,
doing home cooking and cooking from your book, what would
you say you're essentials?
Speaker 3 (09:24):
I would say the top five essentials, which we mentioned
the book. There's a whole guide of how to get
through a Korean market, so you don't feel intimidated. But
in our book, in the welcome to our kitchen page.
We do list the top five essentials, which are gocha gottu,
Korean chili pepper flakes, gotcha jung, which is Korean red
chili paste. So it's the flakes, and then the sticky paste,
(09:46):
soy sauce, toasted sestame oil, and plumb extract syrup.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
We have maybe half of those at home. There's also here. Yeah,
the toast is SATs so we have. We have the
gotcho jung, the fermenta red chili paste. We have neutral
cooking oils. We have the stilled white vinegar. This is
building page thirteen, building a Korean pantry. We have the
rice wine, the soy sauce, good soy sauce. I was
(10:15):
fascinated that corn seems to be important. There was corn,
there was a corn beverage and corn syrup, and we
grew up, you know hearing I say, I think we
have a fear of all that. So talk to me
about the corn aspect of the ingredients.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Yeah, so corn syrup and just the corn ingredient itself.
It's commonly used in curry cuisine. I'll start with the corn,
like picking a corn latte. Corn has this flavor profile
that is just fascinating, and it's kind of like here
where we have dishes like corn pudding where it's a
bit more sweet. Koreans love corn as a desserts. It's
(10:54):
I can't even describe the slapor as a corn, but
we all know what corn tastes like, and when you
pairt it with a sugary drink or sugary dessert, it's
just wonderful. And it's become a big culture in Korea
to use, I mean, to present and to bake corn
recipes because we just love it and they present so well.
In Korean cafes. When it comes to corn syrup, we
(11:15):
don't use high frictose corn syrup. We just use plain
corn syrup. And unfortunately in America has this bad rep
because people mix those two things together. But in Korea
it's not at all the case. They don't have any
of that bad rep. It's simply used to add as
a sweetener, but also add a glaze to the food
so it looks very presentable and appealing to the eye,
which makes you want to eat it. And so that's
(11:38):
the reason why Koreans use it. It really sucks that in
America there's such a bad rep for it because it's
not any different from using something like sugar or butter,
where it's just a sweetener.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Well, I was taken by that because of and I
wanted to bring that up to do that important clarification,
because corn, particularly when it's a little lesser frect, it
get sweet. I mean, it is a sh sugar. And
we in the South, you know, corn bread is just
super corn, pudding, corn pone. We use corn and many
(12:09):
many things. Do you use fresh corn or can corn?
Is corn an agricultural crop? A strong one in Korea?
Speaker 3 (12:16):
I would say it's a strong one because we eat
corn just straight off the like just on the cob,
and they sell out the Korean marketing whenever it's on sale.
Curreans flocked to buy it, especially when it's in season,
and so we eat it just like we steam it,
and then we eat it as a dessert. We don't
put butter on it, we don't put anything on it.
It's just simply something that we enjoy.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
That is so interesting because I bring it because it
seems it's one of those little kernels that came out
in the book and the beverage I'm referring to, which
is quite fascinating, and I want to try to make.
It's called the Anksu sou lat and it is a
you use canned whole kernel corn, milk, sweet and condensed milk.
(13:01):
I'd pretaty go lower on that. I don't't have a
sugar thing, heavy cream, vanilla syrup, and you have an
ear corn, a sharred slice of an earine corn on top.
And I was like, wow, I never thought about that
in my corn life, which is usually on the cop
or in chili or in bread. So I never thought
of it as very very interesting. But your mom essentially
(13:24):
is a home cook. You grew up having home cooked
food every day. And you talk about you were going
through a lower time in your life where you were
rethinking everything and you were I don't know how old
you are now, but talk to me about that point
of your life, because it seemed like food provided you
(13:45):
an emotional substance as well as a physical one in
terms of what you were going to do.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Yeah. Absolutely so when I graduated a college, I'm twenty
nine years old now. But when I graduated college and
I leaned in my first full time job, which was
in public health, because that was my major.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
You had an NPA, you had a public health a
degree or master's of public health.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Not masters, but that was kind of the track I
was heading towards the track that I was on. I
landed a good job in public health, and I just
remember feeling incomplete when I worked this job, and when
I came home and I questioned, like, is this what
I'm going to do until I'm sixty five, until I retire,
(14:29):
and a lot of people I got so many mixed
answers of people saying, no, Sarah, this is life. You
need to accept it, and you need to suck it
up and just deal with it, because at the end
of the day, we all have to work. We all
have to, you know, provide income for ourselves so we
are fed and have a roof over our head. So
I would come home just feeling so confused, and then
(14:51):
eventually evolved into feeling empty, and then it evolved into
feeling absolutely miserable, where I woke up feeling heartbroken, and
when I came home, the only thing that really comforted
me was my mom's food because she saw how confused
I was with life, and she knew the only way
to make me feel, you know, temporarily at Peace was
(15:13):
a warm meal for dinner, which was so sweet of her.
