Transcript
Speaker: On today's episode, we talk with restaurant owner, Seah Bowen, about what it's like to take over a business and run one of the most popular small restaurants in Albuquerque and what kind of effects that can have on one's personal life.
Speaker: Me being here, I saw how much it was working and I knew it was it was taxing.
Speaker: And so when we came back, I think I ended up because I had at this point, I know I have no sort of professional cooking experience or anything.
Speaker: I just
Speaker: know what i knew wasn't what i what i observed and saw you know i i knew pretty i knew well how to you know wait tables and sort of the management side of it um payrolls and financing and things like that but i you know had no clue what really the back of the house looked like you know uh hello everybody and welcome to humanity scudu uh this is our fourth episode and we are speaking with guest saya bowen uh the uh
Speaker: Look, are you the, would you consider yourself the owner at this point?
Speaker: Yeah, technically it's myself and really my wife, so we both kind of co-own it at the moment.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: The owners, co-owners of Magokuro, which most of you know is my favorite restaurant pretty much ever.
Speaker: I mean, and say, you know this, I'm there several times a week when I can be simply because it's, I mean, curry.
Speaker: I'm a Curry fan.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know.
Speaker: I mean, you come often, but you've also been coming for a long time.
Speaker: A very long time.
Speaker: In fact, that's sort of where I wanted to start with this, is I can remember going to this place since at least, I feel like 2007, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker: Your dad was primarily there.
Speaker: I remember seeing him, and if I'm not mistaken, your mom, working pretty consistently.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, basically, I mean, my, the restaurant's sort of the origin.
Speaker: Um, I mean, it was a family business, you know, uh, we're all kind of there, um, in between sort of work or, you know, school for me really.
Speaker: Uh, but my mom had originally started this restaurant, uh, really under the name Kokoro.
Speaker: Kokoro, that's right.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We used to, we started off as Kokoro, uh, and that was in 2007, like you said, um,
Speaker: And I mean, I was still in high school then.
Speaker: I was a, I think a sophomore in high school, maybe going into my junior year.
Speaker: And so I would be just like with my other siblings kind of helping after work.
Speaker: So that was my daily routine.
Speaker: I would get off school and then I would get on the city bus and get to work.
Speaker: You know, I'll get there around, you know, three o'clock and I'll be waiting tables at night.
Speaker: And then on the weekends, whatever sort of my mom really needed.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: So, okay, because that's right.
Speaker: I think I remember you had a sister who helped occasionally and in the early days, because this is right around the time when I had purchased my business.
Speaker: So I was actually doing business meetings there at the time while we sort of like, you know, sort of that stuff on our end.
Speaker: But I remember, yeah, your sister, how many siblings do you have?
Speaker: So I have an older sister and a younger brother.
Speaker: Younger brother.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Fascinating.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: But you're the one who decided to continue pursuing the restaurant portion of things.
Speaker: Kind of.
Speaker: I mean, yeah, it's a little bit more complicated than that, of course.
Speaker: I mean, my mom, I mean, it's, yeah, I mean, people kind of confuse sort of, um,
Speaker: who owns this place, who does what.
Speaker: And I mean, originally, I mean, so my mom started this business in 2007.
Speaker: She had actually, I mean, she's actually went to culinary school in Tokyo at a young age.
Speaker: So she went to culinary school and she'd been working sort of in kitchens.
Speaker: She kind of moved to America as sort of a missionary through kind of her church organization that she's involved with.
Speaker: And through this organization, that's how she kind of met my dad.
Speaker: But my mom basically kind of did odds and end jobs, primarily working in restaurants.
Speaker: She came to a point where really, I mean, she needed more of a stable income.
Speaker: And so she decided to open her own business.
Speaker: And that actually happened to look like a sushi restaurant.
Speaker: So at UNM, if you're familiar, they do sell like packaged sushi.
Speaker: My mom actually is the person who originally started this.
Speaker: Oh, man.
Speaker: Oh, I'm getting my time.
Speaker: It was probably around 2004, 2005.
Speaker: She started this business at UNM.
Speaker: She basically went there and kind of basically borrowed a little corner of their kitchen that makes all those sort of the foods for catering and all the stuff for the little markets at UNM.
Speaker: So she basically brought a little portion of the kitchen.
Speaker: She was rolling sushi and packaging it.
Speaker: And then we would distribute those sushi to all the different little stores around campus.
Speaker: So there's about, I think, four or five campuses around UNM.
Speaker: So that's where she would make them in the morning, package them.
Speaker: And then we would basically put them on our bicycles.
Speaker: I would help doing this with my dad.
Speaker: We would have little bicycles together.
Speaker: rigged with the little baskets in the back.
Speaker: And so we would load them up with a bunch of sushi or coolers, you know, and we would cycle them to different grocery stores on campus, drop them off.
Speaker: And then that's what, that's what my sort of my mom did for a while.
Speaker: My dad really, he's also had a little background in food, but he was basically running his own little business, selling flowers.
Speaker: And that's kind of,
Speaker: Yeah, my mom and him actually did that for a long time before, you know, her deciding to open up her own business.
Speaker: But that's kind of how she really got started.
Speaker: I think about three, two, three years after she started her little business at UNM, she basically got kicked out.
Speaker: They weren't going to renew her contract there.
Speaker: And so, you know, she just needed a way to support her family.
Speaker: And the next thing, the next sort of progression was basically opening her own restaurant.
Speaker: And so that's how this place came to be.
Speaker: We've been at the same location for all these years.
Speaker: And so next year is really our 16th year.
Speaker: This space used to be a, like a loan place.
Speaker: It's like a title loan.
Speaker: So it was an office building.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: And she came in here and renovated into a, into a restaurant.
Speaker: And that's not cheap.
Speaker: That's a, that's quite an endow go down.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: Yeah, it's a big risk.
Speaker: I mean, it was kind of an interesting story there, too.
Speaker: I mean, my mom, of course, is an immigrant.
Speaker: And, you know, there's, you know, a lot of she had a lot of time, hard time getting really the finances to really start her own business.
Speaker: So she went to the bank, but she was denied multiple times.
Speaker: And so what she ended up doing, the only thing she could actually do was put it all on credit cards.
Speaker: So what she did was, yeah, she took...
Speaker: She took out, I think, seven or eight credit cards and kind of financed everything on the credit cards.
Speaker: And she's just really good.
Speaker: She's really good with money and bringing these kind of things out.
Speaker: And so that's what she did.
Speaker: She kind of spread it all out on seven or eight different credit cards and kind of managed payments.
Speaker: And that's how she started this little shop.
Speaker: Oh, gotcha.
Speaker: And so now, I mean, you are sort of the...
Speaker: grandfathered an entrepreneur now to the business.
Speaker: Are you running like finances or like how how deep is their involvement now?
Speaker: Or is it basically you're just doing this and they're hanging out at home?
Speaker: It's it's hard to say, you know, I mean, I'm doing, you know, my wife and I really kind of been doing everything here.
Speaker: But, you know, my mom, again, started this business.
Speaker: I mean, she's been kind of out of this
Speaker: restaurant for at least two years, but really more like three, four years prior, you know, I never really imagined myself
Speaker: staying here and doing the restaurant.
Speaker: Like I said, I mean, I was doing this kind of in between school and, you know, I started doing high school in my sophomore or junior year.
Speaker: So I would come home, instead of going home, I would come to the restaurant, you know, do my shift.
Speaker: And that was the reality from my brother and sister.
Speaker: So we would all kind of take turns, different shifts.
Speaker: My brother would be working in the back actually with my mom and I would be up here, you know, waiting tables and same with my sister.
Speaker: And the same with my dad too.
Speaker: I mean, so we would all kind of take turns and taking shifts.
Speaker: So I would come home from school and, you know, um, would leave my dad and then he would go home and I would be here and then you have to take turns.
Speaker: Um, my sister had the right idea.
Speaker: She got out kind of early, you know, she had the chance to get out of the restaurant.
Speaker: Uh, and so she did.
Speaker: And so, you know, for a long time, it was just myself, my brother, um, my father, my mom, you know, the four of us really kind of doing it, taking turns.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: But I never really saw myself sitting here long term.
Speaker: I thought this was just something that I did for now.
Speaker: But things kind of worked out a little differently.
Speaker: I mean, my mom is the only child.
Speaker: So the restaurant, actually, I mean, we started in 2007 and we were not very popular back then.
Speaker: I mean, we would be serving maybe one or two people every day.
Speaker: And that was sort of the reality for a little while.
Speaker: And...
Speaker: You know, it was... The restaurant was really sort of my home.
Speaker: You know, I spent more time at the restaurant than I did anywhere else.
Speaker: And same with my mom and my brothers, you know, my brother and sister too.
Speaker: So, you know, it was... It became this place where we all kind of came to connect and communicate, fight.
Speaker: I mean, there are so many fights that happen in these walls, you know.
Speaker: Oh, I can only imagine.
Speaker: Oh, it's hilarious.
