The Pittsburgh Dish

071 Food Journeys with Anika Chowdhury and Karen Hoang

• Doug Heilman • Season 2 • Episode 71

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Have you ever wondered what makes Bangladeshi cuisine distinctive in a world where "curry" often becomes the default descriptor for South Asian food? This week, we learn about the vibrant food culture of Bangladesh with Anika Chowdhury, food blogger and contestant from PBS's The Great American Recipe.

(01:04) Anika shares her Bangladesh – "a country obsessed with food" – where she grew up surrounded by passionate food conversations and deeply seasonal cooking. Unlike our American supermarkets where ingredients appear year-round, Anika describes the special anticipation of waiting for tomatoes in winter or mangoes before monsoon season. 

(16:17) Anika is on a mission to showcase Bangladeshi cuisine beyond curry dishes. She explains how the simple techniques of her culinary heritage make seemingly complex flavors accessible to home cooks everywhere. As proof, she walks us through preparing tomato bhorta, a versatile dish perfect for summer's tomato bounty. Find more Bangladeshi dishes on Anika's blog, Kitchen Gatherings. 

(23:53) We also welcome Karen Hoang as our newest contributor! This Vietnamese-American transplant shares her journey from rarely dining out as a child of immigrants to becoming one of Pittsburgh's most enthusiastic food explorers. And she has the social media content to prove it. 

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Doug:

Welcome to The Pittsburgh Dish. I'm your host, Doug Heilman. How well do you know Bangladeshi cuisine? This week we get a first-hand lesson from blogger and Great American Recipe alum, Anika Chowdhury, and later in the show we get to know a little bit more about our latest contributor, foodie and content creator, Karen Hoang, and where she's dining out. All that ahead, stay tuned. The Pittsburgh Dish is supported by Family Table, where they have a mission of bringing families back to the dinner table without all the hassle of cooking. Check out their latest menu at familytablepghcom and use code DISH20 to save on your first order. And now we're going to give a call to Anika Chowdhury, who lives in New York City, but we were still able to find a Pittsburgh connection.

Anika:

Hello Hi.

Doug:

Anika.

Anika:

Hey Doug, how are you? I'm great, how are?

Doug:

you, I'm great. How are you?

Anika:

I'm good.

Doug:

Thank you so much for taking some time to be on The Pittsburgh Dish and to talk with us. I have to say you know I'm so excited to see your journey. You were featured on season four of The Great American Recipe on PBS and I also have to say I've gotten to know you on social media and you have the most beautiful blog. Can you remind us what the name of that blog is?

Anika:

Yes, it's Kitchen Gatherings.

Doug:

Yes, kitchen Gatherings, and there are so many In one word yes all one word.

Anika:

Yeah, so I started the blog for two reasons. One was I wanted to represent Bangladeshi food and cuisine and especially here in the US, for people to be able to learn about it and cook the dishes easily. So I highlight usually simple, easy, replicable dishes. And the other one was I had lost both my parents to cancer and I was grieving at the time when I started the blog actually, and I didn't really think about it, but I think it was part of my grieving process because I wanted to share the stories of my bringing the beautiful life that they'd given us, and I'm like my husband and I don't have children, so I'm like who will I pass this on to? So you know their legacy right? So that was part of the reason I started the blog to share their stories, share the stories of my culture and the food.

Doug:

Thank you so much for that. You're passing it along to everyone and thank you so much for sharing all of that inspiration behind it.

Anika:

Thank you it is so touching.

Doug:

Thank you, anika. Could you just sort of remind our listeners your background, and you know where a lot of your cooking comes from.

Anika:

I grew up in Bangladesh. I was brought up in Bangladesh and I came to the US for college. I went to Brandeis University in Massachusetts. So I've spent, you know, more of my life in the US. But given that I was born there, I grew up there, that's where my ancestral you know all the ties that you have, right, so it's's my all my formative years, childhood memories, everything are associated with Bangladesh, right, and I still go back and it's you know, at this point I feel like I'm a multicultural person, right.

Karen:

It's not.

Anika:

Bangladesh. It's New York. I'm American, I'm Bangladeshi in both, so, anyways, food has always been a very deep part of my family, actually is a very big part of Bangladeshi culture you know it is for everyone around the world, but Bang especially, are extremely passionate about food.

