On this episode it’s another blast from high school past with our first Thai guest Nina Meechoonuk, talking about her childhood fave, tod mun pla, aka Thai fishcake. For Nina, this one has had staying power into adulthood and even into her kid’s Thai food rotation.

While Freesia and Nina have been friends since high school, they never really talked about Nina’s experience of being Thai–until now! Hear what it was like for Nina to grow up Thai but without a large Thai community to learn from, and what that means for feeling Thai enough, even as an adult.

Plus we talk about high school lunches, Thai spicy vs other types of spicy (lookin at you wasabi and Indian food) and we dream up the grandparent cooking show.

On this episode we’re chatting with Sam Lugtu, sister of past guest Nicole Lugtu, about her favorite childhood dish, nilaga. We talk about nilaga as a weekly meal vs a special occasion meal, never ordering the things that mean the most to you in restaurants, and the must-order restaurant dishes that are the barometer for everything else. 

Plus cooking this Filipino stew for a very French family, when your oldest daughter syndrome plays out in your takeout, and we start a support group for people whose childhood restaurants have closed.

We know it’s hot basically everywhere so save this one for those chilly fall nights. Unless you live in the southern hemisphere, then this one’s for you right now! Check our website for the recipe.

Leave us a review and rating! We’ve still got a couple of gift boxes for some people who leave us a review and one could be yours! DM or email us a screenshot of the review just so we know. 

And if you’ve had nilaga, let us know what yours was like. And was it a special occasion meal or an anytime meal?

Whoops! We were away too long. But we’re back and we love this one! We’re joined by return guest Jin Yoo-Kim talking about miyeokguk aka seaweed soup aka birthday soup. Since miyeokguk is a postpartum dish as well as an everyday dish, in this episode we dive deep into its role before and after baby arrives. We talk about nourishing mom and the ripple effects to the rest of the family, postpartum as a first-time parent vs already having other kids, and the hidden time-costs of self-care and exercise (spoiler, it’s showering!)

Plus we talk about grandmothers competing to be best grandmother, we have a first-for-this-show-soft launch, and we dream up a couple of postpartum meal services along the way.

There’s still time to leave us a review on your platform of choice for a chance to win a box of some our fave Asian food brands and cute things. Think fancy instant noodles, sweet keychains, and super cute stickers, among other things.

Happy AANHPI Heritage Month and Happy Anniversary to us! We can’t believe it’s been a whole year of doing this show. In this guestless episode, we sit down for our annual performance review and talk about what it’s been like this year and what we hope for in the future. Turns out we want to hear more from you! Plus we soft launch our Buy Me A Coffee and some probable forthcoming WQC stickers. 

Hold on to your butts! Your pork butts that is. This episode, guest Brian Tom brings us his family’s recipe for Kalua Pig and we’re very excited about it. For Brian’s family, this seemingly easy, low maintenance recipe became a family affair. We talk about roles in the kitchen, letting kids be leaders of their domain, and connections to Hawaii but from far away Massachusetts. 

It’s finally happened!! This episode we have our first dessert! On this one we’re joined by Lorraine Esturas-Pierson as she talks about her favorite childhood dessert, halo-halo, a Filipino dish that means mix mix. We talk about why halo-halo might be the most equitable and inclusive of all group desserts and how that was a huge benefit growing up in a LARGE household. 

We talk about the inevitability of too much food at parties, the clean plate club, the lasting trauma of snow peas, and the power of cousins in numbers.

Plus, what makes something fancy, and teaching kids to cook for themselves, or better yet, you! 

No recipe for this one. Just make your way to a Seafood City, Manila Market, or something similar and pick out a slew of jellys and beans of your choice, to go alongside your shave ice, vanilla ice cream and condensed milk. Lorraine is partial to agar agar and jackfruit.

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