InfatuAsian Podcast

I jumped on a call with Sam Hyun appropriately on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Sam is a prominent public speaker and social activist, known for his advocacy on behalf of the Asian American community. He along with Adam Kim and Jose Vargas founded 1587 Sneakers which is a luxury sneaker and street apparel company that is and always will be unapologetically Asian American. Follow Sam @samueljhyun...

One of my favorite guests is back!  We got to catch up with Julia Chen, of the restaurant recommendation site The Infatuation SF.  Julia is a fount of information about San Francisco restaurants, and our hour together flew by! Some of the topics we touched on were: Places You Might Be Able to Still Get Into for Last Minute V-Day Dinner, Best Smash Burger in SF, Best Salad, Best Pho, Best New Resta...

Take the guesswork out of trendy snacks and foods by letting Rachel try them for you so that you can make the best decisions!  Rachel's channel @eatsbyrachel offers her take on what's yummy at Trader Joe's, Costco, or your local Asian supermarket. The enthusiasm you see in her videos is not an act, Rachel is a complete joy to be around! Videos played on this episode: Asian Flavored Waffles: https:...

Gung Hay Fat Choy!  Happy Lunar New Year to everyone out there.  Here's a really fun episode with Rich Ting. Rich has been acting in Hollywood and Korea for over 25 years. And has appeared in or voiced over 60 shows and movies. He is perhaps most famous for portraying Father Jun's loyal henchman, Bolo, in Warrior (Netflix).  Rich is currently starring as Tyson "Koy" Koyama in Amazon Prime's On Cal...

Dolly's mission has been to tell the untold stories of Asian America through video and film. Dolly has produced stories for Al Jazeera (Chinese Food: An All American Cuisine), PBS (Origins and A Historian's Take), and Hulu (Out There Ep 8: The Ghosts of Chinatown). Listen to the end of our episode for a preview of Dolly's exciting new project! Audio clips used: The Untold Story Of America's Southe...

On a rainy day in December, I got the chance to drop by the recording studio of corner club!  Mike and Sav are two friends who love making music together. Their songs have a dreamy smooth sound with whimsical lyrics and topics. I have added their music to all my playlists! I had a super fun time hanging out talking music, songwriting, and jingles! Listen to our episode wherever you get podcasts! F...

If you're like me, maybe you overdid the holiday eating a little bit, and have made the annual decision to eat healthier in the new year. Well, my guest this week has over 100 healthy recipes in her new book "Healthy My Way" to help you turn things around!  I was lucky enough to meet My when she hosted a @YouTube Creator Collective event here in San Francisco. It was great chatting with My about t...

Last episode of the year!  Katie and Zoe joined me to talk about all things InfatuAsian.  We kicked around a new name for you listeners, we talked about the most popular regions where our audience downloads episodes, as well as our Top 5 Episodes of the year.  I'm pretty sure our number 1 most listened to episode will surprise you! Thanks to my co-hosts Katie and Zoe! You are both great and I hope...

I bet by the time you finish this episode you'll be ready to head to the backyard to do some gardening! Connie's enthusiasm and sheer joy when talking about growing Asian fruits and vegetables is positively contagious! Get her book, Your Asian Veggie Patch, wherever you get books. It is a beautiful and informative guide to growing and cooking Asian vegetables. You can also follow Connie on Instagr...

This episode took me a while to get to!  We actually recorded this in July of 2024, but it was a beast to edit, so it had been on my to-do list for a long long time.  I hope it is worth the wait! Elaine, Mandy, Ben, Alexa, and I drove around SF for 3 hours trying some of San Francisco's most famous Asian to-go foods.  And they did not disappoint! 1) We started in Chinatown at Golden Gate Bakery fo...

I love that we've been doing this podcast long enough to have repeat guests!  It's been two and a half years since Weike's last book came out, and we talked with her about it back then.  Weike's newest novel Rental House is out December 3rd, 2024, and we're pumped that we got to speak with her last week! This book is about an interracial couple in their mid-30's who rent a vacation home in Cape Co...

It's Thanksgiving Week here in 'Merica, so we're taking a week to add a layer of insulation for our winter months by overindulging at the family table! Here's a replay of our All-Star episode with some of my favorite people to have on the pod.  We asked Bill and Kaitlin of The Woks of Life, Kat Lieu author of Modern Asian Kitchen, and Lingjie of the Worst Asian Podcast to rank their favorite Asian...