So she would cook me something every night to make
sure I was okay, And then she eventually sat down
with me and she told me, you're on the right track.
The fact that you're questioning your life at such a
young age and finding what you want to do versus
just doing everything that you've been told to do already
shows me that you're ahead of life, so you'll figure
(15:35):
it out. And that really comforted me and led me
to working out in America's Test Kitchen and in food media.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
You know a lot of people you know are still
figuring out your life when you're much older. It never ends, Sarah,
You're always figuring out your life, and I think it's
sad young people feel pressured to go get that job,
make that money, maybe go into a job that sucks
your soul for a really long time. And I'm always
happy to find those people, especially women, because I think
(16:05):
women have a lot more challenges because they're usually the
family caregiver or you know, their parenting. It's a lot
to find something that you actually love doing, and if
you can make money doing it also great. When did
you start honest Kitchen. How did that come about? Because
we all know everybody a lot of people dream of
creating your own social media presence, but it's not a work.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
So yeah, I have a lot of commentary about that. Yeah,
I have a lot of commentary about that. So I
started Honest Kitchen technically in twenty eighteen. That's when I
had graduate college and I started working. And when my
mom was making these foods I love. I think they're
just so comforting in that moment, especially that I started
documenting how she made them so that if she wasn't
(16:51):
home for some reason, I could make them. But most importantly,
I can make them in the future when my mom's
no longer around, and I could feel that comfort again.
So officially started in twenty eighteen, and then in twenty nineteen,
I started my blog because my notebooks just got too heavy.
They got way too messy. My mom didn't use measuring
spoons at that time, so there's so many scribbles in it,
(17:12):
and I was like, Okay, this is super outdated. I
need to transfer this somewhere. So I was like, you know,
might as well put it onto a blog where it's
public and I can easily access it and Google it
if I want it, and that's what I did, and
I got a following on my blog and then it
really wasn't until I started my social media in twenty
twenty two where I combined those recipes with my storytelling
(17:37):
and that's when on his Kitchen really blew up.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Yeah, I mean, were you actually were working with TikTok
on a journey in South Korea with your mom and
she met her, she met her sister, she saw her
sister over there. What you write about and what was
that like going there with your mom and that reunion
and going in a completely you know, interesting way because
you're looking for the stories to bring back to your
(18:06):
large following.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
It was both so privileged heartwarming, but both heart and
also heartbreaking because I think like when you get a
glimpse of luxury that like people can just get visit
their family once a year, it's like, wow, people can
really live this way, and like we've been missing out
(18:30):
on that. So it was it was heartbreaking in that sense,
but it was heartwarming and that we've created an opportunity
for ourselves where we're being invited to go out to Korea,
which is such an honor and we wouldn't be there
without our support of our followers and the work that
we do and the teamwork that my mom and I have.
So it felt so real to finally see my and
(18:53):
I get like emotional about it because it's such a
heavy question. Yeah, but it felt so surreal seeing her,
And yeah, I love that moment so much.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
I was very touched by it as well, because there's
that link because I think, where do you live now, Sarah?
Speaker 3 (19:11):
I live in Orange County. Okay, here's in California.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
So Orange County is, you know, and I lived in
New York. It could be a bit of a bubble
in many ways because yes, you know, you there is
there are such pockets of privilege and you leave that
to see how many other people of like most of
the world, and it's humbling and and eye opening in
(19:36):
so many ways. So I'm curious, how did your mother
feel about you doing all this documentation of what really
is just her everyday life.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
She didn't have any She was pretty neutral about it,
like she knew that, you know. She just feels really
honored that people have an interest. In fact, she is
more so confused why people watch us, because she doesn't
get like we live a very ordinary life. Like I know,
Orange County. I agree, it's an absolute bubble, but I
feel like an outcast living here because my dad paints
(20:09):
for a living. He has this huge white work fan
paints all over it, and I guess it doesn't look
the most appealing in our neighborhood, and neighbors have come
up to us. This is way back then, and thankfully
we don't have neighbors like this anymore, and they would say, like,
can you hide like your car somewhere else, or like
put your paint somewhere else, or doesn't ruin the neighborhood,
(20:31):
and so yes, so for us, like we live a
life where we work extremely hard. And my mom also
understands this is the life for many and so she's
just fascinated by the fact that people have interest in it,
especially because on social media and like reality TV, people
love to see the luxury. They love to see what
(20:52):
the rich people are up to. This is a bad example,
but like keeping up with the Kardashians.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
What are they up to?
