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eight are later required. I'm

1:03

Francis Lam, and this is the blended table

1:05

from APM.

1:12

When you hear the words, you hear celebration.

1:15

What do you think of? My first

1:17

thought actually always goes back to Anthony

1:19

Bourdain because there's a scene in

1:21

his book kitchen confidential, where

1:23

as a chef, he's, you know, cooking in

1:26

New Year's Eve menu where they're pulling out

1:28

all the stops and it's champagne and

1:30

caviar. Of course, the night

1:32

he's writing about turns into a total catastrophe,

1:34

but that's the image imagine.

1:36

Right? The night of excess, indulgence,

1:40

and New Year's Day is really just for

1:42

the nursing to hangover. But

1:44

it's all to say that the idea

1:46

that pops up in my head is kind of

1:48

the exact opposite of what New Years

1:50

actually meant to me and my family when I was growing

1:52

up. And by that, I mean,

1:55

the Lunar New Year, which we called Chinese

1:57

New Year when I was a kid. And

1:59

that celebration was always

2:01

the opposite of reckless partying. It

2:03

was always about family, community,

2:06

and symbolism. We had

2:09

rituals and traditions, like

2:11

we got dressed up and outfits, and there was always

2:13

red clothing, like a new nice piece of

2:15

red clothing. And when we

2:17

were kids, we would get money from our relatives

2:19

for good luck and for

2:22

me. That was basically my allowance for the year.

2:24

So was very

2:26

sure to find every single Aussie

2:28

to make sure I said hello and happy New

2:30

Year to And of

2:32

course, you really can't

2:35

have a Chinese or Asian celebration

2:37

of any kind without a whole menu

2:39

of symbolic foods. And

2:42

I'm bringing all this up because the linear

2:44

new year is upon us and because,

2:46

of course, it's celebrated by

2:48

a quarter of the world's people. We're

2:51

gonna hear about the Korean Lunar New Year celebrations

2:53

in chef queenie Kim's home. About

2:55

the Vietnamese celebrations of our dear

2:58

friend, Andrea Wynn, And

3:00

first, about the Chinese traditions

3:02

that went on in Sarah and Kaitlin Leung

3:04

house. Sarah and along

3:06

with her parents, Jude and Bill are

3:08

the family behind the walks of life. It's

3:10

a blog that started ten years ago when

3:13

the daughters found themselves writing to

3:15

their parents saying, hey, like,

3:17

how do you make this again? Or Man,

3:19

I'm miseating that. How would How did you make that?

3:21

And now that Blanc has grown

3:24

to have probably the most devoted following

3:26

of any Chinese cooking blog in America.

3:29

I finally got to meet them at a launch event

3:31

for the cookbook. Published by the company I worked for,

3:33

and I'm not gonna lie. I

3:35

got a little jealous when I saw how much

3:37

fun they have cooking with each other.

3:40

So I really want to know what it's

3:42

like for them on the day when food means

3:44

everything. Hey, Sarah. Hey, Kaitlin.

3:47

Hey, Francis. Hey, Francis. It's great

3:49

to be here. Yeah. It's great to see you. Thank you

3:51

so much for And, you know,

3:53

it's time to celebrate. And famously,

3:56

The Chinese New Year table is full

3:59

of foods that have symbolic

4:01

meaning. Right? Like, every dish

4:03

either looks like or, you know, the

4:05

name of which sounds like kind of blessing

4:07

you want in the New Year and famously

4:10

dumplings look like old silver ingots,

4:12

so they symbolize money, all that kind of stuff.

4:15

What does your new year menu

4:17

look like?

4:18

So I'll start. This is Sarah. Yes.

4:21

Every item on the

4:23

Chinese New Year able, particularly for

4:26

Chinese New Year Eve dinner.

4:28

So, which is the the evening

4:30

before New Year's Day -- Mhmm. --

4:32

has to have every dish has to have

4:34

some kind of symbolic meaning.

4:37

At our Chinese New Year dinner, I think that

4:39

a few things show up

4:41

every year. So we always

4:44

have spring rolls, which

4:46

are kind of in the same vein as

4:48

the dumplings. They they resemble, like, gold bars.

4:52

Gold and silver. Silver. Yeah. Gold and

4:54

silver.

4:57

And then there's always a a whole

4:59

poached chicken which represents like

5:02

wholeness or family unity. Mhmm.

5:04

We always have two fish

5:06

so you eat one fish at the dinner and

5:08

then you leave one for the next day as

5:10

leftovers and that kind of represents

5:13

surplus for the new year. Okay. And

5:16

then, you know, sometimes we'll

5:18

see things like stir

5:20

fried lettuce, for example, which sounds

5:22

like kinda like doesn't sound all that

5:24

exciting, but in Chinese lettuce is

5:26

called

5:26

Chongqing, which kind of is like a homonym

5:28

for like to

5:30

make money basically. So

5:33

a lot of the the symbolism in

5:35

these dishes has to do with, you

5:38

know, not just the visual appearance of

5:40

the food, but in a lot of cases like the

5:42

name of the dish that's like a hominin

5:44

for something having to do

5:46

with prosperity or wealth or

5:48

something like that.

5:48

Yeah. Yeah. And one quick note on the Cantonese

5:51

post ticket is, you know,

5:53

just all like, kind of building

5:55

on the symbolic aspect of everything.

5:57

Like, it's a truly a whole chicken.

5:59

That's a head on with feet

6:02

chicken because sort of if

6:04

you cut away any part of it, you're kind

6:06

of cutting into that unity and

6:08

togetherness and that sense of wholeness.

6:10

So,

6:11

yeah, just there's strong commitment

6:13

to those symbolic meanings.

6:17

I mean, this is really special

6:19

because you've described a full menu

6:21

and, like, when I think about the

6:24

the Chinese Year celebrations, my family had,

6:26

like, I don't really remember all

6:28

of those individual dishes. Like, I I

6:30

remember more this, like, theory, this concept

6:32

of, oh, the dishes are supposed to

6:34

sound like this or they're supposed to look like

6:36

that. And let's face it, as you've mentioned, most of

6:38

the time, they have to do with money. Like, We

6:40

want doublets from more silver. We want spring

6:42

rolls from more gold. We want lettuce for more

6:44

cash. It's like, what's like

6:46

the crypto dish? I guess we

6:48

don't have those anymore. But

6:51

like for me, the one I really remember and I've

6:53

always loved is shrimp. And I

6:55

don't know if this is universal

6:57

in in, you know, all the

6:59

different regions of China, but at least in

7:01

Guangzhou, where we speak Cantonese, where I'm

7:03

families from, the word for shrimp

7:05

is and so if you have on

7:08

a dish, that means you'll laugh all through the year

7:10

and that that always find that really lovely.

7:13

But does your table change year

7:15

to year,

7:18

Honestly, I feel like these

7:22

days, we we really, as a

7:23

family, I think, enjoy the the

7:26

different traditional aspects of it.

