AILSA CHANG, HOST:
All right. Many of us have, well, at least attempted to cook by following a recipe in a book. But have you ever tried assembling a dish by following a Spotify playlist?
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Well, Noah Conk is a designer based in San Francisco. And to share his recipe for kimchi fried rice, he put together a three-hour long, 51-song playlist, with each song titled describing a specific ingredient, measurement or instruction.
NOAH CONK: I basically went through the search function of searching for the word that I needed or a combination of words.
CHANG: The first word he needed, and the place most recipes start, was a song called "Ingredients."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "INGREDIENTS")
YNW MELLY: (Rapping) I just found out a new ingredient
SUMMERS: Then there's a song called "3."
(SOUNDBITE OF FLUME'S "3")
CHANG: Next, a tune called "Tablespoons."
(SOUNDBITE OF MARTIN LANDSTROM'S "TABLESPOONS")
SUMMERS: And then "Unsalted Butter."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "UNSALTED BUTTER")
THE LONG WINTERS: (Singing) Unsalted butter is...
CHANG: Three tablespoons of unsalted butter? You get, or maybe you taste, the idea now?
(LAUGHTER)
SUMMERS: Conk says he picked kimchi fried rice because it is a favorite comfort food of his.
CONK: Growing up, I never really ate too much Korean food because I'm an adoptee.
SUMMERS: But that changed in college.
CONK: That was my opportunity of meeting other Korean - what we call Korean-Korean people.
CHANG: And he learned how to cook the cuisine by watching chefs on YouTube, like Chef Chris Cho.
(SOUNDBITE OF YOUTUBE VIDEO)
CHRIS CHO: Hey, what's up y'all? It's your boy, Chef Chris Cho.
CHANG: Conk says Cho's recipe for kimchi fried rice inspired his own. But Conk did put his own spin on things, which some people had questions about.
CONK: They're like, why unsalted butter? And I'm like, it allows you to salt to taste. And the goal of butter is to bring out the subtle nuances of kimchi.
SUMMERS: Now, the original playlist did not include the song "Butter" by South Korean boyband BTS.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BUTTER")
BTS: (Singing) Smooth like butter, like a criminal undercover.
CONK: I realized I was like, how could I forget the "Butter" song, like, in a kimchi fried rice recipe playlist?
SUMMERS: He's since updated that playlist to correct that oversight.
CHANG: Conk's musical recipe has more than 4,000 likes. And after the songs top off with "Sesame Seeds," the playlist ends with the song "Winners Circle" by Anderson .Paak.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WINNER'S CIRCLE")
ANDERSON PAAK: (Singing) Somebody go, somebody go, somebody go, somebody go.
CONK: You made it to the end, and you're in the winner's circle. You're part of this collective of people who can make kimchi fried rice from a playlist. And it's also, like, a subtle nod to Anderson .Paak being Korean.
SUMMERS: So if you're looking for a kitchen project this weekend, maybe ditch those cookbooks and just turn up the music.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WINNER'S CIRCLE")
PAAK: (Rapping) My comfort zone to be your missing company. Somethin' about the way you never gave it up to me, but let me know that I can get it, hit it any day of the week. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
