Latest / Take1.5 Podcast: Stories from the Messy In-between / The Korean Banchan Story Every 1.5 Generation Will Relate To| 반찬 만드는 교포 언니 셀리나

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The Korean Banchan Story Every 1.5 Generation Will Relate To| 반찬 만드는 교포 언니 셀리나 · Take1.5 Podcast: Stories from the Messy In-between

0:00
Embracing myself as like who I am and I am different and I, you
0:04
know, as someone who's teaching Korean food or, you know,
0:08
sharing a lot of Korean culture, I think different being like the
0:12
outside or marginalized group become my asset.
0:16
It's something that I'm using to make a business.
0:20
So I just never thought I could be doing that.
0:23
Today we're joined by Selena S Lee.
0:26
She is a menu and recipe developer and a consultant for
0:31
restaurants and companies. I always introduce myself as
0:35
Korean recipe developer and consultant.
0:39
I specialize in Korean food. Ioffer private workshops in
0:43
people's homes. Group workshop at a cooking
0:45
school in San Francisco past 11 years.
0:48
But this might be an obvious question, but why Korean food?
0:54
It's it's actually my favorite cuisine, not because it's my
0:58
background, but if you ask me like name your top three
1:03
favorite cuisine or food, and I think Korean would always rank
1:07
number one. I would have to kind of think a
1:09
little bit harder about second and third.
1:12
OK, what do you particularly like about Korean food?
1:16
I think the comfort factor plays a big part, having variety of
1:21
like protein, vegetable, grain, like everything in a set table.
1:27
So I really like that aspect of Korean food.
1:31
You know, when you ask Korean mom or Kai money about a recipe,
1:35
they go, oh, you go right. When I first got married and had
1:42
to start cooking or even think about cooking, I would call my
1:45
mom and go mom, you know, my God to give and there you go start
1:48
time or welcome the I'm like, what does that mean?
1:56
So you learned it by, right? I started like that because
2:03
that's how I learned by seeing them, but later on when I had to
2:07
take this on as a professional. Job I had.
2:11
To learn how to measure everything, Because when you're
2:13
a recipe writer, you have to measure down to T, right.
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So hard. Because I, I do, I have
2:21
experience writing recipes for other types of food in Korean.
2:26
Just makes it so difficult to get it down to the B You end up
2:31
like adjusting taste and adjusting as you go.
2:36
That's kind of the part of Korean cooking.
2:40
But you can't really, like, write that in the cup book.
2:44
Yeah. Right, right.
2:46
Adjust. To your.
3:00
Taste like? What does that mean?
3:07
I don't have any growing up. Was food important in your
3:14
family? Yeah, it was because my parents,
3:21
as soon as they landed here, they open up a sandwich shop,
3:25
like a deli shop, you know. So that was their full time
3:31
work, although it was like a small deli shop that focus on
3:36
lunch business in the, you know, business district of Oakland.
3:42
It's it's not easy to like run a shop, you know.
3:46
So I think food was big part of us in that way, but not
3:51
necessarily in a positive way or how difficult it was for my
3:58
parents to run those business that they were not used to be
4:01
doing. And then my mom come coming home
4:04
and then putting out a full Korean dinner.
4:08
So right, yeah, definitely appreciate it.
4:12
But it was, I think at that time, probably a pretty big
4:15
struggle for everybody. Yeah, yeah.
4:18
Because you know, some people, some families, their love
4:21
language is food, you know. So I wonder if that was the love
4:28
language of your family? What?
4:29
What do you think would was the love language of your family?
4:33
Yeah, I, I think the, you know, because now I think my love
4:37
language is through cooking and sharing food.
4:41
And it, we didn't really get to enjoy that until later when all
4:45
three daughters grew up and we were able to cook on our own and
4:49
we could like cook for our parents and have family
4:52
gatherings. You know, it was, I mean, we
4:55
could say, yeah, because we all of us are like into cooking.
4:59
All of us are like footies and we're like type of family that
5:03
were eating something really good.
5:05
But we will be talking about some other food that's good or
5:09
some other food experience that we had, you know, So we're we're
5:13
pretty serious in that way. But in the beginning, it wasn't
5:19
really, I would say, a positive, you know, but you know.
