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Our Ocean Table Season 1 Episode 2
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00:07this is our food table seafood is the foundation of so many of our favorite dishes and we love
00:15eating I'm Sonia I'm a filmmaker and ocean nerd I live on Vancouver Island and my favorite place
00:26is underwater I'm Hannah I'm a journalist and producer in Toronto and I was a reporter on
00:34much music in the 2000s have you ever had anything fly from the ocean like this before
00:43Koreans around the world are tied to the ocean through food but overfishing and climate change
00:50threaten our oceans what does it mean for our culture if our favorite foods disappear
00:55together we're traveling across Western Canada to meet the harvesters and chefs behind some of the
01:01most iconic Korean dishes dive in as we learn more about the science sustainability and culture behind
01:09our favorite foods welcome to our ocean table this is Bokuk seaweed soup Bokuk is usually made with a
01:23rich beef broth garlic and of course lots of seaweed which gives it a delicious umami flavor you'll find
01:31miyokuk served at traditional Korean spas or eaten as a casual home meal it's a Korean health food full
01:38of iodine iron and vitamins we also eat it on our birthday it's like Korean birthday cake
01:53my god this is my favorite food that's good I heard it was your birthday recently it was my birthday
02:02happy birthday
02:03thank you my mom made me this every year for my birthday and even when I'm away she's like did
02:09you eat
02:09miyokuk I always thought of it as a birthday soup until I had a baby and I realized it's actually
02:15a postpartum
02:16soup because my mom brought it to our front door every day I had miyokuk for a whole month I
02:23see how integral
02:24it is to that childbirth experience for Korean women the soup connects us to our moms actually
02:31that's why it's a birthday soup most of the miyokuk I've had in my life I've eaten at home so
02:37whenever
02:37I eat it I think about my mom I feel like our Korean moms do so much for us that
02:43I think there's also a
02:44lot of expectations strongly communicated expectations for sure as a teenager I had a very hard relationship
02:51with my mom she had really high expectations and she wanted me to do certain things and I just didn't
02:58listen I mean my parents definitely had very strong high standards for me all I want to do is tell
03:09stories and that's not really on an immigrants resume of what they want their children to do but I'm so
03:16glad that I do what I do because I'm always just trying to understand my own story and my family's
03:22story and my cultural history I just want to rewrite the ideas of what it means to be Korean and
03:29I think
03:30a lot about who gets to tell which stories and why inclusion matters so much those questions keep me
03:37going Hannah and I grew up eating miyokuk with beef but beef can have big environmental impacts is it
03:45possible for our mom's version of this dish to be sustainable I know miyokuk can have a beef broth
03:53and base but miyok is basically seaweed this is seaweed soup Korea has one of the biggest seaweed
04:00mariculture not surprising considering how much of it we eat Koreans have been growing seaweed since the
04:071600s now Korea's seaweed farms are so big you can see them from space the main ingredient in
04:15miyokuk is one of the most sustainable foods from the ocean seaweed and kelp are happy to grow with just
04:22sunlight and nutrients in the water seaweed farms are increasing on the west coast of Canada and this
04:28humble food has unexpected potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and cattle we're heading
04:36to Alberta the beef capital of Canada to learn more but first we want to learn where do the Koreans
04:42hang
04:44out this is the Calgary Korean cultural center a place for learning and creating art and gathering as a community
05:01So what do you want to learn today?
05:03How do you want to learn this?
05:04What do you want to learn today?
05:07What is your favorite thing?
05:09How do you learn today?
05:10I'll learn the greatest humanities level of the Hebrew Japanese food.
05:10Wissenschaft?
05:12Like soup.
05:15Not that?лет's
05:16not that. Spilling
05:17is different. 중�
05:19중�
05:20중�
05:21중�
05:22Oh my
05:22gosh, I have to keep going or else I'll end up. No,
05:26no, no. Forget it
05:26all. Yeah.
05:27Yeah.
05:29We didn't just come here to learn the janggu.
05:32We also wanted to meet Anna Ko, who was part of the first wave of Korean immigration to
05:37Calgary in the 1970s.
05:39That time, 1974, we don't have any grocery store, Calgary grocery store.
05:44For Korean food.
05:45Korean food, yeah.
05:47So we don't have any miyok, unless you can bring it from Korea.
05:51It would have been really difficult to figure out how to make miyokguk without your mom,
05:56without the internet, without the right ingredients.
05:59Yeah.
06:00It would have been really hard.
06:01Yeah.
06:01When we was young and your mother made miyokguk, and you don't know how to do it, but your
06:07memory has that taste.