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Because we can't relate to them. It's so unattainable.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
That's entertaining or selling Sunset and the OC Yeah exactly, yeah,
but we're on the opposite end where it's like, oh
my gosh, we're finally seeing something behind the curtain that
everyone's doing working hard and working a true honest life,
and people really like that.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
I like it. I mean, you know, watching selling sunset
while getting a manny pitty is like you know, eating
you know, truffled French fries or something and trampade. You
don't do it very often. It's not how you really live, right,
And you know what, I love the dishes. There's you
know again, this is about cooking everything, no waist cooking,
(21:45):
which is many cuisines. I mean, I love Jacques pa
Penn because his last book and probably his last book
was on economy cooking, which spoke to me even more
than technique. What have you learned from your mother? And
and throughout the book I want to there are these
(22:06):
wonderful i'm a i'm as kitchen wisdom and it's about
handling food but not being wasteful as well. So I
am very passionate about not wasting food and using every
aspect of it. Are there specific recipes here that illustrate
(22:26):
that in terms of how economy and thrift but also
attention to not wasting food is an example.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Yeah, I think there's a lot of examples through that,
Like I feel like it's hard to actually just even
pick one because Korean cuisine is founded on that exact concept.
Because Korea was an impar rich country honestly not too
long ago, where they had the Korean War and then
the Japanese occupation, foods like white rights, which I talk
about in the food was considered a luxury and they
(22:59):
did have access to it until the nineteen seventies. So
finishing every grain of white rice was the norm when
my mom was growing up, because that like having a
sack of white rice was once in a blue moon,
was like having a luxury car in your driveway. So
nothing is wasted generally in Koreane cooking. A good example
(23:21):
of that is when you see kimchi, you make the
kimchi like your husband does, and then after that you
when the kim cheese is fully fermented, there's so many
dishes you make from it, from kimchi stew to kimchi
pancakes and more, and so nothing is ever wasted in
Careye cooking, and that it's hard to even pinpoint which
(23:41):
recipe because it's almost like.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Every recipe, no, almost every recipe is and again back
to the luxury of eggs, which was an example, you know,
you write, your mom says, when I was growing up,
my meals always consisted of rice and kimchi, sometimes a
salted shrimp. Usually it was barley rice, which is probably
more economical rice. And now it's a healthier alternative. And
that's true. I mean, in Louisiana, everybody's white rice, and
(24:04):
I'm not trying to wean everybody off of it, but
I was fascinated with that. And also there was a
section on snacks, because snacking was not very common and
the snacks were very humble snacks.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Yeah, so growing up, my mom lived also an ordinary life.
And she recalls, and you know, there's some wealthy Koreans
as well, like anywhere, And she recalls one of her
classmates that she befriended and became close with. Her parents
would bribe her with chocolate to practice her piano lessons.
(24:38):
And when she saw that for the first time, she
just couldn't believe that concept that someone has chocolate in
their house. Because everyone around her and her community, they
were lucky enough to eat silkworms, which is a snack
that Koreans season and kind of saute in a big pan,
(24:58):
and those were the snacks that she grew up with,
or if once in a blue woon, her parents would
buy her a dalgona. I don't know if you've seen
squid games. It's like the sweet treat that you make
from sugar and baking soda.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
And they have not seen squid games. But I'm still
on the silkworms you had me. I saw that book,
I was.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Like, yeah, so those were those snacks growing up, and
then yeah, it was It's just Korea has evolved so much.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Well, pork is an important product? Is that the primary
meat that because you know many cultures pork is not
the primary product. I think pork here so I read
was important. It was the nose to tail concept or yeah,
so pork.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Is actually the most common eating meat in Korea. And
it's also Korea is one of the biggest importers of
pork because we consume so much of it. And when
I was when I learned about that, I was like,
why why is this the case? And I learned that,
I mean I kind of came to the consensus that
in Korean culture, if you go there there's a lot
(26:08):
of Korean barbecue joints where they sell just pork and
it's a great way for people to come together and
celebrate after work or birthday when a family comes over,
because pork is much more affordable than beef, and so
it totally clicked with me with Korean barbecue culture, the
night culture in Korea especially like maybe you go clubbing
(26:28):
and then you want to eat something and it being affordable.
