Tteok Mandu Guk, Traitors, and Being Korean American Today with Eric Nam

April 6, 2026·1 hr 10 min·5 clips

Dave Chang cooks tteok mandu guk for Eric Nam on a 100-degree day, sparking a conversation about Korean food and identity.

The meal starts in the heat. Dave builds the episode around cooking for Eric Nam, with Korean food and Korean American identity right there beside the stove. It stays casual, a little sweaty, and not too neat. A hot bowl of soup opens into growing up Korean American in Virginia and Atlanta. Eric, though, has Traitors on his mind. For him, the show was not just another booking. It felt like a doorway into mainstream America, and he did not want villainy to be the first handshake. The game rewards betrayal, but Eric worried people would carry that image past the show. Dave asks for the quick version. Eric describes a celebrity murder mystery built like mafia, where faithful players try to find the hidden traitors. The stakes sound silly until they do not. He made it to third place, then lost after trusting someone in the last round. Dave clearly enjoys the cruelty of the lesson. Eric admits the whole thing was terrifying, especially in a house packed with reality television veterans. Conflict was part of the machinery. For someone known through K-pop and Korean dramas, that first impression was hard to control. Back in the kitchen, the soup takes the episode back. Dave talks through it from memory, with egg threads on top and egg cooked into the broth. The texture reminds him of egg drop, with a little avgolemono and hot and sour soup in the mix. Eric handles the heat. Dave made fresh kimchi too, changed shirts because the kitchen was unbearable, and the episode closes sweaty, loose, and friendly.

As heard by us

Dave Chang and Eric Nam turn hot soup, Korean American memory, and Traitors anxiety into a relaxed, personal conversation.

Dave Chang cooks tteok mandu guk for Eric Nam, and the bowl gives the conversation its shape: Korean food, Korean American memory, and the practical improvisations that make a dish feel personal rather than fixed.

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Why you'd press play

You get a hot kitchen, Korean American food talk, and a blunt Traitors debrief.

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