Speaker: I mean, yeah, there's... I mean, there's so many...
Speaker: memories and things sort of tied to here.
Speaker: But yeah, I mean, I didn't even, I mean, I'm not really a training chef or anything.
Speaker: I mean, I went to school really for fine arts and that was kind of what I wanted to do for a long time.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's actually what I was going to ask is like, how much experience did you have with business in general before it sort of just became part of your life?
Speaker: You know, because obviously if it's a business in the family, if your mom has been doing it, your dad has run a business, you get a little bit of experience through them.
Speaker: But eventually you just sort of learn it because you're exposed to it all the time.
Speaker: And now, I mean, since you've been running this place for, it seems like quite some time, you've probably got a pretty good grasp on exactly what you need to do and how to run it.
Speaker: How's, what's that been like for you, especially since you didn't go to school for this, but you just sort of learned it along the way.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, my mom, I mean, my, my mom cooks all the time at home and, you know, she's, she has,
Speaker: you know, she's, she's a chef.
Speaker: And so, you know, we cook a lot at home.
Speaker: We, and I've picked up a lot of things at home.
Speaker: Did she make you curry at home?
Speaker: No, we actually, my mom actually, you know, she, when she was going to culinary school and working at sort of different restaurants after her schooling, she really wasn't interested in Japanese cuisine.
Speaker: I mean, her background really is in sort of French cuisine.
Speaker: That's what she wanted to do for a long time.
Speaker: And so she kind of worked in that world in Western cuisine.
Speaker: So she wasn't really cooking Japanese food at home.
Speaker: I mean, really, she'd make these amazing meals at home, but it wouldn't,
Speaker: it would rarely be Japanese.
Speaker: Out of seven days, we might have Japanese maybe twice or something like that.
Speaker: And five days of the week, it'd be something different.
Speaker: And she loved sort of cooking different things.
Speaker: So there'd be anything from pasta to meatloaf to you name it, and she was kind of doing it.
Speaker: So that's kind of how I grew up.
Speaker: I mean, I grew up eating a variety of different things, not just Japanese cuisine, rarely Japanese cuisine.
Speaker: yeah and that's how i mean and so i've been picked up a lot of things cooking with her at home and uh my dad also has actually gone to sort of culinary school and you know he was also working as a professional chef so you know there's uh kind of influence on both ends um but i think you know i never wanted to be in the restaurant or and again i've never saw myself doing this for a long time sure um
Speaker: I got really interested in photography sort of at the end of high school.
Speaker: When I got into UNM, that's kind of what I wanted to do.
Speaker: I wanted to be a photojournalist for a long time.
Speaker: So that's what I was kind of working towards.
Speaker: And then when I got into, when I was into photography, I realized that it wasn't really photojournalism that I was really interested in, but really in the world of fine arts.
Speaker: And so that's what I did.
Speaker: In college is what I was working for.
Speaker: I got my BFA.
Speaker: at UNM and I was actually applying to graduate school in fine arts, the focus in photography.
Speaker: But so I was looking to go into different schools and applying to different schools for my MFA.
Speaker: But that's, you know, it didn't really work out that way.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I understand completely.
Speaker: I went to school for animation and I've used it almost not at all.
Speaker: And now I'm doing what I do.
Speaker: So I was curious, like, is that something that at any point you've ever sort of felt resentment for?
Speaker: Because, I mean, I'm sure you love the business because you get to do something that's really important to you and the family.
Speaker: But also it can be kind of difficult, I know, to sort of have like a goal in mind.
Speaker: And then when that doesn't happen, like it does kind of linger in the back of your mind, you know, like the what if, you know?
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: I mean, that's, yeah, I mean, that's always kind of, I mean, before I really, um,
Speaker: Graduating UNM with my BFA, I was, you know, I was just so focused on making work, making art.
Speaker: And I wanted to be an exhibiting artist.
Speaker: And that's what I was doing.
Speaker: I was making my rounds.
Speaker: I was applying to different shows.
Speaker: I was getting different shows.
Speaker: So I was exhibiting in Santa Fe.
Speaker: I was exhibiting.
Speaker: I had some exhibition in China and around the country here, you know.
Speaker: some solo shows and things like that.
Speaker: Um, so that's what I was really focused on, you know, um, that's what I really wanted to do.
Speaker: My mom, I think has a hard time understanding this too.
Speaker: Um, what I really wanted, you know, um, I think she was really concerned that I wasn't going to be able to make a living, uh, as an artist.
Speaker: Um, that never really, yeah, it's a difficult, you know, Asian sort of mom thing, but I, you know, that was something I was never really concerned about.
Speaker: Um, and you know, with the restaurant that was, um,
Speaker: So in 2000, I think when I was 24, so about 2014 is when I graduated.
Speaker: And so I basically took one year off, kind of went to Japan, was making sort of work.
Speaker: At the time, I mean,
Speaker: The restaurant has, you know, the timeline of the restaurant is kind of wonky and a lot of people don't understand.
Speaker: Basically, we opened in 2007.
Speaker: My mom actually left for Japan about 2011, 2012.
Speaker: So my mom is a single child.
Speaker: She had basically moved back to Japan to kind of care for her parents.
Speaker: I mean, they were other early parents.
Speaker: And so during that time, you know, I was only 20, 21, um,
Speaker: I basically myself, my brother, and partially my dad, I mean, the three of us kind of basically managed and run the restaurant together.
Speaker: And so it was about, I think, two years at that time, the three of us kind of ran the business without her.
Speaker: And we had basically hired like a Japanese chef and, you know, it went on for about two years or so.
Speaker: And then it all kind of came to a stop.
Speaker: I mean, we at that point, you know, my mom was still in Japan, wasn't sure when she was coming back.
Speaker: we're all sort of kind of burnt out at this point, you know, um, and this point we basically decided to, um, close the restaurant and we actually ultimately we're going to sell the restaurant.
Speaker: And so, uh, at this point I was basically still in school.
Speaker: Uh, I was managing the restaurant at this point.
Speaker: Um, but also going to school full time.
Speaker: So, uh, I was, you know, I had a lot on my plate.
Speaker: I was doing, you know, easily 40 hours, more than 40 hours here at the restaurant while going to school full time.
Speaker: And, uh,
Speaker: And it was an incredibly difficult and challenging time.
Speaker: But, you know, so we decided to basically sell the restaurant then and a buyer kind of fell through.
Speaker: And so I was managing this whole thing.
Speaker: I was trying to look for a buyer.
Speaker: I had no idea what I was doing.
Speaker: And I was only 21, 22 at this point.
Speaker: And I had no idea what I was doing.
Speaker: I was just practically looking for people to buy the business and try and navigate that world, you know, hiring lawyers to draft contracts.
Speaker: And, but I, you know, I had,
Speaker: At this point, I have no experience in doing any of this.
Speaker: I was just kind of winging it all.
Speaker: And my dad wasn't really helpful in any of this.
Speaker: And he kind of pushed it all on me, sort of in my... Yeah, and my brother being younger than I was, was even more than I was.
Speaker: So I basically kind of took charge and tried to sell the restaurant and couldn't find a buyer.
Speaker: And so we were kind of stuck with the space.
Speaker: And we just kind of decided to kind of hold onto it for a while.
Speaker: I was just about to graduate maybe in about another year or two college.
Speaker: And so what ended up happening was we just ended up holding onto this space and kind of paying rent for a year, year and a half, something like that.
Speaker: Went to school.
Speaker: And then by that time, my mom had sort of figured things out back home in Japan and was able to come back.
Speaker: But so we had basically taken about a year, year and a half off of the restaurant work.
Speaker: I mean, it was closed and was just sitting here for a while.
Speaker: And then my mom, I mean, at this point, my brother, you know, kind of moved on, found, went back to school, got a job as a pharmacy technician.
Speaker: And my sister, of course, has been long gone at this point.
Speaker: My dad has, you know, kind of started up his own sort of flower business, doing his own thing.
Speaker: And so I was the only one sort of left.
Speaker: And I, at this point, I mean, I kind of knew what I wanted for my life.
Speaker: And it was to go to school, you know, being a working artist.
Speaker: And that's, that's all I had imagined.
Speaker: And so
Speaker: I was in this phase where I just got out of, you know, done with my BFA and I was looking for MFA programs.
Speaker: And, uh, I found a great program that I wanted to go do.
Speaker: Uh, it was the Art Institute of Chicago.
Speaker: And, um, so that's what I was going to pursue.
Speaker: I mean, that's why I started to, uh, work on some of my application at this point, my mother had came back from Japan and, um,
Speaker: you know, obviously naturally she was going to reopen the restaurant.
Speaker: And since I was here, I was like, you know what, I will, I'll be here.
Speaker: I'll open.
Speaker: Let's do this together for a while.
Speaker: And so that's what happened when we reopened the business.
Speaker: Um, and we kind of changed things around, changed the menu a little bit.
