Michelle Obama: The Light Podcast - Randall Park on Following Dreams without Parental Permission

Episode Date: April 8, 2025

Actor, comedian and director Randall Park takes us back to his upbringing in Los Angeles, where he learned important lessons about community in his father's small 1-hour photo shop. He gets into how he managed to jumpstart his career in entertainment without telling his parents -- while living under their roof. Plus, we learn how to make his mama's Korean soup, Tteokguk.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I get stopped all the time by Asian Americans, but interestingly, also non-Asian Americans, other people from other communities who really connected with the show. Because it's like they saw their family, their families in this family, you know? And that was something I didn't expect because I was so fully invested in. what this show was doing in terms of the Asian American community. But I didn't realize that, wow, these stories are just so universal. Hello, good people. Welcome back to your mama's kitchen.

This is the place where we explore how we are shaped as adults by the kitchens we grow up in as kids. All the stuff that happens there, the food we eat, the things we witness, the arguments, the exaltations. I'm Michelle Norris, and I'm joined today. by the actor, writer, director, and comedian Randall Park. I'm going to say a few words about him before we begin our conversation. He's probably best known for his portrayal of Lewis, the dad, in that ABC sitcom, fresh off the boat. That show ran for more than 100 episodes, and Randall was nominated for a Critics' Choice Award for his work on the series. You might also know and remember him as Governor Danny Chung in the HBO show Veep, the highly particular and slightly passive-aggressive governor.

He was also Jimmy Wu in the Marvel universe and star of the film called Always Be My Maybe, a 2019 rom-com that he wrote along with his dear friend, Ali Wong, they went to college together. I just want to say, I love that film. It's one of many reasons I am so excited to be talking to you today. Randall Park, how are you doing? Hey, Michelle. It's so nice to hang out with you. I've been looking forward to this conversation. Same.

So I have so much that I want to talk to you about. The work, your career trajectory, which is really interesting, the fact that you have, you've stood toe to toe to toe with Julia Louis Dreyfus in Veep in scenes that were so memorable that they're like memes on their own that people like actually, you know, do TikTok videos about them. You've played Kim Jong-ung. you have gone back and forth between the Marvel and the DC universe. Not a lot of people can say that they've done that. But I want to begin with your origin story.

The kitchen that you grew up in as a kid in a Los Angeles neighborhood called Castle Heights. Sounds fancy. It wasn't that fancy, to be honest. It was... It sounds like something from Game of Thrones, Castle Heights. Yeah, the neighbor. we grew up in was it's kind of right on the border of a lot of different neighborhoods. So we kind of lived on the, you know, right on the line separating kind of a few different neighborhoods.

And yeah, it was just a very, very L.A. childhood. It's very diverse group of friends. I grew up with, I mean, it was almost absurdly diverse, my friend group. And my friends who I'm still very close with, they're basically like family to me. But yeah, we just grew up riding our bikes around the city, getting into trouble. And, you know, just kind of a very kind of very L.A. upbringing. But also, despite it being L.A., it very much felt like a small town to me because it was kind of our little, you know, our little bubble that we lived in. So do me a favor and go back in your mind to that point where you were a very young, Randall Park, maybe eight, nine, ten years old.

You've been out hanging out with your buddies. You come home. You leave that bike hanging on the, you imagine you get off the bike, throw it on the ground. You're hungry. You stomp into the front of the house. You walk your way through the living room and get back in the kitchen. Tell me what that kitchen looks like and what happened in that kitchen, the kitchen that you grew up in. Well, so I throw my bike on the ground.

I walk into the house. I hear a wrestling outside. I go outside. My bike is gone. It got stolen. Okay, are we making this up? Are we writing fiction or did that actually happen? I've had so many bikes stolen as a kid.

