Everyday Korean by Kim Sunée and Dr. Seung Hee Lee-Kwan

(Countryman Press, a division of W.W. Norton)

EVERYDAY KOREAN: Fresh, Modern Recipes for Home Cooks is the latest offering from bestselling food memoirist and cookbook author, Kim Sunée. One of the most healthy, flavorful, and versatile cuisines, Korean cooking has begun to explode on the global food scene and yet it is often misunderstood. Sunée and her co-author nutritionist Dr. Seung Hee Lee-Kwan enthusiastically seek to demystify it while celebrating both its time-honored dishes and putting their own modern twist on traditional recipes.

In EVERYDAY KOREAN, Sunée and Lee-Kwan present novel combinations of sour, spicy, and sweet flavors, showing just how much Korean cuisine has to offer to a variety of eaters, and dispelling the impression of needing a particular palate for Korean food. They introduce to readers the backbone of all Korean cuisine, jang—a flavor not found anywhere else in the world. They also show how the classic rice bowl, bibimbap can be easily adapted to satisfy the vegan, vegetarian and meat-lovers among us. They provide thoughtful instructions and backgrounds for plates dating back hundreds of years, including Royal Court Cuisine from Korea’s Joseon Dynasty. And in the section “East Meets West” they’ll serve up fusion-inspired dishes like Grilled Shrimp Po-Boy with Kimchi and Bulgogi Beef Sliders. Every step of the way, Sunée and Lee-Kwan will demonstrate how easy it is to bring bold Korean flavors into everyday kitchens.

Kim Sunée is the acclaimed author of the bestselling memoir TRAIL OF CRUMBS: Hunger, Love and the Search for Home. Born in South Korea, adopted and raised in New Orleans, and then a resident of Paris for a decade, she has experienced many sides and cultures of food, which she chose to present in her first cookbook, A Mouthful of Stars: A Constellation of Favorite Recipes from My World Travels (Andrews McMeel, 2014). She has been featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, People Magazine, ELLE, and Glamour, and her writing has appeared in Food and Wine, The Oxford American, and Asian Writing and Poetry. Sunée was the founding food editor of Cottage Living and served as a food editor for Southern Living. She teaches creative writing and cooking classes. Read more about her at kimsunee.com and follow her on Instagram@kimsunee.

Dr. Seung Hee Lee-Kwan was born and raised in South Korea. She studied Korean Royal Court cuisine at the renowned Taste of Korea Research Institute and is a licensed dietician. She garnered her Ph.D in Human Nutrition from Johns Hopkins University. She currently works for the Centers for Disease Control Prevention in Atlanta as an epidemiologist. She received the Abell Award in Urban Policy for her work directing the Baltimore Healthy Carryouts, a healthy restaurant program implemented in low-income neighborhoods in Baltimore. Lee-Kwan teaches Korean cooking classes on weekends, and you can follow her creations on Instagram@Koreanfusion.

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A Mouthful of Stars by Kim Sunée

amouthfulofstarsBestselling author of Trail of Crumbs and former food editor, Kim Sunée, offers up her first cookbook; a curated and personal collection of Kim’s interpretation of 80 cherished recipes and cooking discoveries from kitchens across the globe. Her culinary journey is complete with stories of adventure, poetry, as well as luscious photography of food and place.
 
A Mouthful of Stars: A Constellation of Amazing Recipes from My World Travels is a collection of Kim’s interpretation of cherished recipes and cooking discoveries from across the globe. From Tuscan crostini di fegatini and Louisiana dirty rice to the flavors of her birth country of South Korea and favorites from the ten years she spent eating and cooking in Provence and Paris, you’ll find A Mouthful of Stars in the cookbook section, but it could also be in travel or food writing. The author’s time in many lands and cooking in many kitchens has inspired this beautiful, unique, exotic, and delicious culinary journey.

From the foreword by Frances Mayes:
 
“Trail of Crumbs established Kim Sunée as an outstanding literary writer, not only about life, but about food. . . . Now, after Kim’s brilliant debut memoir, she serves forth A Mouthful of Stars. What an astonishing book. 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. Second, she praises, philosophizes, and celebrates . . . She knows that ‘life isn’t worth living without friends who know how to eat the heart out of a taco.’ This sense infuses every bite. How could I help but dash to the kitchen to try Grilled Peaches Wrapped in Prosciutto, Pan-fried Peppers with Coconut and Tamarind, Roasted Cherries with Burrata, and Quick Pickled Fennel. 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 (roast turkey and pizza) include a particular Kim-twist.

A Mouthful of Stars makes a cultural leap out beyond the landscape where most cooks stir their pots. Kim’s allegiance is to a global kitchen. A citizen of the world, she’s not tied to a particular terrain. This is the future. She’s already where we’re headed. And the food,paradiso!”

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Trail of Crumbs by Kim Sunée

Already hailed as “brave, emotional, and gorgeously written” by Frances Mayes and “like a piece of dark chocolate–bittersweet, satisfying, and finished all too soon” by Laura Fraser, author of An Italian Affair, this is a unique memoir about the search for identity through love, hunger, and food.

Jim Harrison says, “TRAIL OF CRUMBS reminds me of what heavily costumed and concealed waifs we all are. Kim Sunée tells us so much about the French that I never learned in 25 trips to Paris, but mostly about the terrors and pleasure of that infinite octopus, love. A fine book.”

When Kim Sunée was three years old, her mother took her to a marketplace, deposited her on a bench with a fistful of food, and promised she’d be right back. Three days later a policeman took the little girl, clutching what was now only a fistful of crumbs, to a police station and told her that she’d been abandoned by her mother.

Fast-forward almost 20 years and Kim’s life is unrecognizable. Adopted by a young New Orleans couple, she spends her youth as one of only two Asian children in her entire community. At the age of 21, she becomes involved with a famous French businessman and suddenly finds herself living in France, mistress over his houses in Provence and Paris, and stepmother to his eight year-old daughter.

Kim takes readers on a lyrical journey from Korea to New Orleans to Paris and Provence, along the way serving forth her favorite recipes. A love story at heart, this memoir is about the search for identity and a book that will appeal to anyone who is passionate about love, food, travel, and the ultimate search for self.

Kim Sunée is the author of the national bestseller, TRAIL OF CRUMBS: Hunger, Love, and the Search for Home (Grand Central Publishing). Trail of Crumbs was both a BARNES AND NOBLE Discover pick and a Booksense Pick, and has been translated into Korean, Chinese, and Hebrew. She has been featured in the New York Times, Ladies’ Homes Journal, People, ELLE, and Glamour.

She ate and lived in Europe for ten years and loves everything from tacos and fried chicken to a perfect terrine of foie gras. Sunée got her start as food editor at Southern Living and then worked as the founding food editor of Cottage Living magazine. Her writing has appeared in FOOD & WINE, ENTREE, The Oxford American, Cooking Light, and Asian American Poetry and Writing. Sunée has appeared several times as a guest judge on the Food Network’s IRON CHEF AMERICA. She is currently working on a cookbook/culinary scrapbook to be published by Andrews McMeel in 2013.

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