Anika:

We can talk for hours about food, debating the finer points of each dish, having arguments, so, and and the whole country is like that. It's a country like, obsessed with food. I will say, our rituals, our holidays all revolve around food. Even our daily life. People will be talking about oh, what should we have for breakfast tomorrow, for lunch, for dinner? It's exciting, you know. So, coming from that culture, that background, and my family, it was part of our family too, so it's experiencing the food and enjoying it. Right, and our food is very seasonal as well.

Anika:

In the US, part of the luxury of being, you know, a rich country, you get food all year round kinds of food, whereas in Bangladesh, when I was growing up, things are changing obviously now as the world gets more modernized and globalized. But when I was growing up over there, food would be super seasonal in one or two months of the year, right? So certain things like especially staple vegetables here, like tomatoes or new potatoes, tomatoes would be available only in the winter. So you look forward to the two different parts months of the year, right. So you know. So, before monsoon comes, you're excited about, oh my God, mangoes will be in season, lychees will be in season, so it's extra special, exciting. You have to savor it at that time, otherwise it's gone.

Anika:

Same thing with, like, there's so many greens, and you know that's one of the things that people don't realize. You know, one of the, I think, beauties of Bangladesh is the type, many types of greens we have. So, geographically, bangladesh is a very fertile part of the world. It's the plains by the Bay of Bengal. So all the big rivers of South Asia, the Himalayas, all the big rivers of South Asia, the Himalayas, flow through the rest of South Asia and they all go through Bangladesh to end up in the Bay of Bengal, and so, like all the flooding that happens, you know, every year, just because the rivers, when they're going through, with the rains and the monsoon, they flood and they, you know.

Doug:

It like re.

Anika:

I'm gonna say it adds nutrition back to the soil every year exactly, exactly that would be the natural process. The land would become more fertile with the, you know, with the soil, and then, as a result of that, we are able to grow in a small amount of land all kinds of stuff. So we do have a huge variety of greens and other vegetables that happen throughout the year. We have all kinds of fishes, because it is yeah it's a land of rivers, basically right.

Anika:

So fish is a very big part of Bangladeshi food and it's one of our staples. You know it's a predominantly Muslim country, so about 80% or more it's Muslim. So meat, obviously you know we eat meat beef, chicken but for the average Bangladeshi the meat isn't that huge part of the staple diet because it's expensive.

Anika:

So it's sort of just an additional ingredient and even sometimes like a flavoring, not like the main event ingredient and even sometimes like a flavoring, not like the main event, right, except, you know, obviously, people who have the money, then it is a staple, you know, in the household. But yeah, for a large number of people it's not right, so it's like. So it is like, uh, you celebrate the occasions with the. You know, vegetables, lentils, grains, rice, you, those are the more featured ingredients actually.

Doug:

Yeah, I'm g oing to bring us back a little bit, Anika, because I want to make sure that we're talking about you too.

Anika:

Yes, I get so excited about Bangladesh, sorry oh no, I love it.

Doug:

You've given us such a robust description of the food you know, of your culture, where you've come from, then you've been able to marry into this world of the States where food is, you know, strangely not as seasonal as you were used to when you were competing on the show. You know what were some cultural things. You wanted to bring on The Great American Recipe, to bring on The Great American Recipe.

Anika:

Well, going into the show, one of the big things was I did want to highlight a Bangladeshi cuisine and the diversity of Bangladeshi cuisine right, the breadth of it.

Anika:

So if you watch the episodes, you'll see I'm not making curries every episode, right, and there's two dishes each episode.

Anika:

I've only, in all of those, I've only made one curry dish, which is the chicken curry and my dad's specialty right.

Anika:

Everything else is not a curry and most people, I think, when they think of that part of the world, they only think of curries, so they think, oh, India and Bangladesh, because it's right next door, very similar as curries, but no that we have many other kinds of food and I actually did not other than chana dal and luchi, which was one of the things I made in the one episode because of the themes of the episode I didn't really focus heavily on, you know, like a simple vegetable dish. But, as I said, like those are some of the stars and those are the ones that are like very much easy crossover foods that you know Americans can make very, very easily, and I use actually most of my blog I dedicate to simple recipes that can be replicated very easily in the US by, you know, anyone and Bangladeshi cuisine. Actually, one of the things is, if you know the basic tricks right, or the tips rather and techniques, then it's super easy to cook right.

