‘Korean Vegan’s’ hub is in Rome
Trial attorney by day and content creator by night, Joanne Lee Molinaro is known to her millions of social media followers as the Korean Vegan. In her social media posts, she delivers beautifully crafted videos showing her cook, while she shares personal stories about her life and that of her parents, who had escaped North Korea as children before immigrating to the United States as adults.
Born and raised in Chicago — the city where she still resides with her husband, Anthony — Molinaro is set to embark on a book tour to promote “The Korean Vegan Cookbook: Reflections and Recipes From Omma’s Kitchen” (Avery, $35).
Q: Do you have a difficult time finding good vegan food in your travels?
A: Not anymore. There are Michelin-rated vegan restaurants. I’ve eaten all over the world now as a vegan and there are so many places that are truly challenging the stereotype that vegans eat nothing but rabbit food. Even with Korean food, people think of meat and barbecue, but a lot of (it) is plant based. There are great restaurants in South Korea that are entirely vegan. Los Angeles was another food epiphany for me because I had experienced bad vegan food before — wilty salads with terrible dressing and not much texture. LA was great, because I got to eat American vegan food that was done well. Chicago is
also a great city for vegan food.
Q: Why is Italy so special for you?
A: My husband’s family lives in Italy. He has a whole bunch of cousins, cousins’ kids that we see. We’ve been to Italy together five times. I went there as a non-vegan in 2015 and then each subsequent trip after as a vegan. We got married there. We knew we wanted to get married in Rome, where his father was from.
Q: Do you find a common similarity between any cuisines when it comes to eating vegan?
A: Mediterranean cuisine is very similar to Korean cuisine because it’s already so plant based. It’s easy to make it vegan because you remove maybe one thing and it’s still delicious and healthy.
Q: Once this pandemic is over, where will you go for a proper vacation?
A: Our first trip is going to be to Europe. We definitely want to go back to Italy. Rome has always been our hub. We’ve been to Sardinia a couple of times. We’ve been to
Milan, but we haven’t been to Florence yet. Anthony is a musician and is always telling me how beautiful Vienna is, so I definitely want to go there. We went to London a couple of years ago a few days before Christmas. The entire area was shut down. It was really cold and gray. I really want to (return) when the weather’s better and the city’s kind of popping.
Q: What is the most important thing you’ve learned from your travels?
A: That I love travel. I used to think that I hated it because I’m a very anxious person. I don’t like to leave my house. I’m a homebody. I’m very connected to my parents and my family. I don’t like to be away from them. But I equated travel with work. It was always to take a deposition, do an interview, meet with clients, go to trial, go to court — so there was always this pent-up anxiety that I associated with traveling. But now, I even miss the airport and the joy of landing somewhere else.