It’s a great day when you get to talk about fight scenes with an expert martial artist, actor, and stunt performer.  We bring back a friend of the program, Jon Xue Zhang!  You know Jon from his portrayal of Blood Boots in the Brothers Sun. Jon has been practicing Kung-Fun since he was 5 years old. He’s appeared in over 35 film and TV projects. For a film lover like me, this was such a joy!  I hope...

Susanna leans into one of her more traumatic experiences with food, getting made fun of for having a smelly lunchbox.  Now, Cantonese and Toi San dishes are a real source of pride. Susanna's website and Instagram page are full of dishes she grew up with.  If you're from the "Village," you must check her site out and cook some of her yummy recipes! Shout out to our mutual friend Norma (@eatyourchoy...

We woke up early to join our first press junket for the Filipino movie Hello, Love, Again!  We had a quick chat with the movie's director, Cathy Garcia-Sampana.  Direk Cathy is famous in the Philippines for directing some of the biggest rom-coms out of the country. Her 2019 film Hello, Love, Goodbye swept the nation and beyond, and became the highest-grossing Filipino film of all time (at the time...

It's time for our annual K-Drama Draft show!  This time we went with a belated Halloween theme.  We'll be picking dramas that have good villains, are a little dark, have an unexpected death, or are filled with blood, zombies or ghosts! Joining Jennifer and me this week is Lia from the Afternoon Delight Podcast! Afternoona Delight is a fantastic K-Drama show where 3 romance authors break down your...

The teacher cohort is back with more Asian ghost stories!  And this time... it's even spookier!  Well maybe not, but we tried.  Listen to the best Asian ghost stories Reddit has to offer, hear about Curtis' mysterious disappearing wallet, and find out if Sammo Hung's former residence is really haunted (spoiler alert:  it is)! Also included in this episode are:  jets flying over at low altitudes, f...

Chef Shirley Chung is going through treatment for tongue cancer.  Her options were to amputate her tongue or go through a more risky and less proven route of treating it with aggressive radiation and chemo.  Being a media star and chef, losing her tongue was not an acceptable option even if it meant more risk.  Shirley and her husband Jimmy ran her restaurant together but they had to close shop wh...

Hallyu means the Korean Wave, which is the nickname given to the phenomenal embrace of South Korean pop culture around the world!  The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco is surfing that wave by bringing in a collection of pop culture pieces. Costumes from your favorite K-dramas, a recreated set from the movie Parasite, stage outfits worn by K-Pop stars, and much more grace the galleries in the muse...

Happy Filipino American History Month! This week I’m joined by 3 high school friends as we go to perhaps the most famous Filipino brand here in America… Jollibee!  We talk about Jollibee’s humble beginnings before it blew up into the giant corporation it is today and I threw out some Jollibee trivia! We recorded inside America’s first Jollibee location in Daly City California, opened in 1998.  I t...

Ellie Yang Camp has written a book for Asian Americans that asks the questions, “What does it mean to be Asian American? And how does our racialization in the United States shape our lives and our worldviews? It’s an important book that will hopefully lead to good discussions with our friends and family.  Louder Than The Lies will be available everywhere on October 22nd. But, if you’d like to get...

Ok... so my "real" life got in the way of my podcast life and I didn't get to edit an episode for you. But instead of leaving you with nothing... I recorded something that's more than nothing (slightly more than nothing).  It's a No Episode Episode!!! So if you have nothing better to do for 10 minutes, you can hear me tease our upcoming episodes and give you a little behind-the-scenes info about t...

Cooking survival shows are a lot of fun to watch, but are they fun for the competitors? Today Chef Dara Yu gives us a glimpse of what it is like.  Dara first appeared on Master Chef Junior season 1, where she was the runner-up. After graduating high school and going to the Culinary Institute of America, Dara got a call from the producers offering her a 2nd chance on Master Chef Season 12: Back to...

Chatting with Connie Chung was a dream come true. For several generations, Connie was the only Asian face you saw consistently on television. Starting in 1971, Connie has brought us news and interviews with class and integrity. I still can't get over how humble and warm she was. I think she is still genuinely surprised by how much she means to us as Asian Americans. She is really the GOAT and an i...

Life got a little busy, so no new episode this week.  BUT, here's an episode from our first year that I really enjoyed recording.  When Pachinko Season 1 came out, I jumped on a call with our pal Julia from the Asian Soup Podcast to talk about it.  Jules was the perfect co-host because her family has roots in Korea and her grandparents lived for several years in Osaka roughly around the same time...