Koreans love their pork.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
Well, there's some wonderful recipes here, you know, for you know,
Korean barbecue ribs. One that I you know, having just
gone to a restaurant last night, the served stufft neck.
You have one upon me every make braisee marinated pork neck.
But that's where I thought, wow that you know again
it's economy cooking using the you know, nose to tail
(26:56):
concept in here. And you know, salt raised pork back
ribs and kimchi very filling, fried pork ribs with coom
and seasoning, salt, very filling. But then you had something
that seems very humble here called a beef pancake so
go gee June and it almost looks he says, it's
(27:18):
a simple dish that you enjoy is a snack. But
pancakes or savory pancakes a large part of Korean cuisine.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Oh absolutely, I don't think Like when my mom tried
the pancakes that I had, the American pancakes, my parents
were so confused, They're like, why are we eating dessert
for breakfast? But yeah, savory pancakes it is very common
where you have kimchi pancakes, beef pancakes, vegetable pancakes, seafood pancakes,
(27:49):
and so forth.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
I knew that, but I wanted to ask up because
there was a restaurant in Tennessee that did a savory pancake.
I can't It was what started with a y the
name of it.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
It was almost yachich. Did I have ales in it? Yes? Yeah,
it was yacht chichen. Especially pancake.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Oh, it was so heavily. I don't have a I
don't have a sweet tooth, so my I don't really
traditionally like sweet pancakes for I don't like anything sweet
for breakfast. It just makes me gag. So the idea
of savory pancakes, I mean, I'm gonna, you know, when
I have a breakfast this morning, I had yogurt and
black beans and chopped up tomato. Yeah, I mean, I
(28:37):
I love I still love Asian food in the morning.
I mean happy to have savory and and and and
also substantial in the morning. Uh and and I think
that is something I noticed in the book. Yeah, there
are some sweets in here, but there were a lot
of things that Americans would eat for dinner in the
(29:01):
break and the dessert end, Like we talked about, the
corn is an example.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, the dessert section, that's I love
sweet Smelanie, So I totally Yeah, you relate to my mom.
So you would love savory pancakes, whether it be the
beef pancakes, Kimsen pancakes. That's what my mom's eating for
breakfast too. But the dessert section, that's where my heart
(29:26):
is at.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
So give some exhaust, share some examples of some of
those desserts.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
So the dessert section these so my mom's a cook,
she does not like. She didn't grow up with snacks,
so she of course wouldn't know how to bake. Our
oven is filled with pots and pants. I've never seen
her use it once other than the mini conventional oven
we have on our counter. So the desserts in our
book was developed by my uncle who is a professional
(29:52):
Korean trained pastry chef who owned his own bakery for
a good amount of years. Very successful include iconic Creane
desserts that were popular in the nineteen eighties, from peanut
struicel bread to Creane milk bread, and they also include
current trending pastries that are just having people wait out
(30:15):
the lines at Creane cafes, similar to the corn latte
where we have salt bread and milk cream donuts that
has two inches of cream in between these donut sandwiches.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
The peanut butter strusl bread. I have a peanut eater,
peanut butter eater in the house, David. It's just like thing,
and I was fascinated by it because it looks like
when you open it up, there's a photo in here,
it looks very spongy inside or is that jruically inside?
(30:47):
What's inside that peanut butter? Because it looks very soft,
not like a cookie inside, it looks like something else
going on.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
You're you're exactly correct. So on the outside, is this
very crummy, just beautiful fle peanuts struicel When the people
at America's Test Kitchen actually taste taste tested this. They
loved it so much they packed it all up and
took it home, and I tell them, oh, this is
a peanuts treuste, and they're like, we had no idea
there is peanut butter in this because it was so
balanced where it wasn't overwhelming. Yeah, but then inside is
(31:18):
this yeasted dough. That's this bread that's super like angelically delicate.
And so there's two contrasting flavors that you take when
you buy into this. And oh that' streuicel bread is
probably my favorite dessert in this book.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Interesting David cooks. I bake, and this is the type
of thing I would want to try when I could,
you know, because I like to bake. And even though
I don't have a sweet tooth, I do like to
bake sweet things because that's what I did grow up
doing with my mother was baking. She had a fan.
