Fabulously Fierce Friends, Jiya

1. Who are your role models - food related or otherwise?
My grandma--she could whip up delicious meals with just tofu and not much else. and she makes her own kimchi. And she does all these with so much grace.

2. What is your drink of choice?
gerwurtztraminer, riesling, and any italian wines.

3. What is your favorite cookbook or other food related book?
"Like Water For Chocolate" because everything seems to revolve around kitchen in the book. it is a little saccharine but was so cute when i read it years ago...

4. What was your most memorable meal and why?

this is a triple tie.
(1)Meals at greg's, of course!
wonderful food and fabulous host/chef.
(2)meals my ex-roomate rahna used to cook.
Shrimp toufee(?)
she just makes everything better.
(3) I once got invited to a vip event at some tiny restaurant where they only served the meat from the cow they killed that very morning.they only kill three cows per week...the waiting list was months long)...anyway, quoting from the guy sitting across from me that day:"I never saw a girl take in so much meat."(no pun intended...?)

5. What is your favorite kitchen gadget or tool?
electric kettle to boil tea and make coffee. i only come alive after my morning cofee...and then i put on my face.

6. If you had to make dinner with ingredients at your home right now, what would you make?
umm..ok...kimchi fried rice with mozarella topping.

7. What kind of music do you like to listen to while you cook?
bossa nova. anything with fast rhythm....

8. What is your philosophy on cooking and eating?
anything in excess is poison.
except wine.(?!)
actually, a great company can make even fermented squirrel shit taste better(the squirrel being that squirrel you use to make that "special-organic(?)" coffee!!--you know where you feed the rodent some coffee beans and it poops the beans and you make coffee with the pellets..)

9. Are there any foods you can not stand to eat?
yes! please hammer don't hurt them pets!
In other words,
no dogs and heads and feet of any animal.(you know, despite the prejudice and stereotype, only few..very few Koreans actually eat dogs!!!)
anything which i can actually retrace the original form of
the meat i am eating, i do not want to eat!!
also...i hate lobsters. they look like roaches from the sea.


10. If you could use any super power in the kitchen, what would it be and why?
cleaning up after wards. sometimes i cook like an amazon going to war.