I AM INDEBTED TO TOO MANY PEOPLE WHO HAVE HELPED ME OUT ALONG THE WAY TO NAME IN THE LIMITED SPACE HERE. BUT, FIRST AND FOREMOST, I WOULD LIKE TO THANK MY WIFE, THI, MY SPECIAL LADY, THE LOVE OF MY TUMULTUOUS LIFE, AND THE TRUE CULINARY FORCE BEHIND STARRY KITCHEN. I COULD NEVER HAVE SURVIVED THESE CRAZY-ASS ADVENTURES WITHOUT YOU—NOR WOULD I HAVE WANTED TO WITHOUT YOU BY MY SIDE (TOLERATING ME). AFTER READING MY BOOK, MANY PEOPLE WILL QUICKLY REALIZE HOW UNAPOLOGETICALLY ANNOYING I CAN BE, AND HOW THI SURPRISINGLY STILL LOVES ME. I WILL ALWAYS BE GRATEFUL FOR THAT.
I would also like to thank our parental units, Tuong Le and Tam Tran, and Dung and Suong Tran (no relation; I checked!)—we wouldn’t be born without y’all! A big thanks, too, to my sister, Vivien Ly Jordan, and her misfit fam Jon Jordan (an accomplished author himself), young Zoë, and Rowan. Alan, John and Ken Tang—“Rock” beer forever. Many thanks to our OC fam, especially “Ba Noi,” Hai, Hanh Nam, Kim, Khoi, Kiem, Frankie, Teresa, and . . .arrrrrgh . . . there are far too many to list!
Without the help and silent support of Marc R., Marimelle, Jerome and the entire Pascual Fam, including Dingane and Eric C, among a few others mentioned elsewhere, we literally wouldn’t have gotten as far as we have. We are indebted to you, and paying you back that debt remains at the top of our minds.
A special shout-out to the numerous people who have helped us out at events, including but not limited to: Kemble Huang, Jin Nam, Rebekah Shibley, and Emily Lu. Our batch of “cute” 2011 interns: David Shu, Brian Leung, and Labobatory boba boss, Elton Keung. The Kickstarter crew: Jordan Gilbert, Heather Somaini, Tere Throenle, Julie Zwillich, Kellie Patry, Chris McIntosh, Nicholas Castelli, and David Vottero. The 766 just-as-crazy-as-us Kickstarter backers, including (but seriously not limited to) those craziest of $10,000 backers, Josh, Caroline T., and Julia H. Thankfully we didn’t raise it all, so you guys were off the hook! *phew* haha. The multiple generations of Project-by-Project LA crew that still loves us even if I oft-times offend their guests, including Kevin Hsu, JT Kim, Lisa Thong. Shauna Dawson, Marcus Beer, Javier Cabral, and Paola Briseño. Christine Choi, just for being resilient. And our Mexicali Taco Crew: Esdras Ochoa, Javier Fregoso, Paul Yoo, Matt Kim, and Kristen Jue. Mexicali parking lot tacos FOREVER!
Thanks to the catalysts, Roger and Peter B. and Renee K, who inspired us to move on to crazier adventures.
For the seemingly unrecognized-but-not-forgotten help over the years, a big Starry Kitchen thank you to Brian “The Hair” Saltsburg, Abby Abanes. Jojo Subrata, Laura Osborne, Tim Hall, Richard Jun, and Byung Joo. Thanks, too, to the JACCC Crab Fest crew: Leslie Ito, Steven Wong, Helen Ota, Kisa, Janet Hiroshima, Kristin Fukushima, Gary Kawaguchi, the crab cracking crew, and ALL the volunteers who continually lend their hands in this annual endeavor. I also want to acknowledge Craig “Wolvesmouth” Thornton, Julian Fang, Caleb Chen, and Sandra Kim, and Team “Mendo”—Mario del Pero, Ellen, Sean, and Chef Judy Han.
To Miss Heidi Starnes Barr, the Dallas/Carrollton gang—Jessy Jessy John, William Soo, Alex Soo, Tony Nguyen, Johnson Nguyen, and everyone else—my University of Texas at Dallas fam—Patty Atchley, Matt Grygar, Matt “Capitol” Hill, Anna Eisenmann, Tejal Shah, Jacob Gurwitz, Casey, and Mandy—and the rest! The Viet film Wave—Ham Tran, Stephane Gauger, Timothy Linh Bui, Kenneth Nguyen, Anderson Le, Jenni Trang Le, and Charlie Nguyen: From the bottom of my heart, thank you.
