Ashley Yi Wants You To Stop Believing These Korean-Food Myths - Exclusive
TikTok star Ashley Yi has accumulated a huge following on social media with her videos that share her trying different types of food while making quirky facial expressions in the process. From dim sum to jajangmyeon, Yi likes to take her fans with her as she joyfully experiences meals for the first time. Ashley Yi told Mashed in an exclusive interview that she grew up not knowing much about her own Korean heritage and was later exposed to it more while attending college at UC Irvine in Los Angeles and making friends there.
"I met up with these people and they showed me so many cool things about other Asian cultures, and I suddenly found myself falling in love with my own culture," the California native explained. "Now I'm an advocate. I love Korean culture and Asian culture. I'm trying to be a champion for all of that, exposing it to everyone."
Yi said she now has fun making content for social media that shows her audience that just because you've never tried a food, it doesn't have to be daunting or scary.
She doesn't want people to think Korean cuisine is 'gross'
Yi believes that food is ultimately one of the easiest ways to share a culture. "When I started trying different Korean foods, it wasn't me sharing it for the heck of it; it was my first time trying it too," she admitted. "What I do with my TikTok is I like to create the whole experience around trying a food, because I want people to know that [even though] it's something as small as a meal, it's something worth living for and experiencing and creating joy around it."
The adventurous eater said she hopes that showing others new types of cuisine will make them more approachable for others to try. "My number one thing that I absolutely push is [that] no culture's food is weird or gross — it's simply a food you're not used to," she revealed. "That's where I like to go in and give them my firsthand experience and be like, 'It's not scary. It's just something you're not used to, and I'll show you how to do it.'"
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