7:28

So there are some -- Mhmm. -- there are

7:29

some dishes that are just so comforting

7:32

that we always wanna have those around.

7:34

So, like, the whole poached chicken with

7:36

ginger and scallion oil is just like,

7:38

That's just like a nonnegotiable. Like, we

7:40

have to have that. Same

7:43

goes for for fish. It's

7:45

usually a a Cantonese themed fish.

7:47

And then I feel like

7:49

the rest of it honestly kind of can okay.

7:52

So maybe I go back a little bit on what I said. The

7:54

rest is a little bit open for reputation because

7:56

I feel like as me and Sarah have

7:58

deepened our knowledge on Chinese cooking,

8:01

these days we have much more of like an opinion

8:04

and a say on what we wanna cook and what

8:06

we wanna eat for the for the

8:08

big celebration. So it's

8:12

kinda like honestly a little bit like thanksgiving

8:14

in the way that you kind of like think about and plan

8:16

the menu and you,

8:19

you know, each family member has

8:21

the things that are their favorites, so you try to work

8:23

all those in. Yeah.

8:26

I don't know. I'm I need a pause because I'm

8:28

losing my train of thought, but this

8:30

is where the editor would cut. But Yeah.

8:32

I'm

8:32

sorry. Yeah. Maybe you could I can keep going. Yeah.

8:35

Yeah. So

8:37

I think that what's

8:40

great about having worked on

8:42

the blog for the last ten years

8:44

is that I think my sister and I

8:46

have become a lot more invested in

8:48

the Chinese New Year meal because,

8:50

you know, when we were kids, it was kind of we felt

8:52

like we were maybe a little bit cash from

8:54

it. Like, it was a meal that our parents

8:57

prepared. And, you know,

8:59

my sister and I didn't necessarily have, like,

9:01

the knowledge or the know how to, like,

9:03

contribute as much. know, we made

9:05

dumplings with our grandmother and and

9:07

like we were part of it that way, but we definitely

9:09

didn't have the knowledge of, like, what

9:11

should be on the table? And what do these

9:13

dishes actually mean symbolically? And now

9:15

that we've we've been

9:17

working on the blog for, you

9:19

know, almost ten years

9:21

now, and we've even

9:23

developed some of these recipes ourselves.

9:26

Mhmm. So at this point, I feel like it's

9:28

almost like like, we were just like a lot more

9:30

invested in the menu. So like my sister brought

9:32

up Thanksgiving. Right? Like,

9:34

Thanksgiving used to be like our

9:36

only domain to like contribute

9:38

to put dishes on a

9:41

holiday table, so to speak. Right? Because,

9:43

like, Chinese holidays, like, my sister and I

9:45

were basically useless. Growing

9:47

up. So so I think, like,

9:49

now I feel really proud

9:51

that, you know, if we

9:53

have to make it. Camps me post chicken. Like, it's

9:55

not just my parents, like, making that anymore. Like,

9:57

I could make the post chicken or,

10:00

like, I could make that my mom's

10:02

spring rolls, you know. And also, like,

10:04

what's been great about the blog is

10:06

that it's pushed us to look

10:08

for dishes from other

10:10

regions that aren't necessarily like

10:12

our family's background to

10:14

see, like, okay, what are other

10:16

families in other parts of China cooking for the

10:18

New Year. Because Chinese New Year dishes,

10:21

while they all sort of have that like

10:23

commonality of being symbolic,

10:26

they can vary quite a

10:28

bit from region to region. So

10:30

it's been fun to kind of explore

10:32

different dishes and and learn more about

10:34

them over the

10:36

years. Because every year, right, every Chinese New Year,

10:38

we have to come up with like a new handful of Chinese

10:41

New Year recipes And

10:43

after ten years, you're like, okay, we've kinda gone

10:45

through all the, like, the ones we make. So

10:47

now it's time to to

10:49

look

10:49

at, you know, what other families are

10:51

doing. And experiment with those

10:53

recipes. Great. What are some of those

10:55

regional dishes that you didn't you didn't

10:57

know, you know, just from your own experience

10:59

that you learned through looking into it through

11:01

research. So one of them, it's

11:03

this dish, like, we didn't

11:05

really grow up eating this.

11:08

But it is a very famous dish.

11:10

Lions had meatballs. Mhmm.

11:12

And it is actually from it

11:15

is sort of from, like, the region where my

11:17

mom grew up, but, like, whatever reason in our

11:19

family, we didn't really ever make

11:21

them. But

11:23

it is a large brazed

11:26

meatball. And I

11:28

guess, like, the name comes from, like, I guess,

11:30

like, the resemblance to what a lion's

11:32

head. But that

11:34

know, my mom did a lot of research on that

11:36

recipe and it was fun to

11:38

develop that one. She also did this

11:40

recipe for another one that we just, like, never

11:42

had growing up, which is a

11:44

stuffed, Leung.

11:47

I

11:47

know, like, now, today is,

11:50

like, the enemy. But in China,

11:52

right, like, Yeah. Yeah. You'll see,

11:54

like, essentially, like, Satan

11:56

or gluten Mhmm. -- in various

11:58

forms like a tofu.

12:00

Yeah. And there are these fried

12:02

gluten balls for

12:04

a lack of a better

12:05

term, but they're like fried, like puffs

12:08

almost. And They're very chewy

12:10

and Yeah. They're when they're cooked, they're

12:12

chewy, but they're when they're they're

12:14

fried, they're, like, kind of light as air.

12:16

And you can stuff them. So my

12:18

mom stuffs them with like this meat filling

12:21

and then braises

12:23

them. And that was like a totally I

12:25

did not know that that was a thing.

12:27

That was like a totally new thing

12:29

for me to see. My

12:31

mom also made these little

12:33

dumplings that look like

12:35

money bags. Which I don't know if

12:37

that's like a traditional regional thing, but it's

12:39

definitely like a just like an

12:41

interesting idea that she got from

12:44

basically, like, surfing the Chinese Internet

12:46

for ideas. So,

12:48

like, it's just really kind of fun

12:50

to just like look back

12:52

at what's going on in China

12:54

around the

12:55

holiday, like, what people are making

12:58

and to share that with an American audience.

13:00

Yeah. I love that. I love the

13:02

idea that, like, oh, generation. So now you'd be

13:04

like, you know, you'll be tough. Your

13:07

descendants, like, when they're like, What was the

13:09

meaning of this dish? Why do we celebrate with

13:11

this? Like, well, your great

13:13

grandmother was surfing the Internet one day.

13:19

We'll be back with Moore, with Kaitlin and

13:21

Sarah Long, authors of The Walking

13:23

Dead, and then we're on to

13:25

Ted, The Vietnamese New Year with

13:27

Andrea Wynn. I'm Francis Lamb, and

13:29

this is the Splendid table from

13:31

APM.

