Sook

Every single week, when we go to the Korean wholesale market for , we get gimbap 김밥 from 💛 They have 꼬마 김밥 ggoma gimbap which is the perfect size for BB’s tiny fingers 👦🏻 The ingredients are so fresh, the seasoning is on point here, it really has jungsung 정성, the attention to detail that comes from caring and love. Tastes like home ❤️

Gimbap is such a childhood favorite of mine, so I was thrilled to write a piece last month for about gimbap and its history which is really the story of South Korea’s colonisation and post-colonial industrialisation. Thank you for the opportunity to delve into this history and share it with others! 🙏🏼❤️🙏🏼

And look out for Shiku’s gimbap pop-up soon where I’ll be rolling rolling gimbap to celebrate the publication of by dear featuring my mother’s gimbap and the childhood foods of ! 🎉

is one of the first people who believed in me as a cook and restaurant professional when I was still a lawyer in Hong Kong 🙏🏼 More than 8 years ago, she was key in helping me with my first pop-ups in HK (see the last photo), showing me how to set up my production line of Korean tacos so I could churn them out faster and better, signed the paperwork and even met with the health inspector so I could get a temporary food license for my first major event, all before we were even that close 😭

Over the years, we’ve shared many home cooked meals, restaurant meals, drinks, stages for events, heartbreaks, foot massages, and even a trip to LA that was the beginning of my love affair with this city. She gave me dating advice and made it her mission to find me a worthy partner even if it meant making me cringe late nights at bars while she harangued some poor dude 😅🤣 And when I did find my soulmate, she cried with joy because as we all know, May is a crier and comes from a family of happy criers 😭

So there was no way I was missing her wedding celebrations now that May has found her perfect match in . I’m so glad Taehoon and I got to get to know you, Jodie and witness the wonder that May sees in you. You two are such beautiful, loving, and fiercely loyal souls. Love you both so much and thankful the universe led you to each other ✨

Over a year ago, our friend and author  asked if I had a story to tell about growing up with Korean lunches in America. I grew up in the 80s mostly in small town America, so yeah, I have a few stories! 🤪 We recently got the final book and JDS has crafted a lovely children's book weaving my story with the childhood memories of three chefs I so admire  ❤️

And WOW, the gorgeous illustrations by  captured so many details of my umma's kitchen and even picked up on a strawberry theme that I don't remember even mentioning. But I had a Strawberry Shortcake lunchbox and my favorite dress was embroidered with 🍓, how did Jing know? Magic ✨

The book is coming out next Tuesday so get your pre-orders in with your favorite bookseller! Thank you JDS and for allowing me to be a part of this wonderful project. I hope my son doesn’t haven’t to experience these “lunch moments” and in LA, he probably won’t. But I do wonder when we move back to Korea eventually if he will have lunch moments when we pack him burritos and sandwiches for school 😆

Since I was very young, I have been a huge book nerd 📚 My mother took us to the public library on the weekend when I was in primary school and I would pick out ten books and read them all before the weekend was over. And then I would harangue my mom to take me back to the library for more books. Voracious 🤓 Now that I have a kid, I am hyperconscious of not imposing my own hopes of who he might be, and just let him be. But it does make my heart explode that even at 2 1/2 he loves libraries as much as I did. We are late to school because he wants me to read him books in English and Korean. As long as he loves books and libraries, we will be there reading.

So when the invited me and Kwang to do a presentation and cooking demo as part of the LAPL series and to support its foundation, we were of course in. We decided to talk about dotori muk 도토리 묵 or acorn jelly. I’ll share more about the dotori muk in a later post. Anyway it was a lovely day of culinary storytelling with our friend , our idol , and two incredible chefs and Luludey Moges. Thank you to the Library and Skirball teams for letting us share our stories, for cooking our recipes for the 250 guests, and especially for being so kind to our little reader as he raided the snack bar in his first green room and wreaked havoc on stage 🤪

Joong or zongzi made by the mother of a friend of a friend, dear 🐲🐉 Passed down like the family heirlooms that they are. Filled with dried Hokkaido scallops, lap cheong, salted duck egg yolk, pork belly, mung beans and pyogo mushrooms and wrapped and steamed in fragrant bamboo leaves 💚 These truly tasted as if we were in Hong Kong. We ate these during Dragon Boat Festival this year, and they reminded me of watching the dragon boat teams in the Chai Wan typhoon shelter from my 16th floor window in Hong Kong. Thank you, Ingrid, for sharing these precious parcels with us and please feel free to come back next Dragon Boat Festival! 😆😘

Second round of the fundraiser auction to support the work of is live now! NY has kicked off and LA launching shortly. Feeling the joy seeing this incredible group of AAPI creative sisters and so honored to be included 🥰 Bid on ’s IG through the end of the month!

Photo: whose work I’ve admired for years 😍😍😍
Art Direction: who created this passion project among the 5 million other things she does 💪🏽
Location: where I got to commiserate with another restaurant family 🤓
My dress that I live in: 🖤

Have got ’s gorgeous cookbook in my hands and so looking forward to our Zoom conversation tomorrow with as our host 💜💜💜 12pm PST, followed by a cook-a-long with Joanne, making Pecan Paht 팥 Pie 🥧 We’ve been following each other for years, fellow Korean American lawyers who have cooked on the side, and I’ve always been so impressed at her candor about her struggles as well as her beautiful photography. I hardly need to introduce her to you all, and so much to talk about tomorrow! You can register for the talk — link on the image here. And if you haven’t received your book yet and need the recipe to cook along tomorrow, please let me know and I’ll send it along ✌🏽

Now that BB is past 100 days, we can post more photos of our XL xiao long bao 🌝 also known as 우리 사랑하는 왕 만두 👶🏻 or 우리 진빵 ❤️

BB turning 100 days on Leap Day seemed magical and fitting somehow ✨Celebrated at home and set up a table with the traditional rice cakes and fruit and a few personal talismans: gold bracelets from when I was a baby, a baby-making quartz angel that a dear friend gave me from Joshua Tree, an antique silver spoon from auntie to represent our LA community, a bamboo tray I bought right before I left Hong Kong, a miniature buddhist carving from my MIL to represent K’s family, a patchwork of vintage Korean silks sewn by my 큰고모 aunt to represent my side, and a cloth given by 🙏🏼 White roses from our garden, yellows and oranges are his good luck colours and brass as the metal element for his astrological chart 🧡💛🤍 And beautiful bojagi from , thank you Ellen! 😘 #백일상 @ Atwater Village, Los Angeles

Happy big birthday to my mama guru and my spiritual brother .acuna 🎉🎊😘 You two put so much love into the world, you got it right back this weekend. Thank you for bringing us all together in Palm Springs. Have missed you all 🥰 @ Parker Palm Springs