Speaker: Um, and, uh, so we restarted the business and I was here and it was her and I, you know, um, doing it together.
Speaker: And then taking some time away from the business, having it closed for about a year, sort of like renewed a perspective on like what it actually meant to you, because maybe once it's closed, at least for a little bit, you kind of like start to miss it.
Speaker: Or you think of like, well, what could I do better if we were to return?
Speaker: Because I'm sure you didn't know you were going to return to it.
Speaker: But did that sort of like shift a perspective by saying like, oh, man, like if only we could have done this or maybe next time that the being closed sort of shift your perspective?
Speaker: it, it did.
Speaker: I mean, it, I think, you know, when we came back, we kind of changed the menu around all together.
Speaker: I mean, there were things that were working work when wasn't working, you know, uh, and it was really clear to me.
Speaker: I mean, at this point, my mom hadn't been at the restaurant for at least two years, but I was here and I was kind of seeing what was happening and, and realized, you know what, there's, you know, there's ways to probably do that a little bit better.
Speaker: Um, and, um,
Speaker: you know, the reality is my mom started this business late.
Speaker: I mean, she was 50, I guess 52 or so, you know, when she started this business.
Speaker: And so what I saw was, you know, her being gone two years and then came back and reopening the restaurant, you know, she really was getting there in age and h ad a hard time working the hours that she was.
Speaker: I mean, restaurant work is brutal.
Speaker: I mean, we're here, you know, minimum, you know,
Speaker: you know, 80 to 90 hours.
Speaker: I mean, that's just what it takes to run a business or at least a restaurant, you know, and me being here, I saw how much it was working and I knew it was, it was taxing.
Speaker: And so when we came back, I think I ended up, cause I hadn't, at this point, I know I have no sort of professional cooking experience or anything.
Speaker: I just, you know, what I knew wasn't what I, what I observed and saw, you know, I, I knew pretty, I know I knew well how to, you know,
Speaker: wait tables and sort of the management side of it, payrolls and financing and things like that.
Speaker: But I, you know, had no clue what really the back of the house looked like, you know, only from what I can observe.
Speaker: So, but I thought, you know, easy enough.
Speaker: I mean, I can probably do this.
Speaker: So, and it wasn't really a question of whether I can do it or not.
Speaker: I just, I just felt this obligation to, you know, help and as much as I can, because I saw my mom having a hard time, you know,
Speaker: Really, I mean, she would be sleeping in between shifts.
Speaker: I mean, we'd have the, you know, lunch shift and take maybe an hour, two hours in between.
Speaker: But she would be completely just crashed out, you know, just exhausted.
Speaker: Seeing this, it was just heartbreaking.
Speaker: I just couldn't have her keep doing what she was doing.
Speaker: And I knew that it was time for me to kind of step up and try to help as much as I could.
Speaker: And so that's what I did.
Speaker: I went to the back and my mom is, you know, she's kind of a...
Speaker: she's a hard person sometimes to get along with, you know, she has a lot of pride and a lot of, yeah, I mean, just, she's a tiger mom.
Speaker: So it's, it's hard to, you know, it's, it's never seems like it's good enough.
Speaker: Um, so, but I, but I went back and I, I tried to learn as much as I could from her.
Speaker: And then as I started learning, um,
Speaker: I just got really invested in it.
Speaker: I mean, that's just my personality, I guess.
Speaker: It's hard to ever say if I really love doing what I do.
Speaker: I don't really know if I ever have the answer for it.
Speaker: It's like some days I will love it, some days I hate it.
Speaker: I was going to say, I feel like it can change depending.
Speaker: Because even if you love doing it, that doesn't mean it's not difficult.
Speaker: And when it's difficult, you can still sort of feel frustrated and stressed out.
Speaker: But also, that doesn't mean you don't love it.
Speaker: you know yeah it's sort of like a very flowy kind of emotion uh with with the good and the bad you know because it is a it is a very sort of spectra kind of thing absolutely and it's more complicated when the family is involved you know and you can't tell if you um if you're just mad or angry at your like at my mom or that i actually ate in this restaurant or it's all tied together it's hard to understand where it starts and begins and um
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, so I basically started taking over as much as I could.
Speaker: But again, I was, you know, I was still focused on art.
Speaker: And that's what I all had in my mind.
Speaker: And so I was applying to grad school.
Speaker: So I went to, I had an interview with the Art Institute in Chicago.
Speaker: That was my, you know, I became sort of my dream school.
Speaker: Like I said, I'm going to this place.
Speaker: And I had kind of told my mom, you know, hey, this is what's happening.
Speaker: And at some point, I won't be here.
Speaker: You know, and it's kind of what I try to,
Speaker: kind of ease her into it.
Speaker: Around what time was that when you were sort of still thinking about pursuing other stuff?
Speaker: Was that 10 years ago?
Speaker: This was, yeah, closer to 10 years.
Speaker: It must have been at least seven or eight years ago.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so, again, I never saw myself here and doing this for long as I have.
Speaker: It was never really what I had planned for myself.
Speaker: And I've always kind of thought this was sort of temporary and I was going to pursue my own thing.
Speaker: And so, yeah, I mean, I applied to grad school and I got into this program, but what happened was I didn't get in with the sort of a scholarship that I was kind of hoping for.
Speaker: I mean, it's an incredibly expensive program.
Speaker: So I was, you know, statically I got into this program, but I really couldn't at the end of the day afford it.
Speaker: And so came back to, I mean, I was, you know, I went to Chicago to interview, came back and then a couple of weeks later, fine, now I got in, but then I was in this boat, well,
Speaker: I can't afford it.
Speaker: I didn't really have a plan B. I was kind of, you know, I put all my eggs in one basket and I was like, what do I do now?
Speaker: And, um, so I just, you know, I just kind of stuck around and, and I was just going to keep making work and, uh, you know, and so maybe pursue graduate school in the next year.
Speaker: Um, but w you know, what sort of happened was, I think at this point, you know, again, my, I was already taking a lot of responsibility at the restaurant.
Speaker: I was working here.
Speaker: at this point, really in the back of the house, I wasn't really up front anymore.
Speaker: I was kind of learning the back of the house, learning how to cook.
Speaker: And, you know, we've had a lot of great people, you know, come through here, but we also had our share of, you know, unreliable, you know, people.
Speaker: And it became kind of difficult to, you know, find good help in the back.
Speaker: And so I, seeing this, I just knew that I needed to take a little bit more responsibility.
Speaker: And so that's what I ended up doing.
Speaker: I,
Speaker: started taking over basically all of sort of the responsibility of cooking in the back.
Speaker: I was kind of learning from my mom and some other people as we kind of went along.
Speaker: And then soon I was just really fully vested in,
Speaker: learning as much as I can, you know, I started to buy a bunch of like, cooking books, instead of buying art books, it became sort of cookbooks, it became this obsession of just going down, reading anything I could watching every YouTube thing I can find, or anything on the internet, you know, really going to different restaurants, looking how people work, how chefs like, you know, moved around the kitchen,
Speaker: I just became just so into figuring out what was happening all over the country and what food looked like, you know, what Japanese food looked like, you know, it became an obsession where I saw this development of Japanese cuisine in the nation and how people were using Japanese ingredients or Japanese techniques in a new way, how people are redefining, um, sort of Japanese cuisine in the American context.
Speaker: And it, and it became so fascinating to me, you know, um,
Speaker: I have an obsessive, addictive personality.
Speaker: And so I just became addicted in all of that, you know, it became from everything from like Japanese knives to techniques to people.
Speaker: And I don't know, I just started kind of seeking maybe the art in that, you know, and that's just became my obsession.
Speaker: And when I knew it, I was kind of maybe more into the restaurant than my mom was in a certain way.
Speaker: You know, I think
Speaker: I had a sort of a different perspective and then maybe a different also hunger.
Speaker: I just, yeah, I just completely invested myself into this thing and yeah, and here we are.
Speaker: And I think it helps also like when you're young and you sort of have like that energy and desire, because like you just said, you know, this is an art.
Speaker: And so while it might not have been the art you envisioned, you're still creating and you're still creating experiences for people to consume differently, you know?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I think it's great because with food, you are giving somebody an experience that, I mean, it cannot be felt by like viewing art or seeing art.
Speaker: It is something that you get to give.
Speaker: It's like this very visceral, you know, we all need to eat.
Speaker: So why not eat something that tastes magnificent?
Speaker: And...
Speaker: So what's kind of cool is that, again, being a small business owner, is you get the opportunity to try things out and to be able to say, hey, we're going to try this thing.
Speaker: And if it works, maybe we'll continue to pursue it.
Speaker: If it doesn't work, it goes off the menu.
Speaker: And sort of like fine-tuning what it is that not only you excel at doing, but also what you truly enjoy, something that is the juice worth the squeeze.
Speaker: You might have like a cool recipe on the menu that goes –
Speaker: You try it out for a month and you go, this is awesome, but it's way too much work and way too few people order it or something like that.