Anika:

It's just all about the technique, because a lot of it. Once you know the technique, you get it and then you can make a lot of dishes and you'll get the right flavor. And it's not hard, it's actually quite simple at the end of the day.

Doug:

I love that you went into the competition, really thinking about broadening the common person's view of what Bangladeshi cuisine can be view of what Bangladeshi cuisine can be.

Anika:

Yeah, absolutely so. You know, when PBS reached out to me first of all, I never imagined being on TV. My blog is just millions and millions of food bloggers out there, right, I thought it's only my friends and people I know who read my blog. I've never imagined something like this. Now that I've been on it, I'm definitely more comfortable with putting myself out there, and I love to do, you know, more things to get people to know and understand. You know cuisine and you know there's so many other parts of it. Right, but going into the show, I did think about it because, like, here's this opportunity to represent Bangladeshi food to Americans, and the great thing about The Great American Recipe and PBS is it's not a normal cooking show. That you think of cooking competitions, right, where it's like it's pure competition, this is a competition. But I think that there's things about the show that make it much beyond a competition, right, because here, right, you're understanding, like America is a fabric of so many different cultures. You know, people think of American food as the traditional food that has been brought over by Europeans, eastern Europeans, right, like 100 years ago. But America keeps changing it's. It's like a very vibrant. I mean, that's one of the exciting things about America, right, it's such a vibrant country and the country is always changing, the mix of people are changing and it's always regenerating in a way, right, so I think that, yeah, so that that by itself was super exciting.

Anika:

Like, here we are, we're Bangladeshis, we are part of America and you know, new York alone, there's about 100,000 Bangladeshis. So it's not, we're not a small population anymore. We're growing, right, and Bangladeshis offer so much to the US, yet we never have any representation in US media. If you think about it, you never see Bangladeshis on US TV, right, you never come across Bangladeshi food on us tv, right, you never come across bangladeshi food on us tv. So that's why, when pbs reached out, like this is a really great opportunity for my fellow americans to understand here we are, we are part of america, we exist and we have a lot of beautiful things to offer, right, like you know, check out bangladeshi's, check out our culture, and I'm sure you know if you try it you'll enjoy it, right.

Anika:

So that was part of my goals and, like you know, being on The Great American Recipe.

Doug:

An ika, thank you so much for that. I don't know if I gave that much thought when I went on the show, but really you've done. You know such good forethought to what you were going to bring to the show. I did want to just add you know such good forethought to what you were going to bring to the show, I did want to just add. You know, I've been watching the show and of course I fell in love with all of you. Your personality comes across as so chill. You seemed very relaxed throughout all the competitions.

Anika:

Oh my God, oh, I don't really know what to say about that. Oh my God, I don't really know what to say about that.

Doug:

Well, I will just say you put out a demeanor that just seems like okay, I've got this, I know what's going on, let's roll with it.

Anika:

Yeah, well, part of it is, I think, professionally. You know I've been doing project management for years, right, so it's a lot of high stress situations, you know, because at the end of the day, you know when you're in charge of managing projects that will have huge impacts and lots of things can go wrong, right. So A it's planning, but it's also being able to pivot always right, and able to find solutions. Where there are problems, you find solutions. I think, having been doing that for years and years in my career, like you, find solutions. I think, having been doing that for years and years in my career, like you know, it definitely allows you to deal with high stress situations.

Doug:

It really helped you on the show, I think, several times. I do want to bounce around a little bit too. I want to let, if you don't mind, I want to let our listeners know there is a Pittsburgh connection right with you. Do I understand this correctly? Your husband went to Carnegie Mellon?

Anika:

Yes, he did so, my husband Chuck. He went to Carnegie Mellon for his undergrad program. Here's the interesting thing you know, people think of Carnegie Mellon so much as a science-y, you know tech school, right, but he did creative writing over there. And so, yes, when I met him and we were both in graduate school at Syracuse at that point, he was also over there in the creative writing program, like as a poet. You know, now he's in advertising, another creative field, but transitioning into more of a practical life. But yes, so he went to Carnegie Mellon. I heard a lot about Carnegie Mellon, obviously in our young days, and then, once we moved to New York, we did a trip to Carnegie Mellon with a whole bunch of his friends who had also gone to Carnegie Mellon.