That was just like a regular thing. So that's why I mentioned that. So I go into the house, maybe a little stressed because my bike got stolen. And we lived in a very small house. with a very small kitchen, a small kind of long hallway-like kitchen. And with a little dining table wedged into the corner of that kitchen with only kind of only three chairs in that dining tape because it could only fit three chairs. And always a stew of some sort boiling. on the stove, a Korean stew,

a lot of movement, a lot of just kind of running in and out. That's how I picture it, just like my mom cooking and my dad sitting there planted in that chair, that wooden chair, while my brother and I just

are kind of constantly running in and out. Yeah. One of the things we've learned is that people say, you know, did I ever see my mom eat? Did she ever eat? When you said that there were only three chairs, I wonder if that's because she was feeding both of you and preparing the meals, but not necessarily sitting down and enjoying them. Yeah. Yeah. She didn't. And I mean, sometimes every now and then she would. But usually she was cooking and eating while she was cooking. And again, because we only have. had three chairs in there. It was rare that we all sat down together.

And oftentimes, my brother and I, you know, my dad would finish his meal and then my brother and I would eat. Just because my mom, a lot of the time, she cooked the fancy Korean stuff for my dad. And what she would do for us was throw a TV. dinner into the oven with the, you know, with the aluminum foil, those banquet. Oh, and the little compartments? With the compartments. Yeah, yeah. And you always wonder what the dessert was going to be. Exactly. A little apple pie or a little brownie.

That's right. That's right. The brownie. That's right. With the Salisbury steak. And then you got the little mashed potatoes and the little diced vegetables. I mean, we had a lot of, that growing up. And a part of me was pondering if that should be my recipe for this because it was such, you know, basically the heating instructions for these TV dinners because they were such a part of my upbringing. Swanson TV dinner. Yeah, yeah. And it was, you know, when it was in part, in large part, because my parents worked a lot, you know, they worked. And, you know, my dad, was gone a good part of the day. And so was my mom.

And then when they'd get home, it was kind of like a mad dash to feed everyone. And my dad, you know, was very insistent on Korean food. And whereas my brother and I growing up were very like, we just wanted, you know, the TV dinners and the hamburger helpers. And, you know, we just wanted the, I don't know, the pre-packaged stuff. Yeah, yeah. But then every, so often we would actually, like, maybe on weekends more, would indulge in these great Korean meals, you know. Can you introduce me to your parents?

Tell me, introduce them. What are their names? What do they do? Tell me a little bit about who they were. Okay, my mom, her name is Duckie Park, but her American name was Deanna or is Deanna. And she worked as an accountant for the student store at UCLA for many years, 30-plus years.

She came to this country in 1970. had met my dad in Korea. My dad at the time lived in L.A., but he went back to Korea, met my mom, and she didn't move to the States until she finished school and then joined my dad in the States

and was enamored with America, this idea of America, you know, just from watching Audrey. Hepburn movies and just really, really wanted to be in America. It was just this magical place in her head. And then when she got here, she was very disappointed because she lived in a tiny... Wasn't like the Hollywood films? No, no, because...

And this is all stuff, you know, she told me later. Yeah, she had this vision in her. head, you know? And the reality was she lived in this tiny apartment with my dad who was working, you know, to be able to pay rent. And then she ended up having two boys. And it was just her and these two wild boys in this apartment and is very much not the life she envisioned. My dad lived in, you know, was born in Korea, raised in Korea, came to the States in 69, San Francisco originally, then went to France to go to school. Yeah, he worked as a busboy in a French restaurant in San Francisco.

and the I guess the owner of the restaurant just loved him so much and helped arrange for him to go to France for a while and go to school there and learn French and take classes and so he lived in France for a little while

ended up coming back to the States and lived in L.A. and on a trip back to Korea, met my mom. Yeah. And my dad passed away last year. But, yeah, they were together for a very long time and lived in the same house that I grew up in. And my mom still is in that house, that same house.