Speaker: But also not but, gosh, a month and a half ago, two months ago, you said, hey, John, do you want to try this smoked bacon curry?
Speaker: And obviously, I only order curry from you guys.
Speaker: And it was sort of like, whoa, whoa, whoa, there's a new curry in town.
Speaker: And you get to try this brand new recipe.
Speaker: And obviously, I mean, I've ordered it exclusively since you've debuted it.
Speaker: But it's cool because you get the ability to also, once again, create.
Speaker: It's something that you get to try.
Speaker: You've tried many things.
Speaker: You've also, I think, toned down your menu somewhat significantly from what it used to be.
Speaker: But I think that can be a really huge advantage because you're not
Speaker: you know, opening it up to like so much variety that becomes overwhelming.
Speaker: But you're saying, well, here's like eight dishes that we carry and we can do all of them really well.
Speaker: Instead of 16 dishes, we do sort of like loosey goosey because there's too many to choose from.
Speaker: Is that something when it comes to like designing the menu or trying things out?
Speaker: I know you did the cheesy tonkatsu curry, which you took off the menu at one point.
Speaker: You were doing like these, I think, truffle fries for a little bit.
Speaker: And those were sort of like a limited time thing.
Speaker: What's it like sort of trying stuff out only to find that it's either, oh, it's a little bit too much effort or like, what does that look like from the chef's perspective?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, really, yeah.
Speaker: We had a pretty big menu and we were doing something, playing it safe, for the most part.
Speaker: I mean, we were serving kind of things that people really wanted us to serve or wanted Japanese restaurants really serve, and that looks like tempura and things like that.
Speaker: When COVID happened though,
Speaker: we basically shifted gear.
Speaker: I mean, it became sort of impossible to serve certain staples like Tempura.
Speaker: You know, it doesn't really travel very well.
Speaker: And so we had to shift gears and figure out, well, what travels really well, what's simple, what's fast and what's cost effective.
Speaker: because it became, you know, we just didn't know what was, you know, sort of the kind of people coming in for certain things.
Speaker: So that really kind of put us in a different gear to challenge ourselves to rethink our concept a little bit.
Speaker: During COVID, of course, we
Speaker: did like a COVID venue where we were only serving, I think like six items or something.
Speaker: And, but it really allowed us to focus on, you know, just staples and work on those things.
Speaker: And it also really kind of allowed us to, allowed me to kind of rethink our restaurant altogether.
Speaker: You know, I've always, yeah, I mean, I think people,
Speaker: For example, I mean, we used to serve sushi here, you know, and I think we were probably one of the first Japanese restaurant here in town to stop serving sushi.
Speaker: But it was also because I didn't think that we needed to.
Speaker: You know, I think Japanese food, Japanese restaurants are kind of pigeonholed to doing certain things, you know, making certain foods.
Speaker: And that happens to be tempura or sushi or teppanyaki, something like that.
Speaker: But I also didn't think it was the most delicious or the most cost-effective thing to do.
Speaker: And so COVID kind of gave us the excuse to do it.
Speaker: And then what happened was I think I saw
Speaker: the market started changing too.
Speaker: I mean, I, you know what, we always thought people came in here for a certain thing.
Speaker: When we didn't offer that certain thing, people kind of readjusted it and maybe put more, gave us more sort of trust to serve something different.
Speaker: I think people, restaurants get scared of not serving the same thing because I think, you know, once, you know, I'm kind of the same way when I go to a restaurant, I think the same thing.
Speaker: And if I can't get that certain thing, would I go somewhere else?
Speaker: But I think our customers have been really good.
Speaker: I mean, I think maybe we've earned their trust maybe to try different things and, you know, yeah, just to kind of go out and do something different outside of our comfort, you know.
Speaker: My sort of concept and feeling about food, or at least here, has always been kind of this meeting point, you know.
Speaker: I, you know, my mom is, again, didn't,
Speaker: wasn't trained in Japanese cuisine.
Speaker: I mean, she wanted to do French cuisine.
Speaker: And so growing up, that's, you know, I had a lot of different sort of food that she would cook, you know?
Speaker: And so my upbringing wasn't that.
Speaker: So it was almost unauthentic to me to try and cook, um,
Speaker: ethnic Japanese cuisine, you know, it became, I was less interested in that.
Speaker: You know, I wanted to see sort of the cross section of like, where does Japanese cuisine meet sort of Western cuisine, you know, and not in a way of sort of fusion, but really thankful to sort of my experience, you know?
Speaker: So that's kind of, you know, kind of where I went with it.
Speaker: I mean, a lot of things on the menu are really, really about that, exploring that sort of space in between, you know?
Speaker: I like to kind of think about it as a kind of a corner, you know, because a corner really is a point of two planes meeting.
Speaker: And that's kind of how I see sort of myself and my upbringing.
Speaker: It's really two different cultures.
Speaker: And I'm always sort of exploring that space in between.
Speaker: You know, I've had always a hard time, especially in Albuquerque,
Speaker: you know, finding sort of who I am, you know, being a half Japanese person.
Speaker: And it's, it's difficult.
Speaker: It's challenging.
Speaker: You know, I've lived, my Japanese is my first language and I lived in Japan.
Speaker: You know, big chunk of my childhood, I lived in Japan.
Speaker: But I never really felt like I belonged there.
Speaker: You know, I look different.
Speaker: I, and so my name is different.
Speaker: You know, I have a, I have, I'm, you know, I have a Japanese first name, but a English last name.
Speaker: And,
Speaker: I've never really felt that I belonged anywhere.
Speaker: And here in Albuquerque, you don't look at me and think Asian or anything like that.
Speaker: I kind of get mistaken for being Hispanic or Mexican.
Speaker: And so my identity has always been sort of confusing.
Speaker: But I think that's kind of how what I'm exploring now in food is what is sort of that meeting point?
Speaker: You know, what is sort of authentic to me and what is it?
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, that's kind of that's sort of been my thing for the last couple of years and cooking food in between.
Speaker: And so the bacon curry is kind of exactly that.
Speaker: I mean, it's it's kind of interesting.
Speaker: I mean, like we have dishes basically a
Speaker: it's, we've been serving this sort of potato salad called the Benton's bacon potato salad.
Speaker: And it's this bacon that we buy from Benton's.
Speaker: They do hams and bacon, things like that from Nashville, Tennessee.
Speaker: And so I heard about different sort of chefs talk about this bacon and I decided to order a bunch of it.
Speaker: And, you know, we started making this sort of like chili oil, bacon grease dressing basically that we kind of toss our potatoes in.
Speaker: Um, and, um, the curry is basically exactly that.
Speaker: We basically take the same sort of bacon, um, and we render it and then we just kind of mix it and fold it into our curry, uh, with some other things, um, you know, cream and things like that.
Speaker: Um, and that's, that's all really what the, what the bacon curry is.
Speaker: But again, it's, you know, um, kind of thinking outside of the box of what Japanese cuisine could be, um,
Speaker: and you know, I was still kind of thinking about Japanese.
Speaker: I mean, smoking food is huge in Japanese cuisine.
Speaker: A lot of people don't know this, you know, like,
Speaker: katsuobushi, for example, which is what we use for our dashi, you know, and essentially it's just dried, most of the time mackerel, it could be different fish.
Speaker: But what they do is they dry and smoke it.
Speaker: And so really, when you have miso soup, you really actually, you know, consume something that's been smoked.
Speaker: That's origin, you know, katsuobushi for, so, you know, for me, when I think, you know,
Speaker: smoke, baking curry and stuff is like kind of out there, not really Japanese, but I think conceptually the, in the concept of, or the technique of smoking is really very much part of Japanese cuisine.
Speaker: So I do see sort of these connections that I'm drawing, or I think, I think I'm, you know, trying to draw, um, that may, um, go unnoticed or over people, a lot of people's heads, but, um,
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So does this make you – because I feel like the smoked curry bacon, as far as I'm concerned, has been a hit.
Speaker: But I also don't know from your perspective how many people order it and what the feedback has been.
Speaker: To me, it's like the ultimate chef's kiss.
Speaker: But does this give you more poise to possibly do more experimental stuff like this in the future to not only say we've got our Japanese staples but –
Speaker: Like we want to pizzazz it just a little bit more and give a more unique look and unique offering into, you know, what this food can be.
Speaker: Does that give you sort of more creative ideas for stuff in the future?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, I don't know.
Speaker: I mean, I have this like kind of interesting point in my life where I'm not really interested in necessarily cooking Japanese cuisine or, you know, I mean, I just, I just want to find the next most delicious thing.
Speaker: And that's kind of what I'm saying.
Speaker: And,
Speaker: It's kind of interesting.
Speaker: It's kind of the philosophy my mom had always had starting this business is that it's always food first before anything.
Speaker: If it's delicious, who cares?
Speaker: That's kind of what we've always thought.
Speaker: That's kind of what I think we adopted more here recently is why not just cook things that we want to cook?
