This program is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

- For you guys, what does it mean to be able to cook together, gather together in this intergenerational group?

- Chaos.

- Chaos.

(Sheila, Evana, Becca laughing) - I'm Chef Yia Vang.

In my restaurants, I share my family's Hmong heritage through the food we serve.

Every bite tells a story.

And the most memorable meals not only reflect who we are, they connect us.

From field to table, mill to market, let's explore foods from around the world, (bright music) and relish the cuisines and cultures of our neighbors.

(bright music continues) (image whooshing) Passed down through generations, our family recipes can reveal a lot about who we are, where we come from, and where we're going.

But, like our families, (machine whirring) our food history can be a little complicated.

Today, we're diving into what it really looks like to share our most treasured dishes with others, and how much-loved traditions can evolve, right along with us.

I have never been surrounded by this many powerful women.

Meet grandmother Sheila, daughter Becca, and granddaughter Evana, three generations of the family that's been sharing recipes at their neighborhood Jewish deli and restaurant for more than 75 years, including great-grandmother Faye's legendary latkes.

My first question is, when you guys come in the kitchen and cook, who's in charge?

- Me.

But I pretend I'm not.

- I see why you're the favorite.

(Becca and Evana laughing) Today, we're making a traditional Jewish dish.

Latkes?

- Latkes.

- Latkes.

- [Yia] Describe latkes and how- - Well, I can, but I'll let them do it.

- Go ahead, Sheila.

- Okay.

- Go ahead.

- Okay.

- [Evana] Have you heard of something called Jewish guilt?

- Yeah, we have that.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

It will be the same.

Yeah.

- Welcome to the Jewish guilt.

- Take a raw potato, you grate it.

You mix it with some flour.

- And onions.

Don't forget about the onion.

- I'm not gonna forget.

- Well, you do that with the potatoes.

- Saute the onions.

- What?

- I'm like talking about chopped liver.

- What you wanna do is maybe a couple potatoes, an onion, and you grate that, a little salt and pepper, (clicks tongue) and a little matzah meal, and some potato starch, a little dash of flour, and you make a little pancake with it.

Some people like to call them potato pancake.

And you mix it together with your hands 'cause it won't taste good unless you mix it together with your hands.

- Unwashed hands.

- Yeah.

Unwashed hands.

- Unwashed.

Ungloved.

- Yeah.

Ooh.

- Dirt under your finger nails.

- Not at Cecils.

(group laughing) (upbeat music) - Cecils started in 1949.

My father, he was in the Navy.

- Dining in or taking out?

- Taking out.

(text whooshing) - When he came back, he had to make a living.

And this little store was for sale.

He wanted to make a Jewish deli out of it.

- [Yia] What is your definition of a Jewish deli?

- [Sheila] Immediately, I think of good rye bread, bagels, lox, pickled herring, pickles.

The recipes were my mother's.

- [Evana] One of the things I think about when someone says Jewish deli is a chaotic family running it.

- My sister and I, we would sit on these wood crates and peel the potatoes.

Then my children came along and they all worked in the business, and then their children worked in the business.

(photos thumping) (water rushing) (gentle music) - [Becca] We prefer to keep the skin on because all the nutrients are in these beautiful, brown skins.

- I know.

I know what you're talking about.

(Sheila laughs) - I know, right?

(all laughing) - [Yia] Growing up, you know, and especially with our restaurants now, we always get that argument of, well, is this traditional Hmong food you're making?

And yeah.

- Oh, yeah, yeah.

- So what is your thoughts on that?

Was your mother making traditional Jewish food?

- Yeah, I would say.

I mean, a chicken matzah ball soup is traditional.

- Traditional is our tradition at this point.

- Right.

- What I know as tradition is what my grandmother and my great-grandmother did.

So it's all traditional.

- I totally agree with you 100%.

This idea that tradition actually progresses.

- Exactly.

- It changed from one generation, and that's okay.

- Yeah.

- Is it?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- I mean, you have to create new traditions for life to continue and life to evolve and move, right?

Like changing the prices of something is also a new tradition in a sense.

- [Sheila] And vegan is a new tradition.