Really? Still in that house. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, it was just a, you know, just a family of four in L.A. I find it so interesting that your dad worked out of French restaurant, which may have expanded his palate a little bit, but still at home, wanted traditional Korean food. Yeah. Yeah. You know, my dad was, I mean, he loved all kinds of food.

and we would always go to restaurants and different restaurants. And he definitely did have a very open palate. But yeah, at home, at home, you know, he wanted what he associated with home, you know, which was Korean food. Yeah, yeah. And for my brother and I growing up, you know, we were born in a time. when a lot of the Korean immigrants who came to, or a lot of immigrants, yeah, in general, who came to the United States in the, you know, late or 70s, early 80s,

a lot of the mentality for folks like my parents was to have their kids assimilate as much as possible, you know, and to be American and to not go through, have to go through a lot of the struggles that they went through, you know, feeling like outsiders and whatnot. So there was this very, very conscious push for us to be as quote-unquote American as possible. And I think that was reflected in the kitchen as well with, you know, my brother and I getting these TV dinners. And meanwhile, my mom would be cooking Korean food for my dad and for herself. I love often hearing the stories about how people choose the names that they adorn themselves when they come from another culture to America. Your mother chose Deanna.

Yeah. Was there something in that choice? I don't know. That's a good question. Have you ever talked to her about that? No, I never did. I never did. But I should ask her.

I should ask her about that. I bet there's a story there. Yeah. Yeah. She, yeah. And my dad, his name was Hong Park, Hong Key Park. He went by Harry. Okay.

So, yeah, a lot of people called him Harry. And I never really thought much about it. To me, they were just mom and dad. But that is a, yeah, that is something that I'm definitely going to ask my mom about when I see her in a few days. And you're Randall, your brother is Daniel. Are those your given names? Yes, yes. I was named after my dad's coworker.

There was a guy at his job. Yeah, there was a guy at his job named Randall. He really liked this guy. He was super kind and just fun. And my dad really, really, you know, liked him. And they really got along really well and named me Randall. Your dad also ran something that is such an L.A. concept, a one-hour photo booth. Yep.

In a parking lot. It wasn't in the parking lot, but it was in a kind of a, it felt like it was, in that it was in like a kind of a mini, like a quarter of a block like mini mall. Yeah, he went through a bunch of different things. He was selling used cars at one point, and he was working at a convenience store, and he was just trying out a bunch of different jobs, and eventually he kind of landed on this opportunity to run this tiny little one-hour photo development shop. in Santa Monica and on Main Street.

And it was just him in this tiny shop, no one else. And he worked in that shop for many years. And I would come on weekends and I would help him. And it was right at the dawn of the digital age. So as digital cameras started to kind of take over, he was kind of holding on strong with this one-hour folks. photo development shop, and eventually it just made sense to let it go. But he was there for a long time.

You know, if you were trying to understand a culture and a country, it seems like running a one-hour Photoshop would be kind of an interesting way to do it because you were seeing inside people's lives when they're drafting those rolls of film off. Yeah. I mean, what I really got from it was how similar we are, you know, to each other and how, you know, because so many different types of people would come in and out of that store and have their film developed and just every, every race and culture would walk into that store. And, you know, we'd be, you know, responsible for, for developing these images of their lives. And, and I would see firsthand how similar, like, I would look at a photo and be like, we have that same exact photo,

that same setup. But it's just different people, you know, the Korean version of that photo, you know, and time and again, it was just such a marvel to me, how similar,

like almost to a T. Some of these photos felt like, you know, they were just like the same photo, and they just swap out our faces, you know. And it was very reassuring for me, you know. It was very, actually, like, it's very comforting for me to know that, gosh,

we're also similar, you know, we're also similar. We talked a little bit about Castle Heights. You wound up going to school not far away from Castle Heights, you know, quick commute when you went over to UCLA. And so is Castle Heights pretty close to Westwood? where UCLA is, UCLA is located? No, it's kind of closer to, closer to Culver City. Okay, so but not far.

Not far. Not far. A couple of freeway exits. Yeah, not far. And you have a very diverse group friends growing up, but when you get to UCLA, you founded an Asian American theater group called the L, I keep wanting to say LLC, like it's a business, but it's LCC.

