Why You Have to Get Your Hands on This New Korean American Cookbook by New York Times Writer, Eric Kim
Sometimes, things are not as they seem.
When I received an advance copy of Eric Kim’s new cookbook, Korean American, out this week... I expected, well, a cookbook.
Photo credit: Jenny Huang
What I got instead was so much more.
Sure, there are mouth-watering recipes.
But Korean American is also a compelling personal story.
About the Korean American experience.
"Only recently have I been able to fully embrace that I am at once both and neither, and something else entirely. I am Korean American."
Kim is staff food writer for The New York Times.
Photo credit: Jenny Huang
I discovered his recipes and cooking videos during COVID.
Source: YouTube
(Watch Eric Kim's Sheet-Pan Bibimbap YouTube tutorial here!)
In a way, he taught me how to cook.
What I learned from reading his book is that this 30-year-old with a baby face, my dong seng (Korean word for “little brother”), also taught me about life.
Funny when that happens, isn’t it?
“THERE ARE A LOT OF THINGS THAT FOOD CAN DO”
ALINA CHO: When did you fall in love with cooking and realize that you wanted to make a career out of it? I feel like I read that it was a happy accident.
ERIC KIM: Lots of happy accidents along the way. I fell in love with cooking itself maybe at 13 years old watching the Food Network, but this notion that it could be a career, it didn't really dawn on me until I dropped out of my PhD program halfway. I ended up at the Food Network. And it kind-of all started from there.
ALINA CHO: It snowballed.
ERIC KIM: It snowballed pretty quickly after that. I really found my voice as a writer in the genre of food. I just thought that food was the perfect medium through which you could tell all kinds of stories, not just personal stories, but cultural context, history, and politics. There are a lot of things that food can do, and it's a way toward empathy as well. Everyone eats, and it's a good way to get people to listen.
“I WAS LEARNING A LOT MORE THAN KIMCHI FROM HER”
ALINA CHO: Let’s talk about what happened during COVID.
ERIC KIM: Yeah, yeah.
ALINA CHO: You went back home.
ERIC KIM: So, I got the book deal in New York a couple weeks after lockdown.
ALINA CHO: Oh, wow.
ERIC KIM: A part of me was like, “Well, perfect. I have to write this crazy book.” I cooked a lot of stuff in my tiny studio in Manhattan. I [started] to develop recipes, things like kimchi tuna noodle soup and skillet chicken with gochujang. None of it felt natural, it all felt forced, and I was not using these pantry ingredients well. It was such a shock. It was also so hard, right? We were in the middle of a global pandemic. We didn't know how long it would last.
ALINA CHO: Right.
ERIC KIM: It was a very difficult time for everyone, and the food suffered for it. It wasn't until I had to go home [to Atlanta] to develop a kimchi chapter, where a lot of my mom’s recipes reside, that I realized [something important].
From Korean American; Photo credit: Jenny Huang
ALINA CHO: I’m sure when you went home you never thought you'd be there a year.
ERIC KIM: It was supposed to be that one chapter. But as I started watching [my mom] cook dinner, and lunch, and we were developing [recipes] together, I realized that I was learning a lot more than kimchi from her.
From Korean American; Photo credit: Jenny Huang
I was like, “Whoa, she blooms her gochugaru in fat. And that brings out a lot of qualities." I saw the way she treated meat and fish, and I was like, "Everyone needs to know this." I realized, “Oh shit, this is the book. I have to stay here.”
“I AM KOREAN AMERICAN”
ALINA CHO: You write in the book, "Only recently have I been able to fully embrace that I am at once both and neither, and something else entirely: I am Korean American." I feel like that message is so profound, and so true.
ERIC KIM: Thank you. I'm getting emotional just hearing that line.
ALINA CHO: Yeah, I know.
ERIC KIM: Every time I try to read that out, like at a reading or something, I cry. Because that is the huge discovery that happened after 365 days of development.
ALINA CHO: I never thought about it that way [until you wrote it], but being Korean American is something entirely different. And I feel like that's reflected in your recipes.
ERIC KIM: You're right, it is in the food. You can taste it in the food. Whenever I'm developing recipes at The New York Times, I have incredible confidence now to really maximize the flavor potential of these Korean pantry ingredients.
Photo credit: NYT Cooking
And I think that confidence is something that a lot of children of immigrants don't naturally have, because we're constantly trying to appease both parties, the Korean community, and the American community.
ALINA CHO: Totally.
ERIC KIM: As a writer, you have to do both as well. But then I realized, “Oh no, no, no, this is for me. This is my book, and this is who I am.” That felt really important to get on the page.
“WHAT IS IT ABOUT SPAM?”
ALINA CHO: Let's talk about some of the specific recipes. There’s a whole chapter on kimchi. There's a lot of jjigaes (Korean stews) in there, which I love.
ERIC KIM: I know.
ALINA CHO: Then you also have amazing, interesting things like Gochugaru Shrimp and Roasted-Seaweed Grits.
From Korean American; Photo credit: Jenny Huang
And can we talk about the Maple-Candied Spam?
From Korean American; Photo credit: Jenny Huang
ERIC KIM: I love Spam. I was doing an interview with a Korean host, and we were having dinner together. We had this huge spread in front of us, right? And there were so many things to eat, but she and I went for the Spam first, and I just love that we did that. No matter what's on the table, no matter how fancy everything else is, Spam is the thing that really grounds me into the past.
ALINA CHO: What is it about Spam and Koreans?
ERIC KIM: It’s salty and sweet and fatty, and there's a lot of that in Korean food. I also think people need to know about rice.
The role of that bowl of white rice on your table is actually for balance. It's so that you can have the fatty, salty, spicy stuff, and you measure it with the blandness of the rice. That’s important in our cuisine.
WHY IS KOREAN FOOD SO POPULAR? LOOK IT UP. LITERALLY.
ALINA CHO: One last thing. I feel like Korean food is on the map right now in a way that it never was before.
From Korean American; Photo credit: Jenny Huang
Why do you think that’s happening?
ERIC KIM: One indicator of culture and cultural prominence is the dictionary. I love every year looking at the list of words that Merriam-Webster adds to the dictionary. Once in a while, you'll see a Korean word. Bibimbap was in the dictionary first.
Source: Merriam-Webster
ALINA CHO: Interesting.
ERIC KIM: Followed by gochujang.
Source: Merriam-Webster
Kimchi was in there a long time ago. There’s a year attached to each [word], and it's not that the dictionary is saying, "This is now important." It's a matter of usage, and that's how they measure it. And so, language matters.
ALINA CHO: Absolutely.
ERIC KIM: Every time I am writing a piece in the Times, I take a lot of pride in using Korean words because I know that means they're added to the lexicon.
Photo credit: NYT Cooking
And the more frequently people use a word, the sooner it gets added.
ALINA CHO: And the more familiar and accepted that word becomes, right?
ERIC KIM: Language is power. All these publications now are no longer italicizing quote-unquote non-English words. My whole point with this book is that Korean food is American food. These Korean words are English words. I really believe that language is power, and the more people are careful with the words they use, the closer we get towards equity.