![\"Su-Mei](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/web-SuMeiYu_Lead1_t614.jpg\")
<\/a>Her Chinese parents didn\u2019t think she\u2019d be able to pull off making the journey to a new country on her own. They told her that they would only allow her to move to the United States if she could find a program that would not cost them any money. And that\u2019s exactly what she did. With the help of a family friend who\u2019d been a missionary in China, Yu relocated to Kentucky where she enrolled in a church-affiliated school for girls.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a girls\u2019 school,\u201d Yu explained, \u201cbecause my mother said I couldn\u2019t go to a coed school. And, she didn\u2019t want me to come by myself because I was so young, so of all the cousins, she selected my cousin, Susie, who didn\u2019t have any choice. We were not asked in the olden days.\u201d<\/p>\n
After earning a master\u2019s degree in social welfare from San Diego State University, Yu went on to become a renowned San Diego chef, cookbook author and restaurateur. She opened the small but popular Saffron Thai Grilled Chicken on India Street in Mission Hills in 1985, and followed it up in 2002 with a sit-down restaurant next door, Saffron Noodles and Sate. A third restaurant is expected to open late summer at the San Diego International Airport.<\/p>\n
Yu didn\u2019t arrive in the U.S. knowing how to cook. She learned to cook out of necessity. \u201cKentucky was so different from our home. It\u2019s like being dropped on the moon,\u201d she said. \u201cThe food was awful. I couldn\u2019t eat anything that was put on my plate, and kept losing weight. I had to learn how to cook because I couldn\u2019t eat the stuff and thought I would die if I had to eat it anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the help of her cousin, Yu found ways to bring a taste of Thai food to her new home. \u201cFood was always in our blood until I ended up in Kentucky and realized this is not good,\u201d said Yu. \u201cThe main street had five stores and one of the stores was a combined grocery and hardware store where, lo and behold, I found some ginger, cabbages, and Uncle Ben\u2019s instant rice, and I\u2019d make stir-fry. That saved my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, whipping up stir-fry in a dorm had its challenges. \u201cIn a dormitory you only have limited space,\u201d she explained. \u201cThere was a kitchenette for all the girls to use. We\u2019d wait until everyone left to go eat in the cafeteria, to make our stir-fry because it smelled different. We\u2019d open all the windows, boil water and add it to the rice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yu attributes her passion for cooking to her mother, even though she never actually taught Yu, or her brother and sister, how to cook.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mother was an excellent cook,\u201d stated Yu. \u201cBut she never let any of us cook. She would do all the cooking, especially when she had all these banquets, and it was incredible to watch her. It was like theater.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yu\u2019s purpose for cooking Thai food goes beyond taste and presentation. She has great love and respect for the tradition of choosing ingredients that are seasonal and nurturing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThai cooking is based on an old philosophical tradition,\u201d Yu said, \u201cthat food is medicine. In the olden days, recipes were created by combining the natural taste and flavor in the ingredients in a balanced manner in order for the dish to not only taste good, but also be good for you. And, it is always based on the seasonality of the ingredients.\u201d<\/p>\n
These days, Yu is working on her new cooking series, Savor San Diego, which debuted on KPBS Television May 2. She hopes that by watching the show, viewers will gain a new appreciation of San Diego\u2019s bounty of food and how it can be used to create delicious and healthful meals at home.<\/p>\n \u201cI want viewers to get excited about San Diego and our wonderful treasures here,\u201d Yu said with relish. \u201cI want them to get so excited that they will go find these things, get in the kitchen again and start cooking. Food is such a central part of all of us. We don\u2019t realize it but once you put it in, that\u2019s it. It goes every which way. You feel the way you feel because it nurtures you or destroys you.\u201d<\/p>\n In the six-part series, viewers will meet people who raise, catch or find locally grown foods. \u201cThey are very committed and passionate in their own way of creating, finding and raising all these different foods,\u201d Yu said.<\/p>\n The first show was titled \u201cThe Yin-Yang of Protein\u201d and upcoming episodes will highlight orchards in Jamul and community gardens in National City and City Heights. Full episodes can be watched at kpbs.org following the original broadcast.<\/p>\n Spend a little time with Yu and you\u2019ll be hard-pressed not to get caught up in her enthusiasm for cooking Thai food. And, her advice for getting started is simple: \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid, just go for it.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2014Monica Medina is director of diversity, engagement and grants at KPBS, and posts stories on their blog \u201cHey Neighbor!\u201d about \u201cextraordinary people in diverse communities.\u201d This story on Su-Mei Yu was first posted on the blog April 25. Visit kpbs.org\/news\/blogs\/hey-neighbor\/<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mission Hills restaurant owner debuts new TV series By Monica Medina | KPBS For as long as she can remember, Su-Mei Yu\u2019s dream was to leave her home in Thailand to come to the United States. So when the opportunity arose at the age of 15, she seized it.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":246119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Savor San Diego with Su-Mei Yu","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>For example, in the summer there are plenty of cucumbers, she continued, \u201cand when the weather gets cool we have pumpkin. It\u2019s more warming and better for your muscles. And, onions are good for your chest and good for colds. That is the basic philosophy of Thai food. If you adopt the same philosophical values for your lifestyle here, it can also enhance a better and more balanced diet.\u201d<\/p>\n