- Hey, I'm Mei
and I asked my Instagram followers
to send me assumptions about myself,
and I'm going to be making a tasty recipe
while I answer and react to them
because why not test my cooking skills
while completely oversharing on the internet?
I was actually
kind of shocked at how intrusive you all could be,
but go off, I guess. (laughs)
The recipe that I'm making is called
"The Fluffiest Vegan Pancakes,"
and I think that I'll probably need that
to soften the blow of some of these assumptions, honestly,
but we'll see.
Honestly, when I have a craving for pancakes,
I just go out.
But my wallet doesn't love that.
So hopefully,
this can be my replacement
for restaurant vegan pancakes.
All right, first up,
combine all of our dry ingredients.
So we are starting with flour
and we just have a cup of this into this beautiful bowl.
First assumption is, "You were popular in high school."
I hate saying this,
but honestly, growing up,
I was like a stereotypical mean person.
Like I was that popular girl
and I hated it about myself.
But some things occurred my freshman year of high school
that really humbled me,
and I got bullied.
I joke about it and say it "humbled me,"
but it honestly did open my eyes
to like who I was surrounding myself with
and how I was acting.
And I ended up moving across the country,
for a lot of reasons,
but also like part of it
was because of how I was being treated in school.
And so, I moved to Seattle,
started a new group of friends,
and I would say I was kinda popular,
but in a very different way.
Like I just had a lot of friends,
I think, especially since I was like "the new girl"
for a while,
that brought a lot of attention to me,
and I was kind of popular, I guess.
Okay, flour's done.
Now we have sugar,
two tablespoons to be exact.
And (laughs) the next assumption,
which is that, "I like Seattle more than LA."
Like I said,
I moved to Seattle when I was in high school,
it was my sophomore year of high school actually.
And I loved it when I was there.
However,
living in LA has been my dream since I was really little,
so I would not say that I like Seattle butter.
I love that I lived in Seattle,
but I definitely am so happy that I live in LA now.
All right,
one tablespoon of baking powder
and assumption three is that,
"I had a rough coming out story."
This is true. (dinging sound)
My girlfriend at the time
posted a picture of us kissing on Twitter (laughs)
and it ended up getting a lot of retweets.
And I was like, "Wait, that's like, kind of cool.
I'm like famous online."
So I like wanted to show off to the people in my school,
fully knowing that I grew up in a small town in Illinois,
like everybody was straight up homophobic,
like it wasn't a secret.
There was no gay people at that time in my school,
like it was not a thing.
So when I retweeted that picture on my personal account
for all my school friends to see,
and then followed that retweet
by a tweet that just said,
"Hey, I'm gay by the way."
A couple of weeks down the line,
I suddenly had no friends
and everybody in my circle was bullying me
and it was so fun.
Yeah, I don't know how to talk about it, seriously,
'cause it was actually really traumatic for me.
It was really, really rough,
like losing that many people
and coming out in that environment.
Thankfully, once I moved to Seattle,
it was a totally different story
and like everybody there was so accepting,
it was such a different world for me.
All right, last dry ingredient is half a teaspoon of salt,
which I'm not actually going to measure
because I don't believe in measuring under a teaspoon,
but I do have a very cute salt shaker.
We're going to guess that's about half a teaspoon.
All right.
And then we just mix this all together.
I got a lot of things saying
that they thought, "I was shy."
That like I'm outgoing on the internet,
but not in real life.
That's accurate, I would say. (dinging sound)
I have`a lot of social anxiety,
which I hide really well most of the time.
But yeah,
I am a little bit shy when I first meet people.
But once I know you,
I'm like fully so obnoxious,
like you will be sick of me.
All right,
so let's get our dry ingredients out of the way.
and start with our wet ingredients in another bowl.
We have a cup of almond,
or any non-dairy milk,
but I'm using almond.
We need one cup of this.
And then,
next assumption is that, "I want to get married."
I do want to get married, (dinging sound)
I really do.
Which is pretty crazy for me because,
not to heighten my girlfriend's ego or anything,
but up until recently,
I didn't really care about marriage.
