We’ve talked a lot about Chinese restaurants in past episodes. On this one we’re getting a look into the kitchen from our guest and former restaurant kid Julia Louie. We hear what it’s like to grow up in a Chinese restaurant, the privileges and obligations of the owner’s kid, and code/mode-switching between family work life and outside life. 

We talk about Americanized Chinese food and try to figure out what the dividing line is between Americanized and not, how to fake Chinese “enoughness” when you don’t speak the language, and the foibles of being first a design student and then a real life design professional in a place where design is not a high priority. Plus sleeping at the restaurant in a snowstorm and the betrayal of Tall Guy!

This episode we’re joined by Vincent Beck, Bay Area creative and street photographer, and it is eggs-cellent! Fluffy eggs-cellent to be exact! He shares his mom’s recipe for iritamago, a sweet and fluffy egg dish served over rice. 

Valentine’s Day might be behind us but we’re here telling the love story between our guest Nicole Lugtu and her fave dish tinola. Or maybe more accurately, the love between Nicole and chicken. Listen in as Nicole and Sam talk about their shared love of chicken and the myriad ways that manifests in life: as a personality trait, red flags and relationship dealbreakers, familial dividing lines.

We’re baaaack!! Wooo! We did not mean to be away for so long but cold and flu season absolutely wrecked all of December. But we’re back with a follow up to our SPAM episode and we’re joined by special guest Jaime Sunwoo, creator of Specially Processed American Me.

In this special second edition spam-isode, we talk about Jaime’s performance film, the signature dishes of what she calls the Spam Diaspora, and we dig into the Hormel Girls.  Plus food as an entry point to unpacking family history, and the adorable way that Jaime’s mom served (serves??) spam fried rice.

Links of interest as discussed on the show:

• The Kitchen Studio: Culinary Creations by Artists

We’re forever celebrating the everyday dishes, but we just couldn’t help ourselves getting in on a little holiday cheer! This episode we’re joined by Ken Cho, bringing us his favorite holiday dish, Mom’s Thanksgiving Stuffing. We talk about growing up “All-American” in the 80s, canned soups on everything, and raising hapa kids. 

We dig into what it’s like to go from shame and disgust of Korean food to housing spicy soondubu and banchan, “cool Asians,” and the great Asian unifier: SPAM (we seriously can’t get enough of it on this show). Plus a new merch idea and gamifying the podcast!

You can find a recipe to Mom’s Thanksgiving Stuffing on our site and take a peek at the book Mostly Me, especially for the hapas and parents of hapas out there.  

This episode we’re joined by Neha Gautam, filmmaker, photographer, educator and writer director of Passenger Seat, bringing us paratha, or more specifically her childhood version of paneer stuffed paratha with ketchup because kid palette. 

We talk about “Indian pizza” as a specific and universal tactic for feeding kids, classic 90s kid lunches (fold over sandwich bags anyone??), and roti as a symbol of oppression.

Plus we talk about what it’s like to grow up in NYC and Alaska, mix tapes and cassette technology, and cut fruit as an Asian love language. 

In this episode we’re joined by Shaun Garcia, husband, father and noodle soup connoisseur about his fave soup and classic Filipino dish, Sinigang, which doesn’t happen to have noodles, in case you’re wondering! We talk about growing up in the clean plate club, feeding a toddler what you’re eating (hopefully!), and inventing a dish in high school that was really not a unique invention in any way shape or form.

Plus, we talk about the signs of true love and we crack (part of) the code on not feeling shame or embarrassment when messing up our cultural dishes. Spoiler: it’s failure! Yikes!! Jk, we love it!

In a slight deviation in programming, we’re sneaking in at the end of Hispanic Heritage Month with our first non-Asian guest! This episode we bring on long time friend of Freesia’s and #1 WQC super fan Nicole Fox. Despite her non-Asianness Nicole almost always finds something relatable to her own life and experiences in our episodes. Because maybe food is the great equalizer and maybe growing up not white in this pretty white society is weird, no matter what your culture. 

Anyway, on this episode we talk about her dad’s weekend breakfasts of chorizo and eggs, how the loss of an elder can be felt for generations, and, surprise surprise, how cooking your own culture’s food can be super intimidating. 

Plus we talk about store bought tortillas as feminist icons, how the Mission-style burrito is superior to all others, including its superior delivery technique—a hill we’re both ready to ☠️ on—and Mexican v Spanish chorizo (and an honorable mention to soyrizo 😬). Also we dunk on our high school Spanish teacher. Sorry not sorry Señor Stevens. 

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This is a spicy one! No really, the dish is spicy. On this episode we talk to Christian Wu about his mom’s Mapo Tofu, something so relatable, and so beloved by Christian, and honestly his mom’s version sounds way better than ours.

Join us as we talk about being a third culture kid–growing up in both Tijuana and San Diego– growing up in a restaurant, and what parents can take away from hyper independent kids to coerce compliance. Plus we talk about cooking with parents, deciphering a recipe through language barriers, and the loving savagery of food-based friendships.

For this momentous 10th episode, we’re putting recipes aside to talk about the great Asian and Asian American uniter, SPAM! Our guests are writer Margot Seeto and filmmaker Jin Yoo-Kim, creators of SPAMFIGHT!, a short film inspired by a love of Spam. We talk about our childhood memories of Spam and the creative ways we’re eating it today. We also talk about the ways die hard Spam fans celebrate this icon, and make up a few of our own that we’d like to see and eat.

Plus we talk about the sometimes complicated role of Spam in shaping identity, and some of the artists centering SPAM in their work. Hilariously terrible bonus, Jin shares her worst Spam memory and we all hate it but man do we get it. 

Links to artists and organizations mentions in the show:

• A-Doc - Asian American Documentary Network

Links to support the ongoing recovery efforts caused by the devastating fires in Maui:

• Chef Hui & The Hawai‘i Community Foundation - Funds raised for Chef Hui Maui Hospitality Relief will go directly to support Maui restaurants, hospitality workers and their families who have been displaced due to the fires. Funds will be distributed directly to restaurants and their employees based on needs.