Speaker: If it's delicious,
Speaker: that's it i mean and people you know i think people again come here with a certain idea of like well i want a japanese cuisine and i don't think you really get that here anymore i mean we do still do a lot of kind of regional cuisine you know in a lot of ways and we still you know have staples here but i think now we're at this point of wanting to push the envelope a little bit more maybe just cook for the sake of cooking you know and
Speaker: not be so concerned about making Japanese cuisine.
Speaker: I think that's really more true to sort of my mom's vision as well, you know, when she started this business.
Speaker: And yeah, I mean, I, that's kind of how I see food now.
Speaker: Well, it reflects very much on the name of the restaurant, which is now Magokuro instead of Kokuro.
Speaker: Kokuro meaning, I believe, heart.
Speaker: Magokuro is sincerity.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Yeah, we were.
Speaker: So my mom, when she started this like sushi business, she was called calling it Kokoro Foods.
Speaker: And so when we opened this business, it was, you know, naturally we'd call it Kokoro Japanese restaurant.
Speaker: But there was another Kokoro in Denver.
Speaker: And so we were basically one day we got a letter in the mail from the lawyer saying, hey, you gotta change your name.
Speaker: You know, we have we own the rights to this thing.
Speaker: And the rights to a Japanese word, that's what they're trying to pull on you.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: And so we're like, well, shoot, you know, like, like, well, what do we do?
Speaker: You know, we obviously have to like change your name.
Speaker: And so what we did, we just changed Magokoro, which is, you know, Kokoro is basically one kanji, one character, and it means heart or soul.
Speaker: Magokoro is basically just another character placed in before the Kokoro.
Speaker: which now really means with a pairing of two characters, it really means sincerity.
Speaker: And so for our perspective, it felt like a good compromise.
Speaker: It felt like we were sort of leveling up, you know, or becoming something a little bit different, which was what we were, you know, we were something different at this point.
Speaker: You know, we weren't so focused on serving traditional Japanese food, but kind of transitioning into something different, something more interesting, I think.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Yeah, and drawing on different sort of backgrounds and techniques and yeah, wanting to start something a little bit more interesting.
Speaker: So with the restaurant, and you've been doing this for a long time, you've been involved for 15 years, but you've sort of been off and on for the first handful.
Speaker: With all of it,
Speaker: what's the, what's the biggest struggle that you faced?
Speaker: I mean, like, you know, there's highs and there's lows, but like sometimes in the middle of things, you're just sort of like, God, I just want to give up.
Speaker: Like, it's just something is, it's too overwhelming or you don't know where to go or you don't know what to do.
Speaker: And you just simply maybe in a moment, just feel like I can't do this.
Speaker: Like what, what did you ever have a moment like that running this business where you're just like, I just, I don't know.
Speaker: I don't know what to do.
Speaker: All the time, dude.
Speaker: All the time.
Speaker: I mean, like,
Speaker: I would say that I probably feel like that more than I don't.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, there's so many highs and lows here, you know, and I think it's true about probably every small business, you know.
Speaker: You know, one week it'd be amazing, you know, you feel like you're on the clouds and everything is working out.
Speaker: And then the week after it'd be different, you know, if someone can't come to work or, you know, I have a lot of sort of, you know, personally,
Speaker: you know, with my own sort of demons, you know, it's, it's hard to, yeah, it's hard, it's hard to feel like you're doing a good job.
Speaker: And I don't know, I have so much, it's so hard because I think I have so much invested here, you know, so much time and so much history here.
Speaker: And, um,
Speaker: And I take it probably way too seriously, you know, and it's hard not to because it's, this is my everything, you know, I've invested.
Speaker: I've been here more, you know, half of my life here now at this point.
Speaker: So there's a lot of sort of invested and maybe I'm a control freak.
Speaker: Maybe I don't know what it is.
Speaker: I have, I know I have certain expectations and a lot of times when I fall short of that, it's hard to stay positive or,
Speaker: you know, I, it's interesting because I think, I think a lot of businesses may feel the same way, but I, I do have this fear that everything's going to end, you know, like today's my last day of business and I wake up and I get a bad review and that's it or something, you know, it's really, and, and it's, you know, it's, it's, it's a hard thing to, it's, I, and I think about that every day, you know, I literally think that the restaurant's closing every day and,
Speaker: it's unreasonable.
Speaker: I know that, you know, and it just, that's not how things work, but, um, I do feel uncertain or scared.
Speaker: And a lot of times, you know, and, uh, it's hard sometimes to get over those sort of fears and, and, um, yeah.
Speaker: And keep going, keep making work, uh, or keep making food here.
Speaker: Um, I don't know.
Speaker: I don't have an answer.
Speaker: I mean, it's sort of, you know, in a, in a weird place now, you know, I'm kind of, I always feel like I'm kind of in a,
Speaker: in a rut or something.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: It's hard to really describe this feeling.
Speaker: Well, there's sort of almost, I want to say like a blessing in that it's because every moment as a small business owner is uncertain.
Speaker: I think it's exciting because like you, you hopefully you love what you do despite the highs and the lows.
Speaker: But also, like, you don't have infinite capital.
Speaker: You don't have, like, any sort of guarantee.
Speaker: You don't – everything is so nebulous and up in the air all the time that, like, it really could change overnight.
Speaker: And there's almost, like, this thrill, I think, in that.
Speaker: And by saying, like, every day I've made it, like, I've done a good job.
Speaker: But also, you might wake up in the middle of the night with a phone call that's, you know, like, you got broken into.
Speaker: And then they had to deal with insurance.
Speaker: And then it's very demoralizing.
Speaker: And then this or that or the other.
Speaker: And it sort of avalanches.
Speaker: But every day that you get a chance to go into work and actually keep doing it is a good day.
Speaker: But it's scary because it's so uncertain.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I think the uncertainty, I don't like it exactly, but it makes me appreciate a lot of the, you know, every next day, as long as I'm still there, I'm okay.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, totally.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I think you got to be a little crazy to, you know, being in the restaurant biz and in the small restaurant biz.
Speaker: I can't even imagine.
Speaker: Yeah, I can't even imagine.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, for us, you know, we're tiny here and we have such a small staff and, you know, it's hard to find covers and things like that.
Speaker: I mean, we take a lot of days off, I feel like, you know, and certain things happen and I think, yeah, it's hard to stay positive all the time.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: you know, doing this for so long, I think I, I think you definitely get better at managing that stress.
Speaker: Um, but you know, burnout is, is a real thing.
Speaker: And especially in the, in a restaurant, it's, you know, I, do you have to kind of find or find people to talk to, uh, sort of support groups?
Speaker: Like you have to be having a community.
Speaker: I mean, those are the, you have to have the people to kind of fall back on and ask for help, you know, um,
Speaker: especially sort of emotionally, mentally, you know, um, we've been pretty blessed here to have, you know, good friends who are also in the business, you know, who we can kind of talk to.
Speaker: Um, yeah, I mean, shout out to the shop, uh, is Impala at the shop.
Speaker: They've been really great.
Speaker: It's been a great, you know, nobis on there and you go, son, um,
Speaker: And so we're kind of blessed to have that, but it's an important thing, I think, again, to have a community of people, you know, who are in the same boat who can understand what you're going through, because it's really easy to feel like you're alone in all of this.
Speaker: And like, you feel like people don't understand what you're going through.
Speaker: But it's just nice to be able to find that community and people who can give you sort of support and, you know,
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You rely on the good experiences because it's inevitable.
Speaker: You're going to get somebody who's not going to quite understand or they're going to, you know, you might even have a bad day and it's fully your fault.
Speaker: Sometimes like it's just going to happen.
Speaker: We've all been there.
Speaker: And, you know, it's it's it is sort of a mixture.
Speaker: If you were like an exclusively good place, I'd almost sort of like wonder what weird like voodoo you have going on to make it like so nobody ever complains.
Speaker: But I think what I like about it as well, too, and I get this from both you and Hunsuk, is that, like,
Speaker: There is a lot of love that goes into your business.
Speaker: And I think as a small business owner, you have to sort of have that you have to have this level of passion despite the hard times, because it's almost sort of like what you create for people in terms of food or art or whatever it might be is an extension of your own philosophy and food.
Speaker: If people make food begrudgingly or like just without sincerity,
Speaker: it's not going to taste good.
Speaker: It's not going to be a good experience because it's simply just exists to exist rather than it exists to provide or to give or to share with somebody else.
Speaker: And so I want to thank both you and, you know, Hunsik, especially for your hospitality and, you know, welcoming nature of the business, because I think as far as I'm concerned, there's a philosophy.
Speaker: I don't know exactly what yours is, but that extends into your creations.
Speaker: It is very much part of what you guys do and what you have built the store to be for yourself that you can taste, you can feel.
Speaker: It is a labor of love.
Speaker: And no matter how difficult that love is, it is apparent.
Speaker: And that's why I love supporting you guys so much.