- Dietary restrictions are a new tradition.

I mean, you're vegetarian, right?

Like Grandma Faye was vegetarian.

(bright music) - Do we wanna do the onions next?

(bright music continues) - So you see how she's using her knife like you shouldn't use, and then doing it?

That's how you do it in a Jewish kitchen.

(bright music continues) - So is this how, like the recipe you guys growing up, like is this how it was?

- [Sheila] That's how they do it.

- Oh, okay.

- I don't know what my mother did.

She was much more giving to you than she was to me.

(Evana laughs) She did not teach me.

- I feel like there's a lot of family therapy (Evana laughing) that's coming out right now.

- I would personally think that every family would have different things that they like to put into it.

- No.

- Even with our own family, it's evolved to being egg-free so that I can eat it.

- Mm.

It's all about you, princess.

- Yeah.

- Oh, believe.

- Right here, Nana.

(Sheila laughing) Right there.

Right there.

What's the next steps, family?

- Okay.

- So you're gonna grab your potato.

You'll grate directly into the bowl.

- Oh.

Like?

- Yeah.

(potato scratching) (lilting music) - There you go.

- Good job.

- And then, what I've learned with grating, if there's red, it means stop 'cause you're bleeding.

- Oh.

- That is true.

(Becca laughs) You do it really wrong and then your mom says, "I'll just do it myself."

(Becca laughing) - It's the worst line.

Talk to me, I wanna hear everyone, when was your first memory of eating it and who cooked it for you?

- Well, my mom did.

- [Evana] My mom did too.

- Yeah.

- Oh, my gosh.

(laughs) (Evana laughing) My grandma did.

(group laughing) - I didn't.

- You were too busy.

- It's messy.

- [Becca] And she didn't like that it's smelly and stuff.

- At Cecils, it's different than when you're making it at home.

- It's the same thing, my mom making egg rolls at home, and she's like, "It's very different than if we're at the restaurant."

Like, "Okay, we're gonna go out in the garage.

We're gonna do this.

Open the garage."

- We've definitely made them outside.

- [Yia] Get the fans going.

Yeah.

- See, that's what I said.

- Like I said, our people are kind of the same.

We're weird cousins.

- The ratio is about two potatoes to one onion.

(potato scratching) (mixture squishing) So you'll give it a little mix.

It'll stop the potato from turning color.

- I think the word is oxidizing.

- Thank you.

- Oxidizing.

- I was trying to think of that.

- I know, it's a science word.

- And at the same time, you'll notice how wet everything is.

- Yep.

- Right?

So you see it's already starting to drip out of there.

Your hand's gonna get dirty.

You just keep going.

- Another tater?

- Yeah.

Go for it.

(bright music) (potato scratching) So you can see, you've got your potato starch on the bottom there.

It's a binder.

The longer you let this sit, the more potato starch you will collect.

- [Becca] People buy boxes of potato starch.

- Sure.

- And now, you have it.

- [Evana] But so now, you'll dump this back in there.

- Okay.

- Just dump the whole thing.

Start with your matzah meal.

- Okay.

What's matzah?

- What's matzah?

It is an unleavened bread, ground up.

- Well, it's flour.

I mean it basically is- - It's wheat.

- Not too much.

- Yeah.

Not- - You tell me when to stop.

- Mom.

- At least two of those.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

(gentle lilting music) - The cool thing about Judaism is that we're not only a religion, but we're also a culture.

Now, a little bit of flour.

- Gonna mix it?

- Mix it.

Yeah.

Grab that stuff from the bottom.

Food is part of the culture.

It's also part of the religion.

- What is the importance of food in Jewish holidays?

- Everything.

(chuckles) Everything.

- We live and breathe.

That's all we do.

- Right.

- Fluff mix.

- Okay.

Light.

- Not squish mix.

- [Yia] Light.

- [Evana] Latkes are typically served for Hanukkah.

- So the story, it has to do with Hanukkah, and that the oil lasted eight days and it was only supposed to last one.

- I usually kind of do this, throw it between my hands to see if it's gonna hold.

- Okay.

- And that looks pretty good.