Yeah, LCC. see. What did that stand for? What were you trying to create there and tell us about, was that the beginning of your acting career or was that more aspirational? Like, I'm going to dabble with this thing and see where it goes or were you committed at that point to making it in Hollywood, having grown up in Los Angeles? Not at all. I really had no desire or inkling of pursuing a career in entertainment at the time. It was, it was really just a group of friends who loved writing. And we decided to dabble in playwriting. And so me and two other friends decided, oh, let's each write a full-length play. And we wrote those plays.

Wait a minute. You weren't interested in acting, but let's just each write a full-length play. That is highly aspirational. I know, but I did not think of myself as an actor at the time. I really thought of myself more as a writer. And so we wrote these plays and we were like, well, why don't we have these perform? We wrote these plays.

So we held auditions and we formed this theater company and put on those plays. And that's what we did. And then we kind of just kept going. And now it's 30 years later, they just had their, their 30th anniversary as an organization on campus at UCLA. And it's pretty incredible. And you were one of the founding fathers. Yeah, it was, you know, at the time, I just wanted to write plays.

But eventually, would find myself on stage, just filling out small roles and, you know, and the things we would write. And eventually just really loved the feeling of being on stage. stage and also writing stuff and seeing it performed. I mean, it was all just so magical for me. And I think the seed was planted, you know, in college for sure. Because before that, I was never a performer or thought of myself as a particularly... You weren't a to-da kind of kid?

No, no. I was a shy, very shy, quiet kid. I mean, I love to like draw. I love to make little comic books and tell stories in that way. But I never thought of myself as a performer, you know, until college. Yeah. When you decided that you wanted to tiptoe into the space, how did your family, your brother, react, you know, when you said, I want to act and I think I actually want to be a comedian. Did they know that you had this sly sense of humor?

I never really approached them with it until well after college. Because after college, I kept doing theater and I got into stand-up and I was doing improv. I was kind of doing everything. And they didn't know about the stand-up? No, I was just doing it at night as a hobby. You know, I'd be working these kind of random day jobs and I was doing it as a hobby. And eventually I was like, you know, I really love the performing and writing more. more than I do these day jobs.

And I'm putting so much effort and energy into it. And I think I want to do it for a living. And I remember approaching my parents with that thought. And just immediately getting shut down. And them just almost being floored by this revelation I had. you know because because again i was super shy i was a very shy kind of awkward kid and i think in their head they the math did not add up you know and on top of that uh you know they they were very well aware that being being korean being asian american particularly at that time was uh

did not equate success in film and tv you know um So, yeah, they were very much against it. How did that manifest? What did they say? Was it, you know, gentle, maybe you should think about something else. Oh, no. Oh, no. I mean, I don't remember the exact quote, but essentially they were, it was like, are you crazy?

You know, what are you talking about? I remember my mom, like, you know, my mom worked at UCLA. at the time as an accountant. So she would work with a lot of students. And a lot of those students were, you know, pursuing acting. And so she saw kind of firsthand how difficult it was for her, you know, student co-workers trying to get in. And, you know, they would show her their head shots and their, you know, their reels, you know,

and she would watch it. And she'd think like, oh, my God, you know, you're. And I remember her saying something to this. the effect of like, you know, I work with these students who are so talented and so beautiful and they're having the hardest time, you know. And it was kind of, you know, she was essentially saying, what makes you think you can like make it if they can't make it, you know, these beautiful white, uh, uh, young, talented actors, you know, or want to be actors that she would see every day.

day. How'd you rebound from that? Because that's hard to hear. Oh, yeah. There's a lot of hard to hear growing up. My, you know, my parents were very blunt, very, I mean, it all, you know, it took me many years to realize and to understand that it all came from a very good place. You know, they were being very protective of me and not wanting me to, again, experience the same struggles that they did. And I think they saw, oh, if I were to pursue this, you know, I would have just as hard a time, if not a harder time than they did, you know. Those admonishments often come from a place of fear, their own fears.

Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. So how did you keep going? I did it in secret, you know. I just kind of, I mean, it took me a while after that, after they kind of shot. me down. I kind of thought, you know what, they're probably right. And I kind of just kept doing it as a hobby, you know, performing and writing and eventually like making like little short videos and web stuff and eventually. And I just kind of did it without them knowing, without telling them about it. Because I knew that if I told them about it, they would, they would, you know, say the same thing. And that would be really discouraging. to me because, you know, as much as a rebel I like to think of myself to be, there is this deep desire to please my parents, you know, and I don't want to disappoint them. You know, I never want to disappoint them. And because of that, I just felt like, oh, I have this thing that I really

want to do with my life that they don't want me to do, and I don't want to disappoint them. So how do I do this. Well, I'm just going to do it and I'm just not going to tell them so that they don't know. Did your brother know about it? Not really. I didn't tell anyone in my family. I was just working these jobs

while auditioning eventually like booking small parts in student films and random just random shorts. and eventually getting a commercial agent and popping up in commercials. And that's when my parents would see me in a commercial.

I was going to say, wait a minute, you're doing commercials and you're doing the surreptitist really, but you're in a commercial. And they're watching TV at night. And suddenly they say, wait, wait a minute, is that Randall? Yes. Selling soap on TV? Yes. And that happened numerous times. And they tell me, like, we saw you on TV, what's going on?

And I'd be like, well, you know, I'm just kind of doing it for fun. and wait, tell me about that phone call. Who called mom or dad? Well, it would probably be like I was, well, you know, at the time, it wouldn't be a phone call because I was so broke trying to pursue acting that I ended up moving back home with my parents. So you were doing the surreptitiously, we're living under their roof. For part of the time, you know, early on I would live under their roof and then I would move out, get my own place, and then I'd be broke again, and then I'd move back. And, you know, for many,

many years, they were, I was proving them right, you know, in terms of how difficult it was. Actually, sounds a little bit like the character and always be my maybe. Yeah, very much so, very much so. I was, I was struggling and I was, and I was having to move back home a lot. And they were wondering why I would be moving back home. And, you know, I would kind of tell them, I'm saving for this or that, or I'm transitioning from one job to another, you know. But eventually the commercial work kind of really picked up. And they would see me in these commercials all the time. And they kind of knew, but they didn't say anything. Wait, they didn't say anything.

So they're watching a commercial in the living room and you're in your bedroom and they don't yell upstairs. No, no, they would. They would say something to me like, hey, you're on another commercial. And I'd be like, yeah, you know, and it was weird because I was also kind of, I had trained myself to not make a big deal of it with them or with anyone, really, you know, because I was, I don't know, I didn't want to make a big deal of it because I didn't want them to. feel like it was a big deal. Okay. Now, is that partially cultural humility that you felt like? It was cultural humility, but it was also like a bit of a survival tactic.

Because I knew that if it was too big a deal, it would feel like it was something that I was like putting my life to. So you can't shoot me down if I'm not flying at high altitude? Yes, yes, yes, exactly. Exactly. This is like, that's just a thing. I'm just doing these for fun, you know. But eventually I was able to start making a living off of, not a great living, but I was able to, you know, do enough acting work that I didn't need a part-time job or a, and that's when things started kind of rolling for me and I would get my own place.

And was pride started to creep in a little bit there? though when their parents started to see you on TV because they said, you know, what the hell are you thinking? And then suddenly, oh, that's Randall. That's my son. Oh, look at him on TV there. You know what? I didn't think so at the time. I thought that they were, you know, they were so adamantly against me pursuing it that that there was no pride. But I would find out later that they were telling their friends and they were like, yeah. showing them like articles of me, like little write-ups and different things and in random, obscure things, you know, because at the time I was still on the come-up and, and, you know, showing their friends like the commercials. But I didn't know it at the time. You know, I didn't know it at the time. And eventually, and I think it was around the time that I did the interview of all things, playing Kim Jong-un, ironically, that my parents were kind of like,

oh, he's going to be good. He's going to be fine. And ironically, playing Kim Jong-un. I mean, that must have been like surreal on so many levels. So many levels. So many levels. But yeah, the irony is that I think that job is when they were, you know, kind of all in for me. And they were like, we're proud of you.