06:09Food is a memory, and you eat with your memory, and then you can be able to do it.
06:15It's like once you tasted your childhood, you were like, ah, yes, this is how you do it.
06:20That's right.
06:21It's really cool to see places like this and play the drums, because it's the only
06:26stuff I've seen on TV.
06:27That's why we're starting the art club, because we like to keep the generation to
06:32our culture.
06:32You're also running the Korean Women's Association.
06:37At the beginning, it was a few ladies, and what I think about in 1976, I believe, sharing
06:43information and sharing about food.
06:46You started it.
06:47Yeah, I started it.
06:48Yeah.
06:49How do you feel it supports Korean women specifically to be involved in community?
06:55As you know, Korean women is not involving other than family.
07:00They don't have an opportunity.
07:02They don't have anything.
07:03I talk to them.
07:05My experience, don't shame about the situation.
07:09That's not your fault.
07:10When you talk about it, you discuss about it, you can see the way you can learn, and you
07:16have a different life.
07:17Your life is your life, not somebody else's, even kids.
07:30Your one voice is not strong enough.
07:33If you have two and more, you're going to be stronger and better.
07:41It was so refreshing being in the cultural center surrounded by so many powerful Korean
07:46women, especially Anna.
07:49She's creating a space for Koreans to come together and enjoy our culture, and going against the
07:55expectation that we have to be a certain way to be good Korean women.
08:01I felt so welcomed and accepted there, exactly as I am.
08:07It was unexpected to feel so connected to my culture in Calgary.
08:28Do you remember the first time when you were telling your parents, I'm going to be a journalist?
08:34It was like, oh, art or writing, those things are for your hobbies.
08:40Nobody does that for a living, you know?
08:42In a really roundabout way, I say I did the thing that my mom didn't want me to do.
08:47In the beginning, I kind of did what my mom wanted me to do, which was go into marine biology.
08:53But that's only because what I actually wanted to do was go into art.
08:57And now I do film.
09:00Until the day they saw me on TV, I think they were asking me to go to law school.
09:05I landed a job at Much Music, which was my first full-time job.
09:11You seem to have this up together.
09:13Uh, oh, hell no.
09:14It was super fun, but it was also very stressful.
09:18And then on top of that, the racial representation pressure was not what I expected, I guess.
09:25People would talk about me and be like, you're the Asian one.
09:28Like, I felt like, is my name the Asian one?
09:32Someone's going to be very proud of seeing you on TV, but then other people are just going to reduce
09:38you to the racial stereotypes that already exist.
09:41I had all these rules for myself, like, I would never take pictures of myself with the people that I
09:47interviewed, the celebrities.
09:48I would never get their signatures, except for Usher from my present.
09:51I would never act like a fan.
09:55And sometimes I look back and I was like, girl, you should have had more fun.
10:00Okay, well, have you been to a kill form before?
10:04I have not spent a lot of time at a ranch.
10:07In fact, zero time.
10:08I've spent zero time at a ranch in the past.
10:10I've also never been to a ranch.
10:12If I can cuddle a cow, that would be great.
10:15I'll get close if I must.
10:20Koreans love beef.
10:22So much that it's a gift for special occasions.
10:26But cows also burp methane, which is a greenhouse gas.
10:30As meat consumption increases around the world, this also means increased climate change.
10:36What if we could use the power of the ocean to reduce cows' methane emissions?
10:41Maybe we can have our beef and eat it too, but with less environmental impacts.
10:57I want to get on a horse.
11:13I am rarely not near ocean, so I'm very out of my elements right now.
11:19How important is ranching to Calgary culture, Alberta culture?
11:25The cows will go out and graze in places where we can't farm.
11:28So in the coolies where the hills are too steep, you know, places where the ground is too dry,
11:33if you broke it up to raise crops, it would blow away.
11:37And that's why cattle are so well-suited here.
11:40You've been in this business a long time.
11:42You were saying, how long exactly?
11:44Our family's been in this business for 120 years.
11:48Wow.
11:49Yeah.
11:50My only contact with beef is as a very final product, right?
11:54I buy it at the supermarket or I eat it at a restaurant.
11:57Yeah.
11:58And I'm wondering from your perspective at the beginning of the process,
12:00what do you wish people knew about beef?
12:03Anybody that I know in this business, they take very good care of their cattle.
12:08And it's part of why we love doing it.
12:11You know, just love for animals.
12:14Well, looking back over all the years that you've been doing this,
12:17how has it changed?
12:18Like with our conversations on sustainability, how has the way that you do things,
12:24how have they changed?
12:25The livestock industry gets slammed for methane
12:29and there's scientists that are working to find ways to have cattle create less emissions.