13:33

Our show is supported by Sitka

13:36

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13:38

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13:40

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with circa seven shares. A

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show is supported by Whole Foods Market.

14:34

The New Year always brings a sense of

14:36

starting fresh or resetting after

14:38

the holiday celebrations and Even if you don't

14:40

make resolutions, it's a great time to

14:42

take stock of where you are and what you wanna do

14:44

to make yourself feel as good as possible.

14:47

A Whole Foods market can help you meet your well-being

14:50

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walk around the aisles of your local whole foods

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So jump start your year at Whole Foods

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Market.

15:29

I'm Francis Lam, and this is the show

15:32

for curious cooks and eaters. We're

15:34

celebrating the leaner new year today with

15:36

chef Queen Kim, author Andrea

15:38

Wynn And right now, continuing our

15:40

conversation with Sarah and Caitlyn

15:42

Leung, authors of the walks of life.

15:44

Back to all of them. So,

15:48

Sam, narrow. Before the break, you mentioned

15:50

the stuff gluten. And, you know,

15:53

I mean, that is not the most appealing word

15:55

especially, like, because of how you associate

15:57

gluten now with, like, mainly you hear

15:59

because of people with women tolerance, but that

16:01

is like a traditional food where it was a

16:03

great way of getting protein, like

16:05

a plant based protein if you didn't

16:07

have meat available. Yeah. You would take

16:09

flour and you make a dough and you keep

16:11

washing the dough until all the flour starch

16:13

comes out and you just have this gluten,

16:15

which is this beautiful, stretchy,

16:17

sort of protein

16:19

y knee

16:20

replacement, but I love that you have to temper it and puffing

16:22

it up, and that sounds awesome. Yep.

16:24

I mean, there's a really rich

16:27

tradition. I and obviously, like,

16:29

Hanache, vegan, Chinese kitchen, like, she

16:31

gets into this extensively.

16:33

But, like, there is a really rich tradition of

16:36

Buddhist style vegetarian or

16:38

vegan cooking in China.

16:40

And like, with the gluten,

16:42

the when you wash the

16:44

flour and make this gluten,

16:46

you're also getting another byproduct,

16:48

which is the starch the wheat

16:50

starch from the flour. And

16:52

with that, you can make noodles or you

16:54

can just isolate the wheat starch and

16:56

use it to make like dumpling wrappers and

16:58

things like that. So it's

17:01

just, you know, when you explore

17:03

these recipes, you're just there's

17:05

so much to learn about

17:07

the culture behind it

17:09

and, you know, where these dishes came from

17:11

and where they originated. Yeah. Totally.

17:14

Kaitlin, you'd mentioned that

17:16

when you were younger and, yeah, I had a

17:18

similar experience 773, you would just

17:20

kinda show up. Right? And everything was on the table and

17:22

you weren't really that you

17:26

know, whatever, we're kids. So you weren't, like,

17:28

really trying to learn, oh, why are we eating this

17:30

tonight? And why is this the thing that we're seeing

17:32

here? And But you

17:34

said, as you've gotten older,

17:36

you've gotten not just learn more about

17:38

it as you've talked about working on the blog. So it's,

17:40

you know, it's your work, but you also

17:42

felt like your more invested in his

17:44

traditions. Talk about

17:44

that. Why do you feel that way? Yeah.

17:47

I mean, when I

17:50

think about you know, it's funny, like,

17:52

reflecting on Chinese New Year

17:54

now as like adults.

17:56

I think about the way that

17:58

it used to be when we were kids And,

18:02

yeah, we were very much

18:06

passive participants. You know, it

18:08

was very much like, oh, off to grandma's

18:10

house and flushing we go. And

18:12

we would sort of show up, and there'd be

18:14

all these dishes, like, laid out on

18:16

the table, and my grandmother would

18:19

prepare all the, you know, all the symbolic

18:21

things and a

18:23

lot of that, you know, you would kind of just

18:26

pickup by osmosis. Like, you weren't really, like,

18:28

actively knowing exactly what

18:30

should be on the table or you were just

18:32

kind of reacting to it. So

18:34

I actually have, like, a funny memory

18:36

of, like, sitting down to the table,

18:38

like, you know,

18:39

suspiciously surveying all of the things

18:42

as a little kid. And, you know,

18:44

my mom would say like, oh, you know, all of these

18:46

dishes have symbolic meanings.

18:49

And, you know, if you eat them,

18:51

then it'll help you have a better New Year.

18:53

And I would like go around and be like, oh,

18:55

what does that mean? And what does that mean?

18:58

And shoot save, you know, whatever. And I'd be like, oh, well,

19:00

I don't really like that food, so maybe I'll just

19:02

do it out that this

19:03

year. How

19:05

about this? It's silver. Exactly.

19:08

But yeah.

19:10

You know, a lot of that

19:13

stuff, even though, you know, I

19:15

I joke about

19:15

it, but I think over

19:17

the years, like,

19:18

as I got older, I

19:19

realized how much of that stuff I

19:22

I did really internalize and and pick

19:24

up on and

19:25

I went to college, for example, like, I really

19:28

missed that. You know, like, I

19:30

really wanted to to celebrate

19:32

Chinese New Year when when that that time of

19:34

year rolled around and Even

19:36

though when I was, like, a little kid, sometimes

19:38

I really, like, wasn't all that clued

19:40

into, like, exactly what was going on. It was, like, all

19:42

about, like, raining down of the red envelopes

19:44

with money inside. Yeah. Yeah.

19:48

You know, I

19:50

really just how did this appreciation that

19:52

I didn't even realize even

19:54

that I had for these

19:56

traditions and and these dishes

19:58

too?

19:58

Yeah. I I think I think you're you

20:01

you you both kinda spoke on this, like, oh, when you

20:03

were younger or when we were

20:04

younger,

20:04

like, you were sort of passive. Right? I was like,

20:07

okay, the days here and like, okay, supposed to this.

20:09

I'm supposed to make sure I say hi to that auntie

20:11

and, you

20:11

know, whatever and Put on

20:13

red sweater. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm

20:15

I'm just focused on, like, oh, like,

20:18

how much pocket money I'm get from the the red envelopes that, like,

20:20

you know, all the girls hand me. And

20:22

not really thinking about the actual traditions,

20:25

but now I don't

20:27

know. Maybe it's nostalgia, but maybe it's

20:29

also like, oh, that's some point you start to think about like, oh,

20:31

this is who am

20:31

I? Right? This is kind of who I am. Totally. And

20:34

I feel like something that means Sarah have

20:37

been, like, funnily thinking

20:39

about more and more as we get older is, like,

20:41

more of the superstitions around

20:43

Chinese New Year. And, you know, the

20:45

yes. Like, you wear red on the day

20:48

and in the

20:48

week leading up to it, like, you're supposed to

20:51

clean the house before Chinese New Year

20:53

so you don't, like, accidentally sweep away

20:55

your luck and you get a haircut

20:57

and you buy a new outfit and

20:59

all these things

21:00

that, like, when you're a kid, you're kinda like, yeah,

21:02

is that really, like is

21:04

there really anything to that, but, you

21:06

know, the uncertainty of adulthood kind

21:08

of, like, takes hold. And

21:11

then suddenly, you're, like, maybe you

21:13

should go get a haircut. Like,

21:15

I

21:15

could use all the work I can get.

