Starry Kitchen

I am SO floored Los Angeles Public Library gave me full reign in my "talk"/"variety show" today, and even more so appreciative of all the people that showed up too (for a program I've been dreaming about for over a year and planning for ACTUALLY upwards of 9+ months???). It means the world to me that you took the time out of your days to listen to me banter (and banter... and banter and banter... LOL) For those that showed up late (or didn't at all), here's the FULL 9.5 min ...pre-show SK visual history (from when we started up until now) slideshow w/ 70s/80s Japanese, Chinese+Cantonese melodramatic ballad-earliciousness! I'll share more and/or even maybe an edited version of the talk for anyone that wants to watch it in it's entirety. Otherwise, watch the posted FB live stream until then AND... THANK YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU! PS - it's the SK scrappy way to use free tools and keep the branding on the videos. We don't know any other way ;)

YOOOOO Everyone in LA

Our very good friend, activist (which is important to us) and photographer for our book, Bao Nguyen’s documentary about THE Bruce Lee, Be Water, premieres tonight on ESPN tonight! If you don’t have ESPN, he has a hack on how to still check it out. Hope you can check it it and support.

#blackouttuesday

FYI. Stay safe everyone https://twitter.com/mayorofla/status/1266912372851015680

I like the subject of this video. I like the way this video is edited. I like this video...

We all deserve this. One of the most iconic opening themes in all of anime (and I would argue worldwide pop culture) composed by famed composer, Yoko Kanno. This show came into my anime life over 20 years ago! (Btw, I’ve been [seriously] watching anime that spans the 70s-to-now since 1989). Even if you don’t watch anime or know what Cowboy Bebop is, just watch with an open mind+see what a little bit of quarantine collaboration can look+sound (amazingly) like...

New #fuckcovid19 recipe from the book up on that-there reddit https://bit.ly/CocoRicoVietFishSauce : Coco Rico Vietnamese Fish Sauce!! (2nd pic is... something someone asked for and was what we were preparing for in the last pic in our kitchen. Namely a GINORMOUS food feast+photo shoot we hosted+publicly invited anyone to for the book!) Oh, and sorry I haven’t posted much. I’m trying not to be a social media fiend like I used to be (aka I don’t really give a shit as muc...h these days LOL). ALSO, I realized the recipes on reddit weren’t easily printable so I went through all of them, created PDFs of all of them, updated all of them with links to the corresponding pdf and then created a master list of recipes+PDFs aka... I care too much about unimportant things. Back to the importance of the recipe: 1.I REALLY never thought of Coco Rico as soda (barely do even now) AND never knew it wasn’t an Asian product until I had to look it up for the book (it’s from Puerto Rico!) 2. I’m sure I sweat in Vietnamese Fish Sauce now having grown up with it for decades now. (Someone should make a short or movie about a future, cybernetic super human whose body is comprised of only fish sauce instead of water+blood and is the key to immortality... and FLAVOR- I’D WATCH THAT) I don’t have as much poignant babbling to say here, but this shit is SUPER DUPER good w/ anything that needs a savory SPLAAAAAAASH of flavor. - cred: @baomnguyen (For really like 99.76% of pics in the book; 1 was graciously from @theoffalo and like 1 or 2 crappy ones from me in there: guess which ones if you’re really bored ) @ Banana Suit Enterprises

Someone on Reddit asked us "Have you guys thought about going back into the restaurant business?" Photo cred (from the book): Bao Minh Nguyen When opening any restaurant, every concept, location (including Button Mash) and pop-up we've done+been a part of, I came to the realization that we're usually there every waking moment possible not because we HAVE to be there (as we, and all my colleagues, would love to complain and vent about), but it's honestly because we WANT to be ...Continue reading

