Worst Quality Crab

This episode we talk with author Kaila Yu,  new book Fetishized and her classic Taiwanese comfort food, Lu Rou Fan. We’re a little light on the food this episode but spend lots of time on Kaila’s new book, the fetishization of Asian women, and stories that feel like they’re from 20 years ago but are, unfortunately, still true today. 

Plus we talk about Kaila’s experience as an import model, Chinese school, and padding that college ...

Whoops, we accidentally took a summer break. We just have so many kids and so little free time. But we’re back and we’re excited to talk with actor and marketer Sakura Nakahara about her favorite childhood dish that remains a favorite today, okonomiyaki. Not just a childhood treat, today it serves as her mother’s love language, bribe language, apology and so much more.

We talk with Sakura about being the black sheep of the family f...

We can’t even pretend to have chill about this. On this extra special episode, we interview the namesake of our mascot and inspiration for the title of the show, Waverly herself, the legend, the icon, Tamlyn Tomita!

We of course ask Tamlyn about the Joy Luck Club, what it meant 30 years ago, what it means now, and her thoughts on playing Waverly. She also talks Karate Kid II, her equally iconic role of Kumiko, and her personal ties...

We’re honoring AAPI month with one of our favorite local AAPI community leaders, Cynthia Huie, owner of On Waverly, an AAPI gift shop and bookstore in the heart of Chinatown. Cynthia shares her childhood fondness for shrimp chips made at home by her grandfather, her lasting love for the crunchy, salty, airy snack.

Cynthia talks about representation through retail, her relationship with her grandparents and how that has led to inter...

This episode we pick up the soy sauce/restaurant kid threads with guest Eddie Lo. Now a food professional himself, Eddie talks about growing up in Chinese restaurant and being raised by amazing cooks, including his grandma, who would make him Hong Shao Rou, a braised pork belly dish. 

We talk about growing up in Wisconsin and Southern California eating exclusively Chinese food, having a first hamburger in college, and then never lo...

On this episode we’re doing something a little different. In the spirit of March Madness we present to you, March Madness of Chinese Cuisine!

We partnered with our friend Curtis Chinn of the Infatuasian podcast and our friend Cynthia Huie at On Waverly to record this live, with an audience inside of On Waverly, the best AAPI gift shop and bookstore in Chinatown.

This was a just for fun atte...

This episode we’re talking about everyone’s favorite cooking staple and condiment (please don’t @ us if it’s not your fave) soy sauce, with author and illustrator Laura G. Lee who has a new children’s book by the same name. 

We talk with Laura about growing up in West Virginia among mostly blond-haired blue eyed children, her parents' decision not to pass along the Korean language, and her mother’s use of soy sauce in just about ev...

On this episode we are delighted to have all-around-knowledgeable-and-thoughtful-food-person, former SF Chronicle food critic, current columnist, and cookbook author Soleil Ho! They talk about the dish bahn khot, and eating it fresh off the griddle while their grandmother kept slinging it out, short order cook-style for many, many grandchildren, and why it’s so hard to find a good one outside of Vietnam.

We talk about Soleil’s jour...

This episode we’re joined by cookie maker extraordinaire Amy Wong of Batch 22 Bakery. Lunar New Year might be a little behind us for the year but Amy’s dish, leen goh, is so classic and so beloved we’ll talk about it any time of year.

We talk about Amy’s diligent testing to turn her grandmother’s loosey-goosey recipe into a near-exact replica, her mother’s version that could feed an army, and honoring the recipe while still using a...

Our first live episode! This one is doubly special as we did our first live episode AND celebrated Lunar New Year with a panel of illustrious guests. Thank you to KALW for featuring us as part of their Bay Made series and thank you to guests Margot Seeto, Eric Ehler, and Deanna Ulrich for joining us to talk about their Lunar New Year traditions as kids and what LNY means to them as adults.

Special thanks to:

• David Boyer
• David...

It’s Thanksgiving in February on this episode! We talk with author and coach Tracey Gee about turkey jook, something so beloved by her and her family, and special to our family that we couldn’t dare pass this one up, no matter the time of year.

We talk about the origins of Thanksgiving turkey in Tracey’s household growing up, her very thoughtful method for making it vs our arguably slap-dash way, and come up with a hyper specifi...

Oh hey!! It’s out first live episode ever!! Come join us for a special Lunar New Year episode as part of 91.7 KALW Bay Made Showcase. We’ll be in conversation with past guests Margot Seeto and Deanna Ulrich, plus new special guest chef Eric Ehler of Outta Sight Pizza about our Lunar New Year traditions past and present. Plus special LNY-inspired pizzas by Outta Sight. And we’ll have stickers! Get your free tickets! Come for the ...

This ain’t your mother’s bao! But it *is* Jessica’s grandmother’s bao! On this episode we talk to pastry chef Jessica Fu about her grandmother’s special bao, filled with pork, spices, and secret ingredient vermicelli. This one is so special that between the three of us, none of us have ever seen it on a menu or out in the wild! We talk about where this dish came from and whether or not Jessica’s grandmother made it up. We also tal...

We should really stop pretending like we don’t do holiday episodes because whoops we actually love them. We’re back with a holiday x new cookbook x baking for a cause episode with Hetal Vasavada, author of Milk and Cardamom and Desi Bakes, founder of baking pop up Milk and Cardamom, and former Master Chef contestant. What started with a pitch for butter (not that we have a problem with that! It’s butter!!) turned into a super fun c...

On this episode we’re talking to author Ellie Yang Camp about her new book Louder Than The Lies: Asian American Identity, Solidarity, and Self-Love, and just as importantly, we talk about soups!! Yes, not one, but two family soups: beef noodle soup made by her dad, and chicken broth made by her mom. 

We talk about growing up Taiwanese American in not-so-Asian California suburbs, chasing taste memories, and passing on culture throug...

On this post-election one we present our first ever disliked dish, because apparently there are no rules anymore. This was meant to be a revenge episode with Eli Beutel, but instead of raging against this German Christmas dish, stollen, they were the consummate food and alcohol historian—and still funny! 

We talk about the history of this dish, why they hate it, and why it’s still important to share family recipes, even not so grea...

On this episode we’re talking to fellow podcaster Curtis Chinn, host of the InfatuAsian podcast. His podcast is dedicated to Asian American creators and the culture we all know and love, so naturally we had a lot to talk about. Curtis brings a non-recipe recipe in the form of potstickers, which for him were less family recipe and more college party trick. 

We talk about being a multi-generation Chinese American and San Franciscan, ...

There’s no recipe on this episode, instead we talk about a whole dang cookbook! We could not be more thrilled to have guest Kristina Cho, James Beard Award winner, creator of EatChoFood, author of a New York Times Top 10 Best Cookbooks of 2022 Mooncakes and Milk Bread and forthcoming cookbook Chinese Enough! 

We talk with Kristina about how Chinese Enough came to be, some of her favorite recipes (in the moment) from the book, and w...

We’re back! (Whoops, life!) On this episode we get a little San Francisco-y with native San Franciscan Alisa Wong and her dad’s tomato beef over rice. We talk about the impalpable specificity of being an ABC San Franciscan and try as we might, we never land on what exactly makes us feel that way. (We’re open to your thoughts on that, friends!)

Given the saucy nature of tomato beef, we of course talk about being Sauce On Rice Kids, ...