21:18

Yeah. Exactly. Like, every year, I'm

21:20

like, am I gonna really do a deep

21:22

clean of my apartment? I don't know. I don't know.

21:24

Like, I hem and I hahah. And then,

21:26

like, three days before I'm, like, I I have

21:28

to do it. And then I, like, do, like,

21:30

a top to bottom clean of the apartment

21:32

and, like, And then I feel

21:34

like my luck has been

21:35

sore. Yes, I can. This

21:39

was a blast. Thank you guys so much for

21:41

coming through. Happy new year to

21:43

you.

21:43

Yeah. Happy

21:43

new year, Brian. You're good.

21:48

Nice

21:48

and double boy. Still

21:50

said with the slight cheapishness of

21:52

a of kids. I feel like when

21:54

You you

21:55

make it around. It's

21:56

like, don't keep go hey, Patoy, that

21:58

it's, like, have money

21:59

now? Sarah and

22:04

Caitlyn Long are the coauthors,

22:06

along with Leung parents' bill and duty,

22:08

of the blog and cookbook, The Watts of Life.

22:10

You can find a recipe for poached

22:12

white cut chicken at splendidtable dot

22:16

org. Okay. So

22:21

if you start in the very middle of China and

22:23

head due south, You'll come to

22:25

Vietnam. Home to one of the

22:27

world's absolutely greatest

22:29

cuisines. It's really one of my

22:31

favorites. It's so full of

22:33

fresh flavors and

22:35

incredible savoriness. And

22:37

yet, it also has

22:39

a surprisingly simple, comforting,

22:41

linear, culinary tradition, according to

22:43

our friend, Andrea Wynn. Andrea

22:46

is an award winning cookbook author

22:48

and one of the OG food

22:50

bloggers at get bowl of

22:51

kitchen. She's here now. Hey, Andrea.

22:54

It's great to see you. Hey,

22:55

Francis. Always good to talk to

22:58

you. Yeah. This is gonna be a

23:00

pleasure. And, hey, actually, let me start with

23:02

this. The name of

23:04

the Vietnamese New Year celebration. Yes.

23:07

Can you tell me what that means?

23:09

You know, that's

23:13

like it means so

23:15

many things to Vietnamese people. And when we celebrate,

23:19

we say which

23:21

means to eat. So we

23:23

literally eat the New Year

23:25

up. Like, we just absorb it

23:27

and food, you know,

23:29

plays a huge role. So we absorb through our souls,

23:31

our minds, you know, through

23:33

taking a look at the longevity of

23:35

our family histories, and then we

23:37

also celebrate at

23:39

the table and in the kitchen. And

23:41

the first day of tit is called tit

23:44

when

23:44

done, and it is, like, the

23:47

most important day of the year.

23:49

And

23:49

is there a meaning of the name? Is there trans

23:52

translation or transliteration? No.

23:55

I not that I know of.

23:57

Okay. We've never talked

23:59

about, like, you know, there's so much

24:01

influence from Chinese

24:03

culture in Vietnam. And I've, like,

24:05

tried to trace you know, I was trying to

24:07

figure out, like, is there a

24:10

meaning to the word

24:11

dead? And I I've yet to come across

24:14

it. And if you do let

24:16

me

24:16

know. Definitely come back. I

24:18

mean, you

24:18

know, we travel in sort of similar

24:20

circle, but not. Well, I'm asking because

24:22

it's you know, when I was going up, it was

24:24

always just translated. It's like, oh, Chinese New Year.

24:27

And well, I think more properly now, we

24:29

say Lunar New Year because it's not just the

24:31

Chinese who celebrated, right, like

24:33

multiple Asian Southeast Asian cultures

24:35

celebrate the Lunar New Year. So we call it the Lunar

24:37

New Year now. But I've never

24:39

known, like, a name for

24:41

the holiday, the festival, the celebration

24:44

in Cantonese, which is when I speak. Like, we've always

24:46

just called it Sunday, which literally just

24:48

means New Year. So I was intrigued to know that there was

24:50

a specific name for the

24:53

the holiday in

24:54

Vietnam, except that it wasn't just New

24:57

Year. Yeah. No. I mean, we

24:59

you know, before my family came to

25:01

America, we just knew it as fit. And then we come

25:03

here 773 everyone's like Chinese New Year. And I was

25:05

like, I'm not Chinese. And so

25:08

I would always try to correct people

25:10

Lunar New and it's only been in the last

25:12

couple of years. Right? That people have,

25:14

like, switched from Chinese New Year to Lunar New Year.

25:17

Interesting. That people are

25:19

really seeing this as a celebration

25:22

that's rooted in the lunar calendar

25:24

versus the solar calendar, and that it's

25:26

celebrated by people

25:28

who are of

25:30

East Asian descent. Yeah.

25:32

Totally. And obviously, you know, China and Vietnam

25:35

are neighbors, and there are commonalities

25:37

across the cultures. Like you and I

25:39

were talking about this yesterday, how the

25:41

tradition which for me was the most important

25:43

part when I was a kid of getting

25:46

lucky money in red envelopes is something

25:48

that is you

25:50

know, common both in Vietnam and and

25:52

China, you wear new

25:54

clothes, you clean the

25:55

house, all that stuff. But the

25:57

food traditions are quite different. Right?

26:01

Right. They are. And when

26:03

I've taken a look at Cantonese

26:05

menus, they're always like full of,

26:07

you know, these really charming and

26:10

playful homonyms. Mhmm. Like, you know, like, you

26:12

know, things that to bring you luck

26:14

or or the gold bars that

26:16

are shaped like like

26:18

fried egg rolls or spring rolls. Mhmm. In

26:20

Vietnamese tradition, we, like,

26:22

focus on simple things.

26:24

Rice, meat, beans, and

26:27

vegetables. And I know that sounds

26:29

so boring. But when there are several

26:30

different things. But Me? Okay.

