Worst Quality Crab

Episode 21: Kaula Pig with Brian Tom

Hold on to your butts! Your pork butts that is. This episode, guest Brian Tom brings us his family’s recipe for Kalua Pig and we’re very excited about it. For Brian’s family, this seemingly easy, low maintenance recipe became a family affair. We talk about roles in the kitchen, letting kids be leaders of their domain, and connections to Hawaii but from far away Massachusetts. 

We talk about making art vs being an artist, reassessing identities in new spaces and new environments, and the generational divide between recent children’s literature on diversity acceptance and Tikki Tikki Tembo–and of course a mention of the incomparable Sabrina Wu. 

Plus, Brian gets an award for being a certain kind of milestone guest and we get another new perspective on leftovers.

Episode 20: Halo-halo with Lorraine Esturas-Pierson

It’s finally happened!! This episode we have our first dessert! On this one we’re joined by Lorraine Esturas-Pierson as she talks about her favorite childhood dessert, halo-halo, a Filipino dish that means mix mix. We talk about why halo-halo might be the most equitable and inclusive of all group desserts and how that was a huge benefit growing up in a LARGE household. 

We talk about the inevitability of too much food at parties, the clean plate club, the lasting trauma of snow peas, and the power of cousins in numbers.

Plus, what makes something fancy, and teaching kids to cook for themselves, or better yet, you! 

No recipe for this one. Just make your way to a Seafood City, Manila Market, or something similar and pick out a slew of jellys and beans of your choice, to go alongside your shave ice, vanilla ice cream and condensed milk. Lorraine is partial to agar agar and jackfruit.

Episode 19: Restaurant Kid with Julia Louie

We’ve talked a lot about Chinese restaurants in past episodes. On this one we’re getting a look into the kitchen from our guest and former restaurant kid Julia Louie. We hear what it’s like to grow up in a Chinese restaurant, the privileges and obligations of the owner’s kid, and code/mode-switching between family work life and outside life. 

We talk about Americanized Chinese food and try to figure out what the dividing line is between Americanized and not, how to fake Chinese “enoughness” when you don’t speak the language, and the foibles of being first a design student and then a real life design professional in a place where design is not a high priority. Plus sleeping at the restaurant in a snowstorm and the betrayal of Tall Guy!

Episode 18: Iritamago with Vincent Beck

This episode we’re joined by Vincent Beck, Bay Area creative and street photographer, and it is eggs-cellent! Fluffy eggs-cellent to be exact! He shares his mom’s recipe for iritamago, a sweet and fluffy egg dish served over rice. 

We talk about growing up a bi-racial military kid, hometown vs home, and making up for lost time with culture and connection. Plus a few potentially hot takes on Japantown and the gimmickiness–or not– of viral food trends in Japan (looking at you Totoro cream puffs!)

Episode 17: Tinola with Nicole Lugtu

Valentine’s Day might be behind us but we’re here telling the love story between our guest Nicole Lugtu and her fave dish tinola. Or maybe more accurately, the love between Nicole and chicken. Listen in as Nicole and Sam talk about their shared love of chicken and the myriad ways that manifests in life: as a personality trait, red flags and relationship dealbreakers, familial dividing lines.

We talk a lot about eating out: as a family activity, being equally important to cooking, and even long-held go-to Chinese restaurant orders (naturally, crispy chicken was an all around favorite and on all of our menus!)
Be sure to have a snack on hand when Nicole talks about her family recipe project and Lola Baker’s cooking school and cake recipes. Plus food as a shortcut to identity and connection, and a hyper local review of some fave chicken spots in San Francisco.