You know, you're, and ultimately, you know, it goes back to that, that realization that they are, you know, along they just didn't want me to go through the same struggles they did you know and um and i did end up going through a lot of struggle you know i mean just trying to to make it as an actor is like the most difficult thing you know and it was a lot of a lot of those same emotions that that i experience in that kitchen growing up you know i i went through you know and uh um but Once they knew that, oh, I was not going to be hurting, at least on a, you know, paying rent level, then they were happy for me. The cherry blossoms near my home are starting to bloom, and that can only mean one thing.

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So you had your big break. You're 40 or 40-something when you get cast fresh off the boat playing Lewis the dad and this is something that really allowed you to move forward in terms of financial stability.

When I was reading about you, I saw that that was the thing that allowed you to pay off student loans to get rid of that credit card debt. Oh, yeah. You know, get a car, buy a home, set yourself up. And that's a big moment, you know, when you're an actor and you're part of that gig, you know, acting economy. When you actually get a bit of stability like that. Did you bring your parents along with you on that part of the journey when you're portraying a character like that and introducing America to the interior of an Asian American household, which is something that America had not seen?

at that point. Did you bring your parents along with you in trying to figure out how to portray Lewis? Yeah, yeah, for sure. I think a lot of my experience growing up went into that character. And, you know, one thing about my dad was he was beloved. My dad was a very stoic guy very he lived a very he preferred to live a very simple life you know

he just wasn't about nonsense or or clutter you know it was just like just go to work you know sit at that kitchen table with this Korean food

and never complained about I've never heard my dad complain ever. It's just a very kind of simple approach to life. But when I would go to his work and visit him at the one-hour photo store or eventually he worked in a souvenir shop on Hollywood Boulevard and I'd go there and visit him, everyone around him, whether it be at that job, in the neighboring kind of businesses, everyone loved him. Everyone loved him. And and that was very much aside of him, I didn't get to see it

at home that much. Just how much, and I don't even know if it was like if he actively kind of made that happen or if it's just something about his energy just drew people in. But that really helped me with that character because Lewis is very similar.

Just a very beloved, beloved character. Very wise, very funny. Yeah, very silly. Yeah, yeah. Silly, funny. But ultimately really loves his family. And that was my dad.

Fresh out the boat is based on the work of Eddie Huang. And I'm wondering if you and he saw this almost as a little bit of activism, that it was more than just comedy, that you were doing a bit of cultural business there by introducing America to a family that had at that point not really been portrayed on television in that way. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I know, I know for Eddie, I mean, everything he does, you know, has that, has that at the heart of it. And for me, too, for me too, you know, I came from Asian American Studies background. I think a big reason and why I wanted to become an actor

or a big motivating factor aside from just loving it and having fun doing it was to be able to tell these stories that we did in college, you know, to be able to do that on a grander scale and

to share humanity, you know. And so going into that first season of fresh off the boat, it very much felt like, not full circle, but very connected to my life up until that point. And it was very special in that way. You know, just this is not just a great sitcom, but there's an Asian-American studies things going on here too. you know, like there's a, there's definitely a community.

I mean, it was very important to the community, you know. Yeah. Eddie has said that people have walked up to him, stopped him in airports, pulled him aside at the mall, and just thanked him and sometimes got quite emotional in doing so and saying, thank you for doing this. Thank you for telling your stories. That happens to me all the time. All the time. Yeah. Yeah, I get stopped all the time by.

by Asian Americans, but interestingly, also non-Asian Americans, other people from other communities who really connected with the show. Because like those photographs in that my dad's one-hour photo business, it's like they saw their family, their families in this family, you know? and that was something I didn't expect because I was so fully invested in what the show was doing in terms of the Asian American community. But I didn't realize that, wow, these stories are just so universal. And so immediately identifiable to so many groups of people. food plays an important role in many of your films.