26:33

Thank you. That's why you and I

26:35

are friends. And

26:38

so, like, there is this

26:40

Vietnamese bed sticky rice

26:42

cake that is called when it's

26:44

wrapped by Northern Vietnamese

26:46

folks. And there it it is

26:48

a square shaped

26:51

tamale, so to speak. Mhmm. That

26:53

looks like a cake and it's about, you know, one or

26:55

two inches tie and it could be as small

26:57

as three inches or as big as ten inches

26:59

and it's filled with sticky rice

27:01

and that's been wrapped up in

27:05

banana leaf or in Vietnam you would

27:07

use a particular leaf

27:09

that either way the leaf would stain

27:11

the exterior of the

27:13

cake hell j green -- Mhmm. -- which I think symbolizes

27:15

sort of like the the renewal aspect

27:18

of the year because it's

27:19

considered, you know, like a springtime

27:21

renewal

27:21

Oh, okay. -- thing even though that we're still

27:23

in winter. But anyway, inside there are mung

27:26

beans that are kind of buttery and

27:28

then fatty pork and lean

27:30

pork. It's all seasoned by, like, pepper

27:32

and fish sauce. And

27:34

that's it. Great. It's really

27:36

good. It comes together

27:39

and it's either wrapped as a

27:41

square or it's wrapped like as as a

27:43

cylinder called bent bent. Not

27:45

bent bent. But it's been that spelled TET,

27:47

but people are always, like, confused.

27:50

Anyway, like, you make you start

27:52

prepping for, like, a few days

27:54

before the actual first day of the year.

27:57

And and the first day of the year, you

27:59

open up these cakes, and they're

28:01

warm, they're soft, and

28:03

they're fragrant. And they just say to me Vietnam

28:05

because it's a very humble kind of

28:07

tradition and it's absolutely

28:08

delicious. That's interesting actually

28:11

because I think of You know,

28:15

my impression of Vietnamese food is that it

28:17

is There's there's a

28:19

huge emphasis on contrast

28:21

and freshness. Right? Lot of

28:23

fresh herbs, crunchy raw vegetables

28:25

to go with your noodles

28:28

or to go with something stewed

28:30

or something

28:31

grilled. So

28:33

it's interesting that, like,

28:35

the celebratory food is a

28:38

cake that's steamed. So it's kind of

28:40

all melded together rather than sort of

28:41

contrasting. Is there Do you

28:43

know if there's Like, how what do you think

28:45

about that? Yeah. Yeah. Most definitely.

28:48

So so this this

28:50

package of sticky

28:52

rice and beans and pork, you

28:54

know, it's it's boiled for, like, hours in

28:56

a giant pot. A lot. And it's a

28:58

communal thing. Like, you literally have

29:00

to boil it for, you know, if you've got, like, medium sized ones,

29:03

about five inches square, it

29:05

boils for five to six hours. Oh,

29:07

wow. And yeah. Yeah. So it's like

29:09

this long long term investment of

29:11

time. A lot of

29:13

communal cooking. But the crunchy

29:15

contrast comes

29:17

in the forms of like pickled

29:19

vegetables. And preserved vegetables.

29:21

This time of the year, you know, if you

29:23

are in like Northern

29:26

Vietnam, you really don't get a lot

29:28

of the fresh herbs. There are some, but

29:30

it's not that kind of plethora

29:33

of of, you know,

29:35

hedgerow greenery that

29:37

people expect from Vietnamese food. Mhmm.

29:39

And and so the crunch

29:41

and the contrast are there, but

29:43

it's not the usual suspects that

29:46

people would associate with

29:48

Vietnamese

29:48

food. Okay. That's interesting. And do

29:50

you have, like, a a family recipe for

29:52

your bunch of them? Like, is it, like, it's gotta taste like

29:54

moms or doesn't count? You

29:58

know, mom's tastes

30:00

like something

30:01

she brought over from nine in

30:03

nineteen seventy five. And her recipe

30:05

goes back to a friend of

30:07

the families who actually wrote an

30:09

article in Saigon about how

30:11

to make and when he came to

30:13

America, he was like, I'm gonna bring some of my

30:15

most valuable things I'm gonna bring, like,

30:17

a photocopy or a mimeograph or

30:20

whatever it was of that particular

30:21

article. Mhmm. And he sent it to her,

30:24

and that's how she was able

30:26

to replicate the intricacies of

30:29

wrapping the cake because it's

30:31

not really made of like many ingredients,

30:33

but in order to take those

30:35

and assemble it into basically like

30:37

a gift box of food that's wrapped

30:39

in banana leaf is

30:42

pretty

30:42

difficult. And and so she does that. She taught me

30:44

how to do it. How

30:45

do you

30:46

do that? How do you make, like, you know,

30:48

soft food up here in,

30:50

Leung, language? Right.

30:52

Right. So there is a mold, a

30:54

wooden mold -- Okay.

30:55

-- in a square shaped frame.

30:57

And then I line it

30:59

with leaves, banana leaves, and bamboo leaves in

31:01

a particular pattern. And then I put

31:03

my ingredients in and I fold

31:06

the leaves down, but then there's a certain point

31:08

where I have to remove it from the mold

31:10

and that's the tricky part. And I

31:12

literally will somehow

31:14

slide that mold onto my forearm

31:16

and then

31:16

do, like, a little circular circularly trick.

31:19

To

31:19

remove 773 and wrap it

31:21

all up, but aluminum foil

31:24

helps

31:25

You know,

31:29

the the the ingenuity of humankind

31:32

is using tools. So there

31:34

you go. Exactly. And we didn't

31:36

have aluminum foil in Vietnam in

31:38

nineteen seventies. And so

31:40

people would just kind of freestyle it with a

31:42

particular kind of leaf. They wouldn't use

31:44

banana leaf. And but but everyone

31:46

would just say, well, how beautiful can your

31:48

Benjeng be? But in America, you can make

31:50

it beautiful with, like, the wooden

31:52

mold as help as

31:54

well as the foil. Who's

31:56

in charge of making it in

31:58

your family? Typically, well, I

32:00

split duties with my mom, but

32:03

She, you know, it

32:05

depends on her mood. And last

32:07

year, right before that,

32:10

my father had passed away. And so I didn't want my

32:12

mom to be lonely on

32:14

Ted. So I drove down to Southern California if

32:16

I'm at home, which is about an eight hour drive.

32:18

And I said, mom. I said,

32:21

ma'am, you know, let's make banchum.

32:23

And she was like, I don't know. I'm

32:25

kinda out of practice. I don't know. I don't feel

32:27

so good. And then all of a

32:28

sudden, she calls me a week before and she

32:30

says, I told your sister to get me all the ingredients and the

32:33

leaves. And

32:33

I was like, alright. She

32:36

still got her game on. Yeah. And

32:38

so I go down there and

32:40

she's just like, you know, we're

32:42

gonna make it and two days before

32:44

she goes into high gear to, like,

32:46

soak the to cook her mung

32:48

beans, to prep the leaves, and

32:50

then the day before she and I wrap them

32:52

together. And she doesn't just wrap

32:54

like two or three She

32:57

made about twenty.

32:59

Mhmm. And she had three

33:01

pots going. And she like a

33:03

client, she's eighty eight. She

33:05

She climbs up into her garage and pulls down

33:07

these gigantic stockpots that she and

33:09

my dad used to use to make when

33:11

Hooni. And I'm just like, you're gonna fall women.