Anika:

You know, because one of his best friends who used to live very close to us. We saw him literally almost every other day and now he just moved to upstate New York recently. But he's my husband's best friend and the two of them had met in Carnegie Mellon. So that just kind of like tells you a little bit about how deep those friendships can go right. And it seemed like, oh, such a great city. We, how deep those friendships can go right, and it seemed like, oh, such a great city. We did a road trip. I think it was like a whole car full of people, right, this was years ago and we went there and I was just like, wow, it's beautiful.

Doug:

You know I love the hilly aspect of it. Yes, we definitely have those. There's a lot of separation of neighborhoods in a good way. Like you, you know, I've lived here for many decades and I still discover a new neighborhood just over a hill or across a bridge or something. And we're actually recording right now. You and I are recording not too far away from CMU itself.

Anika:

Yeah, so it's like I remember the hills, the views, the rivers, the bridges. You know, there's so many interesting things and I think one of the things I remember the Andy Warhol Museum.

Karen:

Oh yeah, Wasn't that that's?

Anika:

true, we went there. We had such a great time over there, you know. So it's like a lot of us love art, so that was one of the things we did.

Doug:

We obviously ate a lot of good food as well.

Anika:

Oh, good to hear. Yeah, we had. I remember them, as this was years ago. I remember them as something like a cheesesteak, like a Philly cheesesteak, but it wasn't a Philly cheesesteak, it was like the Pittsburgh version and my husband told me it was very famous and they used to eat a lot of it when they were in college.

Doug:

Was this the Primanti sandwich? Did it have French fries on it?

Anika:

I think so. It was a bit odd, but it was tasty. Oh good, good, yeah. So I remember that I was like it's not something I would have ever imagined or thought of, but it was definitely tasty.

Doug:

Well, Anika, speaking of tasty, I was wondering if you could give our Pittsburgh Dish listeners a recipe of yours. I know the gardens are just bursting with a lot of items. Could we talk about a recipe that you might have up on your blog right now?

Anika:

Yeah, absolutely so. Oddly enough, this week is tomato week. I don't know if you know. In the farmer's markets near me they were all saying tomato week. So I don't know if it's a national tomato week or just New York state.

Karen:

Yeah.

Anika:

But tomatoes are all over at this time, obviously, you know, and especially northeastern United States and Pittsburgh, even central, most places, right, it's like the height of the tomato season.

Karen:

Yes.

Anika:

And I love farmer's markets. I actually do some gardening in a community garden and my neighbor is growing tomatoes in his plot, so tomatoes are the right thing at this point. I think that's right. So I have a very simple tomato recipe on my blog.

Karen:

Okay.

Anika:

It's called tomato bhortha and I'll just give you a little bit of background. It's a Bangladeshi dish. Bhortas are very, I would say, ubiquitous all over Bangladesh and it's one of those things that everyone eats, you know, rich, poor, whatever, like. It's very affordable, very easy, and bhorta basically means it's a smashed vegetable usually but, you can make it out of fish as well.

Anika:

The whole concept around the porta is you take a vegetable, you either cook it or even the raw vegetable you know, depends on the type of vegetable, right and if it's fish, you cook it, you smash it and it's like crumbled, smashed, and then you mix it with shallots, a little bit of mustard oil. We love mustard oil in bamboos, yes, bengali saying it adds a little zing. But, you know, if you don't have mustard oil or you know you don't like the zinginess of it, you can use olive oil, and then it's just salt and a little bit of pepper, and the pepper I'll talk about. So it's very simple and we, as I said, we make bortas from all kinds of things and tomato borta. It's, I think, very easy to make, obviously in the US, and it's one of those things that translates well across cultures, right? The way I would describe it.

Anika:

It's a bit similar to salsa because, again, it's smashed, but it's different from salsa. So, while it's similar, you can use it, you know, as kind of a dip with your tortilla chips. If you want, you can have it as an accompaniment to whatever you have on your plate, like with fish or grilled chicken. It'll go with a whole bunch of things. Traditionally in Bangladesh, we just eat it with plain rice, and we have other food items on the plate as well. Right, it just goes with so many different things.

Doug:

It's very versatile.