5:25
Very typical immigrant family, right?
5:28
Yeah, didn't we all kind of grew up on Costco food?
5:32
Yeah. We took care of ourselves
5:35
because we were sort of at that age where we were OK with that.
5:40
Yeah. I mean, yeah, you're right.
5:42
We all grew up that way, right? We fend for ourselves.
5:44
We come home, latch, latch key kids, right, Watch after school
5:49
TV program, do homework, wait until the parents get home.
5:54
Mom comes home right away. She starts cooking, you know,
5:58
keeps chicken, whatever. And you have your family dinner
6:03
and then and then repeat every day.
6:07
Yeah. So for my family, it was not,
6:12
we're not necessarily that distant, but I guess thinking
6:16
back at time, at that time, we're all, like you said, like
6:20
so tired. My parents were so tired from
6:24
working. And then odds kids, me and my
6:27
brother, you know, I don't know what we're thinking.
6:32
I guess we're thinking, oh, I don't want to bother mom or dad.
6:35
You know, they're tired. So it was kind of like life like
6:39
that going on. Like, you know, kind of you kind
6:42
of look for yourself and figure things out for yourself.
6:46
Was that like that for you too? I don't know.
6:48
Maybe because you have sisters is different was different.
6:51
Yeah. I mean, even then, I think we
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really, really had to kind of look out for ourselves, you
7:00
know, and I I just kind of vaguely remembering that, I
7:06
mean, because all of us did not speak English.
7:08
So when we first came, not even like alphabet that that's, I
7:13
mean, now like kids in Korea learn English, but back then,
7:16
like we weren't taught at English in school, right?
7:20
Not like Chinese characters. That's that makes me sound
7:23
really old, but like we have to. Learn, you know.
7:28
But yeah, so like the language was so difficult and I remember,
7:34
I vaguely remember that my, my parents can't help me with
7:38
homework, nor can anyone in the house.
7:42
And so I just, yeah, I just did what I can, but I failed so much
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like few years. But I don't know, it wasn't like
7:53
so despairing or anything because I knew that that that
7:58
was normal. And everyone that was like me
8:03
was having the same kind of challenges that.
8:06
And then I somehow had a faith that, yeah, this isn't going to
8:10
last forever. I'm going to eventually learn.
8:14
But it just, it was just really hard because the the language
8:17
was not there. And so basically had to take
8:22
care of our own homework. School work.
8:24
Right. And then, like, just help them
8:27
around the house and like, yeah, I mean.
8:31
But the dinner was always there. Promising my thanks to my mom.
8:35
Right. But like everything else, I
8:38
think we had to really fend for yourself, yeah.
8:41
Yeah, yeah. Dinner was always there.
8:42
The laundry was always done, but everything else, yeah.
8:46
Yeah, we, we had to figure out. You know, that's funny because
8:49
I, I came to the States in 6th grade and then soon after
8:55
promoted to 7th grade, Right. I clearly remember it was
8:58
American history. And then there was this word
9:02
party. Like you, I had nobody to ask,
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what's a party like? Is it like a party like dancing
9:09
and drinking and eating party? I had no idea what they meant.
9:14
This must be a party like the party that we know of, right?
9:17
So I answered the question, whatever it was, according to my
9:22
thinking of what party meant. But actually, later on, I
9:28
learned that they were talking about the political parties.
9:31
Yeah. Wow.
9:34
It would be a kid. Yeah, also we came in a very
9:39
similar time because I, I didn't, I never finished 6th
9:43
grade or in Korea. And then I had to jump right
9:50
into 7th grade because master starts in the fall here.
9:55
Right, right. Yeah, so it's like 2.
9:58
There was some semester that I. Lost.
10:01
Yes. It didn't matter.
10:03
I had to pretty much start from scratch.
10:05
And I remember just working so hard to learn English first two
10:10
years before high school because everyone was scaring me and
10:14
warning me that if you don't get out of ESL, you know, it's going
10:19
to be hard to to get through high school and then to college.