33:14

She's like, no, I'm not.

33:17

I'm like trying to help her. No.

33:19

It was you know, and and it was a

33:21

great wonderful distraction

33:23

and and a wonderful way for

33:26

as to celebrate the New Year. Something

33:28

new without my father. And I think

33:30

that's the other aspect of Ted is that it's

33:32

very family oriented and there's a lot

33:35

of nostalgia and there's a lot of this notion

33:37

of gratitude.

33:40

And that's what I always wanna

33:42

tell people about Ted is

33:44

that it's it's for

33:45

us, for Vietnamese people, it's a very humble kind

33:48

of time of the year.

33:53

Earning back with Andrea Wynn, author of

33:55

Vietnamese Hooni day. I'm

33:57

Franceslam, and this is the splendid table

34:00

from APM.

34:03

May I ask,

34:05

how's your

34:08

New Year's resolution going?

34:10

Historical quest and Tomory. I'm

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marketplace morning report. it might

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resolution to read

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34:26

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34:28

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pace. We've got some cheat notes for every chapter plus my

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36:25

I'm Francis Lam, and this is

36:28

the show for curious cooks and

36:30

eaters. We're talking today about Lunar New Year

36:32

menus from China, Korea,

36:34

and now Vietnam

36:36

with Cop Book Author, Andrea Wynn.

36:38

Let's get back to it with

36:40

her. So we've talked

36:42

a lot about the bongers. Sort of

36:44

the centerpiece of of the meal and how eating is is such

36:47

an important part of celebrating time as you

36:49

said. Do you feel like you

36:51

also you know, do you evolve the menu? Do you

36:54

feel like you don't dare evolve the

36:55

menu? Do you

36:57

add things

36:58

along with the button? Like, what are you?

37:01

Right. I mean, isn't there always that fear ofances as

37:03

like when you stray from

37:06

tradition that something or someone's going to strike

37:08

you

37:09

down? Sure. Like, some

37:11

lightning bolts. Right. Right. Right. And

37:13

for me, as as a writer, people

37:15

always coming to me and asking them, what do you

37:17

traditionally do? And I'm just,

37:19

like, well, you know, these are the traditions of my family, and

37:21

these are Vietnamese foodways, but but

37:24

foodways evolve. And so

37:26

it's it's one of the things that really

37:28

kind of gets me

37:30

about that and my

37:32

family's celebration is that it's very, very

37:34

meaty. Mhmm. And it's

37:36

the time of the year when you're supposed

37:38

to traditionally kill a pig and make, you know, different

37:40

kinds of charcuterie and also

37:42

similar parts in

37:44

caramel sauce. And

37:46

so we always make these

37:48

pork riblets in caramel sauce and

37:50

fish sauce. Mhmm. It's like a bittersweet

37:52

savory kind of dish. But this

37:54

year, I'm going to do a

37:56

vegetarian take on a southern Vietnamese

38:00

cock. And so

38:02

the seveners will cook pork belly

38:04

up with coconut water, caramel sauce, and eggs. Mhmm. And

38:06

they serve that with their

38:11

their Ted celebration. And because

38:13

my family's like half northern and

38:15

half southern, I'm like, I'm gonna go

38:17

all regions. Okay? Just gonna go

38:19

all the way from the top to the bottom of of the country. But

38:21

the version I'm making is going

38:24

to involve frying

38:26

tofu and then simmering it with coconut milk and fish sauce

38:28

and having the eggs in there with the caramel

38:31

sauce and it's absolutely delicious and the

38:33

tofu gets like this richness that

38:35

is very similar to the pork belly except you

38:38

don't have to eat pork yet

38:40

again. Because, I

38:41

mean, I love pork.

38:43

But it gets, you know, it gets to be very,

38:45

very heavy duty.

38:46

Yeah. Well, I love

38:49

that you also feel you know, obviously,

38:51

you you have the pull of tradition, you have pull of,

38:54

you know, wrapping and doing this craft

38:58

with your mother, but also that you feel

39:00

the freedom to

39:00

say, hey, I'm gonna switch things up from

39:03

my own taste too. You

39:06

know,

39:06

making that switch as a cook is

39:09

something that when I was

39:11

younger, I wouldn't have

39:12

done because I felt like I didn't have

39:14

the right to. But as

39:17

I've become, you

39:18

know, a

39:20

a more well practiced cook

39:24

person who who feels, you know, more confident in the kitchen and in my

39:26

culture and in terms of who I

39:28

am, I take more

39:30

liberties with

39:32

it. I mean, and without straying too far from

39:34

what makes Vietnamese food, what

39:36

Vietnamese food is. And the

39:39

recipe that I talk to you

39:41

with the pork and eggs in caramel sauce. It's something

39:43

that I came up

39:46

with for

39:48

my upcoming book evergreen

39:50

Vietnamese. And that's all rooted in

39:52

Vietnamese traditions of of using a lot

39:55

of of ingredients from the

39:57

earth. With just a little bit from the sea and

39:59

some meat. Mhmm. And I remember,

40:01

like, sharing this idea with my mom. I

40:03

was like, you know, that pork belly

40:05

you know, call recipe. Well, I'm gonna make it with

40:08

tofu. And at first, because she's

40:10

such a traditionalist, she was like, what are you

40:12

doing? That's so sounds

40:14

so

40:14

wrong. And I was like, lady, you

40:17

know,

40:17

it's alright. And I served it to

40:20

her, and she was like, oh, this is like

40:22

really good. So

40:24

even for someone of her generation

40:26

born in, like, the nineteen thirties,

40:28

you know, she's willing to be flexible

40:31

and and it's just a matter of opening yourself up to

40:34

new ideas, but in a

40:36

way also

40:38

tracing those back to really where your food traditions come from. And

40:41

I think that that that is a what it's

40:43

a time when I'm always thinking

40:45

about that going back and then moving

40:48

forward. I love that.

40:50

That's super, super lovely.

40:52

Well, thank you so much, Andrea. It's been such a

40:54

pleasure

40:55

talking with you.

40:56

Always a pleasure talking with you, Francis.

40:59

Andrea Wynn's latest book is called

41:02

Vietnamese Food Any Day in her

41:04

next Hooni. All

41:06

about the great plant based dishes of Vietnam is evergreen

41:08

Vietnamese. And on our website, spend

41:10

on the table dot org, you can find one

41:13

of our classic recipes pork ribs

41:15

and caramel sauce. It

41:23

is

41:24

a really, really great time

41:27

for Korean food lovers in New York City right

41:29

now. There has just been this

41:31

incredible bumper crop of

41:33

exciting creative Korean restaurants all over

41:35

the city. One of New

41:38

York's absolute greatest

41:40

Korean chefs

41:40

He isn't really looking to innovate anything. Whoney

41:42

Kim keeps it old school. So old

41:44

school in fact that he has been spending

41:48

the last twelve years traveling back and forth to Korea, learning

41:50

how to make the traditional seasonings

41:52

like soy sauce and fermented

41:54

soybean paste, there's a backbone

41:56

of Korean

41:58

cuisine. And so we figured anyone that interested in tradition

42:00

would probably take the Lunar New Year

42:02

pretty seriously. Hey, Jeff.