She had an epic sweet tooth. Epic. Are there any
desserts that have a special traditional meeting I'm actually let
(31:58):
me rephrase that. I live in New Orleans. Every week
there's other holiday, and every holiday has a special food
that goes with it. Right now, it's Latin fish fries
every Friday. Are there any foods that really symbolize very
specific Korean holidays that you can share with us that
(32:22):
maybe you had on special occasions.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Yeah, so that would be I think there's two. First
one would be the thuck mandu kook, which is rice
cake dumpling soup, and that is something that Koreans eat
on New Year's And there's a whole essay about it
where I discussed how the long rice cakes were a
(32:47):
symbol of longevity and health and prosperity, and that's something
that no matter what. Like you know how I mentioned
earlier that white rice was once considered a luxury. But
in Korea back then, even when there's struggling, no matter what,
Koreans came together collectively to take their white rice that
they worked very hard for and then they would take
(33:09):
it to the mill to make these rice cakes so
they can make this soup. It didn't matter what class
you came from, whether you're wealthy and you could have
this all the time or the lower class. They all
came together, waited on line to make this particular soup
on New Year.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
It's called taking rice to the mill. For tea yok
Is that how you pronounce it to tea? Yeah? Well rice.
I travel for New Year's every year. It's my birthday.
So I've kind of made a history of foods and
traditions on how the New year is rung in, and
rice and noodles are incredibly important symbols, rice noodles being
(33:49):
longevity of life and rice being abundance, and then the
green is more financial abundance, and that many cultures, that
is what you eat for New Year's, whether it's the
dishes in South Carolina and here in Louisiana. In many
(34:11):
places that's what you eat, some kind of a rice
ball in Italy, rice balls. Rice is very important, noodles
more so in Asia. But I've been fascinated by that
and more so since I've moved here to such a
multi cultural city in state, in New Orleans and Louisiana
(34:31):
where you see it, and you see it a lot
in California, because California. I'm curious. You know. I mentioned
at the beginning of the show that the Korean cuisine
has had almost a ten percent increase of interest in
many restaurants. What do you think is behind this?
Speaker 3 (34:51):
Yeah, so that would have to actually be accredited to
in Koreans called how you how you means the Korean wave,
the Korean movement where we're seeing a transition, especially in
media and entertainment, where you're seeing other cultures play a
role in it, and in Korean culture or excuse me,
(35:11):
Korean entertainment. What we're seeing kind of make its way
into American media is Korean movies in film. For example,
my favorite movie of all time, Parasite, won Best Film
at the Oscars, which was huge. We're also seeing Korean music,
particularly K pop and bands like BTS, where they have
this huge fandom that are outside of America, excuse me,
(35:34):
outside of Korea, coming from America where where I once
grew up not hearing Korean music played at the gym.
And then I remember, in like twenty eighteen, twenty seventeen,
I heard BTS, which is a K pop band, play
at my local gym, and I was like, what is
going on? And that's when I realized there is something
happening where creating entertainment and media is making its way
(35:57):
to American media.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
In a huge way. And then there's the whole beauty trend.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Oh yeah, don't forget I can forget about that.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Yeah, I've been fascinated. When I lived in New York
many many years ago, I used to go to Chinatown
and go to the emporiums, those wonderful emporiums, and just
and I would always go to the beauty section. I
was always fascinated by skincare. Probably I had problem skins,
so I was curious about how other cultures dealt with it.
And returning, we tend to go, as I said in
(36:29):
the beginning the show, to Chinatown, but also to create.
There's this wonderful Korea town near Macy's and I have
some wonderful restaurants there, and over the years it's become
very crowded, Like you just see many more people going
there from when I used to live there and it
was fairly empty and now everything's just packed.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
Yeah, the Korean skincare is huge, as well as Korean
food as well. But also yeah, it's it's just rising
up and more, and it's really fascinating to see just
how it's becoming part of American culture. And I hope,
I hope that it opens more doors for other cultures
to be seen as well. I hope.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
So, you know, I I My only experience going to
Korea was you know, en route to Asia and having
to get out of the plane and get my passport.
I said, can I have my passport stamp? Get back
on the plane, just to say it. But yeah, my
father was stationed there during the Korean conflict. He called
it a conflict. But I have a lot of photos
(37:31):
of him from there in Japan that I still have
those men.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
Was he there for uh?
Speaker 2 (37:38):
You know, I don't know. He was over there a
really long time because after he served, he hitchhiked around
Asia for a while before he came back, and it
remained with him for many years. Both my parents had
a lot. They went to Asia and around the world.
When I was a little girl, they left with my
grandmother and they were so Our house was Asian. We
(37:59):
had a lot more thaie than anything, but we had
a lot.