Anika:

Yeah, so it's tomatoes. Shallots you can use red onions. I like to use shallots, because we actually call shallots onions in Bangladesh, but, yeah, I love the taste of shallots. Red chilies, the dried red chilies. If you don't have dried red chilies, you can use green chilies as well, doesn't matter, but the dried red chilies actually will add more flavor, and I'll describe that Cilantro, as I said mustard oil, a little bit of vegetable oil and then salt and a tiny bit of sugar. That's it.

Doug:

So it's super simple. Let me just ask a quick question, Anika, Would you in this application with like really ripe tomatoes this week, would you cook the tomatoes or would you leave them raw? What would you prefer?

Anika:

I would cook them.

Doug:

You would yeah.

Anika:

Yes, them raw. What would you prefer? I would cook them. You would, yeah, yes, and I'll tell you what. So you know, you start off with just charring the red peppers, the dried red peppers, and that it's important, because you just char it on dry, like take a small pan.

Doug:

Yes, heat it up, toast them a bit.

Anika:

And just, yes, toast them, right, like toast them on each side till they're charred, because that will give you a very smoky flavor and that's what makes it super delicious, right. So it's a little bit of heat but more of the smokiness. Then you move that in the same pan. You could add the garlic cloves, peel the garlic cloves and also, like, put in like a little teaspoon of oil. So you're like kind of cooking it in the oil for a few minutes till it browns on each side, but don't smash it, because smashing you know, like, changes the whole flavor.

Anika:

It'll make it more intense.

Anika:

You just want it to be caramelized garlic, yes, and then, once you remove the garlic also, now you put your tomatoes in and those tomatoes like add another spoon of oil.

Anika:

Then you cover the pan and you keep cooking the tomatoes till it starts disintegrating, right. And that process actually caramelizes the tomatoes. Like covering and cooking it over the heat on each side caramelizes it and also makes it like much sweeter than it normally is, becomes more concentrated, right. So that's why, like it's nice to cook it that way, and then, once, like it started disintegrating, I help it along to speed up the process. At that point, first I like just, uh, take a fork and remove the skin as it's cooking, because it's easier than waiting for it to cool down, you know, and then just like, smash it. So which helps, like helps it cook, right, like you just smash, because ultimately you'll have to smash it anyway, and then smash it and then, like wait for the liquid to evaporate, because that's what makes it concentrated. So if you like start with like five large tomatoes, then you'll end up with about a cup of the huerta.

Doug:

Okay.

Anika:

Then at that point you remove it, wait for it to cool down and then add shallots. So you can add shallots. You can do like minced and sliced I like to do sliced but you can do raw, or you can do a mix of raw and cooked. I like to do a mix of raw and cooked. So, like, once I remove the tomatoes, I'll cook the shallots a little bit, half the shallots, so I'll have slightly, like you know, more of like a golden-y taste of the shallots, right, which is like nice, but I want to have the sharp raw taste of the shallots, a little bit of a mix. And then at that point, like you have the shallots, you add in crumble the dried chilies, add that in, add in the garlic, smash that, mix it all well together, put in some chopped cilantro on top salt and then you're done. That's easy.

Doug:

Sounds so delicious. Thank you so much and you've given us such a good step by step. But folks can also find this recipe right now on your blog and let's just remind them again, it's kitchengatheringscom. All one word.

Anika:

But I also have a whole bunch of recipes. You can click on recipes on the blog and I'm also, if people want to find me on Instagram. It's the same thing kitchen gatherings. I love it and I called my blog kitchen gatherings because usually over the years as I cook dinners for my friends you know I live in Manhattan, so it's not a huge house or anything, it's an apartment and people always gather around as I'm cooking in my kitchen.

Anika:

In the kitchen, yes, in the kitchen, part right. So it's like, oh my God, these are my kitchen gatherings. I love that. So that's how the blog name came about, Anika Chowdhury.

Doug:

it has been such a pleasure to talk with you about your culture, your time on the Great American Recipe, and this recipe sounds delicious. I cannot wait to make it.

Anika:

Oh, thank you, Doug. I hope you do, and I hope your listeners will try it as well. It's really delicious and it's super easy.

Doug:

Oh, I'm looking forward to it. Anika, thanks so much for spending time with us today and thanks for being on The Pittsburgh Dish.

Anika:

Thank you, Doug, for having me on the show. It really has been an honor and I'm so excited to be on PBS on The Great American Recipe. Thank you for everything.

Doug:

Thanks again.