42:04

It's great to see you. Hi,

42:06

friends. It's nice to be here. Thank you. Yeah. I'm super

42:08

excited to talk with you about this because I

42:10

actually don't know much about what a

42:13

traditional Korean Lunar New Year

42:16

Is like. And and when we talked earlier, you said you do actually

42:18

celebrate it in a very traditional way. Yes.

42:20

Do you remember how you first started

42:22

learning about these traditions?

42:26

I was born in Korea 773

42:28

I was there until I was four.

42:30

I'd lived in England and then back

42:32

in no here to the US.

42:34

I my first memory of celebrating

42:37

these these Lunar New

42:39

Year customs is when

42:41

I was about five

42:43

or six. It's the

42:46

first time that I sort of

42:48

realized 773 didn't have a father

42:50

because my father passed away when I was

42:52

two. And New Years,

42:54

a lot of my relatives we would get together

42:56

at my house and sort of have this.

42:58

For me, it was festive.

43:01

You know, the ladies, the women cooked all

43:03

all day in the kitchen from scratch.

43:05

And at night, we had

43:07

this huge table with

43:09

enormous amount of food fruits

43:13

candies even. And we would

43:15

all sort of take turns

43:17

bowing. And then afterwards, we

43:19

would just eat pick out all night, and everybody would

43:21

go home with with food that was

43:24

left over. And I found

43:26

out later the reason why we

43:28

were there was to

43:30

sort of remember my

43:32

father who passed away. And

43:35

this this act or this

43:38

ceremony is called Chiesa.

43:40

And we do it twice

43:42

a year. Once Lunar New

43:44

Year, and once the the day

43:47

that he actually did pass away,

43:49

which is early December.

43:52

And, you know, I

43:54

never really grew up in Korea, but the more

43:56

I visited Korea, I realized

43:58

it's not just me, it's it's a lot

44:00

of people. Christians,

44:02

Buddhists, and all religions. It's

44:04

more of a tradition, cultural

44:07

rather than sort of

44:09

religion, Buddhist space. But it but

44:12

it's but the some of the particulars of how you celebrate are

44:13

grew digits of religious. Yes. Yes.

44:16

And when

44:18

I was living

44:20

in England or in New York.

44:22

My mother was too busy to cook

44:24

and we didn't have relatives in

44:27

in the country. So we would actually

44:29

celebrate or do the Jezza at a

44:31

Buddhist temple. Oh, yeah.

44:34

And, you know, we are Christian. We go to

44:36

church every

44:38

Sunday. But twice a year, we went to the Buddhist temple

44:40

to remember my father.

44:42

What I remember, you know, when

44:44

I got to be a certain age,

44:48

I started to question the monks

44:50

who would perform this jazz with

44:52

me. Like, why are we doing this?

44:54

I'm Christian, you know, what's this for?

44:58

And I think I was twelve and that

45:00

explanation that I heard when I was

45:02

twelve is the reason why

45:04

I keep doing it. And the reason why

45:06

I will do it for the rest of my

45:08

life. The monks explained

45:11

that when we die

45:13

and we become spirits were just

45:15

like we're, you know, we're alive, we're very

45:17

social. So all the spirits are hanging

45:19

out together, there's a group of

45:21

friends, and they like

45:23

to have parties. And their parties are thrown by

45:25

by us who are still living. So

45:28

these Chezas are for

45:30

them a

45:32

bragging rate. You know, it is

45:34

around to all of their

45:36

friends, Cheers House, and they

45:38

eat, and they they have a good

45:40

time because everybody's remembering them,

45:42

bowing to them, pouring them

45:44

liquor at Tessa.

45:47

And, you know, if you don't

45:49

have Tesla for your

45:51

ancestors, then they are embarrassed, you

45:53

know, because people, you

45:56

know, they it sort of shows

45:58

that you hadn't lived a good

46:00

life where people on Earth don't or

46:01

try to remember you. Yeah. Yeah. That's so

46:04

interesting. So, you know, I had never known

46:06

my father. But he

46:08

gifted me my life, and and I'm a very

46:10

happy person. So to

46:12

show that appreciation, I

46:15

would always try. Or I have done a

46:17

cesare for forty eight

46:18

years now. Forty seven years.

46:21

Yeah.

46:21

Wow. And so what's

46:22

on the menu for this feast? It's

46:26

gotten now where every family

46:28

or every region has, like, sort

46:31

of different rules. What I

46:33

do is I we're a

46:36

little bit away from the

46:38

Buddhist diet. Mhmm.

46:40

So when I was doing this at the temple

46:42

with monks, they would never use

46:45

any spices. They wouldn't

46:47

use garlic, onion, the aromatics

46:49

because they said that

46:51

these strong pungent aromas would

46:54

scare the spirits away.

46:56

Well, you know I learned

46:59

from my relatives that my father loved spices

47:01

and loved meat and loved fish.

47:04

So I just thought,

47:06

why not cook food that he would like?

47:09

You know, even if we would scare some of the spirits

47:12

away, which, you know, I don't believe too

47:14

much. But I I

47:16

truly are chef. And and I

47:18

told my son the other day, and he's only

47:20

thirteen, and he's, like, at that point where

47:22

he's questioning why we do this. I

47:24

told him, look, you don't have

47:26

to cook. But go to a steak house, leave an empty table for me,

47:28

and order me a nice porterhouse, medium

47:30

rare. And that

47:32

would be because

47:34

that's how I would like to

47:36

remember. Traditionally, we always have

47:39

a chunns which are

47:41

sort of savory pancakes. Little

47:44

flays of fish, zucchini,

47:48

tofu. And then we

47:50

definitely have namos, which

47:52

are vegetables. Like, if you know bibimbap, it's the vegetables inside.

47:54

So spinach, watercress,

47:56

whatever. What's that you mentioned? They're

47:58

not very heavily seasoned. Right? It's 773 yeah.

48:02

They're not very heavily seasoned, but they always have garlic.

48:04

Yeah. All the Korean nomos

48:07

have garlic and bean sprouts,

48:10

mung bean sprouts. Mhmm. And

48:12

I sort of make it delicious because

48:14

we have to eat it afterwards. So I

48:16

season it to the point where, you know,

48:18

It's it's Yami. And those

48:21

are the traditional ones. Are

48:23

they, like, blanched? Yes. They're

48:25

blanched and

48:27

then they're dressed.