10:23
So like I remember like hard to like get out of English the
10:29
second language class. I think the kids or the young
10:35
people who come who came to the States like in 90s and 2000s are
10:40
in a much different place, as in English, English speaking, more
10:47
exposed to the non Korean culture, you know, all these
10:52
things. But like in the 80s, none of
10:55
that, none of that, right. We didn't have any exposure to
10:58
English language or anything about the culture.
11:03
So he's really practically started from zero, like I had
11:08
nothing to work with, you know, So it was a different times, but
11:13
yeah. Yeah.
11:14
You survived. We survived and doing great.
11:20
Look at you promoting Korean food and teaching and doing all
11:25
these wonderful things. Yeah.
11:28
How did you invent yourself as a menu developer and A food
11:34
consultant where you have no formal training to be a chef,
11:38
but you build up this business idea and then you're carrying it
11:42
through doing in many different areas?
11:46
Yeah, I've been very lucky to have been approached by people
11:52
through word of mouth and social media.
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Like, I don't know, just consistent posting or just
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showing that I'm doing something.
12:01
It gives me a chance to reach somebody out there.
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I mean, I don't have a huge platform or following or
12:07
anything like that, but I always told myself not to be
12:10
discouraged by that, but just keep doing and keep, keep
12:14
sharing, because somewhere out there someone's gonna recognize
12:18
my work and they're gonna approach me.
12:21
So what? What exactly do you do as a food
12:24
consultant or menu developer for a restaurant or a food company?
12:30
The work that I've been doing past, I don't know, like 7-8
12:35
years is basically helping new Korean restaurants to open.
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But usually the owners or the main chef or cook already has a
12:48
menu in mind, but they need some help executing into a restaurant
12:53
scale and then document the recipe, how to scale them to
12:57
restaurant size and then how to train the employees.
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So there's a there's definitely a restaurant consultant on the
13:05
finance side and the whole business aspect of side, but
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there's also a consultant that helps with the menu and the food
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itself and the whole how things run in the kitchen.
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So done few like new restaurant openings, but also if it's an
13:21
existing restaurant or something, then they might, they
13:25
might want to look into improving their menu or they
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just want to have a fresh eye come in and help them to like
13:33
just improve or something some issues.
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And then there's it's not always the restaurant, but food brands
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that need people to really like use their product to come up
13:48
with the recipe that they could share with their customers.
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So. I see.
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There's a, it's a pretty broad like spectrum of work needs to
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be done. It's just being a Korean like
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specific consultant is pretty like hard to find I think in the
14:07
United. States So do you work like
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mostly with Korean restaurants or like restaurants, non Korean
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restaurants that serve like because I see a lot of places
14:17
where they say like Taco blue boogie burger or whatever it is
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like. Both, but mostly Korean
14:25
restaurants. I'm actually working on a
14:28
project right now opening a new restaurant in Wisconsin, a small
14:33
town like north of Milwaukee. Going to be their first Korean
14:39
restaurant ever. Do you ever do you ever go to
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Korea to learn or further your development?
14:47
Future agenda. I am so overdue as far as visit.
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But yeah, what what I'm always dreaming of is just babbling the
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countryside and learn how all the original food is being
15:05
sustained and made. And I mean, luckily I see a lot
15:09
of it on media, which is great, but I'm sure like experiencing
15:13
in person will be, you know, whole thing.
15:15
Do you? Do you make your own kanjang,
15:17
Kochi, Jang and tanjang? I'm not there yet, man.
15:23
OK, I don't know. I don't but.
15:30
Before it didn't. Not the way I was hoping for.
15:34
Yeah, it's a long process. No complicated and long.
15:37
There's actually a quicker way to do do it for Kochi Jung, but
15:40
you know how kanjang and dinjang does take a lot of science and
15:43
time. Do you make your kimchito?
15:46
Yes. Wow.
15:48
Instructor like that has to be part of it and classes are one
15:54
of my most popular classes. Is it?
15:57
Yeah, so I do a big, I used to do a big like communal community
16:03
like him down. It's actually not a one day,
16:07
it's a 2-3 days process. Oh, wow.
16:09
And then of course, I love making small batch kimchi at
16:13
home. I need to take your kimchi
16:15
class. I don't know how to make kimchi.
16:17
Oh, actually, it's it's not as daunting as it seems.
