About Moi
I’ve been all over the US, but barely out of the US (Canada briefly in 1986). I studied Mandarin and all manner of Asian studies in college, but have never been overseas. I love food, especially Vietnamese and Thai, and especially when I can cook for people and change their perception of how amazing food can taste.
My family is very close, mostly because they’re all wonderful people who love each other, starting with my parents and my sisters and their partners, all the way to my grandmother, aunts, uncle, cousins, and, well that’s it so far. The other reason they’re all close is that the vast majority live in California and they love being Californians. It doesn’t hurt that my family has been in California for six generations now, and they’re California-centric. I’ve been living in states (Missouri, Massachusetts, Indiana, Michigan) that have 4 very distinct seasons and found, without trying at all, that there is so much variety and beauty in this huge country, so many wonderful people, that I cannot possibly show any real prejudice about where I have to live to be happy or talk about what state is the most beautiful. And yet I am here, after having visited only briefly for the last 20 years.
What’s next? South Korea! Of course! My younger sister, Beth, and her partner, Ryan, taught English at a private English language school in Incheon last year. It worked out well for them, they enjoyed it a lot and, knowing my great interest in Asia, they recommended it to me. So I’ve started working on the process of getting there and will hopefully be there by mid-summer. Yay!
The most important step I can take right now is to complete my bachelor’s degree in photojournalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia, something I never finished, even though I just have one class left. My professor, David Rees, and MU, are providing me with a very fine journalism education and giving me opportunities to build and hone skills which seem more and more critical these days. I’m taking Journalism 4980 (Picture Story and Photographic Essay), while I’m in California so I can live with family in Merced until I’m finished.
By working in restaurants, I’ve already tried one career that was completely consuming, especially as a chef, working insane hours for months, opening two restaurants with my menus, my recipes, training the crew in food they were very unfamiliar with in a part of the country where there’s almost zero pan-Asian available. It was an exhausting and wild ride. While this isn’t the 80’s anymore and I never worked in NY City, if you want to know what it’s like to work in food service, I strongly recommend you read Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential and believe everything, no matter how crazy or improbable.
While I’m glad I no longer work in the industry, I certainly don’t regret the experience, especially since I was trying to follow a dream. What I loved most about working in restaurants is what I still love about food: the people I got to cook with, educating people about food, and expanding minds when I can cook my favorite foods in the world.
I think I’m really going to enjoy teaching English in Korea. I know Koreans are exceptionally generous, proud and polite, and I cannot imagine a better combination.
Plus, their food totally rocks!