New recipe up on reddit https://bit.ly/spambrusselsfriedrice + please check out the #savebuttonmash link too https://bit.ly/BMQBP - read my previous post if you missed info on : our Button Mash Spam Brussels Sprout Fried Rice which is a GREAT recipe to just read over to understand the philosophy (yeah, I used THAT word) on how to construct your own fried rice with whatever it is you have avail. Pics: Hainan Chicken search in Singapore (a little more story below, and ...a LOT more story [because I’m loquacious AF] if you ask me in person lol) Y’all should look at the recipe w/ this mindset: I don’t know enough history of fried rice (bad Asian food person?!?), but the basic thing I gather is... it’s great way to reuse uneaten (like when made at a home, just to be clear NOT at a restaurant ), unused rice to toss a shitload of leftovers together+make/Frankenstein something delicious really. This is like a (super fucking deliciously serious) evolution of our spam fried rice from our lunch days. We’ve gotten lots of compliments for it. (We also get weird trolls that claim to hate Spam... and yet they’ll unapologetically admit they’ve never had it, so weird... so sad... so much more Spam for all of us then) And on to the Hainan Chicken chronicles: my search (and growing obsession) w/ Hainan Chicken Rice in Singapore. The 1st set, the most famous one in all of Singapore. The 2nd set, the splinter family fighting faction competitor... that’s 2 stands down. The 3rd set, one that a 7-11 worker told me that if I don’t find+try that she would have no respect for me because this is where actual Hainanese people actually eat at that took me ALL DAY to find, and accidentally found in my last hours in Singapore - it’s solid. Serious #protip: take the 2 fighting families plates, and merge them. 1 makes better rice. (I can’t remember which one). 1 makes better chicken. Hopefully 1 day, they kiss, make up+Voltron their recipes for THE super Hainan Chicken plate Singapore (and ostensibly, the world, whenever we get opened up again post- #fuckCOVID19 that is) deserves cause together, it was like #foodwars (aka Shoukugeki no Soma) OR #godofcookery clothing exploding off my body DELICIOUS!! @ Maxwell Food Centre

About 8-9 years ago a fan emailed us this 7 page email about a crazy idea of a craft beer bar, arcade and Asian restaurant concept. In consistently SK-like impulsive fashion, I literally sent a 1 line email to the extent of Ok, let’s do it! And to be honest, it was one of the best, impulsive decisions we’ve made in our accidental career of #failingupwards. When this quarantine fell upon us, our staff (like many of you) got fucked in the process of this #fuckCOVID19 madness,... and my partners had to sadly lay off 30+ employees that make Button Mash live, breathe and exist today. Our close friends+big fans @adamrobezzoli + iam8bit independently came up with this idea, graciously and honestly really fucking thoughtfully put together this fundraiser to #savebuttonmash and our wonderfully, disfunctional family of staff hosts, servers, runners, bar and kitchen staff that I’ve worked with all these years (and some as far back as our lunch days!) Flip through the pics to see the different levels, and hit the link to find out more https://bit.ly/BMQBP It ends 4.22.20. There’s a LOT of great downloads (like GAMES+COMICS) and rare swag people amazingly donated from ppl like our book+restaurant illustrator @joseph_harmon and so many others like @amandavisell Double Fine Productions @a.wintory @jonvermilyea @jiojio_warudo @chrisprynoski and our friend @superphamicom including a digital version of a Button Mash-ONLY recipe edition of our book from us! Thanks for everyone’s support over the years, and if you can, we’d love you to support the people that makes us/SK/BM what we are today and we couldn’t do without.

Another in the #fuckCOVID19 free book recipe series posted+updated (with a shitload more detail) up on that-there reddit (and literally, one of my personal FAAAAAAAAVES we still make for catering, ourselves+on top of French fry nachos at @buttonmashla late-nights... unfortunately not at the moment): the Vietnamese Minced Beeftacular. Link https://bit.ly/VietMincedBeef (Pics of it over the years: at our home, Chinatown, Bunker Hill lunch days and a probably not-as-suc...cessful in a banh mi) SO... this dish in it’s entirety was one of our more complicated dishes to assemble during our Chinatown days and is a LOT of layers of flavor (sweet, savory, sour, crunchy, crispy, soft, rich, aromatic, refreshing and unctuous... is all I can think of at the moment ), but honestly NO ONE needs to prepare all that to enjoy it. The REASON I want to share this recipe is because if you just stick to the beef ‘Meat Marination’ in the recipe, its WAAAAAAAAY simpler, super tasty and can be used for a variety of ways including as simple as... with your favorite starch of choice (over medium grain rice w/an egg is mine). Feel free to ask any questions over there and I’ll get to you ASAP. If anyone decides to make the more grandiose+incredibly deeeelish version (especially using the fat from the cooked beef to stir-fry the rice #proMOVE )... Not sure how many ppl would be interested, but maybe the next recipe would be our version of the universal Vietnamese sauce of champions: Coco Rico Fish Sauce (Aka nuoc mam or nuoc cham if you will ) Also because it’s referenced in the recipe, and even though I posted it on Friday I’m just realizing now people might want to get that fish saaaaaauce too. Ok, it’s decided... unless someone changes my mind. Oh, and hang in there during this quarantine everyone! @ Banana Suit Enterprises