Recipes like gochugaru shrimp and grits honor traditions from Korea and the American South.
Eric Kim ca n’t stop yell when let the cat out of the bag about his cookbook , Korean American : Food That Tastes Like household . “ I got a medium training leaflet that I leave to take care at , so in the first three interviews I ’m just hit through , ” he laughs . “ I ca n’t facilitate the crying — it just means so much to me , all of this , you know ? ” Even in our conversation , Kim ’s voice now and again wavers . His sure comrade , a scruffy blackguard named Quentin Compson , is by his side throughout — a quiet yet encouraging cheerleader who occasionally graces the pages of Kim ’s book .
ButKorean Americanprominently features another cheerleader . His debutcookbook , which comes out March 29 , doubles as a memoir and affecting testimonial to his mom , Jean — who Kim go with during a year of formula testing at the commencement of the pandemic . The book admit snippets of his puerility growing up in Atlanta , cherished Thanksgiving custom , the tension between parent and child , and what it stand for to beKorean , American , and a blend of the two .
Where Kim is sentimental and affected , Jean is pragmatic and unphased . The pair , however , are both fiery in the kitchen , with their own approaches to create recipes . Kim is not raw to food writing and formula development . As a currentNew York Timescooking writer , with a accumulation of bylines that roam fromBon AppetittoSaveurtoFood52 , Kim ’s very support depends on the words he pens and the thoughtfully acquire formula that follow . But Jean has been cookingKorean foodall her life — and mother bonk best .
Photo by Cole Saladino for Thrillist
“ There was more of that tension in the rootage and it ’s kind of a fun joke — the mamma who has been cooking Korean nutrient forever versus the thankless , spoiled Word who also has a career in food , ” Kim jokes . “ It end up being this unbelievable mating and just a very clear model of Korean American . If people cogitate about what Korean American means , I see a graphic where Korean is the Jean part and American is the Eric part . ”
Jean did n’t just help with drafting the dozens of recipe that span across the 288 Page ofKorean American . She also help when it came clock time for Kim to sit down down and write . “ Part of my journey as a writer has been how to curb the very sentimental approach shot that I take in the world , which is always crying while looking at it , ” he explains . Jean ’s perspective is steadying .
Although the cookbook is titledKorean American , Kim was adamant that the resulting recipes — and the stories woven throughout — be what he actually develop up eating in Atlanta . “ Our partnership bring forth really interesting recipe that are root in experiences that are genuine to our lives as very specific , idiosyncratic Korean immigrant in Atlanta , ” he says . “ It count where you come from — we are never just individual disjoint from our context . ”
Photo by Cole Saladino for Thrillist
Yes , there ’s an entire section devote to kimchi — which Kim acknowledges is the most authoritative recipe in the cookery book . There ’s ganjang gejang ( salty raw crabs marinated in soya bean sauce ) and budae jjigae ( a bubble macrocosm of the Korean war that is snuggly blanket in a rag of American cheese ) .
But there ’s also cheeseburger kimbap , an invention of 13 - year - old Kim , a part give to a hallowed Korean bakery in Atlanta that specializes in plush loaves ofmilk bread(at one point during our audience , Kim gets up to place his own variation of milk bread in the oven ) , and gochugaru shrimp with roast seaweed grits — a quintessential recipe that merge both Kim ’s Korean and Southern indistinguishability . “ I want mass to acknowledge how unabated any of this is , ” Kim says . “ You ca n’t make up these combining . ”
Kim grow up with a peach tree in his front yard , something he quips sounds fake but is just another layer of his childhood spent in Georgia . Grits , of course , were a staple grain in his menage . “ I think I learned to make guts before rice , ” he laughs . The runt and hominy grits recipe feel like a natural progression . “ It was one of the first recipes I developed for the book and gave me an anchor for what form of intellectual nourishment would be in the script . ”
Photo by Cole Saladino for Thrillist
The shrimp starts with a marinade similar to the commencement of maeuntang , a vibrantly red Korean fish stew . The aroma of gochugaru is bloomed in melted butter , with a generous amount of chopped garlic and pungent dashes of Pisces sauce to tame the warmth . The gritrock function as transparency to the perfervid shrimp . Kim was enliven by Korean juk , a rice porridge that he describes as “ comfortingly bland . ” The increase of crushed seaweed and sesame oil makes for a nuttier and brackish adaptation of moxie — the consummate couple to the intensity of the shrimp . It ’s a pleasant-tasting labor of making love held together by the intersecting piece that make Kim who he is .
“ Throughout this cookery book , I ’m really proud of these consequence — because it ’s so heavy to go through every small influence , ” he explains . “ But I pull in while writing the book of account , I unwrap very Atlanta Korean things . No one else has it , and I feel that I had a flock of authority to indite about it because they are my life . ”
The subtitle ofKorean Americanis “ nutrient that tastes like home . ” This thought was Kim ’s north star as he ideated , test , and wrote the book — a feeling he chased that he desire to share with his readers . The final product is not specify to be a purely Korean cookery book , or even a Korean American cookbook for that topic .
Photo by Cole Saladino for Thrillist
“ It is a taradiddle about a mother and a son and this whimsey of stableness and instability in regard to place , ” Kim say . “ We have stories that are free-base in office , so habitation is the perfect Logos for that . ”
This Gochugaru Shrimp and Grits Honors Korea and the American South
Make this spicy breakfast dish from Eric Kim’s debut cookbook, ‘Korean American.’