16:23
Kind of make a mind shift and say oh I'm gonna make a small
16:28
batch just to enough to eat it for a few weeks.
16:31
I'm gonna make 100 cabbage to. For.
16:35
Six months, you know. I know, but like, I tried a
16:38
couple of times. My husband's like, oh, it's OK,
16:41
we could buy kimchi. I think he was trying to say
16:44
don't do it anymore. But I do want to learn to make
16:49
kimchi. It's such a staple.
16:52
It is a staple and I think people just are a little bit
16:57
afraid of like just not turning out right or I don't know, just
17:02
compared to the amount of Labor they think it's.
17:06
You get 1 jar. And then so I think that's
17:10
that's why, but I think it's all like matter of how you think
17:15
about it. What is your favorite dish to
17:17
teach? No, I think teaching them how to
17:23
make panchen and how to be practical about it.
17:27
So like you make a set of very balanced panchen that's fresh
17:34
versus panchen that lasts longer.
17:37
Like you take, you know, set aside like some hours on a
17:41
weekend to make a set and you are pretty much you have it for
17:45
the week. You just have to make rice and
17:47
soup. Maybe I like teaching that part.
17:51
So more practical. Yeah, yeah.
17:53
I started more focusing on that since last year.
17:56
So that that's been one of my favorite things to teach.
17:59
What kind of panchen do you usually make in your class?
18:04
So for my class I have a menu that I share with them.
18:08
It has 60 different panchen and kimchi. 6050. 600 wow that they
18:16
could choose from have like a vegetable, fresh vegetable
18:20
section. I have a quick and cheese
18:22
section pickled and something that lasts longer like chinati.
18:26
Yeah and then like more protein based, like sort of like a main
18:32
but kind of side yeah. And then they get to choose like
18:37
3 to 4 different panchani kinchi and then one type of super Stew
18:41
to. Make wow so you get to choose
18:44
what you want to make. Yeah, yeah.
18:46
Oh, so everybody's making something different.
18:48
Yeah, there's definitely different that that gets
18:52
repeatedly picked, but yeah, everyone get to choose with and
18:56
I get a lot of vegetarian gluten free options like it's very
19:01
versatile so. What are some of the most
19:05
popular penchants side dishes? Penchants.
19:08
Yeah, any tofu penchant does really well.
19:11
So I make this like really fresh, crumbly cold tofu with
19:16
soup cut. It's a crisp something leaves
19:19
zoo like dressing. Oh wow, sounds good.
19:24
Yeah. And then everyone likes making
19:27
cochelli, which is a fresh kimchi that doesn't require
19:30
fermentation. So we make it that day fresh and
19:33
they could eat it that day and they could store it for a week
19:36
or longer and it'll mature the flavor and things like that.
19:43
The braised cod, the. Yeah, that's that's been really
19:51
popular. I made the with everybody for
19:55
the soup and Stew section. Surprisingly kybe tongue kybe
20:00
gym, which I know a lot of people like the braised short
20:03
rib. They like their broth.
20:06
Short ribs soup. Yeah, yeah.
20:08
So, and that's, that takes a little bit of time because I, we
20:11
do like we started the night before and then so we could lift
20:15
all the that the next. But people have requested that
20:20
on many, many workshops. You know, as you are.
20:24
I'm Korean American. I grew up eating mostly Korean
20:27
food at home. But we are exposed to other
20:31
palates, right? So what we make at home, at
20:34
least for me, it's not really like the authentic traditional
20:39
Korean food, let's say like Tenjung Chige or or Tegu Jordan.
20:43
I I have never made Tegu Jordan at home.
20:47
But it's more like fusion. Yeah.
20:51
So we mix different like flavors and ways of cooking.
20:59
Do you see that a lot or do you do that at home for your family?
21:03
Yeah, I mean, I see that all the time.
21:05
And I I do do that at home. I don't make the top Antonio
21:11
dinner. My kids love cramp food, but you
21:14
know, they're not going to want to eat cramp food every day.
21:17
So there is a lot of fusion, I think.
21:20
But I I realized that fusion doesn't always mean like mixing
21:25
the two different cultures. It could also missing the old
21:29
and the new. Huh.