In Fresh Off the Boat, there's this great sort of theme where they open up a Texas-style restaurant. Yeah, Cattleman's Ranch. Yeah, yes. Which was just the source of laugh-out-loud guffaws. And always be my maybe. Allie Wong plays someone who's a chef. food is important there and connecting to her mom and trying to get it right and figuring out how to elevate things without erasing, you know, the things that are really at the heart of soul food.

So food is a black term, but there's all kinds of versions of soul food, food that comes from the soul. And I just want to talk to you a little bit about that, about how important that is to you, about how much that's crafted. It seems like it's not accidental. Well, you know, it's interesting when it comes to food and the Asian American kind of the various Asian Pacific Islander communities. It's like food is such a, it's one of those realms where we can be real rock stars, you know, Asian Americans, you know. so many of the great chefs are Asian American, which is really interesting and doing really interesting things. And so it feels like very much inextricable from the idea of what the community is.

It's just such a huge, huge part of the experience. And so it always felt very, very natural for it to come out in the work, you know. Even in the form of Louis Wong's Cattleman's ranch. I mean, that was not a Chinese, Taiwanese restaurant. It's an American steakhouse. But that also, like, tells the story, you know. it's the TV dinners I grew up making and this desire to to to connect with this with this concept of what America is I mean that's very very very real you know which is often based on

give the people what they want yeah yeah yeah and uh something I really yeah I can very much identify with as an Asian American and um So yeah, yeah, it just kind of feels natural and makes sense for food to be a part of so many things that I do. Is your mom, I know your mom still is with us and so sorry about the loss of your father. Your mom is still there in that house and that little, does she still cook? Is she still throwing down in the kitchen? Sometimes, yeah, sometimes. But not as often.

She, you know, she loves going to restaurants, you know, trying different things. Yeah, she has. She has. Well, we always love to gift our listeners. Before I let you go, I have to make sure that since your mother sounds like she was so proficient in the kitchen that we get one of her recipes. And we'd asked you beforehand if you were willing to share a recipe with our listeners. and there's a very particular kind of soup that you mentioned that actually sounds delicious. A little bit of work goes into a lot of ingredients, but it sounds like it's worth every bit.

Yeah, and this is the simple version of it. There is a more elaborate version of it, but this is kind of the hustle and bustle of that kitchen growing up version of it. It's called Tuckuk. It's a soup. that's traditionally served on the first day of the new year. But it can be enjoyed at any time. I eat it at all times of the year. It's basically a soup with rice cakes in it.

And this version of it is, again, kind of a simpler version of it, but it's just as good. So it takes a few things that I want you to talk about a minute before we let you go, just to make sure that people can go to the right place to find it. It starts with one pound of frozen oval rice cakes. Now, is it oval because you can also get square rice cakes, but in this case you knew the oval ones?

Yeah, I mean, sometimes they come in like cylinders, sometimes they come in squares. these are specifically made for this kind of soup, and they're kind of these like overlets, and you can get them frozen. I mean, people make them, but that's very time-consuming, and there's not enough time in our kitchen.

Okay, if you're one of those people good on you, but you can also just go to H-Mart and... Buy the frozen ones, yeah, which is what I do. Yeah, you get a pound of those. You get... And this is optional, but I like to put dumplings in them as well, And I'll just buy some frozen dumplings, put them in there. Seven cups of water.

Half pound of steak, flank steak, brisket, any kind of beef chopped into small pieces. And it's not cooked ahead of time. So you're just cutting that into, you need a really sharp knife to make sure that you can get that in small pieces. Okay. But if it's cooked, that's cool too. you know, very loose rules in our kitchen.