To Dylan Walker and the entire Walker clan: you are still my favorite (“fucking”) Thanksgiving family.
Over the years, we’ve (luckily) received amazing coverage from local and national media. At the risk of ruining their professional objectivity, I would like to give special thanks to Jonathan Gold, Amy Scattergood, Besha Roddell, Jenn Harris, Betty Hallock, Matt Kang, Kat Odell, Daniela Galarza, Leslie B. Suter, Leslie Balla, Elise McDonough, Jeff Miller, Alex Cohen, and Evan Kleiman, and everyone at KCRW’s Good Food.
Laurent Quenioux taught me more about food and running a kitchen than anyone. Daniel Vasquez, Kevin Villegas, Drew, Christian, Debow, Helen “Striker” Springut, Daniel K Nelson, John Goldman, Zahra Bates, Sidney, Cindy and the Zerah fam, Nazie Shekarchi, Michaele Musel, Mark “Frosty” McNeil, all of Dublab, and all the other crazy pop-up and marijuana dinner crew . . . woo hoo!
Thanks, too, to all the LA chefs and operators we’ve worked with, sometimes pissed off, and have been inspired by, including Bruce Kalman, Chris Oh, Yong Kim, Ted Kim, Michael Voltaggio, Michael Fiorelli, Michael Cimarusti, Steve Samson, Zach Pollack, Kuniko Yagi, Pablo Moix, Steve Livigni, Alex Day, David Kaplan, Devon Tarby (I think I’m going to call you “Tarbs” from now on), Bill Chait, who even defended me from being trolled in a private food forum, Jason Park, Ludo and Krissy Lefebvre, Pawan and Nakul and Arjun Mehendro, Alvin Cailan, Charles Olalia, Josh Smith, and way too many others to name here!
Thanks to John Liu, Carley Lake, Cruz Resendez, Allen Narcisse and the huge UberEats crew, as well as Gabe Fawkes, Cindy Kim, Jordan Weiss . . . but really Tali Weiss—Team Button Mash . . . FOREVER!
Through everything Tim Kwok, Maya Lim, Meyuh Huynh, Dan Ding, Joeann, and Hai Tran amazingly stuck by our sides.
Bao Nguyen, you’re the best-est photographer travel partner around.
To Marissa Patino, our first-ever employee who STILL works with us, and the countless others who have either loved or deplored working with us: There is NO Starry Kitchen without you guys.
Thanks to my old bosses, Chris Smith and Cassian Elwes! And of course Rena Ronson, Jerome Duboz and his better half, Margo Klewans, Casey Engelhardt, Emily Caitlin, and my many other former comrades “in the trenches” at WMA.
A special Balls Out thank you to Cameron Kadison, my agent Nicole Tourtelot, Kristina Sorensen, and just a few of my indie film crew: Tim and Karrie League, Michael Lerman, Dave Boyle, Mye Hoang, Rich Wong, Dusty, and H.P. Mendoza.
For my Underground supporters: Ava Green, Michelle Ko, Quan Phung, Chil Kong, Erin Quill, Alex Ow, Karin Anna Chung, Gloria Fan, Andy Pao, and so many more. Thank you. The Wick family “Cousins Club,” Garlic noodle obsessive—Bryan Lee O’Malley and Hieu Ho.
Thanks to the early Chinatown crew: George Yu, Shirley, Amnaj, Roy Choi, ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICE, and Caroline Shin. And for the Italian restaurant owner who we THINK told on us and those two health department inspectors who tried to bust us—you were literally the catalyst that made us bigger.
Thank you mucho to my editor, Miles Doyle, for giving me, a confused Asian-American kid from Texas, this incredible first-world opportunity, and the entire (patient and tolerant) bicoastal HarperOne team in San Francisco and New York, including Lucy Albanese, Lisa Zuniga, Kim Dayman, Jane Chong, and Eva Avery, for helping me pull it off. Thank you, too, to Shubhani Sarkar for designing a truly amazing book and to my good friend Joseph Harmon for the book’s stunningly cool cover and the equally cool illustrations dotted throughout the interior.
Finally, I want to thank ALL our fans—I still can’t believe we have ANY fans!—the city of Los Angeles, our eclectically passionate eaters, as well as the chefs, cooking staff, proprietors, and waitstaff who have helped make LA the best food scene in the world. We are honored to be part of it.