Hi, I'm Melissa Fumero
and I'm Randall Park, and we're costars in the new Netflix series Blockbuster.
This is Taste Buds, a show where costars share a meal from each other's cultures
and I'm starving.
Okay, so let's eat, okay?
Okay.
All right, Melissa.
So what's your background again? I'm Cuban.
You're Cuban. Okay. My parents are Cuban.
So I'm assuming these dishes are from your Cuban culture.
They are.
We didn't get them straight from Cuba,
but we got them from a little restaurant in Silverlake.
It's legit, though.
It looks legit.
Okay, great.
What is this?
Okay, so we have plantains.
Sweet plantains.
Okay.
Yuca, which is like a type of root vegetable.
Okay, this is the all famous Cuban sandwich, and it looks so good.
What makes a Cuban sandwich? A Cuban.
A Cuban sandwich is very specifically ham,
pickle, pork, cheese.
Okay.
Usually like a Swiss or a provolone and then mustard, I think.
Okay.
And it's on Cuban bread,
which is the bread is very important and it's pressed and it's pressed.
Okay. That looks amazing. It is.
And then this is my childhood favorite.
This is Rabo Encendido, it is oxtail.
and it's amazing.
My grandmother would make it and it's just a soup.
It's like a stew.
We should just dig in.
Okay.
It smells so good.
This is so good.
Oh, my God. It's so good.
So good, right? Yeah, it really is.
So. Melissa. Mm hmm.
I read on your autobiography. Mm.
That hasn't come out yet that you haven't written yet,
but I got a hold of a copy, huh?
That you do?
Yeah, that you're from Lyndhurst, New Jersey?
I am.
What was life like in Lyndhurst?
So Lyndhurst is a really small town in northeast Jersey.
Kind of a cluster of small, you know, like L.A., like a cluster of neighborhoods.
Kind of feels like that.
Except it's not all one city and but it's like ten miles
outside of Manhattan, predominantly Italian American town,
also a lot of Irish, but a lot of kids
I grew up with had immigrant parents or grandparents like me.
I didn't feel like an outsider having parents with like big accents, even.
You know what I mean.
so like a little bit of everything, but not like a ton of,
not a ton of color,
Ok, ok.
but like immigrant heavy.
So. Okay, so there was that connection.
There was that.
Yes. Is is oxtails a big thing in Cuban culture
because Koreans have a lot of dishes with oxtail, right?
Yeah, I didn't know that. Yeah.
Cuban cuisines vary.
Like we use every single part of every animal.
You know what I mean?
Like I say, like, literally on Christmas Eve, my mom would
pick up a whole pig and it would be like in our dining room
and she'd marinate it, and then she would take it to the bakery,
like the day of that morning, and then they would
pick it up for the meal and they'd use every part.
Yeah.
What about the penis?
I mean, the penis wasn't there.
Oh, yeah, the genitals, not the... but the tail is
Do you know what they do with it? I don't .
Maybe make soap or something.
Yeah.
This is so good.
So you finish the show
That is out on Netflix called Blockbuster.
What was your experience like?
Terrible.
It was great.
I have to say, when they first sent me the pilot script,
it was like the two most exciting moments.
Besides, it was almost like the show being about Blockbuster
and the show itself and was like off to the side.
It was like Vanessa Ramos, who you knew, who I already knew and was a huge fan of.
And then and Randall Park is attached.
And I was like, my mind just
exploded with excitement because I was such a big fan of yours.
Oh, so you heard I was amazing.
I heard you were amazing. Yeah, it was true.
You lived up to the hype, which doesn't happen very often.
Did anybody say like that I was handsome or anything like that?
Yes. Oh, yeah, that's that.
They let they all live with that.
Oh really. They were like just as handsome in real life.
Andy Samberg said that needed. That's crazy.
Yeah.
Well, I'll tell you about how I got started on the show, please. I
was told by my reps
that there was a show called Blockbuster
about the Blockbuster video store and of course, the wave of nostalgia.
