Excerpts below, but the Full interview can heard on the podcast, LISTEN HERE, and available anywhere podcasts are found “Let Me Tell You Why…with Jeremy Jacobowitz”

Tell us about your restaurant?

RACHEL: Mawn is a Southeast Asian, we call it noodle shop with no rules basically just kind of flavors from all over Southeast Asia, strong emphasis on Cambodian flavors, it's Cambodian owned so that's important to mention and in in South Philly.

PHILA: Mawn to me is like a besides everything that people wanted to be it's a hub for the experiences that Rachel and I have in the restaurant industry in Philadelphia. She's been on the floor for 20 years. I've been in the kitchen for about 18 years and it's it's all apparent at Mawn. 

What do people outside of Philly not understand about the Philly food scene?

PHILA: I think people didn't understand how serious the food scene was because there was a, because I guess there is a famous notion that Philadelphia was always New York's little cousin, you know, but I always grew up with the joke, you know, what the best part about New York is? The train ride back to Philadelphia.

So like when people come and they automatically think New York was a little bit too busy, let's just go to Philly then all of a sudden you go to a an Angelo's cheesesteak where he's banging out his own bread and making sensual fucking sandwiches, when you go to Kalaya and there's this lady who's like gatekeeping that category (Thai) when you go to Mawn… all of a sudden you're like, shit Philly's, you know Philly's top five. I also have I also feel like People in Philly have a lot of pride a lot of times and a lot of pride for the city and a lot of pride, know and so for people Well people like us for example that are from here born and raised, like this is the only place we ever lived like this is we you I feel like you can feel that like through how we put things out there.

You are pulling inspiration from more than Cambodia, what was the thought process behind that?

RACHEL: So he's Cambodian first generation. So like his experience growing up was not in Cambodia. It's here in South Philly. And then to sort of tie in, you know, we wanted to sort of incorporate things from both of our lives, both of our cultures. So sometimes, you know, so the soup, for example, we have our Ma Noodle soup on the menu, which is more of like a Jewish broth, like a Jewish like matzo ball soup broth, more of those flavors. But then it kind of goes into some typical chicken soup that he would grow up. So it's sort of like a melding of the two flavors for that. The special that night was sort of like his inspiration was the latkes, you know, applesauce and potatoes and the creaminess and all of that. We just like to make good food and present food that's fun and interesting and not set in one box.

PHILA: That latke scallop special is very symbolic to like my mind frame as a chef right now. Because I own my own time, because we own our own restaurant, we can do basically whatever the fuck we want to do. So we took a latke, which is a Jewish potato pancake, normally served with crumb fresh, if you're fancy, applesauce, and eaten with family. We took that, made like crispy potato crumbs. 

You are opening a brand new restaurant?

PHILA: It's a Southeast Asian raw bar, with the liquor license, it's called Sao. We're from South Philly, my mother pronounces South Sao, like South Philly. So it's a nod to that. It's gonna be It's gonna be something that we always wanted to to be in existence.

And if people were confused by Mawn, they're gonna really be fucking confused by Sao! It's an oyster bar that's been inspired by Neptune in Boston just from one visit. You're gonna get oysters that are like traditional in a way, but it clashes with a bunch of Southeast Asian sauces. The marriage is absolutely amazing.

No one has heard this before but you. But what we're gonna do is try to reimagine raw fish, and we're gonna sell crudo by the ounce. So it's it's a nod to a Jewish deli per se, but we're slicing the fish by the ounce, so you get the choice of the rotating fish, and also you get to choose how many ounces of it that you want.

Do you have a favorite Philly Cheesesteak?

PHILA: You know, I think about this often because people ask me, being a true born and raised South Philadelphian, my favorite cheesesteak is the one I'm eating. Any fucking cheesesteak is good. But, you know, Angelo's is on our block. They do make their own bread and it's...You can't not go there.

RACHEL: But when he's ordering a cheesesteak every night when we get home because that does happen. It's from, it's from Geno's with cheese fries.

What is the most iconic Philly restaurant in your eyes?

If I have friends in Philly and they're like, you know, we got one stop, I always say go to Oyster House. Oyster House is... I think it's the best restaurant in Philadelphia. It's consistent. It's always too f**king cold to stay long. There's never a fragment of shell in the oysters. It's consistent to the tea. The staff is great. The food is amazing.

TV

Last weekend I binged Interior. Chinatown on Hulu and loved! I dont want to spoil too much about this mini series starring Jimmy O Yang, Ronny Chieng and, Chloe Bennet, but its a mix of genres and styles thats tells this really layered mystery full of humor and drama! With every episode we learn more about this mystery, which is all a giant allegory for Asian representaiton in Hollywood.

YOUTUBE

I watched this Youtube video “Why Are Pandas Impressivley Bad at Existing” from the Real Science channel, and I now have a wayyyy better understanding on why we are so worried about their population. Somehow, with almost every single thing about them being against them in this world, they have survived for millions of years. A true anomoly for species. Even the way they eat Bamboo truly makes no sense! mind blown! WATCH HERE