Sohn-Mat : Recipes and Flavors of Korean Home Cooking

From one of the country’s most beloved Korean restaurants, a master class in making the iconic Korean stew, soondubu jjigae, with recipes for everything to serve alongside it, including kimchi, banchan, grilled meats, and more.

Monica Lee opened Beverly Soon Tofu in 1986, just as Los Angeles’s Koreatown was taking shape as a cultural hub. For over thirty years, Beverly Soon Tofu was an anchor to this community, and newcomers and regulars alike would line up for the restaurant’s specialty: a bubbling hot bowl of soondubu jjigae, or soft tofu stew, each one made to order.

Sohn-mat translates to flavor in the fingertips. It is the cook’s fingerprint, her natural, deep-seated instincts with flavor, ingredients, and seasonings that make her dish truly her own. In Sohn-mat, Monica’s first-ever book, she shares the knowledge she built over decades and the trial and error that went into creating her version of this iconic dish. And, in addition to detailing each component of soondubu, the book includes recipes for all the foods to serve with it, from many types of banchan and kimchi, to grilled meats and bibimbap. Sohn-mat is an invitation to cultivate your own intuitive cooking and perfect soondubu in the process.

Monica Lee opened Beverly Soon Tofu in 1986. It was the first restaurant of its kind in LA, a pioneer serving soon tofu stew to residents and visitors of Koreatown for over thirty years.

Tien Nguyen is the co-author of multiple books, including New York Times bestseller L.A. Son: My Life, My City, My Food with chef Roy Choi, and The Red Boat Fish Sauce Cookbook, one of NPR’s 2021 Books We Love.