Chapter 1
Sarah Cho chewed on her lip and watched Josh Park, her oldest friend in the world, take a bite of the spicy noodle dish she’d just made.
“Mmmm, that’s delicious!” Josh raved as he inhaled the noodles. “And I love the hot dogs in them!”
Sarah beamed. She’d seen the recipe for creamy gochujang carbonara on a video by her favorite chef, but when she mentioned it to her family, no one had wanted to try it. Luckily, Josh was always a willing food taster and had happily come over to be her guinea pig.
“It was supposed to be bacon, but I didn’t have any,” she replied.
“The hot dogs taste better!” Josh reassured her.
Sarah took a bite of the pasta and tasted it thoroughly.
“Okay, not bad,” she said.
Grabbing her cooking journal, she made a note of it under her Creamy Gochujang Carbonara Hot Dog recipe. Who would have thought Korean hot pepper paste would go so well with cream and cheese?
“Are you planning on writing a cookbook one day?” Josh asked.
Sarah shook her head. “These are just my own notes so I remember what I did for the dishes that worked. Like, next time I’ll add more milk to make it creamier.”
Josh slurped up the rest of his noodles.
“I think it’s perfect,” he said as he held out his bowl for more.
Sarah served him more of her pasta with a satisfied smile. Cooking was her favorite thing to do next to eating. There was something extremely soothing about following a recipe or thinking of something delicious to make. But it was even more satisfying when she was able to see someone enjoy her food.
Ever since she started cooking when she was seven years old, Josh was always willing to eat everything she made, no matter how bad it was. They’d been sharing meals together since they were babies. Not only did they live a block away from each other, but their families had been friends for two generations.
Sarah’s and Josh’s moms grew up together in Potomac, Maryland, where both their grandparents had been longtime friends who golfed and vacationed together. The families were so close that the four grandparents recently moved together to a retirement community in Florida, where they spent all their time golfing and playing card games.
Sarah was older by four months and had always been the bossier of the two of them, while Josh was laid-back and willing to follow Sarah’s lead. They’d been like that for the past thirteen years.
Sarah was gazing at him affectionately when Josh looked up and gave her a big smile. All of a sudden, Sarah’s heart gave a funny squeeze that was so unexpected she gasped.
“What’s the matter?” he asked, his eyebrows furrowed in concern.
“Nothing,” she said. “I think it was a little too spicy.”
“Wuss,” Josh laughed. “What kind of weak Korean are you?”
Sarah glared at him in response, but she couldn’t help but notice how cute he looked when his eyes crinkled with laughter. Shocked at the thought, Sarah blinked rapidly. Since when had she ever thought Josh was cute? Eyeing him surreptitiously, Sarah realized that the three-inch growth spurt he’d had since last year suddenly made him look less like her little childhood friend she’d bossed around her entire life and more like one of the boys the girls at school were always raving about. She didn’t like that at all.
The front door opened and slammed shut, and Lauren, Sarah’s older sister, sauntered in. She dropped her trendy pink purse on the kitchen table and stood leaning her hip against it. In her cute pink top and matching miniskirt, she looked like she was posing for some teen magazine.
“What’s that weird smell?” she said, her nose crinkling in distaste.
“It’s not weird—it’s awesome!” Josh answered. “You should try some.”
Lauren came over and peered into the pot. “Ew, no thank you. I don’t like that Korean fusion stuff.”
“Don’t eat it, then,” Sarah shot back.
Lauren tossed her long black hair over one shoulder and took a yogurt out of the fridge.
“Pasta is so fattening,” she said as she side-eyed Sarah.
Sarah winced at her sister’s words, but then defiantly took a huge bite of her pasta. Lauren rolled her eyes and grabbed her bag.
“I’m only saying that because you-know-who is coming today to stay for the weekend,” Lauren said, and left the kitchen.
Sarah’s heart sank.
“Don’t let her get to you,” Josh said. “Maybe if she actually ate real food, she wouldn’t be so crabby all the time.”
“It’s not that.” Sarah sighed. “It’s Grandma. She’s coming down from New York to spend the weekend.”
“Oh.” Josh frowned. “She’s the one who always calls us fat, right?”
Sarah nodded despondently. “Not that she’ll call
you fat anymore.”
Sarah shot him a dirty look. She felt like all the baby fat that Josh had lost with his growth spurt had magically transferred onto her face instead. Her grandma would love him, as he now fit the ideal of what she expected her grandchildren to look like. Thin and attractive.
Meanwhile, Sarah would get the brunt of her grandmother’s criticism because she didn’t look like Lauren. Grandma always loved to say that Lauren took after her while Sarah was the spitting image of her mother. The sisters could not be more different. Lauren was tall and rail-thin with a small head and oval face, while Sarah was still waiting for a growth spurt that would hopefully make her less round. Although nothing could help her face. She had high cheekbones and what the whole world considered to be irresistibly pinchable round, plump cheeks. The bane of her existence.
Grandma Cho, Sarah’s paternal grandmother, ran a successful dry cleaner in Manhattan and came down to visit a few times a year. Sarah never knew her paternal grandfather because he died a long time ago. She always wondered about him. What had he been like, and how had he put up with Grandma when he was alive?
It was not that she hated her grandma. She just didn’t like her very much. And she was pretty sure the feeling was mutual. Lately, all Grandma did was talk about her new boyfriend that none of them had met yet. Sarah found that weird. Besides, who would want to date her grandma? She was old and mean.
“I’d better get my stuff out of my room.” She sighed. “I hate when I have to share with Lauren. She’s the worst.”
Josh nodded in sympathy. “And school starts next week.”
“Ugh!” This was a terrible way to end her summer vacation.
Notes from Sarah’s Cooking Journal
Creamy Gochujang Carbonara Hot Dog
1 box spaghetti, 1 pack of hot dogs, 4 garlic cloves, 2 ½ T gochujang, 3/4 cup milk—a little more to make it creamier?, 1/4 cup heavy cream, 1/2 T soy sauce, 1/2 cup pasta water
Cook spaghetti in salted and boiling water. But add salt after it boils. Like a half tablespoon. Chop up hot dogs and brown them in a pan. Add crushed garlic into pan and stir on medium heat for 30 seconds. Then add in gochujang, milk, heavy cream, and soy sauce and simmer until thick. Don’t forget to constantly stir. Add cooked spaghetti with the pasta water and mix it all up. Simmer 2 minutes and top with Parmesan cheese. Serves 4 to 6 people unless Josh is there. He’ll eat half by himself.
*gochujang—Korean red chili paste
Copyright © 2027 by Ellen Oh. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