Speaker 3 (38:04):
Thailand is so fullow culture. It's one of my mom's
favorite cuisine.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
I was going to ask that, you know, because your
mom cooks every day at home, what is she like?
What does she like to cook? But she's not eating
Korean food, so she likes typhood.
Speaker 3 (38:16):
It's interesting she loves ty food and I just saw
a YouTube video about Thailand and I was showing my
mom and she's just begging to go there, and she
wants to go there one day.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Does she travel? Does she do your parents travel?
Speaker 3 (38:31):
Uh, we're not there yet. We'll hopefully get there to
maybe what the success of this cookook. If that happens,
we can travel.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Well you get that marketing going. We were talking about
that too. It's hard to you know. The good thing
is you have a lot you know, here's anyone out
there thinking about writing a book, much less a cookbook.
You really need to have a social media platform in place.
That makes a big difference.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
H Yeah, social media is changing so much of how
we market things now. Like even I admittedly have a
hard time I'm sitting down and watching a full documentaring
or show on Netflix, I'm more so inclined to be
on social media because that's just where we're heading towards,
and that's we don't I don't call it digital marketing anymore.
That is simply marketing.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Yeah, everything is digital, Like, you know, what are you
doing print marketing? I worked in public relations in the
days when there was no digital and kind of was
in it but got out as it just started to
really explode a cascade. I'm kind of glad I did
from that end because I can't imagine having clients today
in the demands and I do more social media and
(39:37):
everything that you know. The podcast, It's interesting. We've been
twying with doing all video, but most of our listeners
listen to the podcast where they're at the gym. They'll
be at the gym, we're taking walks, and I want that.
I want everybody to be moving more so. I'm so
excited that people listen to our shows when they're moving.
That's important, Yeah, because I'm a big person that So
(40:00):
I'm going to tell you my favorite. Okay, I fell
in love with kim Chi after I developed this amazing
transformation in my palate. But I love b bim bop
and the gimbop and the sizzling bowls that you get.
Those are fabulous. The big bowld razzine. You have a
particular Uh, this is a melanie dish. It's called avocado
(40:24):
jang young non dupdop Uh. It's basically I'm sorry about
my pronunciation, but it's basically all the time.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
No, it's good trying.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
I'm trying. I'm trying, and I trying on. When I travel,
I always ask for the menu in the local language
because I study three languages. But I love you got
the poll up the role, you know, the wonderful row
fish and the sesamele. We love sesamewle, and you hallopenos
and avocados. And then there's that egg. I always get
the fried egg on the dish always, and I see
tomatoes and peppers. It's just it's a very healthy dish.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
Yes. And that recipe, Oh, that's such a delicious recipe
because it uses marinate and avocados that's been sitting in
this really flavorful soy sauce. That was the soy sauce
was marinated with koreane radishes as well.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
So do you you know buying soy sauce? You know
they're all over the blanks. Is there a special kind
of soy sauce you should be looking for, not necessarily
a brand, but a type, because there's soy sauce in
this show you so do so true? Am I getting
that right? There's different types of sud.
Speaker 3 (41:29):
What youre talking about? Do you t s u y u?
Speaker 2 (41:33):
I don't know what I'm talking about. I thought there
were different types of soy sauce. Yeah, so you know
what to buy.
Speaker 3 (41:39):
My mom actually has some very interesting and hot take
on it. She just uses good old regular Kikoman soy sauce,
and she tested out light soy sauce soy sauce for
this and that soy sauce for soups and stews produced
by Korean UH brands, and she just says, you know,
kiko Man soy sauce is just a good soy sae
(42:00):
I could work with. She doesn't particularly think that it
makes a huge difference to the point where you need
to go out and buy all these different soy sauces.
So she just makes it a bit more economical and
affordable by suggesting to use that in our book.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
No, I see a possible sponsor down the road. Another
dish that I love that speaks my name because of
its simplicity, And sometimes when I dine out at an
Asian restaurant with multi courses, I look for that one
simplicity dish that kind of so I'm not overkilling my palette.
And there's one. It's it's literally radish water kimchi noodles,
(42:38):
dong chi mi gupsu. Yes, it spoke to me for
its simplicity.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
That Oh man, that dish is out of this world.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (42:51):
It uses it uses radish water kimchi that you make
beforehand and water radish excuse radish water kimchi doesn't have
any each gotu does it have any spice or red
leaf flakes in it. So the brine in it is
extremely nuanced. It's it's so nuanced that when you make
this kimchi. It was This kimchi was ranked as Curry's
(43:14):
most favorite kimchi, second to the classic Knapa cabbage kimchi
that everyone is familiar with. Yeah, so then you use
that brine to make this noodle dish where all you
have to do is cook noodles and then you just
use that brine and then you're done. And that's a
great example of how nothing goes to waste.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
Well, I like doing that because we always preserve the
water from whenever they were cooking, you know, Like I
like vegetable water. So I love simple steam spinach. That
was what I when I was going through cancer treatment.