And then, when we actually go to put them in the pan, you'll squeeze out a little bit of water, because water, oil, we know how that matches.

(singers singing in Hebrew) - [Evana] What's really cool about tradition evolving, like we keep talking about, is being able to tell the stories of what it's evolved from.

(singers continue singing in Hebrew) (oil sizzling) - [Evana] Hanukkah's nickname is the festival of lights, and oil is what you lit to give yourself a light.

- [Yia] Cooking it in the oil here is kind of that emblem.

- Yeah.

It's a representation of it.

(singers continue signing in Hebrew) - One day, I will be in charge of hosting all the holidays for our family.

That made me realize, if I don't care about this, it's gonna die.

That's what I was always taught from my Hebrew school teachers, from my parents, from my aunts and uncles, from my grandparents.

(singers continue singing in Hebrew) - I think it might be time to flip our latkes 'cause I can see my grandma having a little panic.

- I know, I can hear, I can sense it.

- [Evana] So I think we should take them off from the heat.

(oil sizzling) - [Becca] Oh, those look so good.

I love them like that.

(bright music) - And the big argument about latkes is do you use apple sauce or sour cream?

So that's why we're making apple sauce today.

(bright music) - [Becca] So you're gonna ask me how many measurements, a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

We just like to like put it in until it looks right, until it smells right.

(machine whirs) (spoon clattering) (blender whirring) - What does it mean to be able to cook together, gather together in this intergenerational group?

- Chaos.

- Chaos.

(Sheila and Evana laughing) But there is nothing like it, to be together when you're lucky to have generations of women, or men, if they want to do that and get in our way.

But, and I always think how wonderful it is that we get to all be together to do that, to, I mean, you never forget those things.

- And that's who you learn from.

(blender whirring) - Good.

(upbeat music) - Here's the deal.

Like when Mom makes egg rolls at the house, like I always try to pick the perfect crunchiest one.

- Oh, yeah.

- Do you guys do that?

- 'Cause you and I eyeballing on the same one?

Yeah, I have.

- Which one you're eyeballing?

- Well, I'm shooting for like right in here somewhere.

Maybe just a bite out of each one.

- [Sheila] Okay, if it's light, I'll take a little bit.

- [Yia] Oh, you go right on?

- Are you mixing 'em?

- Oh, my God.

- Oh, my God, you just - Yes, she is.

- mixed it in there.

(Sheila laughing) (latke crunches) (Yia munches) - Good work.

- Isn't that a nice crunch?

- Oh, I love it.

- Good crunch.

- Here's the secret of this, the onions.

- Uh huh.

- I can't taste very many onions.

That's kind of weird.

- Well, good thing.

- [Yia] It's like the sweetest.

- Like I said, when we were doing it, we needed the whole onion, but no one wanted to listen.

- I did.

- Oh, right.

- [Becca] No, 'cause typically I don't do that.

- What is the tradition that you guys are passing down?

- The traditions that my family has, not everybody got so lucky.

- Mm.

Yeah.

- And so when me and my cousins all start our own families, I hope that we can continue to pass on these traditions.

- And what warms my heart when I'm here is I see that right here, you know?

And yeah, it's actually playing out, and it's like, wow.

- I guess we don't think about it.

We just live it, you know?

- Yeah.

Well, let's all grab one.

(Evana laughs) - Okay.

- I got this one.

- [Becca] Okay.

All right.

Oh, boy.

- Oh, jeez.

- I want another one.

- [Sheila] So have another one, Becca.

- Passing down recipes from generation to generation might be the most obvious way that our food history stays alive.

But it's definitely not the only way.

Our food memories are so intertwined with our childhood and DNA, that even when life interrupts our family's story, no dish is truly ever lost.

Hey, I'm Yia.

- Hi, I'm Anna.

How are you?

- Nice to meet you, Anna.

Where are we here?

- Empire Foods.

We're making kimchi jjigae today.

And I'd like to come over here and grab the Korean ingredients.

- I've never been to this one.

It's pretty big.

- You're gonna get lost in there.

(bright music) - Meet Anna Luster.

She knows better than most that meaningful recipes live inside of us.