21:30
OK. If you see a lot of what's
21:33
happening in Korea, like the Korean people living in Korea,
21:37
yeah, they don't eat the Chopin time.
21:39
You know, they they have simplified a lot of their meals.
21:44
They've adapted quite a bit of westernized way of cooking or
21:49
food. I mean, sort of embrace the
21:52
cheese. Like, no.
21:53
Other I know. So, you know, I do a lot of like
21:59
simplify, like rice bowls, you know, have all the elements of
22:05
Korean things. But if I'm like number, like
22:08
chicken chinkun number, then I would make a very simplified
22:11
pipping pop at home. Just have to fried egg on top
22:15
right, make the sauce. So yeah, there's a lot of like
22:20
simplify one dish kind of thing I love like Curry, you know,
22:25
override with kimchi on the side or is.
22:28
That perfect? Yeah, it's not always like a
22:32
full on. I can't believe there are 60
22:34
different type of panchen. I don't think I've.
22:38
Tasted. All of them, ever there's.
22:43
More. I mean, that's like like the
22:45
bare minimum. That yeah.
22:47
Oh my gosh. Bare minimum that I actually
22:50
have a written recipe for. So I guess it's like a variation
22:54
of different types of dishes, right?
22:57
These are all that whole new like ingredient or ways of
23:01
cooking like different number French on Yeah, like kimchi.
23:08
The different number, different Pickles and kimchi, and then
23:14
more heftier pantan or side dish like Chu kokum, which is a spicy
23:19
pork kind of thing, or ketamari. I think they want to learn the
23:25
techniques. So I've been showing them how to
23:28
make that at home with the right kind of pan, right kind of
23:30
tools, things like that. Just kind of a everyday thing
23:34
that then just never had a chance to learn from their mom
23:37
or, you know, their parents. Yeah, for the Catamarie I, I, I
23:43
learned that I need the right tools to make that.
23:47
Yeah, I cannot improvise with that one.
23:51
Eggs are pretty sensitive, so so.
23:55
Like when you say the the let's say other Korean Americans have
24:01
not had a chance to learn Korean food from their parents or mom
24:06
particularly was not intentionally like passed down
24:09
to. What do you think?
24:11
Yeah, I mean, that's really interesting because if you look
24:15
at like sort of how history was panned out in in Korea, teaching
24:21
the next generation how to cook and do all that was very much
24:26
part of their living. I feel like usually it's the
24:29
pass down from the mother-in-law to when they get married.
24:36
But like just looking at our example of us immigrating here,
24:43
being raised here with the first generation Koreans.
24:48
I mean, I just in my case it was more like they didn't, they
24:53
didn't have time for that. They were in a super survival
24:56
mode. Sure.
24:58
So it's not just the the teaching us how to cook or do
25:01
all these house chores and things like that.
25:03
They were just busy making a living day-to-day, just they're
25:08
trying to survive. And so I think I mean, my
25:12
parents, like they, it was pretty obvious to me that they
25:20
just didn't have time for us to do all that.
25:23
So we were pretty much like on our own to like adapt and learn,
25:30
survive ourselves, right? It just just wasn't like part of
25:34
our, I guess, you know? Yeah, like.
25:38
Dynamic, you know, but but like I said earlier, like I realized
25:43
I learned so much just living with them and just seeing them
25:49
how they carry their lives, like just by them was a huge learning
25:53
so. And I think also it could be
25:57
partially my parents generation, my mom's generation had not
26:03
really big aspirations outside of the home.
26:08
And then our moms really instilled in us that you need to
26:13
do something outside of the home.
26:15
You need to build a career for yourself.
26:18
So then it was more kind of put in the back burner to teach your
26:25
daughter housework, house sewing, cooking maybe, maybe
26:30
intentionally. It was like they felt like it
26:31
was not necessary. Don't do this.
26:34
You go, you don't go the timers, but you don't think that there
26:39
is so much cool. I don't think that was their
26:43
priority of teaching career cooking.
26:46
At the whole point of why they decide to probably move here
26:51
because they were education, better life for us.
26:55
And so maybe, yeah, it was a way for them to kind of escape from
27:00
the reality of how things are and how they were raised.