Since I've started dating my current girlfriend, India,
I've been thinking about marriage a lot.
Which is kind of scary,
but also kind of really fun.
Now I get to use my fun tablespoon
because we have a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar.
"You wish you were confident in your style."
100%, confirmed. (dinging sound)
I do wish that I was confident in my style.
I don't know if it's like inspired by like,
wearing a bunch of my girlfriend's clothes.
India just wears whatever she wants,
like sometimes she dresses more masculine
and sometimes she dresses more feminine
and like I've been wearing
kind of both of those things of hers.
Sometimes when I wear the things
that are like slightly more masculine,
I find myself feeling a little bit better.
I just don't really have a clear vision
for like what I wanna wear
or what I want to look like.
Definitely something that I'm struggling with,
especially going through all these body changes
and having to buy new clothes,
like I don't know what to buy.
So if there are any personal shoppers watching,
please hit me up.
One teaspoon of vanilla is next.
And (laughs) the next question is,
"You're the type of vegan who forces other people
to be vegan."
And that's actually not true at all.
I love to show people that vegan options are a thing,
but I would not say that I try to force anybody to be vegan.
I don't think veganism is for everybody.
I think there are so many limits to that,
whether it be dietary restrictions.
Obviously,
I think it would be great if everybody would be vegan,
but I think that trying to force people into it
is not the way to go about it.
Next,
we're going to pour the wet ingredients into the dry,
and then we sit for five minutes.
(whisking batter)
So we'll answer a couple more assumptions while we wait.
But let me pour this in and mix it.
Next,
"You're half Asian,
but you can't speak the Asian language."
I don't know Chinese, (dinging sound)
but I am half.
I know how to count to like a hundred,
but I learned that in school,
not from my Mom or anything.
My grandparents didn't want my Mom and her sisters
to stand out or like be different in any way.
So they kind of just forced them to speak English.
And they lost that knowledge about Chinese,
which sucks, because I would love to know Chinese.
Unfortunately, that's not how it worked for me.
So yeah, you're right.
So we're gonna let this sit for five minutes
and then transition over to the stove.
Next assumption is that, "I have a perfectionist side."
I do have a huge perfectionist side.
I have a weird thing about writing,
like I need my writing to look flawless all the time
and if it doesn't, I freak out.
I have insane standards for myself
and I have a really big problem of needing
everything that I do to be totally perfect.
And if I can't do it perfectly,
like I just won't do it.
And I've always been that way,
like with sports,
I had to be the best at that sport
or I would quit.
It deters me sometimes from doing things
and I hate, hate, hate, hate it.
But definitely something
that I'm working on in therapy as well.
So go you for talking about it in therapy.
All right, next,
"You still struggle with your ED."
Yeah, that's true. (dinging sound)
I do.
And I think that that's okay.
I think that I'm making really great progress
with my eating disorder.
My eating disorder would have been really scared
about making these pancakes
and I don't feel that way right now.
I'm actually really excited to eat them.
The reality of eating disorder recovery is
that it's never going to be linear.
And in the grand scheme of things,
like a year and a half isn't that long
and that's okay that I'm still struggling.
And I think that that is not something to be ashamed of
and not something that we have to hide
because it's probably actually really helpful to know
that you're not alone in struggling,
even if you've made really good progress,
like that's okay.
All right,
I have my vegan butter
because I don't believe in making pancakes without butter.
(stove turning on)
"You're an empathetic person
and you're always trying to look out for others."
I'm like empathetic (dinging sound)
to a fault though.
I care so much about how other people are feeling,
that sometimes I just don't focus on myself.
I like that about myself,
but also sometimes it's rough.
First one, here we go.
This is supposed to make about four good size pancakes,
so we'll see.
"You sometimes wish you were doing music
instead of social media work."
At the end of the day,
I definitely
would like to pursue music. (dinging sound)
There's obviously a lot that, you know,
makes me feel like,
"Okay, I'm not good enough."
I'm finally taking strides
to actually work towards music,
being like my actual career,
or at least part of it.
Right now,
I have two songs out.
And hopefully,
we'll be putting one out in the next couple of months
because I'm like doing studio sessions
which is really exciting.
