Nyesha Arrington's Korean Latkes
My grandparents lived about an hour west of us when I was growing up in Los Angeles, and going to their house was a field day for me. My grandmother Ai-Soon was Korean--my grandpa met her during the war--and she was an amazing cook. I remember the smell of garlic thick in the air, and my grandmother's incredible smile, and her short salt-and-pepper hair. I used to stand on the step stool next to her in the kitchen and cook with her. She'd make me and my sister peel and chop garlic for hours. At Leona, I love to do global mash-ups, and that's how I came up with Korean latkes. I wanted something like a kimchi pancake, which my mother used to make, but a little crispier--and I realized potatoes could do that. And I love the idea of creme fraiche or sour cream, traditional for latkes, to cool the heat of the kimchi. The kimchi recipe my grandmother taught me is the one we use at Leona today. She passed away a few years ago, but her memory lives in the food I cook.
By Nyesha Arrington from "My Comfort Food" as told to Margo True in Sunset; Photos by Thomas Story, 2016
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