27:04
So I think my in my family's case, it was just more like they
27:10
were. Yeah.
27:12
They were just so having a hard time adjusting and at least
27:16
first couple of years it was just really, really hard.
27:19
Yeah, do. You have any sisters?
27:22
Yeah, I do. I have two sisters, one older,
27:25
one year older than me and then four years younger.
27:29
Oh, so 3 girls in the family. Yeah.
27:31
Oh, you're so lucky. I don't have a sister, so I've
27:37
always envied people with sisters.
27:39
I think it's just a different type of relationship with that
27:41
sister. Yeah, yeah, different, probably
27:45
different kind of bonding, yeah. Yes, yes, for sure.
27:49
So what is 1 dish that you learn from your family by either
27:54
tasting or, you know, watching them cook?
27:59
I this is something that I would say kind of passed down from my
28:05
grandmother to my mom and then me.
28:09
So interesting fact about my grandmother.
28:12
She, I wouldn't call it her great cook, but she all those
28:17
cooks that had a had her own like a repertoire.
28:22
I guess she would host these like family gatherings and
28:27
Tessa, which is like a ancestral or remember all day, right?
28:33
She would make the same thing every year.
28:36
But because she did that, she kind of perfected them.
28:42
So one dish that she always made was Yuki Zhang and then Pan Yuk.
28:48
And then she made Chun, right? So she had this like a
28:52
repertoire that she repeated. And then of course, my mom had
28:55
to like kind of take over. And then like, I don't know, I
28:59
kind of adapted. I don't do like chess hour.
29:02
There's loads of big old gatherings.
29:04
But the same dish like the Yuka Jiang Chun and all that, like
29:08
it's all I've just passed down. Doesn't taste anything like what
29:13
my mom, but I it's my just, I'm just, it's my own
29:17
interpretation. Yeah, yeah.
29:20
Do you feel like you're cooking? Your own interpretation is
29:23
simplified, Like cleaner? Like aesthetically more
29:27
pleasing? What do you think?
29:31
I think it's pretty. The type of food that I do is
29:35
pretty classic. Classic meaning like I kind of
29:40
stick to like the traditional way of making Korean food and
29:43
still very textbook like told myself I'm a creative person, so
29:48
I'm always wanting to do something creative, interpreted,
29:53
modernized. But then, and then I told
29:55
myself, why don't I just learn all the traditional way of
29:59
making things like first year 2. But I'm still like past 10 years
30:04
and I'm still learning all the traditional way of making
30:08
things. Just thinking like when am I
30:10
going to be able to do my own thing?
30:11
But it's, it's great 'cause like there's still so much to like
30:16
dig and explore. But I would say like my creative
30:20
side, the whole design background.
30:22
And so it doesn't affect, I think, the way I present my food
30:26
and that that's still very, I think important.
30:31
My like my grandmother, who didn't have a huge repertoire,
30:34
but she always did tell me that presentation does matter, even
30:38
when eating at home. Like there's you put on a nice
30:42
napkin and you know the pretty plague because it's it's it's
30:48
it's how you could treat yourself and like how you or how
30:53
you present put food down on table reflects your attitude and
30:57
why. But she did, she always did,
31:00
like, emphasize that. That's really surprising because
31:04
I don't really associate Grandma's cooking with aesthetic
31:08
present presentation, so that's great that she was already aware
31:12
of that. I must have gotten from her,
31:15
yeah. Why?
31:17
Why is food and Korean cooking important for you?
31:27
I think it's important because I still feel that our space can be
31:37
bigger and that our voice can be heard a little bit more.
31:42
I mean, just past five years, though, I feel like the because
31:45
the media and the whole cultural phenomenon has picked up.
31:49
And so there's actually a lot of interest that we didn't have to
31:54
go after, right? It's already there.