12:35And in everything, we look to improve.
12:39Kelp on the BC coast is making waves.
12:42Here in Alberta.
12:44On a farm?
12:46Koreans think of seaweed as a food.
12:49But scientists like Spencer are using seaweed in unexpected ways
12:53to look for innovative solutions for climate change.
12:56Kelp is a natural resource.
12:57It's sustainable and it has a bunch of different uses that can be world changing.
13:04Everyone is really interested in methane reducing seaweed additives.
13:07Methane reducing seaweed additives.
13:10Yeah.
13:10So that's a thing?
13:11Oh, it's a big thing.
13:12It's a specific type of red seaweed that was found in Australia by a Canadian.
13:18Maybe.
13:18Canadians helped.
13:19But it was shown that one or two percent of this seaweed reduced methane 99%.
13:25So to zero.
13:26Wow.
13:27It's a big deal.
13:28So the kelp industry that's growing in Canada, have they been shown to do the same thing,
13:33have benefits to beef?
13:35So they're growing sugar kelp, Saccharina latissima.
13:38They're growing things like a winged kelp, Alleria marginata.
13:42And then they're growing giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrophera.
13:45There's been some really cool work even out here in Alberta that are showing that you can actually kind of
13:49take that seaweed and you can manipulate it and actually support the growth of the molecules that lead to reduction
13:57in methane.
13:58A lot of people are looking at kelp because to grow it is to create all of these environments for
14:03fish and that pulls carbon dioxide out of the ocean.
14:06So there's environmental benefits.
14:08So everyone said let's grow kelp.
14:10But nobody's buying fresh kelp on the west coast.
14:13So there isn't an industry based around that.
14:16So I've been very fortunate to find, you know, innovative farmers who are willing to take a shot on a
14:22kind of crazy scientist like me.
14:23But it's early days.
14:27There's no seatbelt.
14:28There is.
14:29We don't use it.
14:31Then fine, I won't either.
14:39I know, you're thinking I'm silly, but I'm just, this is my first time.
14:44So what can I say?
14:45This is awesome.
14:46This is also the way I drive in Toronto.
14:53The world's slowest tractor driving.
14:59What do you think?
15:00I think you scared away the cows.
15:02It's not every day that I find myself on a cattle ranch.
15:06I just really wanted to hear from Rob.
15:09Everything he could tell us about what it's like to raise cattle.
15:13The higher on the food chain, the more special it should be.
15:16I want to eat more kelp.
15:18I want to eat more seaweed.
15:19It's my culture anyway.
15:21It's, and I want to eat more of that.
15:26We're heading back to town to try out a fancy chef version of Miyokuk.
15:31In a century old heritage building in Calgary, Chef Jinhee Lee is redefining a Korean woman's role in the kitchen.
15:43Because I'm Asian and a woman, sometimes really underestimated in the kitchen.
15:49So I just want to prove myself.
15:51So I do a lot of competition.
15:54I never plan to the Top Chef Canada.
15:57I just want to prove myself.
16:00Here I am, and I can do better than you guys.
16:05Previously, I just focused on the tweezer, really high-end food.
16:10This time, I just truly believe the flavor.
16:13So it's more simple, but it's a full flavor.
16:17People can come in anytime, and I enjoy food.
16:21This is the fanciest Miyokuk I've ever seen.
16:27Do you like it?
16:27So good.
16:28Oh my god.
16:29Welcome to our food.
16:31My mom also makes Miyokuk with a beef broth.
16:34Is that the standard?
16:35As Korean relationship with beef is a luxury.
16:39I think it is a special day.
16:42The mom usually puts a little more effort.
16:44Every year, my mom is making special Miyokuk for me.
16:48I was in high school, and I think she forgot.
16:51To make Miyokuk for you on your birthday?
16:53It does.
16:54We prepared the exam for Sunung.
16:58Yes.
16:59It's a very big deal.
17:00Yeah, it's a bad deal.
17:01This one is really, like, slimy, and she thought it's going to be really bad luck for your exam.
17:06I thought that she forgot, and I cry all day.
17:09So you thought, because there was no Miyokuk for you, that she forgot your whole birthday?
17:14Every year, I kind of expect, like, the Miyokuk from my mother.
17:18It's like, okay, that is my love.
17:20Like, that is my mom's love.
17:21Now, when I make the Miyokuk, I'm always thinking about my mom.
17:25Oh, I'm going to cry, because...
17:26Oh my god.
17:29I used to come home once a year.
17:31Mm-hmm.
17:32And so I could only eat my mom's food once a year.
