Sarah // "The Delicious"
Creator of TasteSpotting, Sarah Gim, has definitely perfected the art of #foodporn. Her incredible site, blog, and instagram all have the most drool-inducing photos, and as she says herself, she "eats beauty everyday." Sarah Gim created and runs TasteSpotting-- a live stream of craveable recipes, each legitimately worthy of cookbook status. The collection of recipes and photos are an incredible culinary resource for in-the-know internet foodies. Sarah has a hand in all the photos/recipes chosen for the site, and man does this girl have an eye for beautiful food. Sarah's taste is inspiring; the right food photo can be truly transporting, and Sarah is able to create just that.
We spent some time with "The Delicious" in her West Hollywood home and cooked up a heartbreakingly beautiful spread of GLOW Bibimbap. Filled with fresh ingredients from the Santa Monica Farmer's Market, the bibimbap components were colorful, so flavorful...and TOTALLY healthy. Food that is beautiful, nutritious, and delicious-- it really does not get anymore glowy than than, folks!!
HOW THEY GLOW QUESTIONNAIRE
Name: Sarah J. Gim
Nickname: Sarah, “TheDelicious” on twitter and instagram
Where did you grow up: Mostly Texas, Michigan and Ohio, and of course still growing up here in LA
When you are eating healthy, what is a typical…
Breakfast: I am a die-hard savory breakfast fan and will almost always choose eggs with vegetables. However, lately I have become obsessed with chia seed pudding made with coconut yogurt and topped with whatever fresh fruit is in season -- through the winter it was citrus and pomegranate and right now, strawberries from Harry’s Berries
Lunch: Some variation on ‘bibimbap,’ a Korean bowl of rice topped with grilled beef, fresh and lightly pickled/marinated vegetables and goh-choo-jang hot sauce. My bibimbap bowl these days is much less typical Korean and much more whatever awesome vegetables are available -- Brussels sprouts, kale, radishes, shiitake mushrooms -- with other sauces I am interested in trying. I love miso tahini sauce and different herb/nut/seed pestos.
Dinner: I have been roasting and braising whole chickens up the yin yang for the last year or so. Served with simple green salad, roasted vegetables, and herbed quinoa or brown rice, flavors depending on what’s in season and who’s at the table. In the spring, I eat as much wild salmon as I can.
Snack: Half an avocado, sliced, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with way more salt than is probably considered “healthy.” Or a can of sardines, just straight up
What are your favorite spots/restaurants to eat healthy?
I support restaurants whose entire philosophy is some flavor of “healthy” like organic, vegan, vegetarian, real/true/whole food, etc. but the places I actually love and frequent are just simply Asian. The food from these cultural cuisines naturally fall into categories that are healthiest for my needs: lots of fish, different types of fresh and pickled vegetables, nourishing soups/broths, warming spices, and far less emphasis on wheat/gluten.
I love Kiriko and Sushi Park for sushi/sashimi and Yabu for buckwheat soba. I tend to order from just about anywhere for Thai take-out, but when I go out, I like Ruen Pair for all their colorful, spicy stir fried vegetable dishes. Nong La and 9021Pho have been my go-tos lately for pho ga. The one Asian cuisine that doesn’t count is Chinese because I can’t resist ordering fried rice and battered, deep fried anything with a glossy, syrupy sauce on it
What is your favorite indulgence? Deep-tissue massage. Also, tropical fruity, creamy ice blended cocktails, the kind that has a tiny paper umbrella in it. I could drink a dozen of those. Ok, maybe like three
What are your favorite places/restaurants to indulge? Pizzeria Mozza, Osteria Mozza, chi SPACCA, Bouchon, AOC/Lucques/Tavern, Bestia in downtown, Cut, Tinga Tacos for their nachos, din tai fung for dumplings I inhale by the steamer basketful.
What would be your last meal on earth? A giant tabletop of nachos on a patio overlooking the ocean, shared with my entire family. With a tropical fruity, creamy ice blended cocktails, the kind that has a tiny paper...you know.
What is the best dish you cook/ your favorite recipe? Right now, I am on the brink of mastering Roast Chicken, and my favorite recipe for it is the Roast Chicken with Two Lemons by Marcella Hazan.
Where do you grocery shop in LA? I will say “farmers’ markets” because I do love them, especially Santa Monica on Wednesday and Saturday, and Hollywood on Sunday, but the reality is, I can’t get everything there, so I run into whatever Whole Foods and/or Bristol Farms is the closest to me at the time.
What is your fitness regimen? I don’t work out in any regular, calculated way at all. Walking my dogs, running around town shopping for ingredients is about as much exercise as I get. I tried to do yoga. I fell asleep.
What is your skin care routine? Mostly, I try to eat for beauty, especially this year as I am hitting a milestone birthday that has made me very sensitive to “aging.”
As far as an actual skincare routine, I am very inconsistent and tend to try new products all the time. I use a Clarisonic brush with a very gentle cleanser, aloe gel, and after that, just your basic day or night moisturizer (right now, both are Burt’s Bees). I just started using a retinol cream every other night. Once a week (when I can remember) I love doing a mask, lately into the GlamGlow mud mask.
What are your favorite natural make up/ beauty products? Pure aloe gel right after washing.
If you were stranded on a desert island, what 3 products would you take with you?
1. lip balm
2. sunscreen
3. floss picks. I am addicted to those things.
(if we’re talking about non-beauty related things, then: juicer, my Bob Kramer knife, a tiny, fully-stocked, solar-powered wine fridge)
What professional beauty/fitness/health gurus do you swear by? No one I “swear by,” though I have always generally liked Dr. Andrew Weil’s philosophies regarding food as medicine.
Top 3 favorite songs?
I am proud of my shamefully age-inappropriate taste in music (high-energy, dance, top 40, britneykatygaga pop stuff) and favorites change almost hourly, but these are currently the most glow-appropriate songs I am listening to right now:
1. California Stars | Wilco (Spotify: Billy Bragg – California Stars)
2. If You Leave | OMD Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – If You Leave (when this song plays, no matter where I am, I will go nuts.)
3. D’yer Mak’er |Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin – D'yer Mak'er (same as above – NUTS)
Most life-changing book? The Joy of Cooking. I don’t think my Dad knew his daughter was going to eventually throw her MBA education and career out the corner office window when he gave me that cookbook a very long time ago.
What is the best gift you’ve ever received? Probably that Joy of Cooking cookbook.
Describe your perfect day. Wake up without an alarm clock. Coffee on the way to the Farmers’ Market. Buy lots of gorgeous fruits and vegetables, suck down some oysters, eat half the Harry’s strawberries, Pudwil’s berries, and pistachios before I even leave the market. Accomplish one adult “to-do” off my list (like go to the bank or launder all the sheets or pay a bill). Two-bottle, three-hour brunch on a shaded patio with a view of the ocean, flip through a cookbook or some food magazines, then cook dinner at home with all the delicious little things from the farmers’ market, eat outside, play boardgames by candlelight late into the night.
What is your most valuable beauty tip/secret? ASS (Can I say that? It stands for Avocado, Sleep and SPF)
What makes you glow? Meals with family and friends, talking to my nieces and nephews about nothing which is everything, rolling around on the ground with my dogs. And a glass or two of Champagne never hurt nobody.
Photography by: Emily Knecht