Speaker: I mean, when it comes to just what it is that means something to you, that means a lot to you, like you seem like a very wonderfully social person and, um,
Speaker: I'm just sort of curious, what is it about your business that overlaps with your philosophy, your take on life?
Speaker: I mean, I'd imagine they have to intertwine.
Speaker: What does that look like for you?
Speaker: Yeah, I mean.
Speaker: It's a weird question, I know.
Speaker: No, no.
Speaker: I mean, we used to have a sign up here.
Speaker: And I think it said something like honestly made or something like that.
Speaker: But that's, you know.
Speaker: that's, that's what it is.
Speaker: I mean, you know, um, and actually at our dessert shop around the corner, um, we also have that sort of like, uh, made honestly kind of on their walls.
Speaker: Um, but that's kind of our philosophy here is that like, you know, we're kind of making things with a lot of love and a lot of care.
Speaker: Um, and that's, you know, that's how I kind of, we've always said, you know, you can really taste love and food, you know, and I come to present and believe in that, you know, um,
Speaker: and that's kind of how my mom had always done it.
Speaker: You know, she had poured a lot of love into everything she'd done here.
Speaker: And same with me and Hunsuk.
Speaker: I mean, we, we, we really just pour everything that we have in here.
Speaker: You know, um, there's not a day that I'm coming here and, um, and I'm not giving it all.
Speaker: There's just not a day like that.
Speaker: I, I, you know, even when I took my lows and it's, that's not something that I've ever been, you know, I, I'm here to give it everything, you know, and I want people to, to love everything here, you know, and, um,
Speaker: hopefully be able to taste that effort and, you know, that we put into it.
Speaker: It's kind of, you know, the way I think, you know, my mom has also raised me and how I sort of approach, you know, my life in art.
Speaker: You know, it's really about making something that is, you know, thoughtful and authentic.
Speaker: And, you know, it has to be, it's almost, I don't know, I kind of see sort of art and food in the same way that like I want it to,
Speaker: be almost like an onion where you sort of peel back the layers and examine what's, what's the inside, you know, and every layer has a, has goes even further.
Speaker: And, you know, that's kind of how I want to make food here.
Speaker: And I want it to be thoughtful.
Speaker: I want it to be, you know, not just because something, you know, one, obviously that has a taste good, but it has to have that sort of complexity, you know, and that's why, you know, I talk about sort of the Benton's bacon and,
Speaker: and the curry and the smoke things, I wanted to have more context and kind of draw these lines of, okay, well, here is something that is very on Japanese, but it is sort of very Japanese in some ways.
Speaker: And having that sort of thoughtfulness in food.
Speaker: Yeah, I don't know how, yeah, I mean.
Speaker: Yeah, that's fantastic.
Speaker: That's exactly it.
Speaker: I think your authenticity is noticed.
Speaker: And I think that's really the best way to create any sort of art.
Speaker: Because if you, you know, pump things out, you know, for the sake of numbers, it's very different than saying, I want each of these experiences to be wonderful on their own.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And you can tell, you can very much tell.
Speaker: So you said you grew up in Japan.
Speaker: And you were born in Japan.
Speaker: Is that correct?
Speaker: So no, I was actually born in Santa Fe, but I moved to Japan as an infant.
Speaker: So I was probably in Japan from the age of one or two all the way to about second grade.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so Japanese was my first language.
Speaker: And then coming back to Albuquerque or Santa Fe originally, so my
Speaker: my mom basically moved back, moved to Japan, um, you know, took us kids and my dad kind of stayed here for a little while.
Speaker: Um, so we moved to Japan.
Speaker: Uh, she was from Niigata, Japan, and it's a little town called Narechi, which is kind of coastal.
Speaker: Uh, and so it's, you know, my grandparents were, um, they raised cattle and so, um, grew up in the countryside.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: And my mom was basically helping raise cattle with my grandparents.
Speaker: And so when I was about second grade, we moved back to the States, originally to Santa Fe, and then moved back down here to Albuquerque.
Speaker: And so then I had to basically learn English, second language.
Speaker: uh, yeah.
Speaker: And I've been sort of been here since, uh, I would make, you know, trips back to Japan, uh, every, almost every summer, um, to kind of see my grandparents and we'd spend, you know, the good portion of the summer there at summer break.
Speaker: So it's about two months of the year.
Speaker: Um, my mom, I mean, we didn't really, you know, we grew up pretty poor.
Speaker: And so my mom, uh, you know, when my parents would work really hard, save enough money to be able to send those kids back to Japan, you know, uh,
Speaker: to spend time with our grandparents, make sure that we didn't forget our Japanese and just kind of get back to our roots.
Speaker: So we'd spend about two months there.
Speaker: And during that two months, we would just be in the countryside.
Speaker: There's nothing there, really.
Speaker: So we'd be spending most of the time outdoors, riding bicycles.
Speaker: We'll be fishing at the ocean.
Speaker: and just a lot.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, just being kids.
Speaker: That's fun.
Speaker: So we'll sort of return to this a little bit later, but when you were growing up in both America and Japan, apparently, I always got to ask, did you play any video games?
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, like, yeah, of course, man.
Speaker: I mean,
Speaker: You know, Pokemon, I mean, of course, like the Game Boy.
Speaker: Oh, absolutely.
Speaker: I can't even imagine.
Speaker: I mean, the popularity in Japan of that was like worlds beyond.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, totally.
Speaker: But, okay, so you grew up with some Pokemon in Japan.
Speaker: And did you play that with people back here in North America, too, when you came back?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Speaker: I mean, it was cool because we had sort of like the Japanese versions of everything, you know?
Speaker: And so people would be...
Speaker: uh you know i mean we for example like i think i think was it the green version that you couldn't get here or something correct yeah and so we would have like the green version and people would be like whoa what is that i'm like oh this is a japanese that's cool i feel like it'd be much cooler now i mean it wasn't it wasn't too cool back then you know i mean i think we kind of kind of hit the fact of being asian or japanese you know because it was very uncool you know it was really uncool to um
Speaker: be Asian, I think.
Speaker: When I was growing up, you know, I would, I feel like I'd be ridiculed a lot of times, you know, foods and stuff that I would have.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, it wasn't, wasn't cool to be Asian.
Speaker: I personally try to hide the fact that I was Asian a lot of times, you know.
Speaker: I just remember, like, my mom would, would come and pick me up, you know, at school or something, and this is probably in middle school, but
Speaker: But I would wait to see who's picked me up, whether it's my dad or my mom.
Speaker: And if that's my mom pulling up, I'd be like, oh my god.
Speaker: I would basically run so that she wouldn't come all the way to the pickup zone so I can get in the car.
Speaker: And then once I got in the car, I would leave my seat back so that other people couldn't see me and see my mom coming through.
Speaker: I mean, people sort of, I think, you know, when people hear Seiya, they think Isaiah.
Speaker: And so maybe a lot of people are seeing my name all the time.
Speaker: And, you know, thinking I'm maybe Hispanic or Mexican in origin.
Speaker: And so when they see my mom, a Japanese or Asian, they're like, you know, people, my friends would give me a lot of shit about it, you know.
Speaker: And so, because it wasn't cool, you know, I would, my mom would make some like Japanese food a lot of times, you know, like little ice balls, things like that to take to school.
Speaker: But it would be the most embarrassing thing.
Speaker: So you'd have to kind of hide and eat your lunch so that nobody would see it.
Speaker: And this has been sort of in grade school is what you're thinking?
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: In the mid-2000s to even late 2000s, I think it started to become culturally more sort of sought after.
Speaker: Anime was getting bigger and as video games started to become more mainstream.
Speaker: So I wonder if there was sort of like a shift at some point in which that like sort of changed for you.
Speaker: Is that something you noticed at any point?
Speaker: You know, yeah.
Speaker: Not so much for me, honestly.
Speaker: Yeah, I didn't see a lot of people.
Speaker: I mean, there were certain people who thought it was really cool, right, for me to be Japanese.
Speaker: And there were just a couple of people at school who thought differently.
Speaker: But most people, I think, didn't care or had made fun of me a lot of times for being Asian.
Speaker: Yeah, so yeah, I mean...
Speaker: it was something I was definitely self-conscious about growing up.
Speaker: Fascinating.
Speaker: That's an interesting challenge because it felt like Japanese, especially, you know, with anime and video games had sort of like this, this very strong draw to it.
Speaker: But also, I mean, I'm sure that was reflected by your experience in Japan where you felt very out of place.
Speaker: So maybe it was sort of, you're consistently sort of like wondering where do I fit in all the time, you know?
Speaker: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker: I think, you know, people who are, you know, um,
Speaker: half power half, you know, or have always kind of struggled with that, because we don't neatly fit in anywhere, you know, and it's, and it's, I think I'm always trying to looking for sort of my belonging, you know, where, where can I neatly fit in?
Speaker: Who are my people, you know, and in Japan, it's here, I've identified more being Japanese than anything, but in Japan, and I identify as being American, you know, and white, and
Speaker: it's sort of this balance and I never found myself neatly fitting into one or the other.