48:28

With the salt, soy sauce, garlic,

48:32

or sesame oil, sesame

48:34

seeds, etcetera.

48:36

Sometimes you add koshkaru, which is the red pepper flakes.

48:39

Yeah. Which which I do

48:41

because it tastes better.

48:44

So and then

48:46

a lot of seasonal fruits these

48:48

days that would be persimmons, very colorful

48:50

fruits as well, oranges. And

48:53

then Kandi. Kandi, I

48:56

actually can't get here, but

48:58

traditionally in Korea, they have

49:01

candies that are specifically

49:03

made for Cessa. Very colorful

49:06

Buddhist colors, a lot of

49:08

like prime,

49:10

no green, blues, reds, it

49:12

just makes the table look a lot

49:14

more festive. And then

49:17

always a soup. Always a clear soup, and a

49:19

large bowl of rice, and alcohol.

49:22

Sometimes I do soju, sometimes

49:25

I do broccoli, So soju is like a

49:27

a clear

49:27

spirit. Right? Almost like a Yes. But what's but

49:30

luckily is like a

49:32

cloudy, fermented

49:34

rice,

49:35

Yeah. It's it's it's brewed like like a

49:38

beer almost. Okay. And

49:40

I guess you can sort of say it's almost like

49:43

a niggai sake. Slash beer. Okay.

49:46

Alcohol content's only six percent.

49:48

It's on the sweeter side because

49:50

it is a lot of sugars from

49:54

the rice. And it's traditionally a farmer's

49:56

drink. Farmers middle of the day

49:58

when it was too hot, they would

50:00

drink regularly a little hour

50:02

nap and then they will go back to

50:04

work. It's actually not

50:06

filtered. It's actually

50:08

the scraps from that

50:10

actually filtered part from the more expensive

50:13

Korean spirits in alcohol.

50:16

Mhmm. So

50:18

from what the rich people would drink, the rice wine would be

50:20

clear, and then the scraps

50:22

left over would go to

50:26

the farmers. These days though, it's really hip in Korea. All the

50:28

young people are sort of into

50:30

it and, you know, I

50:32

like it. So

50:34

I don't know if my dad liked it, but I'm sure

50:36

--

50:36

Yeah. -- I'm sure

50:37

you will. Who who wanna knock one back

50:39

with you? Yeah. So -- Yeah. -- can we go a

50:41

little bit into the the junks you make? Because

50:44

I I love these. I've never been to

50:46

a

50:47

Korean near celebration, but I I see them in Korean

50:50

restaurants, like sometimes a seafood

50:52

pancake -- Yeah. -- or some

50:54

of the kimchi

50:56

pancake. Okay. So that is a

50:58

ton as well, but that's more like a

51:00

composed bun where it's large and

51:02

round. The chissant bun is

51:04

a little bit different. You make

51:06

a ton individually. So it's

51:08

flour, egg batter, and then

51:10

pan fry. And we do

51:12

that with, like, little slices of,

51:14

like, coins of zucchini. We

51:17

do it with little fillets

51:19

of fish, so we fillet

51:21

of fish and cut it down to like sort

51:23

of bite sized knobs. And then when

51:25

you season it, flour it, egg

51:27

batter it, and fry it. So

51:29

It's a lot of work. So, like,

51:32

individual individuals -- Yeah.

51:34

-- fritters. Yeah. Yeah. And

51:38

you know, jez our food, you know, and experienced

51:41

this. I don't

51:42

know if it's the best

51:43

tasting Korean

51:46

food, but it is the

51:48

most labor intensive. It is the most

51:51

sort of the

51:53

toughest to resource because

51:56

it's traditionally because you can't season it too much,

51:59

the ingredient itself has to be fresh

52:01

and has to be

52:04

really good. Because that is what you're

52:06

showcasing. So a lot of this takes

52:08

in Korean

52:08

word, which is care and

52:11

dedication and devotion, all of

52:14

that. I guess putting it all together and thinking if

52:16

I was in Korea and I know there's probably regional variation. Mhmm. But, like, what are

52:18

some of the ingredients that I would be

52:20

looking for right now that

52:23

that are standard ingredients in

52:25

the

52:25

winter. Cabbage, not the

52:28

cabbage, because this is kimchi

52:30

baking season. King James k. Right now is when cabbage

52:32

is the sweetest. Sweet

52:36

potatoes. And

52:38

definitely fish. Like, right now, it's

52:40

at a at its

52:42

fattiest. Yeah. And the

52:44

nominals, it would be dried.

52:46

Spring summer, great. Vegetables,

52:48

Koreans dry it, and then they hydrate

52:50

it and make the nomos in the winter.

52:52

And that tradition still

52:54

exists. So you would be going to the markets and

52:57

knowing during the summer which

52:59

stalls have the freshest and

53:01

the nicest vegetables. In the winter, they will be selling the same

53:03

vegetables that are now dried. So that's what

53:06

you would get. And if for those

53:08

who may not know what

53:10

Namu is if you go to a like a

53:12

Korean barbecue restaurant or in Korean

53:14

restaurant, they start you out with

53:16

these little side dishes,

53:18

there's banchan's. And most

53:20

times, they will have several demos

53:22

as one of the bunch ons because

53:24

they are cheaper to make and you

53:27

can sort of make a whole bunch at the same time. And

53:29

it stays, you know, fresh in your

53:31

fridge for a couple of

53:34

days. And, you know, in Korea and here,

53:36

it's for every Korean family.

53:38

We always have nominal

53:41

in the fridge. And it's also a staple

53:44

for Cesar. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

53:46

I know you just opened a little

53:48

banchan, like,

53:50

deli. Can't wait to come visit you there and actually

53:52

grab a bunch of these numbles and bring them home and -- Yeah. -- bowl rice and I

53:54

make a very happy day.

53:57

Every morning. Well, it has been great talking

54:00

with

54:00

you. Thanks so much. How can you eat? Happy

54:02

New Year. Happy

54:02

New Year. Happy New Year. Thank you.

54:06

Honey Kim's restaurants in New York City

54:08

are Don Ji, The Little Bon Ton

54:10

Shop, and Meiju. His cookbook

54:13

called my career and can find his recipe

54:15

for simple gun, those fritters he was

54:17

talking about, at splendidtable

54:20

dot

54:20

org.

54:20

And that is

54:21

our show today to all of you

54:22

who celebrate, happy to live a new

54:24

year, and talk to you next week.

54:28

Eight of studios are

54:31

run by Chandra Cavalli,

54:36

Alex Schaffert, and Joanne

54:38

Griffith. Beth Promonzo's executive producer and the

54:40

Splendid table was created by

54:42

Sally Swift and Limb Rosetta Casper.

54:44

It's made every week by technical

54:46

producer, Jennifer Lucci, producer, Erica

54:48

Romero, digital producer, James

54:50

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54:52

Sally Swift. I'm Francis Lam, and this is

54:54

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