31:56
And so it's really important that I do this now and then
32:02
moving forward. I mean, there was time when I
32:06
thought about not just limiting myself to do Korean food, but
32:10
maybe like expand to other Asian food or even other types of food
32:14
to reach broader audience. But I'm so glad I, I didn't do
32:19
that, that I stuck with, you know, just like focus on
32:23
learning Korean food and teaching others and sharing
32:25
knowledge freely. Really allow me to not only like
32:31
connect with my own identity, but like just make some space
32:35
for people that want to do this like after me or you know, in
32:40
the future. So, and I still feel like even
32:43
with all this popularity and all this Korean cultural phenomenon,
32:48
I feel like there's still not enough of us or just like, or
32:54
place for us to tell our story or like just have our voice
32:58
heard. So this kind of podcast, I think
33:01
it's just, so I'm really thankful that you provided the
33:05
space for for me to tell my story because I just never
33:09
really had the opportunity. I mean, there were a few times
33:12
when I think I was interviewed on paper, but like just never
33:17
really was able to tell my story from a 1.5 Korean American
33:22
generation that I know there's quite a bit of us that are doing
33:27
special things and just like, but I mean, there's a lot of
33:32
stories being told about Korean Americans or just people who are
33:35
born here with the Korean parents.
33:39
But there hasn't been much platform like this where people
33:44
like us like in between, right? So this my special.
33:49
Yes. Thank you so much for that
33:51
affirmation. Yeah, Yeah, I think so.
33:54
I want to share this, you know, our experience and validate that
33:59
experience. It's very important.
34:00
Yeah, we're not alone. Exactly.
34:04
I think in a lot of cases where I kind of felt uncomfortable or
34:09
felt left out, I told myself it's OK not to fit in or, you
34:15
know, I don't have to necessarily like belong to a
34:18
certain community or race groups or social groups.
34:22
Even embracing myself is like who I am.
34:26
And I am different. And I, you know, as someone
34:29
who's teaching Korean food or, you know, sharing a lot of
34:33
Korean culture, this actually became being different.
34:37
Being like the outside or marginalized group has become my
34:42
asset. It's something that I'm using to
34:46
make a business, you know. So I just never thought I could
34:51
be doing that, you know. So yeah, like being whole as who
34:57
you are is is probably more important.
35:00
Yeah, yeah. Absolutely, Absolutely.
35:04
That is so important. Yeah, that's such an empowering
35:08
statement. Yeah, I mean, I think the
35:13
younger generation probably have different kind of perspective,
35:18
you know, 'cause I think I'm like even just looking at my
35:23
kids generation, they have a very different perspective on
35:27
life or just being Asian American, living in US or being
35:32
Korean. So I think every generation will
35:36
have to kind of learn and and adopt, but for for people that
35:42
are kind of in our space right now, yeah, yeah.
35:46
I think that's that's important message.
35:48
Yes, it is such a wonderful perspective.
35:51
Thank you for saying that. You're welcome.
35:54
Thank you. The word to describe who you are
35:57
yourself with the food. What would it be such a fitting
36:01
question for you, but. One thing that comes up like
36:04
right away is kamdaku. Kamdaku is basically a potato
36:08
soup. But yeah, it's a potato beef
36:11
soup. It was my favorite soup as a
36:16
child growing up. It wasn't something that I was
36:19
able to order at a restaurant because it was just one of those
36:23
like a homey dish. It's one of my kids favorite
36:29
comfort soup on their on their first day of school.
36:33
It's that I make for them because it's just like comfort,
36:37
like a bug for for like not just for me, but for the.
36:43
I love that. Making that soup on their first
36:47
day of school, just as a little family tradition.
36:52
So simple, deep but like healthy and comforting is where.
37:01
Yeah, yay. I love that answer.
37:04
It's so interesting how people come up with these like non
37:07
typical food. I was afraid everybody was going
37:10
to say PB bop. Like Chef Edward, we say he's a
37:13
PB bop or something. Like that?
37:17
Oh. PB mean gun yes that's funny.
37:20
Oh gosh Selena, thank you so much for your time.
37:24
I I really thoroughly enjoyed this conversation.
37:27
I learned so much about you and your your experience as a 1.5
37:31
Gen. living in Oakland. Very different from where I am
37:37
or where I was. So it's always interesting to
37:40
hear other people's stories. Well, audience or friends, don't
37:45
forget to subscribe. Follow us on Instagram, Spotify,
37:49
Apple and YouTube for more contents like this.
37:52
That's relatable and speaks deeply about 1.5 generation.
37:56
Thank you.