Chef Roy Choi and The Street Food Remix

     Recently the restaurant adjacent to the trailer park was run by a man who wanted to help Mainers discover the real Korean food he grew up on.  It was a labor of love.  He also held down a day job.

     I knew shamefully little about Korean food other than that it's probably much more wholesome than most of what we eat in America.  Only I couldn't check it out.  Where grad school is prohibitively expensive the only restaurant food in my life was what Eugene would pay for which tends to be America.

     I was thrilled when discovered Jacqueline Briggs Martin and Jo Lee's Chef Roy Choi and the Street Food Remix.  

"Roy calls himself a 'street cook.'

He wants outsiders, low-riders,

Kids, teens, shufflers, and skateboarders

To have food cooked with care, with love

With sohn-maash."

     Roy Choi moved from Korea to Los Angeles with his family when he was two.  He loved the food his parents sold, first from their truck and later at their restaurant.  He felt lost when his parents switched to selling jewelry and his family moved to the suburbs.

     Roy went to culinary school, became a chef, and was highly successful until he couldn't keep up with all his commitments.  Then a friend gave him a suggestion that he couldn't resist.  How about a truck serving a Korean-Mexican fusion?  Instead of catering to the elite, he could feed less affluent people with wholesome food made from fresh ingredients.

     "He wants every boy and girl, hipster and hip-hopper, halmoni and abuela  to have access to good food made with care and real flavors.  And by remixing flavors, Roy is working hard to reconnect with each other in homes, streets, and neighborhoods."

     I suspect you're going to find this book to be in very good taste.

On a purrrsonal note, the University of Maine has been the only campus in the Maine university system to have an independent dining system.  Word has just been passed down from on high that we're about to become another Sodexo franchise.  As you can imagine opinions on whether this is good or bad are as thick as ticks on a moose.  I just want us to still be an operation that honors its mission and values, understands that student workers are first and foremost students, provides good jobs for non student workers, and helps ameliorate the problem of campus food insecurity by helping supply Black Bear Exchange no matter who we answer to.  There is going to be an informational meeting Tuesday afternoon.  As in right before Thanksgiving break.  I'm going to ask to leave work early so I can attend it and try to get on any committee they let student workers on. (Jules)

They'd better let her on.  (Tobago)

A great big shout out goes out to all who are striving to make sense of what's going on.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

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