Vibe Check #6: Chef Danny Bowien Breaks Down His Go-To Quarantine Recipe

Highsnobiety Podcasts

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, small businesses including Asian restaurants have been facing setbacks. Danny Bowien, chef and founder of Mission Chinese Food, closed his restaurants in Bushwick and the Lower East Side earlier this month. Now, he’s bringing his skills to the home kitchen, offering easy recipes and focusing on his upcoming vegan cookbook, which he talks about with host Jian DeLeon on this episode of ‘Vibe Check.’

Mission Chinese Food is in solidarity with other neighborhood Asian restaurants like Nom Wah and Woo’s Wonton, all of which experienced a considerable drop in business during the month leading up to the outbreak (2:00).

Self-isolating at home has allowed Danny to spend more time with his six-year-old son, who’s motivating him to learn Korean. Still, Danny can’t help but worry about how things will change for his son and other Asian families in the aftermath of the pandemic. The transition from working up to 90 hours a week to becoming a home teacher and work-from-home chef has also been difficult, even grievous for the drop in productivity (9:24). Despite a lack of culinary epiphanies, Danny is recontextualizing his daily meals to discover ways of incorporating them into his upcoming cookbook.

Danny runs through the recipe, one of his son’s favorites, which has taken on different forms since its conception (13:45). In addition to being the ideal breakfast soup, it’s also the perfect opportunity to sneak in all kinds of vegetables for picky eaters:

1. Remove seeds from the kabocha before dicing into large pieces
2. Chop up either Japanese leeks or scallions into one inch pieces (use scallions in a 3:1 ratio with the kabocha)
3. Warm up a pot containing olive oil
4. Add scallions, one peeled and diced potato, and kabocha into the pot
5. Pour in Korean kelp soup stock or a vegan bouillon alternative
6. Cover the ingredients with water and bring to a boil
7. Add in two quarts of water, 1 1/2 tablespoon of red miso, and 1 1/2 tablespoon of Korean miso or white miso
8. Continue to boil until potatoes and kabocha are thoroughly cooked and soup turns into an orange color
9. Skim the top to remove foam
10. Add a handful of chopped white kimchi, and serve with rice

While it’s important to eat healthy, Danny ends by talking about his frequent indulgence in ice cream during the quarantine, staying optimistic, and as Jian puts it, approaching the new lifestyle as a blessing in disguise.

Stay tuned for new episodes of ‘Vibe Check’ every Tuesday and Thursday.

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