babo lizard + afternoon tea

good afternoon!

it's tres cold in brooklyn, especially in my studio where there is absolutely no insulation and a terribly strong draft coming in from all sides of the air conditioner that's over 200 pounds and too heavy for me to take out myself (the sheets, fabric, and jacket we've taped around do help  a little, but not quite enough...) sigh...

but here I sit with a hot cup of barley tea my winter coat on a scarf around my neck and a story to tell...


I realized the other day that I never wrote about what "babo lizard" means and what inspired the name. In Korean, "babo" translates to "stupid" and lizard is well... a lizard. When I very young I remember how a lizard had startled me while I was in the backyard and the rest of my family was in the kitchen. It was a peaceful and sunny afternoon, and I was so scared and startled by the rustling of the lizard and the way that it looked (I don't think I had ever seen a lizard before then) that I yelled "Babo!" at it. My parents then came running out, fearful that someone was in the backyard, and I had a 'talk' with them about how I shouldn't use that word, etc..... For whatever reason, I have always remembered that incident very vividly and it has been replayed in my mind especially since my mother passed away a bit over a year ago, perhaps it's because I remember exactly the reaction of my parents at the time of the incident and the vulnerability that I felt, that it's been so present in my mind.


Anyways, fast forward to a couple months ago, when we had to complete one of the biggest projects of the our Pastry Education at the French Culinary Institute, the Menu Project, where we each had to create a restaurant concept, design a menu, produce selected items from our menu and present it to the instructors. I chose to do a korean and western fusion dessert restaurant where each item was based on the desserts that I loved eating as a child. Hence, the physical menu has a storybook-like quality to it and is hand assembled and hand illustrated. It think my favorite part about this project was illustrating it and seeing it come together. The image in the front is a self portrait of myself in a lizard costume. I'd love to do another project like this and get paid for it (living in new york ain't cheap). does anyone have any suggestions on how one would go about doing that?

cover, hand illustrated on tracing paper, colored with color pencils from muji. the red floral frame around the illustration is just a sheet of origami paper I had. and the silver paper thats covering the menu i purchased a couple years ago from from dickblick

inside menu

drawn on tracing paper, colored with muji color pencils

strawberry shortcake was (and still is!) my absolute favorite dessert.

even now, I eat this every year for my birthday, ordering a whole cake and devouring it with my close friends, without cutting the cake. It's just us, forks, and the cake.

I love the flavor of chestnuts....

to be honest, i'd rather just eat plain roasted chestnuts than a fancy mont blanc,

but this seemed more appropriate for a restaurant

coffee... mmmmmm....

ice cream. no matter how warm or cold it is outside.

i always crave it.

The phrase "babo lizard" reminds me of my childhood and a very specific moment in my childhood, where I felt so many different emotions at once: frustration at the lizard, fear, comfort from my parents and a complete security. I often wish that I could go back to a moment such as the "babo lizard" moment when the complexities we experience as adults don't exist. I mean come on, my biggest worry at the time was seeing a lizard and I was so easily comforted by the presence of my parents. As we get older, we become such complicated people and our relationships with those around us reflect that. And I myself went thru a complicated phase with my mom (it's called being a teenager), but I have always been very close to her and especially after traveling across the country to attend NYU, we became much closer and patient with each other until her passing 4 years later.

So go on, tell your parents you love them today and everyday.

fin.