Kimchi & BBQ

On September 1st, Jake Thompson walks into the GlobalLink Solutions office wearing his cowboy hat and exuding his usual commanding presence. Han Ji-eun looks up from her screen, pulls out an antibacterial wipe, and wipes down her desk without saying a word.

Three minutes and forty-two seconds. That's how long it takes Ji-eun to decide there's a list. And Jake to decide he wants to be on it.

What follows is not simple. There are two families separated by everything-a Texas ranch and a Seoul apartment, a rancher father and a professor of Chinese studies, two mothers whose kitchens speak different languages and who eventually discover they're cooking the same ingredient. There are weeks of Korean lessons, counted one by one. A stone seal engraved in Insadong. A cowboy hat that travels all the way to Seoul. And a phrase spoken at a formal dinner-take care of her-to which there is only one right answer.

Kimchi & BBQ is a romantic comedy that believes that true things are rarely elaborate-that they are usually short, precise, and don't need fireworks to exist.