Just went thru a major life change! I can do anything now! 🪐✨🚙🫧💌
Related, ofc, to turning in Book 2 last week. I’ve been writing it for the past four years. I can’t believe it’s finally done. I can’t wait for you to read it. Thank you for staying with me all these years. 💙❤️💛
#SpaghettiJunction #2027
When we got back to New York, our lease was up. So we packed up our things and moved apartments. It took a few weeks, but eventually I started to recognize the new building’s most German qualities. Living in it felt like living in a big treehouse in the woods. You could hear the birds chirping and the rain pitter-pattering on the sidewalk. Dogs barking and frogs croaking, the sounds of life on Earth.
The kitchen of this 95-year-old house is, like Margit’s kitchen, in the Frankfurt style, meaning it’s small but efficient. You can reach everything from everywhere, get a hard sear when you need to and a gentle simmer when you want to. I think of Margit often, whenever I put away a wineglass or take out meat to thaw. As I move about my kitchen practice, I keep saying to my fiancé: This is what Margit would do. Then I do it. 💌🫧
The lunch I cook to center myself once a week is …
… kimchi jjigae! Usually with fried eggs and white rice. I started cooking this combo more regularly once I moved in with my partner, Paolo. It was something simple but special I could throw together in 30 minutes. Then I realized it was my mom’s method of feeding us week in and week out. Whenever she “didn’t want to cook,” she’d always throw out, “Should we just do kimchi jjigae, fried eggs and rice and call it a day?” (Sometimes there was fried Spam or hotdogs.) My brother and I would go, “YEAH!” I associate this meal with sating hunger after long days at the swimming pool. And now, every time I cook this meal and eat it with my partner at our round table, I imagine our future kids eating it, among a slew of other regular meals that make up our growing repertoire as a family. You can watch me make a special version with ribs — an old recipe of Jean’s and a new video for Mother’s Day — thru the link in my bio 💌
Produced by @jonathanjbang , edited by @aniejeong
weekend_2.jpg 🪐✨
Katseye made a fan out of me (especially Sophia 😍)
Kacey helped Paolo and me understand each other better
Justin eased my best friends and me into the night, turning what would have, just a few weeks ago, triggered a panic attack (an outdoor festival with 125,000 other people) into a stretch experience, a pivotal “growth opportunity”
I found my old self there, the unbridled, confident version of me who used to love camping and listening to live music
I love knowing that a lot of you were in the same crowds. I’ll probably never go again — unless someone’s life depended on it? — but I’m glad I went. I felt really old. Wbu?
CHICKEN BULGOGI! New video on @nytcooking (or link in bio) 💌🍋
One great joy of bulgogi, marinated grilled beef that translates to “fire meat,” is that you can prepare it in advance and, when you’re ready to eat, have dinner on the table in under 10 minutes. This stovetop chicken variation provides the same workday convenience and savory-sweet flavors, thanks to soju, which tenderizes the meat, and maple syrup, which caramelizes beautifully without burning. Apple juice extends those ingredients and allows room for the subtle umami — known in Korean as gamchil mat — from garlic, ginger and scallions to gently season the chicken.
Directed and produced by @jonathanjbang , camera by @adamology and @jefferson.hong , audio by @iammattmichael , edited by Katya Kupelian, culinary by @jeanniec.design
Dinner for 17 @ Chez Eric. Baby’s first solo pop-up 🪐✨
The menu was ambitious so I’m definitely going to simplify it or hire more help next time. The incredible chef and culinary producer Young Gun Lee cooked with me and really saved the day when it was time for actual dinner service. I still have a long way to go before I do something more public. But I’m learning a lot and trying to put myself in more situations where I have to cook live. This evening was very private, an auctioned dinner in support of @koreanamericanstory , with huge thanks to The Ohs. It was a great night.
Anyway, without further ado … the menu:
Shrimp Cocktail w/ Three Sauces
A classic red one, a mustardy yellow one and an herby green one
Potato Medallions w/ Gim Sour Cream
& caviar
*
Gochujang Brown Butter Bibimbap w/ Roasted Spring Vegetables
Inspired by Bon Appetit, Your Majesty
Chilled Tofu w/ Jjajang & Scallion Gremolata
Doenjang-Glazed Salmon
Sweet & Sour Braised Short Ribs
Butter-Poached Sugar Snap Peas & Carrots
Aglio e Olio Gamja Salad
Angel Hair Pasta Salad
Green Salad
*
Milk & Cookies
Gochujang caramel cookies, M&M shortbread cookies and black sesame Rice Krispies Treats 🚙🫧
How did I miss the 4 year anniversary of this beauty coming into the world. To say this project for my friend @ericjoonho was super super special would be a major understatement. Eric, how has the time passed so quickly? 🥹 so many favorites here
My OG book team ✨✨
@tyna.hoang@beatricechastka
I love how blunt this flier is 😂 Thanks so much to @virginia.tech for having me next week. Many of you know that before writing professionally, I was studying to become an English professor but failed my 3rd year oral exam and dropped out. The story of that exam room became an essay I would workshop over the years as colleges invited me to their campuses to speak to their students. I’ve given a version of this lecture at UPenn, Yale, Oberlin and next week, I’ll be reading its latest iteration at Virginia Tech.
This is the piece that got me my book deal for the collection of essays I’m releasing next year, Spaghetti Junction, the follow-up narrative to Korean American. I’m really grateful to all of the educators who have invited me to their schools over the years and shared with me their own stories. These visits always recenter me and remind me of who I am and where I come from, and that abuse and glass ceilings are rampant in every industry, but goodness is too. The blazer is a reference to the jacket I was wearing during that exam I failed when I was 23 years old, when everything in my life changed overnight.
My hosts have graciously made this lecture open to the public. There’s a remote option if you want to watch via Zoom, and if you live near the area, I hope to meet you in person! 🪐
The day I made this braised kimchi chicken w/ sweet potatoes, I knew the recipe was done cause a) it was fire and b) It unlocked a depth of savoriness I’d never achieved before in a braise. It was a great month: I interviewed @mstevenscooks , who wrote the seminal text “All About Braising,” which explains in great detail what’s actually happening in the pot. Hope you love this recipe as much as I do. Link in bio ❤️
Column edited by @kchambrot and @tanyasic ; recipe tested by @bakerben1006