But then also it almost became like, Ah, I don't know if I want to be
a part of something that's, you know, just about the nostalgia.
It has to be about more than that, you know.
And I read the script, I was like, Yeah, yeah, I think, I think I'm down.
Yeah, let's do it.
You know, it's exciting.
Well, I also heard that it was she wrote the character as a Randall Park type.
That's what I heard. Which is crazy.
Which is crazy.
Which is so nice, It's so nice.
And I still kind of don't believe it.
I still kind of don't believe it.
I believe. No I think it was originally like Chris Pratt or something.
Can’t this wait
Tuck your chin.
Oh, can you look less like you own a ukulele?
You know what? I'll just use the one from your Yale profile.
I can’t stop eating.
I just please have a shot of my plate and Randall's plate.
Oh, no, I have to.
I'm like, really did dig into this.
Yeah. Okay.
It's dope that the show is like, you know, people keep kind of pointing
to, like, the diversity, but it just feels like, right?
Like so not like, not even on purpose.
Like, yeah, like, yeah.
These are the kind of characters we envision would work at the store.
And here they are like, you know, yeah, totally.
And it's not, there's no commentary on it.
There's no yeah, there's no like commentary or gender like yeah, yeah.
But it's also not like it's also not like shying away from it.
Shying away from it. Yeah, we embrace it.
It's there. It's kind of like in our lives.
It's a part of who we are, but it's not like.
It's not what we think of every day.
Oh, that’s a crunchy piece I got.
Did you go to Blockbuster.
I did. We had one in my hometown. I went as a kid.
What's the highest amount of late fees you incurred at a blockbuster?
You know, I think
I was pretty type-A
and I returned my DVDs on time.
I don't think I ever incurred a late fee.
Same.
Yeah, same. we’re the same person.
What movie did you rent the most?
Do you remember ?
The movie I rented the most was probably When Harry met Sally.
This is why I adore you.
Same?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
There is some delicious looking food in front of us. Yes.
Tell me what it all is.
Okay, so this is the cuisine of my motherland. Mm.
Korea. Mm hmm.
This here is called Nang Mian.
And it is.
I mean,
I grew up eating this.
Usually in the summer or the hotter.
You know, it's a cold noodle soup.
Yeah, I guess.
And I was like, oh, it was cold.
Yes, yes. And it's supposed to be cold.
The thing about this is,
I don't know much about the ingredients of any of this stuff.
I just grew up eating it.
That's the thing, though. Yeah.
Like I was saying, like when I was trying.
When you're asking me what's in a Cuban sandwich, you were just winging it.
I kind of was.
What was it like growing up in L.A.?
It was great.
I had a very idyllic childhood.
I had a group of friends that I'm still friends with to this day.
Um, we were extremely diverse, just naturally and organically.
It was just what I knew growing like, It’s L.A.
And, you
know, we would just ride our bikes around the city, you know?
You could, yeah, all around the city.
Your parents let you ride your bikes around the city,
They were busy working, right? Yeah.
So we went out, you know, just got into trouble.
Not too much trouble.
We're good kids, but, you know, like a little bit of trouble.
Yeah. Armed robbery, stuff like that. Yeah.
And then we in L.A.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then were you ever caught ?
No.
Never. Never. I'm smart, you know? Yeah.
I feel very lucky to have gone
through that because when, like working on a show like ours.
Yeah. And I see this cast that
so just kind of organically, naturally diverse.
It's to me that's like real life.
Yeah, it feels very natural to me.
Yeah. Yeah. So L.A.
also has a big
Latin demographic.
Did you grow up with, like a lot of kind of Latino culture?
Of course.
I mean, I heard you speak pretty good Spanish. I did.
I used to tutor Spanish for a while.
I don't think I knew that part. Yeah.
You can't grow up in L.A.
without having Latin cultures, particularly Mexican culture.
At least where I grew up, be like a part of who you are.
I feel like I kind of knew Spanish before I even started learning it in school
because so many of my friends spoke Spanish.
That's dope.
Yeah. Yeah.
Do you have a favorite Spanish word or phrase?