Speaker: And it's, yeah, it's challenging.
Speaker: It's, it's really hard to, it's really hard.
Speaker: Do you think owning the restaurant and having Japanese cuisine and like even the name, do you think that's allowed you to sort of like lean into your heritage a bit more without so much like fear as you had growing up with it?
Speaker: Yes and no.
Speaker: I mean,
Speaker: You know, I think, you know, in the Japanese community here, I think they maybe view me here in the restaurant as being sort of unauthentic and not really Japanese.
Speaker: I get that a lot here.
Speaker: I have a lot of people sort of looking in the kitchen, looking at me.
Speaker: I had one experience when this one guy came to say that he really enjoyed the food, but when he popped in the back of the kitchen and saw me and saw everybody else who weren't Japanese or Asian,
Speaker: was confused and he was like you're not Japanese and I was like no it's always kind of a hard to you know say well I mean it's hard it's it's it's hard to really you know claim sort of my Japanese heritage and say yeah I am Japanese or you know because I it's always I feel like an imposter you know sure
Speaker: And I feel like an imposter of cooking too.
Speaker: I'm not really a chef or a cook and I've never had formal training in it, mostly self-taught by my mom.
Speaker: So it's always kind of this thing where I have something to improve maybe, I don't know.
Speaker: Well, I can also safely tell you that I've eaten at many Japanese restaurants around town.
Speaker: And when I was in Japan, curry was, I mean, curry is my number one, but I would eat at so many places in Japan, Koku Ichibanya.
Speaker: And then, you know, just countless places here and there.
Speaker: I have not found any place in, in Albuquerque or even New Mexico that has tasted as close to Japanese curry as yours.
Speaker: And that's why I keep returning is because like, it gives me the feeling of like, this is the best I've had outside of being in Japan itself.
Speaker: Well, thank you so much.
Speaker: So yeah, don't feel like a fraud or anything by any means because you guys are nailing it.
Speaker: And I want to really stress that like, you know, I understand these sort of imposter syndrome of sort of like, well, is it really authentic because they get called out on it so much, but no, let me, let me, let me tell you.
Speaker: Well, thank you so much.
Speaker: I mean, yeah, it's something we work on.
Speaker: I mean, I mean, it's sort of my kind of personality is I,
Speaker: um, yeah, I'm really about things.
Speaker: I really want to get it right.
Speaker: And, uh, the curry, the curry changes every week.
Speaker: And that's something I think people don't understand is that, um, you know, kind of, you were asking me before, um,
Speaker: I mean, you know, we change the menu up a lot and do things short term.
Speaker: We, you know, who knows how long the bacon curry is going to be available for because it's, I get kind of bored and I want, or I keep wanting to try to improve things all the time.
Speaker: That makes sense.
Speaker: And, uh, yeah.
Speaker: And the curry is exactly the same thing.
Speaker: The process of making a curry is actually changes by the week.
Speaker: Uh, and the recipe has, um, changes, um, pretty frequently actually.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: You know, and it's interesting.
Speaker: I mean, I think people really love us for consistency, but for us, it's actually always sort of a work in progress here.
Speaker: You know, we've had, you know, we've changed the career at this point numerous times, maybe sort of the fundamental sort of like process how we make it.
Speaker: So it, you know, there's a lot of things that go in.
Speaker: We're not, you know,
Speaker: For me, I mean, I think things are changing every single day.
Speaker: You know, how we make things, we try to improve every single day here.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: And that's just how we do it here.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: And I actually think that's a great philosophy.
Speaker: I think for a restaurant, the moment you start getting complacent,
Speaker: in making like your, your food and it becomes boring.
Speaker: I think as far as I'm concerned, it would make it, uh, uh, reasonable to want to say, well, how do we keep this going so we can keep making it interesting and more exciting, not just for the people who are eating it, but for.
Speaker: Yourself.
Speaker: I know people sort of have expectations when it comes to, well, I want the same thing, but it just is important for you guys to make food that I think gives people the same feeling, but you get to do it differently, you know?
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: I mean, working in sort of the hospitality, I mean, it's, you know, it's really all about wanting to serve people and wanting to give them what they want, you know?
Speaker: But at the same time, there's wanting them to kind of, you know, sort of our vision and what we think food can be, you know, and really challenging people to go out of their sort of comfort zone.
Speaker: You know, I want the experience here to,
Speaker: to be that, you know, something more interesting than that, you know, something that you can't just get anywhere else.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Perfect.
Speaker: Well, fantastic.
Speaker: So I've only got a handful of questions left for you.
Speaker: We're getting down to like the sort of last part of this podcast, but I wanted to ask you five questions.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: One of them I'm super curious about, but I want to know if you could recommend to anybody, uh,
Speaker: A book.
Speaker: A book that has either changed your life or a book that really resonated with you.
Speaker: A book that was just really, just for whatever reason, a book that you could recommend to anybody right now.
Speaker: Do you have a book in mind?
Speaker: A book in mind right now.
Speaker: Oh, man.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: I'm very on the spot, right?
Speaker: Jeez.
Speaker: Man, that's really hard.
Speaker: I mean, I read a lot, but I read, you know, let's see, a book in mind right now.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: It's hard to say.
Speaker: I mean, I love Catcher in the Rye for a great reason.
Speaker: Catcher in the Rye, sure.
Speaker: That's probably one of my favorite books of all time.
Speaker: Just a really good work.
Speaker: I love Catcher in the Rye.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah, that's hard to say.
Speaker: I mean, my readings have sort of changed so dramatically.
Speaker: I mean, there used to be a lot of, you know, art books, and I'm not sure people would be really interested in that, but like, seeing Songtag, of course, and, you know, sort of philosophy of photography, history of photography, something I'm really interested in.
Speaker: But now, I mean, my interests have changed so much.
Speaker: I mean...
Speaker: I don't really read a whole lot of like art books or anything.
Speaker: My reading now has all been about fly fishing.
Speaker: That's kind of what I've been reading a lot.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So it's, it's kind of, it's like my, my recommendation is so weird, you know, that I don't think people would really be able to.
Speaker: Oh, but that's, what's kind of great though, is I mean, it's, it's fun to sort of get an insight as to like what makes you tick and not like, Hey, I need to make this, you know, general recommendation.
Speaker: Is there a fly fishing book that for some reason just captures your interest the most?
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, I love Taos Fly Shop.
Speaker: Shout out to Taos.
Speaker: That's why it's my hat that I'm wearing now.
Speaker: But that's probably one of the most recent books I've read.
Speaker: It's a book through Taos Fly Shop.
Speaker: I think it's kind of Instinctive Fly Fisher, I think is the book that I've read.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, again, I'm in, so, you know, I really come from, you know, so photography, I mean, I come into the world of quite mountain photography and that really really,
Speaker: you know, in photography, photo books are, you know, are huge and photography books is kind of what I've collected for a long, long time, you know, and I used to work for a bookseller, you know, that sold, uh, photography books and art books.
Speaker: And so I, you know, um, I'm really interested in, um, art history books and art books in general, but really, uh, artists and stuff, um,
Speaker: that I love.
Speaker: Like, you know, I mean, I don't know.
Speaker: There's just so many, I don't know who, what kind of recommendation it seems like it was such a wild thing.
Speaker: This is what's kind of fun is like, it doesn't need to be any, it could be specific to you.
Speaker: It could be what you recommend.
Speaker: Catcher in the Rye, Susan Sontag.
Speaker: Like, I think that's great.
Speaker: I think that's a good set of recommendations that sort of cover a small spectrum.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Oh, perfect.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And now what about like a movie or a TV show?
Speaker: I don't know if you watch a lot of movie or TV.
Speaker: Ooh.
Speaker: I watch that.
Speaker: Is there anything you've been sort of obsessing over recently?
Speaker: Oh, man.
Speaker: I've obsessed about so many things.
Speaker: It's so funny because in this kitchen, that's all.
Speaker: I mean, man.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: There's so many shows.
Speaker: Let's see.
Speaker: I got really into Sopranos for a minute there.
Speaker: Oh, wow.
Speaker: That's kind of an obsession.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: I have –
Speaker: I have this like, you know, I have an addiction to things.
Speaker: So like if I start a show, I have to finish it.
Speaker: And so I basically been watching Sopranos for like, oh man, that was a lot.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The Sopranos are good.
Speaker: I love talking about sort of like televisions and movies and media in general and sort of the theories behind the characters and stuff.
Speaker: The Sopranos, of course, I've watched, um,
Speaker: Game of Thrones, a throwback by watching Game of Thrones a lot.
Speaker: Watch the whole thing.
Speaker: Man, I'm Hal Stark, you know?
Speaker: Like, if I had a... It's like... Let's see.
Speaker: Curb Your Enthusiasm?
Speaker: Larry David?
Speaker: That's a stressful show.
Speaker: I love watching it, but I feel stressed out by it all the time.
Speaker: Dude, yeah, totally.