She's been cooking her entire career, and especially loves bringing a taste of home to her Korean adoptee community.

(camera clicking) - [Anna] We're gonna make some kimchi jjigae.

- Kimchi jjigae?

- [Anna] Kimchi jjigae.

- [Yia] Okay.

And that's a soup, right?

- That's a stew.

Jjigae means stew.

We're gonna pick up a cabbage.

In Korean, it's called a baechu.

- [Yia] Mm hmm.

So what cabbage do you use?

- Napa.

Green.

I like the green.

- Okay.

(upbeat music) - Everybody has a kimchi at home.

People take old kimchi, turn it into a marvelous tasting stew.

Grab the daikon.

I like this one.

Like Korean daikon, I think it's more dense, less water.

- Okay.

- It's thicker, right?

- Yeah.

And this is Japanese daikon.

It's a lot more, well, got more water.

- Oh.

(jaunty music ) - All right.

- What else?

- We gotta get gochugaru.

- Oh, let's go.

- Yep.

(pensive music) I'm gonna grab the gochugaru, chili flakes.

- I like using the big flakes - Yep.

- 'cause I like seeing the flakes in there.

- Yep.

That's why.

- Yeah.

Great.

Anything else?

- [Anna] Sesame seed.

And we need salt.

- Yes.

- We need salt.

- The Korean salt.

- To salt of cabbage.

- Anna, what about kimchi jjigae is home for you?

- Always made me home.

Get you full with a bowl of rice.

It's the best thing ever.

I grew up, didn't have much, but I always had that.

Yia, do you like going through these aisles?

- [Yia] I know, I love this aisle.

- [Anna] I know, but I can't afford it.

- [Yia] We have to go really fast.

We gotta go real fast.

- I know.

I can't afford it.

- Can't look.

- Gotta grab a fish sauce.

- Oh.

Fish sauce.

- [Anna] Buy cheap one.

Just get the cheap one.

- Oh, the Lucky.

Feel so lucky.

- Ah, we are so lucky.

- Okay.

- [Anna] Grab a pork belly.

- [Yia] Now, do you like skin on, skin off?

- [Anna] I like the skin on.

I like to dig.

- [Yia] Yeah.

The good stuff's in the back.

- Yeah.

Good stuff in the back.

All right, we're good.

- Okay.

Get outta here.

- Yep.

- [Yia] This is so fun.

I'm gonna come back in here.

(Anna laughs) Thank you.

Okay.

- You know what we forgot?

- What?

- Ginger.

- [Yia] Oh.

We're bad Asians.

- I know.

(lilting music) I wanna leave something as, "Hey, your grandma, she's a survivor."

And being Korean, coming to America, in '70s, either you live or you're gonna sink.

(singer singing in Korean) - [Anna] So I rise above it.

And so my kids know that.

I wanna tell 'em, sometimes I say, "Be a kid."

'Cause I was never a kid.

But at the same time, "Grow up a little bit!"

(Yia laughs) And all my grandkids know that.

If you need something, go ask her.

She may find a way to get it.

(Yia laughs) (singer continues singing in Korean) (knife clattering) (tool thumping) - That's how we used to do it in Korea, the traditional way.

I was born in Incheon.

That's in South Korea.

I was orphaned when I was 10.

I had two younger brothers.

My father passed away first, then my mother passed away within like six months.

- Oh.

- My father said that, "Hey, if anything happens to them, don't separate us."

- So you were a 10-year-old taking care of your 5-year-old brother and your 2-year-old brother.

- Mm hmm.

'Cause I couldn't work, I was 10-year-old.

So I went out to like, there's ocean.

Incheonous ocean.

I pick oysters and clams.

And get the tree barks to sell to live.

No, I had to hustle.

Yes.

That's what, till this day, I know what to do.

After several months, my aunt, she found Father Ben.

This is Father Ben.

Yep.

Saying that he's sending the kids to America.

He was based out of Incheon island, Korea, and the Deokjeokdo island, that's where I was sent.

- Just you or?

- Just me and my two brothers.

And the foster parent, let me see, I'll show a picture what they look like.

This is them right here.

- Oh.