I had spinach, simple seamed spinach and lemon. That's all
I wanted every day. That was like my soooth food.
And I always take that water and repurpose it. I'll
(43:55):
drink it. I'll put it in the refrigerator and drink
it as my natural juice, or we'll cook with it.
It's great for cooking rice or pasta. And that's in mushrooms,
the same thing. You know. I love that vegetable water,
which is really what the radish water is. Yeah, and
it's just such a simple dish. It reminded me of
one I had she came over from China. It's amazing
(44:18):
Asian restaurant in Florence, Italy, and the dish I ordered
was that simplicity. And David looked at me like, is
that all you're getting? And I'm like, no, it speaks
volumes because of its simplicity, and sometimes a simple dish
can speak volumes.
Speaker 3 (44:32):
Simple. It's always the best dishes, Yeah, yeah, because there's
they can be as simple as they are that keep
be incredibly nuanced, and there's a beauty and simplicity always.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
Always now, of course, just you know, just for everyone
thinking about this, just to giving a little American bequest,
you do have a very interesting and I see David
making a recipe for Kimschi grilled cheese. Yes, fine, that
looks really good, and it's interesting you have two teasp
it's a sugar in there for sprinkling, which kind of
threw me, being not the sugar person I am, but
(45:05):
it looks really good. I'm sure we'll probably do a
simpler version of it because we have kimchi, we have cheese,
we have bread, so you know, but use moonster cheese,
garlic pew or onion powdered black pepper fish sauce, which
we love, and the kimchi and the sugar, I guess
for sprinkling. Why sugar?
Speaker 3 (45:25):
So fun fact, this was our hardest recipe to develop
in the book, but it's one of the easiest recipes
in the book. In Crean culture, sugar is used quite commonly,
and a lot of people actually critique creating cuisine for
being too sweet and putting sugar in everything, And arguably
someone could say that for this recipe, where it's like,
why am I adding sugar? But when we had tested
(45:47):
the recipe and let me backtrack a bit, adding as
we grow, sugar to sandwiches is very common in these
street sandwiches that you get or any sandwich really, and
when we have tested this recipe, we took final bite
of it without the sugar, and we're just like scratching
our heads. They're like something is missing, Like it's ninety
nine percent there, in fact ninety nine point nine percent there,
(46:10):
But what is it missing? And then I realized it's
the sugar sprinkling that crems do. So the sugar it
doesn't add any sweetness to the sandwich. It's just a
little sprinkle where it balances out the bite so that
you taste the butteriness of the sandwich, you taste the
taniness of the kimchi, you taste the yeastiness of you
taste the sour dough, and then that sprinkle of sugar
(46:33):
just just binds it all together.
Speaker 2 (46:36):
That's common in African cooking and Caribbean cooking as well.
You know with collar greens you add vinegar and sugar.
You always had sugar because David, it'll make them. Why
are my collar green soap? And I'm like, you forgot
the sugar? Yeah, I got it. Balance it out. Sugar
adds the balance. A little sugar, little spice, little salt
adds a balance exactly.
Speaker 3 (46:57):
I remember I shared a video of my mom making
La Carby, which is creating short rips and we wash
our meat. And then people in the comment section had
so many opinions to say about it. But those who
also wash their meat commented, particularly those from African and
Caribbean backgrounds, and they're like argument. People will being like, no,
it makes absolute sense to wash our meat. We do
(47:20):
it too, and so it makes sense that they're doing it.
So there's cultural aspects that you see sprinkled in quite
literally throughout the book, whether it's adding sugar to your
sandwiches or washing your meat.
Speaker 2 (47:31):
Yeah, it's interesting how these cultural traditions span the globe.
So you know, I'd like to wrap this up with
taking a bathroom. How did this develop, its strengthen and bond,
the bond with your mom? I mean, what's great is
you've created this visual story that's going to last, you know,
long after she's no longer with us, you know, hopefully,
(47:52):
you know, I mean, she will have a very long life.