Wait, hold on, (tape stops)
she's bubbling.
Okay, okay, okay, I can do it, I can do it.
You can do anything. (flips pancake)
Oh! (gasps)
It looks so good.
I'm a chef.
Thank you, Sari Maral,
your job here's done.
I am the new vegan chef of Buzzfeed.
Next one is, "You're very social."
Yes and no. (dinging sound)
I love meeting new people,
it just really scares me.
But when I push myself to actually do it,
I have so much fun
and it's the best thing ever
and I love it.
I would say, yes, I am social.
But at heart,
I think I am an introvert,
like I need a refresh period.
Ooh, that's the sizzle I was looking for.
These ones would probably cook faster
so I need to actually pay attention. (laughs)
Oo, oo, oo.
She's bubbling.
The focusing on two things at once,
is (freaking out noise)
I'm stressed!
Okay.
"Your relationships are healthy."
Thankfully,
I'm at a point where I've kind of genuinely stopped
allowing people in my life
that don't deserve to be in my life,
which is huge.
My life is significantly better since I've done that.
"I feel like you might have a tendency
to let your emotions decide your life."
(laughs) No!
I am not emotionally impulsive!
Just kidding.
Yeah, no, fully. (dinging sound)
And I love that about myself, honestly,
because it allows me to love very, very hard.
And it allows me to be creative
in a way that I think some people can't.
And there are a lot of pros to it,
but also I do dumb (beep)
because I don't think about it.
Another thing
that I'm talking about in therapy.
(flips pancake)
Ugh.
I am nailing the cook time on these.
"You have a ten year life plan." (laughs)
For me personally,
I think that would stress me out
if I had like this huge plan
and all these expectations for myself.
Because I know I'm somebody who like,
if I have a goal or an expectation,
and then I don't meet that goal,
then I freak out
and think that my world is ending
and feel like nothing will ever be good ever again
because I didn't meet one little goal.
I just think that's a lot of pressure.
(flips pancake)
You guys, like,
are you kidding me with the perfect golden brown?
Okay,
so now that's the actual cooking and baking is done
and we're just going to be decorating,
we're going to go on to a rapid fire.
"You sleep a lot."
I either sleep,
literally not at all
or for the entire day.
"You're a good dancer."
Honestly, no.
Unless I'm drunk,
then I can dance.
"You drink a lot of coffee."
Yes, 100% yes. (dinging sound)
I spent a sick amount of my money on coffee.
It's awful.
It's a bad habit.
I need to stop.
My bank account wants me to stop,
but it makes me happy.
"You hate wearing heels."
(opening package)
I'm 5'9.
And when I wear heels,
that I actually like,
I'm like six feet,
which there's nothing wrong with that.
(dinging sound)
But I do have some internalized feelings about like,
being too tall.
So yeah, I do.
"You have tattoos that you regret."
I don't actually regret any tattoos
because I think that each of my tattoos
marks a really cool part of my life.
And if I don't like it now,
I liked it then,
and like, that's kind of fun to be able to look back at.
"You're good with money."
(laughs) No.
"You are a rebel as a teen."
Oh my God, yes. (dinging sound)
My parents would have a field day talking about that.
"You're a top." (laughs)
Sometimes. (dinging sound)
And lastly,
"You smell like vanilla and cinnamon."
Speaking of cinnamon though,
it would be a great addition.
Might be my final touch.
I wouldn't claim that,
but maybe, I don't know,
ask people who are around me?
We need the syrup pour.
(chill music)
Oh my God.
Are you kidding me?
This is masterpiece.
We're going to try and get the whole stack at once.
(chill music continues)
Wow, okay.
I crushed it.
I'm so glad that I made this.
It was definitely (laughs) not easy
to focus on trying to cook these pancakes,
or even eat them,
while (laughs) answering all those questions,
but it was really fun.
If you got anything outta this video,
it's to make these.
I'm done talking,
I need to (laughs) focus on eating these pancakes.
But this just so much fun
and maybe I'll do it again.
And if not,
who else do you wanna see do this?
(chill music)