Kim Sunee - A Mouthful of Stars A Constellation of Favorite Recipes from My World Travels

Also by Kim Sune:

Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love, and the Search for Home

for neil and liam
and for suzy

and all my fellow adoptees ,
knee deep in stars and searching
for a taste of home ...

acknowledgments

A very heartfelt thanks to Joy Tutela and her colleagues at the David Black Agency who have been with me every step of the way, from crumbs to stars...

Grazie mille to the generous and gracious Frances Mayes, who was so kind from the very first cappuccino in Durham to those lovely days in Cortona with Ed and company cooking all day and later sipping wine under the star-studded skies.

For helping me see the constellation for the stars, thank you to the hardworking and lovely Jean Lucas for her steady hand in guiding and encouraging me to connect the dots. Also at Andrews McMeel, thanks so much to Kirsty Melville, Tim Lynch, Diane Marsh, Valerie Cimino, Dave Shaw, and Carol Coe.

Thank you to Scott Jones, who somehow during a trip to Chile sensed that the amazing Leela Cyd and I would make a great team. Thanks to Leela for her genius intuition in breathing life into these pages. And an enormous thanks to Adrian J. S. Hale for her careful edits and kitchen wizardry in making the food come to life.

Thank you for generously contributing photos from around the world: the breathtakingly talented Roberto Frankenberg in Paris, who happily accompanied me in Italy for just one more bite; the fun and exuberant Thayer Allison Gowdy in San Francisco; my sister from another life, Charlotte Brady; and the amazing Valry Trillaud, from Paris to Cayenne and back.

No cookbook is complete without careful recipe testing and tasting. Special thanks to the wise and wonderful Laurie Constantino and Jennifer McGovern. Thanks to Sue Wiltse, who got me started, and to Chad Haynes, who kept me on track; to Christa Montgomery, Daniel Schumacher, Bob Thweatt, Julie Perilla, Kelli Parisian and Jeffrey Kendall, Bill Tierney, Sabrina and Chris Hargrave, Patrice Parker, Cat Lamb, and the Berg Family, especially Carrie and that wondrous palate of yours! Thanks to Rachel, Josh, and Jimmy for always wanting to eat more. With love to the Keim familythanks for letting me mess up your kitchen so many timesand to Suzy, Joshua, and my parents.

Thank you to Adolfo Garcia, Sara Foster, Suvir Saran, Charlie Burd, Frank Brigtsen, Bill Smith, Jared Ralls, Jean Anderson, Martha Rose Shulman, Hugh Acheson, Zo Franois, and Heong Soon Park. And to Stephanie and Joe Bischoff, Cindy, and Daddy Joe for always being ready to eat with me.

Thanks to Ivan Italiani for showing me how to make pizza and pasta. And thanks to Hongseok Ro (a.k.a. Roy) and Seung-Hee Lee, who showed me their country as if it were my own. Special thanks to Lee Herrick for taking my hand in our continued search for identity, and to James Schwartz for his friendship and on-the-spot editing genius; to Dr. John Floyd for teaching me so much about Southern cuisine; to Dr. Weir, for everything; and in loving memory of Dr. Grignon.

Thanks to Patsy, Paul, and Zoey (the best sister-in-law ever), and to Jan, my Parisian-Ohio sister. To Liam, such a fun chef-in-training, thanks for making me take breaks to play with light sabers and build Legos, and for reminding me of the merits of a simple grilled cheese sandwich.

And my love and thanks to Neil for building our nest and never wavering in his steadfast belief that I am home.

no one i know is more willing
to hold out her plate and try

foreword

by Frances Mayes

Kim Sunes memoir, Trail of Crumbs , introduced me to a woman whod had more adventures by age thirty than many have in a lifetime. From mysterious origins in Korea to a girlhood in New Orleans to a sojourn in Sweden and a rich decade in Francewhere she lived in sensuous Provence and later owned a poetry bookstore in Paristhis peripatetic girl is open to the wide world. Along the way, she acquired languages with her knife skills, many friends who cook, and a discerning palate. No one I know is more willing to hold out her plate and tryjust trywhatever tasty morsel someone serves. She must have a million air miles, because the savory aromas of kimchi, Cuban pork, flying pasta soup, jambalaya, and blanquette de veau waft from across the globe and pull her to the airport. She returns with a suitcase jammed with exquisite chocolates, exotic pastes and jellies, Key limes, salsawhatever temptations the markets offered. I had heard, she writes, that in the small historic village of Dolores Hidalgo, in the Guanajuato Mountains, two brothers sell unique ice-cream combinations in the plaza principal. With flavors such as mole, chicharrn, tequila, and pulque, I had to meet them. Later she experiments with the brothers avocado ice cream, upping the ante with a bit of almond. Clearly, she is going to taste this world and continue to write about her experiences.

Trail of Crumbs established Kim as an outstanding literary writer, not only about her life but also about food. For her, food is much more than sustenance. Her sense of a flavor remains inextricable from context. How fully she knows that the burnished brown loaf pulled out of a wood oven in France would not taste the same anywhere else, especially since the wine comes from the same earth as the wheat, and the neighbors who were born on that terra firma have gathered around the table. She knows the loaf personifies the very word bread.

Now, after Kims brilliant debut memoir, she serves forth A Mouthful of Stars . What an astonishing book. I want to make all the recipes! She brings forward her early realization that food is place, food means the company we keep, food is comfort and home; all this, yesassumed. Beyond that, she strikes out into new territory. I zoomed through the pages with an increasing feeling of joy. A Mouthful of Stars is original. First, she brings to her recipes zest, energy, and a raucous spirit of fun. Chapters are named not the usual vegetables, desserts, meats, and so on, but Fig of My Imagination, To the Moon and Back, and An Orphans Thanksgivingmarking occasions of conviviality or, sometimes, solitude.

Second, she praises, philosophizes, and celebrates: This is our birthright, food that can be relished with abandon. The bright balloons are released to soar, not held taut by their strings. Where many cookbooks stick to their serious purpose, Kims aim seems to be to cook as she lives, passionately and expansively. She knows that life isnt worth living without friends who know how to eat the heart out of a taco. This sensibility infuses every bite. How could I help but dash to the kitchen to try ? I love her delicate balance of flavors and aromas. Is she alchemist, conjurer, poet, or cook? All of the above. Even the few classic recipes (salmon, roast turkey, pizza, ice cream) include a particular Kim-twist.

Ive said this is original, but let me take this idea where it wants to go. A Mouthful of Stars makes a cultural leap out beyond the landscape where most cooks stir their pots. Kims allegiance is to a global kitchen. Her friends who cook are scattered across the map. A citizen of the world, shes not tied to a particular terrain. This is the future. Shes already where were headed. And the food