Speaker: And I think...
Speaker: Yeah, I think that's what I love about it is that it's like every situation that someone you've definitely gone through to a certain extent and to rewatch it and be able to watch it and laugh at it.
Speaker: It's kind of great, you know, t ake a step back to reality.
Speaker: But yeah, it's also too relatable is the problem.
Speaker: It's like, I know this, these people, I know this guy.
Speaker: I've met this Larry David person in many different people before.
Speaker: Oh, totally.
Speaker: And I started thinking that I am Larry David, you know, and I just feel like, yeah.
Speaker: The older you get, I think the more you also start to relate to it as well.
Speaker: I'll tell you that much.
Speaker: Totally.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And now here's one I've been thinking about for a while, because I don't know how often you eat the food that you create.
Speaker: If you make food for yourself often, but when it comes to like a favorite food,
Speaker: And I mean, you could say your own food and I would totally understand, but I'm curious as to if you're not surrounded by Magokuro recipes, what is your, what is your food of choice?
Speaker: Local restaurant, it could be frozen pizza.
Speaker: Like it could be whatever it is that like, you're just sort of your go-to.
Speaker: Oh man.
Speaker: So, I mean, usually I get out of here kind of late.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So, and I never want to eat my own food.
Speaker: That just doesn't happen.
Speaker: You know, I hate cooking for myself.
Speaker: Don't partake in your own stash.
Speaker: No, no, no.
Speaker: it's so boring.
Speaker: You know, I love when people cook for me.
Speaker: That's my favorite meal.
Speaker: But yeah, usually, you know, get out of here.
Speaker: It's kind of late.
Speaker: Most places are kind of closing or close.
Speaker: And so it's, dude, it's a lot of junk food.
Speaker: Honestly, I think like there's a perception that like, you know, chefs eat really well or something.
Speaker: And that's just not true.
Speaker: I think like, you know, if you're a real chef, you're probably eating a lot of junk food, a lot of quick, easy things.
Speaker: You may just like,
Speaker: I'll just go home sometimes, man, and I'll just – it's just a lot of like quick, easy junk foods.
Speaker: Jeez, man.
Speaker: I've been in a weird quesadilla kick right now, so like I'll go home and I'll just make like tons of quesadillas at home because it's fast.
Speaker: It's easy.
Speaker: Super fast.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But you're still making these from scratch or you're just buying like frozen ones and hitting them up?
Speaker: You're going to Taco Bell, Taco Cabana?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh man.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So it's bad.
Speaker: I get, I used to, yeah, I'll get into this phase where we'll be eating a lot of Taco Bell or a lot of like, so I was going through the same where I was eating a lot of McDonald's and I think I finally got over that.
Speaker: And so, yeah, now I'm on to, I'm on to Taco Bell and then, and just cooking at home a lot now.
Speaker: I'm trying to focus more on, on just
Speaker: Just cooking out, eating out a little bit less junk food, trying to take care of myself a little bit.
Speaker: But it's also another thing.
Speaker: I mean, I take a lot of comfort in food.
Speaker: If I'm having a bad day, then I'm at home just binge eating and trying to feel a little better.
Speaker: So it's yeah, it's everything in between.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: But it sort of sounded like you cited quesadillas as sort of being like that sort of number one, like that's your current vice?
Speaker: Current Vice, yeah, and then it was Little Caesar for a minute there.
Speaker: Oh, fast and easy.
Speaker: Oh, dude.
Speaker: Yeah, the grab and go, that's my thing, dude.
Speaker: Totally, totally.
Speaker: Convenience is king in a world of madness.
Speaker: Okay, perfect.
Speaker: And now this is what I kind of wanted to cycle back to.
Speaker: You touched up on growing up with some Pokemon, but what about a favorite video game?
Speaker: I have to.
Speaker: Of course I have to ask this one.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Favorite video game.
Speaker: I mean, so yeah, I grew up.
Speaker: Pokemon was huge.
Speaker: You know, I was like crazy into it.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: Crazy into Pokemon.
Speaker: And then, and then for a while, but my mom is kind of interesting is that like, so we didn't have a Game Boys, right.
Speaker: But she didn't let us play anything else like PlayStation, Xbox out of the question.
Speaker: Like I didn't, so I've never owned my own sort of like,
Speaker: console, like, right, like, no PlayStation that I've ever owned.
Speaker: My brother really is the one who really got into, like, PlayStation, and he got his first sort of PlayStation when we were in, like, middle school or something, maybe starting high school.
Speaker: She just didn't allow it in the house.
Speaker: But, dude, I've taken up playing a lot of Switch, Nintendo Switch.
Speaker: That's sort of my, during, especially during when COVID happened, I bought one of those, and that's all I was doing.
Speaker: Breath of the Wild, Zelda.
Speaker: Uh-huh.
Speaker: Dude, I've been just like, yeah, I'm so excited for the second one to come out.
Speaker: And I feel like I've just been, you know, waiting forever.
Speaker: It's been five years at least, I mean, since the original came out and also one of my favorite games of all time.
Speaker: Is it coming?
Speaker: Is it?
Speaker: Is the second one actually coming?
Speaker: So they recently did say that it was finally coming, I believe, spring of next year.
Speaker: They actually gave it a solid date.
Speaker: They delayed it like twice.
Speaker: But I believe we're looking at like April or May or something of next year.
Speaker: I can't remember off hand, but it's it's it's close.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: So they say.
Speaker: But I mean, I'm going to say with good faith this time.
Speaker: It's almost here.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But a good choice.
Speaker: Good choice.
Speaker: That game I could sink myself into for hundreds of hours.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Oh, good.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And now one final one and one of the most important ones to me is if you could just give anybody a piece of advice, what do you got?
Speaker: Um, don't work in a restaurant.
Speaker: Um, piece of advice, huh?
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Do what you're passionate about.
Speaker: Follow your heart.
Speaker: At the end of the day, I think that's what it is.
Speaker: It's like if you just got to do things that you're passionate about, that's kind of how I'm trying to live my life.
Speaker: You know, I'm trying to do things that I'm only, you know, passionate about.
Speaker: And that's sort of always been my compass, you know, to follow.
Speaker: And I think that's kind of all what I care about, you know, is following my heart and doing what I love.
Speaker: That's, yeah, I mean, it's a beautifully simple philosophy, but I think it sometimes gets lost that like, if you aren't truly passionate about doing something, you will struggle with it in the long run, especially.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, this has been fantastic.
Speaker: There's been a lot of insight into how difficult it is to run your own business, to run a restaurant.
Speaker: I can't even imagine the stresses of a restaurant.
Speaker: You know, mine has its own unique set of challenges, but like what you have to do is
Speaker: stressful beyond my comprehension.
Speaker: And so I'm really impressed and very proud of how you've been able to do this and handle this, the kind of pressures that must come with it.
Speaker: But amazing job.
Speaker: You guys are doing great.
Speaker: And is this something you feel like you're going to do for the foreseeable future?
Speaker: Or is there something else in the horizon someday?
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: It's hard to say.
Speaker: It's fair.
Speaker: I mean, the dessert shop was kind of a kind of our step towards that, you know, trying to still work in food, but, you know, something really different.
Speaker: And I don't really know.
Speaker: And that's the thing about here, for me, is I think things change pretty rapidly, pretty dramatically.
Speaker: And who knows?
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: We may be here forever.
Speaker: We may not.
Speaker: Yeah, that's fair.
Speaker: That's, you know, it's kind of a big question.
Speaker: But I just know that for the for the time being, it's much appreciated what you do and how well you guys do it.
Speaker: So thank you so much.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: So I want to thank you for being part of this.
Speaker: But also one final thing is, is there any social media where people can find you?
Speaker: I think you have an Instagram page.
Speaker: And I don't know if you guys like do Twitter or anything like that at all.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, we don't do Twitter, but we are on Instagram.
Speaker: We're pretty lazy about it.
Speaker: Not me.
Speaker: I mean, like, well, me, I'm the lazy one.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: But Hunsuk, my wife, she manages a lot of that.
Speaker: And, yeah, I mean, that's a good place to follow us.
Speaker: And follow us at our dessert shop, too, at the moment.
Speaker: We said we haven't been open for a little while, but we're trying to, we may reopen, who knows?
Speaker: But that's the place to get all the information and what's happening at the shop.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, we do have like a Facebook and anything like that, but we're not active on that.
Speaker: So Instagram is kind of the way to get ahold of us or, you know.
Speaker: That makes sense.
Speaker: Okay, magokuroabq.com, I believe is your website for ordering food and getting hours and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker: Okay, so we got magokuro and tonari no mise.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Perfect.
Speaker: Perfect.
Speaker: Excellent.
Speaker: So yeah, say thanks again for being part of this podcast and being a guest.
Speaker: I've been looking greatly forward to this one for a while.
Speaker: And I want to thank you for helping create humanity.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: Thanks for having me on.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Thank you all for listening and we'll see you next time.