- [Anna] Asapeal and Christian, their Christian names.

I lived there for about three years.

When you're 10-year-old, you wanna go play with everybody else.

- Yeah.

- I am not.

- Normal 10-year-olds are supposed to do it.

- I was like oldest out of like 11, 12 kids.

I always have to cook and clean, take care of the house.

I was oldest so I had to learn how to cook.

(gentle music) Let's get the cabbage.

- Are we gonna be making kimchi today?

'Cause it takes a while.

- We're gonna make the geotjeori, which is, you make it quick.

- [Yia] Geotjeori or fresh kimchi is a quick and easy way to make small batches of kimchi without fermenting the vegetables.

Commonly made using Napa cabbage, cooks simply out of a combination of salt, spices and either sugar, corn or rice syrup to replicate the sweetness that comes from the traditional fermentation process.

- My mom, we call, foster mom.

She was a good cook.

Cut it like this.

Put your fingers out of the way.

- Could I use the board?

- Yeah, you can use the board.

- Yes.

Okay.

- You cutting different than I do.

- Oh, sorry.

- Cut it like this angle.

- Okay, I'll angle it.

- Cut at angle.

- [Yia] I'll angle it.

- There we go.

Get it wet.

We're gonna rinse it off a little bit.

(upbeat music) (water rushing) - [Yia] What's the salt doing to the cabbage?

- [Anna] Taking the water out.

Now, we have to let it sit.

- [Yia] Oh, so how long are we letting it sit?

- [Anna] Let's try about a half an hour.

- You know, like kimchi is a cool sexy word, right?

Everyone's talking about it.

- Yep.

I think.

- Korean food, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi.

- There's so many different types of kimchi.

- It's like a fermenting process, right?

It's like a pickle.

- [Anna] I'll let you do that.

I hate peeling garlic.

- What are the different kinds of kimchis?

- There's a kimchi mainly known for Napa cabbage.

That's what the main thing.

Then next one is daikon.

We're gonna cut up the daikon.

- Yep.

- Carrots.

- Okay.

- Green onion.

Then cucumber.

You could make kimchi out of anything and everything, as long as you got a gochugaru.

That's a Korean red pepper.

Garlic and ginger and fish sauce.

You're done.

(chuckles) (mellow guitar music) (knife clattering) ♪ One, two, three (singer singing in Korean) (knife clattering) (knife thumping) - We waited about three years to be adopted.

From there, I came to the Pine City, Minnesota.

I grew up in a farm.

My brothers are like first Asian kids growing up in the country.

And I got, just like, I don't know you have or not, called names a lot, you know.

I hated it.

I like to cut at an angle.

Kind of looks nicer.

(knife clatters) I graduated half year early.

I always like cooking.

Then I went to a vocational school for chef's training.

Pepper, sugar, MSG, fish sauce.

- One, two, three.

- [Anna] I give a little love to it.

- Yep.

- Pour it on there.

- [Yia] A little more?

- Can of pear juice.

About half of it.

(juice sloshing) That's not half.

But anyways.

Okay, let's just put it together for now.

- [Yia] So it's almost, yeah, like a slaw, all right?

- [Anna] Yep.

You want that to incorporate.

- Yep.

- All right, let's set this aside.

We got time to make few side dishes.

(bright music) Bok choy.

I like bok choy salad.

- [Yia] Okay.

(bright music continues) - Father Ben, he comes once a year.

We used to have a picnic at Lakeville.

So there's hundreds of people get together and have a picnic.

When we do get together, we have a thing of connection going on.

'Cause at the same time, "You're adopted.

I was adopted."

(bright music continues) And that's how we connect to the Korean community.

(bright music continues) Kkaennip is fresh sesame leaves.

I just picked this today.

- Yep.

- [Anna] When you take a bite, it gets slight mint taste to it, like licorice.

(bright music continues) - It's almost kinda like a lettuce wrap.

You can use it, right?

- Mm hmm.

- Yep.

- See, now, we gotta rinse all this salt off.

(water rushing) (water dripping) Look at all the water.

- Mm hmm.

- [Anna] Meanwhile.

Now, mix it.

Toss and turn.