But you know, I lost my mom and I had
this video of her that we actually shot a week
before she died. It was amazing and yeah, somebody it
was the video. Well, it was a very good friend
of ours in Tennessee that wanted to start creating memorial
videos documenting people's life and they asked my mother she
(48:14):
would do it as a gift, and she said sure,
and they filmed and little did we know that my mother,
who made a living as a speech communication specialist and
a JOHNK professor, would lose her voice completely a week later,
which was the beginning of her death. The day she
lost her voice, of the day she really began to
start to die and we captured it and it was
(48:37):
amazing because she was still Literally her voice started to
fade two days later. I think she talked so much
about the video that a voice started to fade. But
I have it and it's treasured for that reason. How
old was she She was eighty eight.
Speaker 3 (48:51):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
And I you know, because when when someone you love dies,
what you missed the most their voices often.
Speaker 3 (49:02):
Wow. I'm very touched to hear this. That's such an
amazing piece that you have.
Speaker 2 (49:07):
Yeah, I mean the visuals I don't want to see
because she really fell into disrepair, but the voice was
always there. So my final question to you is how
do you think this amazing journey that you've taken with
your mother has strengthened your bond and also your appreciation
for your heritage.
Speaker 3 (49:28):
Such a great question. I think that through this book,
I learned about my mom before she was a mom.
I learned who she was as a daughter when she
had her own mom and her past that shaped her
into who she is today. And I see that wholeheartedly,
because my whole life, I've only known my mom as
my mom. I didn't know her as a daughter because
(49:51):
I never grew up with my grandma. But all the
stories that she told me of how she saw her
grandpa eat every grain of rice, of how she did
have any snacks, and how when she became a mother herself,
having a pantry flow of sax meant so much to her.
To talking about how her mom packed her twelve boiled
eggs all for her for her annual school field trip.
All of those stories made me appreciate her so much
(50:13):
as a person, the women that sacrificed so much for
their kids, and just her view of life and wisdom.
It's such an honor to hear that with her. And
we were sitting on the kitchen floor for many of
these stories, just staying up late at night after we
finished developing recipe, where she would share these stories and
they came about super authentically now woven into the book,
(50:36):
but to hear that firsthand and learn who she was
before she was a mom was such an honor.
Speaker 2 (50:43):
I think that's a wonderful thing for everyone listening to
think about, because I was thinking about it as you
were talking, Sarah. You know, I wish I had had
more of those conversations, had more conversations and less arguments.
That's all I'm going to say. A lot of our
life toward the end was about arguing and one upping
each other versus the conversations for many reasons. My mother
(51:06):
was a bit of a narcissist. But learning to have
less arguments and more conversations missing, which you are very
lucky and fortunate to have done and to have captured.
And I think everyone listening needs to think about that,
because that's really what you're going to miss when that
person is no longer alive. Yeah, the arguments are silly,
(51:26):
so you are lucky. I love the book again. I've
been talking with Sarah on she's a creator of Honest
Kitchen with her mom nom soon On. They have co
written Ama, which meant mom Ama means mother, a Korean
mom's kitchen wisdom and one hundred family recipes that are
very well document tested. Because we have a zillion America's
(51:46):
Test Kitchen books, they really are incredibly reliable and when
we moved it packed up our life. Yet again, we
didn't get rid of the America's Test Kitchen books because
they are just really good books to follow. And this
is a wonderful book. As you're talking, I'm thinking about
Mother's Day and I'm thinking about you know, those gifts
(52:09):
to new mothers and to you know, it's not just
about month, but it's a great gift for that, but
it's also a great way to learn about Korean cooking
and appreciate this amazing cuisine. So Sarah, congratulations again on
this book and all the work you've done to put
into it. You can tell it's been made published with heart,
and I wish you all the best and success in
(52:31):
terms of marketing and selling it.
Speaker 3 (52:33):
Thank you so much, Melanie, thank you for having me.
I really appreciate it and it was a great talk.
Speaker 2 (52:38):
I think so too, and I think everyone listening. I
hope you're inspired to go out and try something new,
whether it's in the kitchen or at a restaurant. Go
try food that is maybe something you're not familiar with.
Learn about other people's cultures and heritage. Take the trip,
drink the sip, and frankly, as you're talking, I'm thinking
about all the wonderful vignets and reasonings and diverts demeanors
(52:58):
that I would be drinking with these cuisines and champagnes
and bubbles. This is These are very wonderful dishes to
pair with, lots of incredible fruit friendly, fruity wines, bubbles, whatever.
Always think about what you're drinking with what you're eating,
because it's a it's a perfect pairing. You've been listening
to Melanie Young. As always, you have the choice in
(53:21):
life on how you want to live it. I say,
choose life on your terms, and always choose fearless and fabulous.
Thank you,
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