Anika:

Thank you Bye.

Doug:

Bye, bye. We'll put a link to Anika's recipe for tomato bhorta on our blog at wwwpittsburghdishcom. Up next, let's get to know our latest Pittsburgh Dish contributor, Karen Hoang. So why don't we just do a couple of getting to know questions and then we'll go into some recommendations? Okay, sounds good. Thank you so much for coming over and for being on the show.

Karen:

Oh my gosh, thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it.

Doug:

Yeah, would you introduce yourself to our listeners and what you have going on in the world of food?

Karen:

Okay, so hello everyone. My name is Karen Hoang. A little background about me. So I'm Vietnamese American, I was born here but my parents were immigrants. They came over during the Vietnam war so that really shaped my palate, I think, and kind of like my viewpoint with food. But I was born on the West side of Cleveland. I came here for school went to. Pittsburgh.

Doug:

Yes, hail to Pitt.

Karen:

I know you went to Penn State, that's okay. Hail to Pitt. I'm a Pitt girly, what can I say? And I kind of stayed here and in the last few years I would say I really started to appreciate food a bit more, Like growing up. You know, my parents were very frugal.

Doug:

And that's totally fair.

Karen:

Immigrants not a lot of money?

Doug:

Sure, first generation, exactly, so they're learning the culture fresh.

Karen:

Yeah, so growing up you know we definitely ate more at home than like eating out. I didn't really eat out until I became an adult with adult money.

Anika:

Really.

Karen:

Yes, wow, yeah, so we ate out like occasionally, especially when we visited, like my mom's side of the family. So they my mom's side immigrate to Montreal actually. So my mom's side of the family, so they, my mom's side immigrate to Montreal actually so my mom's side of the family.

Doug:

She's the youngest of eight, so I have 18 first cousins, which is that's a really fun family yes, but overwhelming.

Karen:

And uh yeah, we definitely ate out when we went to Montreal. And oh Montreal, if you haven't been beautiful place, so much good food that French influence up there.

Doug:

I love French food. Can I just rewind, though? I would love to know a little bit about your family food or home food. Are there some dishes that you grew up with that are you know really from your culture that you still you crave like if you're going home? This is the dish I want.

Karen:

Oh sure, this is so basic, uh, but everyone loves pho. There's nothing like a warm bowl of pho on a cold, blistery day, um, so that is one of my go-tos. But if you want to get on a different level, uh, you have Bun Bo Hue, which is I don't know this.

Doug:

Can you say that again?

Karen:

Bun Bo Hue Bun Bo Hue it is um like pho, but elevated and better. If you like spice and I love spice. I'm a spicy girl. I highly recommend trying Bun Bo Hue if you haven't, I really like Bang Xiao, which is almost like a Vietnamese pancake, so that's so good. I also love Bung, which is, I guess, like vermicelli noodles, so perfect for a hot day.

Doug:

They're served chilled. Yes, exactly so. That's why they're perfect for a hot day, because when it's 92 degrees out Right now, we are recording on a hot day and Karen graciously walked over to the studio.

Karen:

You're so grateful. I brave the mother nature.

Doug:

for you, it's warm out.

Karen:

yeah, it's spicy out here.

Doug:

Since you've got to Pittsburgh, is there a Vietnam spot that you will visit now?

Karen:

So I really like Banh Mi and Ti in Lawrenceville. I think that's a go-to for my people. I like their Banh my. I'm so salty though, because obviously there's not like a huge Vietnamese population in. Pittsburgh, but you can go to like Seattle and get like a good bánh mì for like six dollars, which is definitely not the case here, unfortunately, but I am grateful they exist, because I will not be making my own bánh mì and making my own, like you know, bread and everything like that Now.

Doug:

do you like to cook at home to any degree?

Karen:

So not really. I joke with everyone. I haven't cooked at home since 2021. Like I made like basic stuff, like fried rice which.

Karen:

I think doesn't count. So, like before 2020, I didn't really cook. But then pandemic hit and then I was like I have so much time, I'm going to make all this stuff. And I made some stuff. I made homemade crab cakes, I made chicken noodle soup from scratch, simmered the stock for like four hours and it's fun, but very labor intensive and also, you know, cooking for one, it's kind of like not to eat chicken noodle soup for like the next, like two weeks of my life.