- I gotta wash my hands real well before I take my contacts out tonight.

- Have somebody take it off for you.

- I live by myself, so.

Now, you just told everyone how lonely I am.

- Yeah.

You know I love you, right?

- No, I don't.

- Ah!

Yeah, yeah.

By the way.

- The cabbage itself.

- Gently.

Don't kill it.

- Oh, man.

Okay.

- Be nice.

- That's it?

- Now, we gotta do pork belly.

- [Yia] Okay.

- It's still frozen because it's easier to slice.

- [Yia] You want me to help you with that one?

- [Anna] Yep.

You could cut this.

- I mean, pork belly's like sexy now, right?

Everyone, you know, like, oh- - [Anna] It's just the latest thing now.

Everybody, pork belly.

- Yep.

Yep.

Which is like kind of our cultures, it's always been the thing.

- Cheapest food.

The meat.

- Yeah.

- Oh, I'm gonna get this going here.

Okay.

So this is hot.

So we're gonna put them in a hot pot.

(gentle music) Last year, I did a KAA Thanksgiving.

- [Yia] What does that stand for?

- Korean American Adoptees.

- Okay.

- You know, some of the people don't have biological family.

And adoptive family, they don't get along, whatever.

So they say, "Hey, if you don't have no place to go, come to my apartment.

I'm gonna set up a date.

It's gonna be a pot luck.

'Cause I'm not cooking it all by myself."

We get together and we eat.

- Yeah, and get together and we eat, and if you feel like you don't have a family, this is your new family now.

Through food, so many years later, what you've done is you're saying, "I want to create a community, one that I didn't have a long time ago, where I can bring people in."

Rather than rejecting people, right?

- So I'm proud of who I am.

I'm proud who I've become.

And I'm proud of my kids and my grandkids.

(photos clicking) (liquid boiling) There we go.

(bright upbeat music) (camera clicking) - Wow, this looks incredible.

- It's still boiling.

- Ooh.

It's still boiling.

- When somebody bring you a meal or soup or whatever, right before you eat, you thank them by "Jal meok ge sseum ni da."

- Jal meok.

- Jal.

- Jal.

- Meok.

- Meok.

- Ge sseum ni da.

- [Yia] Ge ssu ni da.

- Ge sseum ni da.

- In Hmong, we say "Ua tsaug," which is thank you.

- Ua tsaug.

All right.

- Yeah.

(laughs) - Jal meok ge sseum ni da.

Ua tsaug.

- Ua tsaug.

- All right.

Here we go.

- [Yia] There we go.

(chuckles) - All right, let's eat.

Try the kkaennip.

- Yes.

- Hot.

- [Yia] Mm.

That's delicious.

Oh, my gosh.

All that flavor is so incorporated.

You know, everything that we put in there, - Yep.

- I'm a huge fan of.

- Bean sprouts?

- Yeah.

Yeah, I love this.

How about for you, hearing your grandchildren come up to you and say, "Nana, can you make this for me?"

Or like, "I want to eat this."

How does that make you feel?

- Feel like I'm wanted.

You know, just you finally belong.

You know, 'cause when you grew up in Korea, nobody wanted you.

You've been placed, you live in a foster home.

I'm proud that, even all my great nephews, about, the multiracial.

They come and say, "Hey, Auntie Anna.

Can you teach me about Korea?

Can you make me some kimchi?

Can you make me do this?

And can you do this for me?"

- Anna, I wanna say thank you so much.

I've learned so much just being around you.

- Well, thank you.

I enjoyed it.

- I feel like now I have a Korean auntie now.

Yeah.

- Yep.

(laughs) - So thank you so much.

- You're welcome.

- Yeah.

- [Anna] Enjoy.

(singer singing in Korean) - Sometimes recipes are passed down from one generation to the next at the kitchen table, or even in a family's restaurant.

But other times, we cook from memories deep inside our soul, adding new flavors and cooking new traditions that will keep our food histories alive for generations to come.

Cooks like Sheila, Becca, Evana, and Anna know the power of sharing their food with the community, to celebrate the past and evolve together towards a more delicious future.

This program is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

(ambient music)