(uplifting music)
- I was born in Korea,
and I immigrated to the states when I was really young.
And I moved back here about 14 years ago.
So I actually grew up in Ohio,
kind of like half, half and half.
I grew up half in Chicago, half in Ohio,
went to school to be an engineer.
And so I graduated
and then started working for a corporate company.
It was basically the job that I was going
to school for, was to work in the automotive industry.
And so I ended up working there
as an engineer, and I was like, oh,
I'm so happy that I finally got this.
I'm getting my career started, it's gonna be great.
I was the youngest supervisor there.
And so, you know, all of these older, you know,
veterans, they're kind of looking at me, it's like, oh,
this kid just came out of, you know,
university, like, what does this kid know?
So they would kind of pick on me and things like that.
And so I would just get stressed out every single day.
And then for me, like I'm not the type
of person that gets stressed out very easily,
but I would get stressed out every day.
I'm like, oh, like, I have to go to work now.
Like, this is gonna be horrible.
It's gonna be another bad day.
So I actually wanted to move and I actually wanted
to try a different job, a different field.
So I tried to move in 2008,
and that's when the economy crashed in the States.
And so I tried to move to California,
I actually, and flew over there,
went on a few interviews, and they're like,
"Well I'm sorry that we're only hiring within the states.
And so I'm kind of stressing out 'cause honestly
the only place I wanted to live was California at the time.
And so I'm trying to figure out where to move to
and what to do now.
And then all of a sudden I get a call
from my cousin who's living in Seoul,
and he's like, well hey, why don't you come here, you know,
live here for a year, be my wedding, be my best man,
try living here for a year.
If you don't like, you can, you can always move back.
And I'm like, well, I'm young enough, I guess, you know?
So I sold all myself and then moved out here and, yeah,
that's the end of the story basically.
When I first came here, I would say I went
and ate a lot of Korean barbecue, to be honest,
because my cousin didn't really take me out too much.
I mean, like, he would take me out,
but it seemed like every single day it was always
just Korean barbecue.
And then once
in a while we would have some other random dish
or something, maybe for breakfast,
we'll have a soup or something.
But there was never anything that stuck
in my head more than Korean barbecue in the beginning.
And so I didn't really know about any places.
I didn't really have the passion to actually look
for other foods as much as I do now.
So the funny thing is, is that,
so when I first moved to Korea, I would always have friends
or friends or friends that would come
into Korea, and then somebody would always recommend me,
it's like, oh, I know this guy Mike,
he'll take good care of you.
He'll show you around.
And so in the beginning I was like, well,
I don't really know any places,
but I'll show you what I know and then take you around,
and then kind of show you like how Koreans kind
of, you know, live for the most part, what they eat,
how they drink, how they party, things like that.
And then it kind of just became like a habit
and then every year I would have like a few groups
of friends that would just come in and then I'm like, well,
maybe I should kind of familiarize myself
with more restaurants
and try to expand my knowledge of these places and things.
And then eventually it just became a passion.
It became like more of a habit in the beginning.
And then it became a passion for me.
And then so now I can't go one week without going
to at least four places, four new places to explore.
So now for me, like, there's probably not that many people
honestly in Seoul at least
that know more places to eat than I do.
To be honest, I mean, so in Korea, you're not,
you're never gonna have terrible food.
I want to have the best food, right?
So I always search out for that.
Not always the best foods are always
at these famous restaurants, right?
Sometimes this grandma
in this little tiny little alley that's been there
for 60 years that nobody knows about,
she makes, you know,
some of the best kimchi that I've ever had.
I have places all over, you know,
saves, in different places.
So I'm in the process
of kind of organizing everything to kind of make it easier
for me to be able to find as well.
'Cause I was like, well I know that place,
but I don't, I can't remember where it was.
I'll remember how the restaurant looks,
but I don't remember the name of the restaurant,
that type of thing.
And so like I have to kind of flip through everything,
try to figure out places, and even on my maps,
I have to constantly delete places and then, you know,
replace places and things like that.
So I had no plans to actually open up
my own food tour business,
but it just kind of just happened
because, every single time I would take
around groups, they're like, no,
oh my God, if it wasn't for you,
I would've never had such a good time.
You should really start your business.
But in the beginning, I kind of laughed it off.
I was like, oh, you're just one of my friends.
You're just trying to be nice.
Every single time,
they would tell me the same thing and I'm like,
maybe I'm actually good at this.
Maybe I should actually look into this.
And then actually looked into all the tours
in Seoul and realized how bad they were.
And I was actually kind of embarrassed as a Korean,
because all these people are just trying to make money
off of these people instead
of actually showing them a proper experience,
and actually showing them proper foods.
And so I've traveled quite a bit in my life.
Whenever I travel, I like to travel for food.
So no matter what country I go to,
whatever city it is,
I will eat literally all day.
And all the sight seeing is basically
for me to kind of digest to be able to eat more.
That's literally how I, you know, travel.
And I realize that there's plenty of people
like me that are out there that do the same thing.
And so I want those kind of people to take my tours
to be able to experience the way that, you know, I would.
So I have no background in in food tours whatsoever,
but I, just based on my, you know, experience,
this is the type of tour that I would want to do
if I travel to another country that I don't know.
So I wanna show people other foods
besides the typical, you know, bulgogi, bibimbap,
plenty of other foods that we have in Korea
that are so amazing
that people just don't know about.
And so I want people to actually experience those.
I mean, these are the dishes that all the locals
actually do eat, you know,
because like we don't eat Korean barbecue every day.
I mean like, we can't.
I mean, like, we can't eat fried chicken every day either.
I mean, there's plenty of, you know, other dishes.
And like for me also at the same time,
like I can't eat the same dishes like in the same week even.
Like I need something different every single day.
So growing up, so I would say
that my favorite dish that my mom cooked for me
was galbi jjim.
So the braised, you know, beef ribs.
Like the way that my mom cooked it for me it was always
a soy sauce-based non-spicy version,
which is the very old, traditional,
more like the king's kind of, you know, type of dish, right?
So it was more
of like a palace dish back then that wasn't spicy.
Moving to Korea, I was looking forward
to the best of this dish.
And then so I would search out and like, to be honest,
there weren't really
that many options when I first came here.
And whenever I did find galbi jjim, it was always
the spicy version and it was usually pork instead of beef.
And I'm like, well, this isn't the same thing.
This is not what I'm looking for.
And even every single time that I tasted it,
I was like, no, this isn't like my mom's cooking.
Like, this doesn't taste the same.
And so I was starting to getting a little bit stressed out.
I'm like, well, I want to be able to find a dish
as good as my mom's, or even better than my mom's.
And so eventually after a few years,
I was able to find a dish that was as good
as my mom's or maybe even better.
I mean, but I'll never tell my mother that obviously.
And so when I finally found that dish,
I was super, super happy.
And so whenever like I kind of miss my mom,
like I would go there and, you know,
have a meal there.
Food and culture definitely goes hand-in-hand.
There's no doubt about that.
Because I mean, the food will show the culture
of any country, for sure.
And food is definitely the best way to kind
of get to know the country, get to know the culture,
and to be able to kind of relate to other people.
It's something that I actually wanna show everybody,
because I mean especially Korean culture is very, very nice.
And now people are actually starting to see this,
and it makes me very, very happy,
and I want to be able to carry that culture on
and introduce it to as many people as I possibly can.
My name is Mike Kim, and this is my Korean American Story.
(inspiring uplifting music)