Doug:

Yeah, you either need to cut recipes in half or be able to I don't know freeze it or something.

Karen:

Exactly.

Doug:

So you can cook.

Karen:

I can cook.

Doug:

But you choose to go out often. I choose to be a hometown hero and support my local businesses which is why I've met up with you in real life, but also see that your Instagram feed is that mainly where you live is Instagram.

Karen:

Yeah, and basically I do do some TikTok. A lot of my TikTok content is similar to my Instagram content, except, you know, I I have an interesting unhinged sense of humor at times, and sometimes I supplement that on my TikTok.

Doug:

I got you, it seems much more. This girl's going out and having a lot of great food on Instagram.

Karen:

Yes, that is correct, which is how we have connected and, karen, speaking of how we've met.

Doug:

I'm also big on Instagram in terms of like, following everyone that's into food, the restaurants, the people that like to go to the restaurants. Your handle is simply your name, karenhuang. Am I saying that right? Okay, yes, I've noticed that, especially in the last few weeks, I feel like you're just posting, and posting, and posting. When did that all really get started, where you started to focus on creating content around food?

Karen:

It actually kind of started when I met our mutual friend, Alex. Alex eats too much. Oh yeah, Alex Goodstein, exactly. So we met at a Pittsburgh Young Professionals event and we looked at each other and we're like wait a second, I think I follow you on Instagram. And then he was like I'm going to turn you into a food blogger.

Karen:

I got this Because before that I posted casually. I'd be like oh look, here's some food, but no consistency, no, any sort of like. This is what I like. This is not what I didn't like. Here's some descriptions. So I started getting more, a little bit more, into the foodie world in Pittsburgh, which has been a blast. Like just meeting people like you and everyone I've met has been lovely, and I love when foodie friends become real friends.

Karen:

Exactly, which is amazing. So love that for me and I always have people to go out to eat with now.

Doug:

Yes, and we actually like to eat yes. Like you go somewhere and it's not like, oh, I'm just going to have that one piece of the appetizer. No, we're going to fight for that. No, no, no, no, no.

Karen:

The plate is clean, no, so Alex hates this. Most of my other friends have resigned themselves to this fate, or they're they love it. I usually make everyone family style, so I like to eat like a little bit of everything, like I want to try everything. When I go to a new restaurant I'm like, yeah, oh, my gosh, everything looks so good but I can't eat just like a ton of one dish. Therefore, it behooves my friends to let me order for the table and we all get a little bit of everything and, honestly, it's the way I do it. You get to try so many things and it's like a lot less expensive per person than you think it will be.

Doug:

It certainly can be Right. All right. So we know that the name of the show is The Pittsburgh Dish. I'm going to put you on the spot.

Karen:

Okay.

Doug:

Because you do like to go out often. What was the best dish you have eaten this past week?

Karen:

Oh, this past week you caught me on an off week, oh gosh. Okay, well, this is slightly past one week, um, but we went to UMI um, which is in Shadyside. It's above Soba and Mr Shu, who runs it. What have you? Um, fantastic, like we did. The Omakase is 18 courses. Wow, it was amazing. I loved it. I loved everything about it.

Karen:

And there was this uh, roasted black cod, I believe oh just so flavorful, and then you feel healthy because it's just fish, right, it's just protein yeah, each course is kind of reasonably smaller, so you can eat a lot exactly which we know I love to do. Um, but yeah, I really appreciate trying like all these different types of fish and it's like amazing what you can do with like different cuts of fish, but also like different sauces, different plating and presentation um so the whole meal was fantastic, but I think about that all the time.

Doug:

Well, umi is has been killing it for years, so I'm glad to hear that you just had a great experience again. Exactly, karen, thanks so much and thanks for being on The Pittsburgh Dish.

Karen:

No problem, thank you.

Doug:

We're looking forward to more of Karen's recommendations on future episodes, and be sure to give her Instagram handle a follow. That's Karen Hoang. If you enjoyed the show, consider buying us a coffee for this episode or supporting the show monthly. You can find links to those options at the bottom of our show description, and if you want to follow my own food adventures, you can find me on social media at Doug Cooking. That's our show for this week. Thanks again to all of our guests and contributors and to Kevin Solecki of Carnegie Accordion Company for providing the music to our show. We'll be back again next week with another fresh episode. Stay tuned.

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Douglas Heilman

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