Almost everything Maria Esposito knows about cooking, she learned from her grandma who raised her back in Puerto Rico. She brought those cooking chops to the Bronx where adaptation was key. Now a grandma herself in Warwick, N.Y., Maria imparts her culinary wisdom to you wonderfully hungry viewers in this DOUBLE-DISH feature on pernil and arroz con gandules (roast pork and rice with pigeon peas) which includes fresh-picked greens from her garden. You’ll need to take a page out of her recipe book (in fact, you can once I finish up the “Cooking with Granny” recipe book!). Enjoy this mouthwatering episode!
Caroline Shin is a multimedia journalist based in NYC. Recently, she launched “Cooking With Granny†– a Web series in which grandmas teach how to cook traditional dishes from their cultures while simultaneously sharing their funny, sad and surprising experiences with immigration and multiculturalism in a world that’s very different from today’s. Shin was previously a video editor at New York Magazine and holds an M.A. from Columbia Journalism School.
In the first episode of Caroline Shin’s “Cooking with Granny†series, her adorable grandma, Sanok Kim, shares her simple yet delicious recipe for Korean-style pork belly. During her interview, she is joined by her friend, and together, they recount their dangerous journeys from Soviet North Korea to U.S.-occupied South Korea.
Caroline Shin is a multimedia journalist based in NYC. Recently, she launched “Cooking With Granny” – a Web series in which grandmas teach how to cook traditional dishes from their cultures while simultaneously sharing their funny, sad and surprising experiences with immigration and multiculturalism in a world that’s very different from today’s. Shin was previously a video editor at New York Magazine and holds an M.A. from Columbia Journalism School.
My mother always raised me to be very headstrong and independent (shocking, I know). She always made it a point to tell us to be ourselves and to surround ourselves with friends we could learn from. It’s funny, because I think she worries more about “el elemento” (the element/type of people) I hang out with now more than she did when I was a kid. We are all influenced by our friends. We all don’t treat each friend the same or act the same around them.
I have four main girlfriends I refer to as my “faithful four.†Each one of them brings out the best in me in a different way. What all of my friends have in common is the fact they are all positive influences. Every parent strives to have their child surrounded by the best kind of people.
My grandmother, Maria Victoria, is about 4’8 and a total spitfire. She is 90 and doesn’t skip a beat. She won’t hesitate to threaten you with a frying pan over your head if you get out of line. She even does it to my 74-year-old uncle! She takes no prisoners. Her advice to my mom regarding her social circles was:
Anda con tontos y tonta serás. Anda con sabios y sabÃa serás.
(Surround yourself with fools and a a fool you will become. Surround yourself with wisdom and you will become wise.)
My grandmother doesn’t know how to read or write. However, despite her lack of schooling she is astute. She surrounded herself with the right people — people she could learn from. She has passed on these pearls of wisdom to my mom who in turn has passed them onto us. The older we get, the more we realize how right our moms were…for the most part.
In the end, my momma didn’t raise no fool…neither did hers.
Caroline Shin is a multimedia journalist based in NYC. Recently, she launched “Cooking With Granny†– a Web series in which grandmas teach how to cook traditional dishes from their cultures while simultaneously sharing their funny, sad and surprising experiences with immigration and multiculturalism in a world that’s very different from today’s. Shin was previously a video editor at New York Magazine and holds an M.A. from Columbia Journalism School.
