#cillíanthecute

[starrykitchen]

Today I come out of social media slumber (aka TRYING to be a present parent/“preschool teacher” as possible, #cillíanthecute pic included👦) because this Thursday, June 27th, a monumentous (for me at least🙋‍♂️) occasion: we are throwing a #SpamilyStyle FREE Spam Fried Rice (while supplies last?!?🤔) PARTAY @ @buttonmashla with @spambrand @yomyomfofficial @stage13network It’s a rare opportunity to get to celebrate working on a new show (aka #FAMILYSTYLE 👏👏👏) that brought together many old friends of ours like @angryasianman @originalspin @anderson_le , prior to our SK days (who were obviously out of viable, better options to interview that they finally landed on me😱🤷‍♂️😅) +make new friends (“Hi” @eurasian_vogue @marie_jamora 👋) to celebrate their amazing new show (that you can binge watch online right now, just google “family style show” 👍) that celebrates the multitude of Asian cultures+drool worthy food with ppl far more famous than me (to be honest, in whatever neighborhood you live in, any dog you’ve met on your street, they’re ALSO more famous than me?!? Lol😅🤷‍♂️). Come out and hang w/ some of the #foodiefam while hopefully sharing your most fond spam memories (all of mine involve cooking spam at home as a “latchkey kid” and gettin’ that crispy sear on a thin slice of savory spam eating it over pillowy white rice🤤)... oh yeah, if you’ve read this far you can ALWAYS steal the recipe in our #adventuresinstarrykitchen book - link in ze bio 👆🙏👆). See ya there #prettyplease 🙇‍♂️🙏🙇‍♂️ Xoxo, Nguyen “Banana Man” Tran Chief Instigating Officer STARRY KIIIIIIIIIIITCHEEEEEEEEN 🍌 (at Button Mash) https://www.instagram.com/p/BzL313Zh-6m/?igshid=111jat024pygp

[starrykitchen]

Happy #fathersday to all the old, new, expecting and unexpected (hey, it happens😅)... FATHERS! Here I'm boring my cute lil 15 month old Cillían "drowning" together in the (literal) humidity (so damn HUMID!😓) of my youth w/ a visit to the location of what used to be a @krogerco grocery store 23 years ago in the sleepy Dallas suburb of Carrollton, TX ("C-TOWN!"😉🙌) where I had my first job working as a bag boy (aka "coutesy clerk"... Whatever that means🤔😝) earning the newly upped minimum wage (at the time) of $4.25/hr at the tender of age of 16 where all I could think about was trying to lose my virginty (I didn't😅), buying my first ever disc man CD player (annoyingly before skip protection existed💪) and my first ever cd, @neworderofficial's Republic. At the same exact age my father left his war stricken motherland of Vietnam without his family and with a 17-year-old friend (whom he later married aka my mom🙌) to escape on a boat to be faced with famine, starvation, and (actual) pirates with the hopeful uncertainty for many months if they'd ever make it to America with the simple conviction that newly unified communist Vietnam was worth leaving... And this is one of the MANY reasons I go so hard to #failupwards (I mean, I still can't believe I recently released a "BOOK"📕😱🙇🏻🙏😭) in life. There is nothing that I've faced in my life that will EVER compare to my father's experience, and what many horrors of guerilla war fare he has unwillingly shared with me that his childhood was filled with. He came to America to afford me+my sister @roadtripviv a better life, and even if I seemingly misconstrue his efforts... that is why I am so unapologetically intense to will Starry Kitchen into a crazily uncertain and path least traveled (by me at least) reality... So that my son, if he ever gets a flickering flame of curiosity inside his soul in his finite lifetime, will also not hesitate to pursue his dreams and not take for granted the spiritual foundation we've laid in front of him.👊 #adventuresinstarrykitchen #starrykitchen #skbookhustlin #cillíanthecute #reflection (at Kroger)

[starrykitchen]

AAAAAAAAND I return to Asia for more debaucherous eating adventures w/ a whole new misfit crew this time: @skkitchenninja in her spectacular return to Asia in her first international trip since before we sacrificed EVERYTHING+was more broke than not; and of course #cillíanthecute in his first ever international flight debut effectively beating my personal record of "waiting" 18 years for my first international trip.🙌 Thanks for everything, everyone. We can't believe that we're still #failingupwards, and we couldn't have done it... Without ALL Y'ALL!! 🙏🙇🏻😭 We'll share whatever we eat WHILE we begin to go #ballsout and hustle everyone to pre-order the book (click the link in our profile y'all😉)... Bye bye!✈️ #teamsktravels #starrykitchen If you read this far 📷 cred (for me, not the craptacular Photoshop cropping job I did LOL 😎☝️) goes to: @baomnguyen 🤘🤘🤘 (at Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT))

[starrykitchen]

