Infatu Asian Podcast

Curtis, Nadira, and Jen get back together to talk about 2024 K-Dramas, coincidentally 3 years since we launched this podcast in June 2021!  If we're being honest, 2024 hasn't been a great year of K-Dramas for us so far, but there have been some dramas that have made us laugh and cry... or both.  We'll be talking specifically about An Atypical Family and Queen of Tears, and we'll comment on a few others that we liked or dropped.

As ...

If you’re looking for a summer read, look no further!  Real Americans by Rachel Khong is like getting 3 books in one, it spans over 50 years and several countries from the perspective of 3 generations of a Chinese family. It asks the question, who and what determines who you are and what life you get to live?

Rachel was a complete joy to speak with, she’s currently based in LA but spent many years here in San Francisco editing the ...

There is a type of content on YouTube called "Catch and Cook" videos, where people catch fish and then show you how to prepare them. Most people who make these kinds of videos simply take the guts out of the fish, slap them in a grill or a pan with some butter and salt and pepper and eat them like that.  Taku, aka Outdoor Chef Life, has elevated the genre by producing amazing content with restaurant-worthy dishes that look as good ...

April Kim gets one of the best seats at some of Singapore and Malaysia's biggest KPOP concerts!  She's literally on the stage with the artists!  April is a stage interpreter, who turns the artists' Korean into English for their fans.  I noticed April when some videos of her interactions with artists like Taeyeon, CN Blue, and IU went viral!  It really seems like the performers and the fans love April's ability to communicate the ar...

Would it surprise you to find out that many of your favorite KPOP songs are written outside of Korea? It might also surprise you to find out that a few of these Billboard-charting songs were actually written by a Canadian teenager! Today we're hearing from Toronto-based singer-songwriter Sofia Kay. Still in her teens, Sofia is an uber-talented artist who has been writing songs for about as long as she could write!  Some of her song...

Eddie Ahn has been working in environmental justice as the executive director of Brightline Defense for the past 15+ years, here in San Francisco.  And you know me, whenever I get a chance to interview someone from SF I'll jump at the chance! Eddie has published his first graphic novel, Advocate, a memoir about navigating family and working on environmental justice issues here in SF and beyond.  He is a self-taught artist who illus...

I traveled to Macau to teach English for 3 summers in the early 90's. It's a really special place to me, since so much of my Chinese identity was formed during my time there.  Since I lived there before the internet age, I needed to dial and receive phone calls from overseas, so I was familiar with telling people they needed to dial the country code for Macau, 853, before the rest of the number.  So when I heard about some content ...

Children of immigrants face unique pressures as adults. They can get stuck in a "repay cycle," (tm) where they constantly feel like they need to always be there for their parents who gave up so much for them, often sacrificing their own desires to do that. Allison Ly is a licensed clinical social worker who offers therapy (in California) and coaching for 1st and 2nd gen adults. She has lots of insights for anyone feeling burnt out ...

This week we had a wonderful chat with Sarah-SoonLing Blackburn!  She is a Bangkok-born Malaysian/Chinese-American author and educator who wrote Exclusion and The Chinese American Story a middle-grade history book supplement that delineates the ups and downs of the Chinese American experience from the 1800s to today.  It's a fantastic read that is not just for kids, Zoe and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it!

You can get Sarah-SoonLin...

Ally Shen is a rising star in the Mando Pop world!  She's part of the 9 member Taiwanese girl group Twinkle Black, but she announced on OUR SHOW that she is officially launching her solo career with 2 new songs in the next few months! It was a complete pleasure to talk with Ally for about an hour, she is so warm, friendly, funny, and smart! I can't wait to follow her career and see how far she goes!

You can listen to Ally's and Twi...

It's always fun to get together with my teacher pals, but it was even more fun to get together at my new favorite Southeast Asian restaurant, Lime Tree!  Loan, Vicky, Jackie, and I got together right before our Spring Break to talk about AAPI history, facts, and historical figures.  Pictured here is the Tape family, their 8-year-old daughter, Mamie, was part of a Supreme Court case that led to the desegregation of schools in Americ...

For someone who plays villains, actor Yvonne Chapman could not have been nicer! Calling in from Vancouver, Canada, Yvonne talked with me about her road to acting as well as her three seasons on CW's Kung Fu, playing villain turned friend Zhilan Zhang. In February of 2024, Yvonne was stunning as the larger-than-life supernatural Kyoshi Avatar in Netflix's live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender.  This fall you can see Y...

We headed back to our favorite KPOP store, SarangHello, here in San Francisco to have some fun on a Friday night!  We had a Trivia Night with about 30 of our listeners and friends!  It was lots of laughs, a few tense moments, but in the end, I think everyone left a winner!

Special thanks to Chesca, Pip, (and Kevin in absentia) for hosting us and providing our final prize of a $50 gift card to the shop!  Also shouts to the Lawton Al...

This episode was so much fun to record!  I was able to get a mini tour of Chinatown with two SF natives who grew up down there, Josh Chuck, co-producer and co-director of the documentary film Chinatown Rising, and my mom Brenda!  It was really fun to capture the sounds of Chinatown on this recording, I hope you enjoy!  A few FACT CHECK items:  I said Pan-Pacific Exposition, but I meant The Golden Gate International Exposition of 19...

**No Spoilers For the First Half**  Jess Hong plays Jin Cheng in Netflix’s sci-fi thriller 3 Body Problem, adapted from Chinese novelist Cixin Liu’s books, and produced by Benioff, Weiss (Game of Thrones) and Woo (True Blood).  Jin is a genius scientist trying to save mankind from a consequence that started over five decades earlier.  Jess called in from New Zealand, and she couldn’t have been nicer or more generous with her time. ...

More great recommendations for Asian food in San Francisco from Julia Chen, Senior Staff Writer at the Infatuation SF! Let us know if you try any of our recommendations!  As you can tell we love food and we hope you do too!

Follow Julia @infatuation_sf or over at their website https://www.theinfatuation.com/san-francisco

Restaurants Mentioned these clips:

Viva Goa Hokkaido Sashimi Marketplace Fil-Am Cuisine My Tofu House Breadbelly...

Julia Chen has my dream job! (though it does seem like a lot more work than I realized) She is a Senior staff writer at the restaurant recommendation site The Infatuation. (no, the similarity of our media names did not escape us)! Julia eats out in SF 6-10 times a week and writes reviews for The Infatuation website. The Infatuation has quickly become my favorite restaurant recommendation site!

Coming back to co-host for a third tim...

What a year 2023 was for Asian American representation in TV and film. Since the Oscars is traditionally the end of awards season, I figured it’d be fun to do a little recap of some of our favorite AAPI projects that aired in 2023!  

I brought back 2 friends of the pod to help me with this. We’re happy to have Katie Nguyen back!  And joining us again is our old pal Kelvin, who is a real Asian American Hollywood mainstay with 90+ ac...

We hit the beach for this "on-location" recording (ignore the wind and wave sounds).  I had a super fun time trying to catch crab with Kaitlyn and Adam.  In between checking our crab snares, we had time to chat about fishing and whatnot.  Did we go home empty-handed? Check out our Instagram for pics of the day.  Or you can watch Adam's video of our outing at his channel ( https://youtu.be/CLoDXJi3Ee0?si=tK7PecsyfEyy6wtt )  Please i...