But ideally, yes, not cooked, chopped into very small pieces. I asked that because I was wondering if you could repurpose leftovers for something like this. You had a really great blank steak and you wanted to actually repurpose some of that. You could use it in this. Totally. Look, growing up in our house, we would like find pieces of hot dogs in random things that we would buy. My mom would throw, you know, old kimchi and things. Just a chicken leg would be in the soup.

We'd be like, where did this come from? Just. Well, you know, you don't waste. Yeah. They didn't believe in waste. Didn't believe in waste. Yeah. But ideally, yeah.

steak uncooked, some garlic. And for folks who might not know what Daschita is? Oh, Dashida, yeah, yeah. That's a, now this is, again, the quick version. And forgive me for mispronouncing it. Oh, it's okay. I don't even know if I'm pronouncing it right, to be honest with you. That's what we always called it.

But it's basically like a soup, like a bouillon, a beef. bullion kind of type of thing comes in little cubes it actually comes in just kind of a powder kind of form yeah again the quick version you could use that but if not if you if you have more time you could make it the right way with with actual meat and bones and whatnot sesame oil vegetable oil soy sauce, fish up sauce, pepper, salt, and then dried seaweed, which we would buy these sheets of sheets of seaweed, which you could get at the H-Mart. And we would turn on the stove and the flame would, we basically just brush the big sheet

over the stove, over the flames until it gets really kind of crispy. and then we'd crush it and put it over the soup. Could you do it in the oven also so you wouldn't run the risk of igniting the seaweed? You probably could. You probably could, but the way we did it was like literally over the open fire. It just sounds like that might take skill or experience and just in case you're not trying to. No, definitely. I'm sure there's a safer way.

And you know, they even sell the seaweed already crushed and, yeah. As a garnish that you can. It's used as a garnish on the top. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Well, it sounds delicious. I'm still cold here on the East Coast. Oh, it's so good. It seems like it will be a wonderful meal for a cold or rainy day. And we'll let you know how it goes. And as always, we post the recipes on the website. We'll have information about it on the Instagram.

So you can find information about that. And you can also let us know if you try it in your own kitchens. We want to know how that goes. And Randall, before I let you go, thank you one more time for being with us. And I just want to say, I am so looking forward to seeing you in the residence on Netflix, produced by Shonda Rimes,

along with Uzo Aduba, who actually told us, her story about her mama's kitchen, in a very memorable episode. Looking forward to that. We'll burn through every episode and can't wait. Thanks again for being with us. Thank you. This has been such a wonderful conversation.

I loved hearing about Randall's parents and their love story. I loved hearing about time spent, learning about other people's lives and realizing the commonalities and looking at all those photos that would move through the one-hour photo stand. And I love how food is made for some of his most memorable moments on screen. And one of the things I really loved about this conversation is his persistence. He had a dream. His parents weren't actually right there with him at the beginning, but he didn't put his dream on the shelf. He kept pursuing that.

And I think that there is a lesson in that for all of us. So, Randall, thank you so much for your honesty and your candor. And for living your life out loud and for making us laugh and making us think. Oh, thank you, Michelle. I appreciate it. Oh, the best to you. And just a reminder to everyone listening, our inbox is open for you to record yourself and share some stories with us, maybe some of your own mama's recipes, some memories from your kitchen growing up. If you have thoughts on some of the previous episodes or if you've tried some of the recipes, all you have to do is make a recording of yourself or a video of yourself and send that to YMK at highergroundproductions.com for a chance for your voice to be featured in a future. or for your video to be featured online on YouTube or on Instagram. If you want to try making the soup, make sure to check out the recipe, as I said, on your

mammaskitchen.com. There you will find all the recipes from all the previous episodes. There's some great stuff there. For everybody at home listening, if you're in your car, your kitchen, wherever you are, we were glad that you gave us an hour of your time. Thanks so much for being with us. Make sure to come back next week because here at your mom's kitchen, we are always, always, always serving up something delicious. Until then, be bountiful.