#bookouttakes (in Singapore drinking fresh soymilk in my FAVORITEST nostalgic SE Asian way to drink many a thing, with a straw in a hanging plastic bag😋) Sometimes the beautifully simple things in life are inexplicably... the best. Tomorrow, Nov. 25th, I will have lived (without dying, climbed Kilimanjaro or having eaten a live squid... amongst other things😅) for 40 years, and contrary to what is predictably consistent with this milestone (and seemingly my big personality), I'm just going to pick up a sandwich and eat lunch at my favorite place in ALL of LA that I discovered from the movie, #TheUsualSuspects that I know many Angelenos still haven't been to - the Korean Friendship Bell to take it ALL in... Oh, and whomever wants to come... PLEASE come! (From 12-2p... probably longer😉) After that, I'm playing it all by ear and y'all are welcome to tag along (even though I'm leaning towards just chillin' at a Korean spa🙌🙌🙌). I have so much to be thankful for that there simply isn't enough room in a simple post to summarize it all including our kid #CillíantheCute, @skkitchenninja still (barely😂) tolerating me🙇🏻🙇🏻🙇🏻 and the craziest being @harperonebooks making the mistake (but no take backsies😁) of working with me for the last 2 years +publishing my #AdventuresinStarryKitchen book😱 (still available especially for the holidays AND I'll figure out how to sign or send signed bookplates to EVERY book... in the 'BOOK!' link above👆🙏😬). This life is precious. I feel very fortunate (even amidst all the unlucky times we've come across in life and in this business as a whole). And... if someone wants to bring some awesome snacks, grub and/or drinks to share... I wouldn't hate that one bit. Oh, I think someone's bringing a cake (+I'll tell anyone that shows up a secret surprise I can't quite post about) too🎂😏👍 #failingupwards #starrykitchen #happythanksgiving (at Maxwell Food Centre)

[starrykitchen]

😱😱😱 Ho-ly SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!!!! Today's the 3 month anniversary of the #AdventuresinStarryKitchen memoir/cookbook release ('BOOK!" link to "purchase" STILL above👆🙏🙇🏻😅😁🇺🇸), and we accidentally+(actually) coincidentally scheduled a book signing tonight, Weds, Sept 6th at @pwnshopla (which will ACTUALLY have books for sale tonight too🙌) x @buttonmashla from 8-10p. Come on by. Eat. Commiserate. Listen to me lyrically wax on how insecure I am as a (bananasuit wearing) person and how i still don't know how well or crappy the book is really doing.😅 (don't wanna knooooow😬) Bring your orthodontist's 2nd daughter's 1st male cousin's former best from high school that he reconnected with via Friendster who loves Asian food and is socially awkward when the topics of art history, regional eggplant allergies and/or international Doritos variants comes up (it's cool man- we get it+ #nojudging here✊). AND let's #failupwards ...TOGETHER!✌️ #cillíanthecute #chilicrab (at PWNshop)

[starrykitchen]

"Happy Birthday Monkey Boy" -to our lil Cillían born in the year of the 🐒🙌 Delicious, beautiful+impressed all our guests strawberry w/vanilla custard #doraemon 🎂 credit: @elegant_expectations , y'all KILLED it with this greeeeeeeat caaaaaaake👍👍👍 (Not pictured: the smorgasbord of @jollibee fried chix, tamales, carnitas+handmade yellow corn tortillas, @littlecaesars pizza, chix+pork saté skewers, cake pops, and chips+cheese dip😅😋) #cillíans1stbday #cillíanthecute #animecake #earlyotaku (at Banana Suit Enterprises)

[starrykitchen]

Happy #LunarNewYear / Chúc Mừng Năm Mới / 恭禧發財 / 明けましておめでとうございます / 새해 복 많이 받으세요... may we all have great fortune, health+happiness from all our happily American-immigrant families (Chinese, Japanese, Korean... mixed Vietnamese-Americans all represented here 👍) of the past, present+future generations to all your families!🇺🇸 #wyattwolfboy #kenzoharrison #cillíanthecute #resist✊ (at Tet Festival)

[starrykitchen]

SOOOOOOOOO if you didn’t know it already, I kinda-sorta got this @foodnetwork 2 episode TV pilot/show “thing” called #BigBargainEats 🤗 that I’m very proud of and appreciative to have worked on (that @giadadelaurentiis Exec Produced😱😱😱), would love to be Hollywood-like “greenlit” into a FULL SERIES (of sharing amazingly delicious deals, making amazing new friends and just seeing more of America sharing the love for all the great stories out there🇺🇸) AND... would love y’alls support for the encore by watching BOTH episodes this Sunday (3p ET / 2p CT), telling ppl about it (if you watched it before, or if you just wanna support🙏🙇‍♂️), sharing info about it and just give it a fighting chance so the big wigs (of which they are MOST curious to see how many ppl stay watching starting from the first episode to THRU the second🙏🙏🙏) might be like, “🤔 Hey, MAYBE there should be more of this show with this goofball.👍” And I KNOW it’s playing on Mother’s Day, but if you’re chillin’ around a tv after your brunch-liciousness or similarly maternal loving activities... check it out! (Oh, and for those that wonder why I don’t bombard ya [like I used to] with the social media[s], the next pic should explain it all. Look at Cillían, he’s SO cuuuuuuuute and I will say, super hilarious and tons o’ fun. No time for constant social media when I’m hangin’ with THIS kid.🙋‍♂️👉👦) #adventuresinstarrykitchen #cillíanthecute (at Banana Suit Enterprises)