17:35This is the thing that my mom made every time I came home.
17:40And so...
17:40Oh my god.
17:42Yeah, I guess it means a lot.
17:43It's like a big mom connection, for sure.
17:46It is, it is.
17:47Yeah.
17:47I feel like I have a really weird relationship with my mom.
17:50Because, like, Korean moms, right?
17:55As I age, I appreciate my mom more and more.
17:58Different stages of life give you different perspectives.
18:02When I think about my mom coming here as a young woman, she had a lot of wonderful things at
18:11home in Korea.
18:12She had gone to a top university.
18:14She had a loving family.
18:16Canada was hard.
18:17My parents were hustling, hustling.
18:21There's no time to stop and talk about your feelings.
18:24Not that Koreans want to, anyway.
18:27Yeah, you know, my mom is exactly a Korean mom.
18:29So when I started cooking, it was a secret for a long time.
18:35She thinks being a chef is kind of a tough job for the women.
18:39But in my mind, I'm going to just be a really good chef.
18:42And I'm going to let her know.
18:44Once she visited Canada, I tell her, actually, you know, why I have the letter of cooking book is...
18:53There you go, mom.
18:54I'm a chef.
18:56And then she cried for three days.
19:00Oh, no.
19:01I know.
19:01I think she was really disappointed.
19:05Chef, are you kidding me?
19:07It's like, why?
19:09It was the first time I say it.
19:10Mom, it's my life.
19:12Just please.
19:14I will try it.
19:16If I fail, it's my choice.
19:18Please just let me do it.
19:20But how does your mom feel about your work now?
19:25Uh-oh, I'm sorry.
19:27I think she's supportive now, but she didn't admit, and I'm good at it.
19:37So I just tell her, like, see, I do the little competition.
19:41I got the little prize, and I own the TV show.
19:46And, like, it was totally different culture here.
19:49And I stood up and, please, can you say good job?
19:54But in Korean culture, moms always really hard on the kids.
19:59They think it's the way they're helping us.
20:00That's right.
20:01I think inside her mind, probably she really, like, cheered.
20:08And then she said, okay, it's going to be a good experience.
20:11But don't forget, I'm here for you.
20:14So anytime you can come back, it is no problem.
20:16That's her way of saying yes.
20:18That's right.
20:19Support you, but also supporting in case, like, you need help.
20:26That's really meaningful, for sure.
20:28You know what else I have to say?
20:30That's what my friends and I do for each other.
20:32If your mom never said good job to you,
20:35you just say it to yourself and each other.
20:37So I would like to say you're doing a very good job.
20:39You're so good.
20:40I'm so proud to know you.
20:42You too.
20:43I'm so proud to know you and you.
20:45We're all hurt because we had to upset our mothers
20:49to do what we're doing.
20:51And in that space, being able to talk about it
20:54was really, I think, special and unexpected.
20:58Overall, in my life as I age, I have a much deeper appreciation
21:02for what the hardships may have been.
21:06And I don't hold it against my parents
21:08because they were immigrants trying to survive.
21:12Did you send a message to your mom after?
21:14I saw her after the shoot, and I just thanked her
21:18for always making me miyokguk.
21:21Miyokguk is a dish that holds so much connection.
21:24Connection to our moms, connection to culture,
21:28and now a connection to other Korean women.
21:30Like the Korean women defying expectations,
21:34scientists, farmers, and ranchers are rethinking collaborations
21:38and looking for creative climate solutions.
21:43In our next episode, we're exploring
21:46what is authentic Korean food.
21:48Cheers! Cheers!
21:52Diving in to Sonya's identity crisis.
21:55Tastes like the ocean.
21:56Tastes like my childhood.
21:58Mommy's dressed with me.
21:59Join us for our ocean table.
22:04I've always wanted to tweeze my food.
22:07Time's start now!
22:09Tweeze! Tweeze!
22:10I don't even know what many of these ingredients are,
22:13to be honest.
22:13Well, this is hard.
22:14One minute!
22:15Oh my goodness!
22:16Oh my goodness!
22:17Don't know what this is.
22:19Dang!
22:19Don't forget the sauce!
22:21Oh yeah, shoot the sauce.
22:23Five!
22:24No!
22:25Four!
22:25No!
22:26Three!
22:26Two!
22:27One!
22:28Darn!
22:29Oh no!
22:32Mmm, it is hard to pick.
22:34Don't get personal, okay?
22:36You know what?
22:36I like the simple kind of clean the plate,
22:40so I pick Hannah.
22:42Congratulations Hannah!
22:43We did it!
22:44Good job!
22:44Good job!
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