Callate la boca...
Chino.
Callate la boca... Chino.
I heard it growing up all the time.
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.
hmm. Yeah.
So good.
This is what I'm really excited about.
Well, actually, that's what I'm most excited about to say that.
So this is before every Korean meal they serve
BanChan, which is like basically these like little kind of dishes.
I don't know if you ever been to a Korean restaurant,
but they'll have like a ton of tiny plates that you been to, like
Korean barbecue places.
They do that at Korean barbecue places.
Sometimes this is. These are like noodles.
Yeah, you know what I mean?
Like, I see some maybe sesame seeds.
That's it, you know, that's it.
Sesame seeds.
I love this stuff's called Japchae.
And these are like kind of scallion pancakes that are really great.
I really love all this stuff.
How did your parents feel about all of this?
Because that's normally, you know, it can go
either way with immigrant parents very against it.
Early on, they just didn't see any
remote possibility that I could find success in it
and I think was scary to them.
Yeah, but I think they were right.
It was like it's very hard.
Yeah.
To... I mean, we're very lucky people, you know,
I think they were, you know, at the time I was like, oh, you know,
I'm kind of resentful.
Yeah.
But as I've gotten older, and especially now that I have a daughter, it's like,
Oh my God, they were really looking out for me and they love me.
And that's why they were like, Stay away from this career.
Yeah, that's going to bring you misery.
Yeah. And I was like, No.
And then I pursued it and it brought a lot of misery.
But then things just started to move and happen.
And then it's like now it's like, Oh wow, that.
I'm glad I stuck through it.
But it was not easy.
Did you ever have a moment with them where they were like, we were.
We were wrong, like, good for you for sticking...
Mmm, No.
No. Not at all.
No, but they're very proud. Yeah, it's kind of.
It's like amazing how proud they are just to see that and to feel that.
And I'm just happy that they're
that they're happy for me, you know?
I love this growing up. Okay.
What is it? It's called Tuck Boki.
It's basically rice cakes in this
red sauce that's very common in Korea.
You see the color red in a lot of is it Korean dishes?
It's kind of it's it's kind of sweet and spicy.
Well, it's spicy. Yeah. Yeah, just got it.
Yeah, it kind of hits you. Yeah.
Got a kick.
This has a little more kick then, but it's pretty much accurate.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, thank you.
Thank you. I made it.
No you didn’t.
I'm a professional chef.
So our new show is about the last blockbuster.
Did you I think I recall you saying you worked in a video store.
I did.
When I was in high school for a few summers.
I worked in a smaller kind of independent mom and pop video store.
It was called New Wave Video.
Yeah, it was it was great.
It was a lot of the things
that, you know from our show, like just, you know, the neighborhood store,
the customers, you know, familiar faces would come by, you know,
all of us workers.
There weren't as many of us because we were a tiny store. But,
you know, just hanging around, talking about our, you know, personal lives.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The only difference is we had, you know, those double doors
that led to, like, the adult section, which Blockbuster never had.
Yeah, Blockbuster didn’t. Yeah. Yeah.
And then we started selling dildos, and I was like, Man, this is amazing.
Okay, this is sex shop, sex. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Which is great.
I mean, the neighbors, yeah, friendly faces come in and.
Sure. Like our show.
Do you think Timmy will ever open an adult section?
We'll see.
We'll see how the blockbuster does.
Let's see how it does in season two, We might need to open that adult section
ya never know.
I haven't eaten as much of the Korean food
because I ate with all of the Cuban food.
And it was amazing.
And I think I learned a little bit about you through cuisine,
you know, a little bit more than you didn't know, Likewise.
Yeah.
Food brings people together. Yes, it does.
What did you learn about me? If you don't mind me asking?
I learned that you
even more handsome.
Oh, my God.
Oh, and this is like a Korean tradition.
There's a fly.
Oh, there you go.
That goes on to the food.
It's just like so.
And then about the spicy.
And then once it lands, it's good luck.
Oh, yeah.
I'm glad we're done eating. Yeah.