"Tiny Grandma" cooks with "a lot of heart and a side of kimchi"

As Grant St. Clair reminded us recently, some good things are still happening in this world. And I'm here to share another little sliver of joy bringing me some comfort in these trying times. If your algorithm hasn't yet served up "Tiny Grandma" to you, we're about to remedy that. And I assure you, you're in for a real treat! According to its creators, Tiny Grandma is a "lovable Korean grandmother brought to life through handcrafted stop-motion animation." Tiny Grandma, whose social media tagline is "Making Food, Bringing Joy" is the brainchild of Marie Hart and Peter Heacock. While she physically looks like Marie's mom, Tiny Grandma is modeled after all of the Korean women Marie grew up with — her mom, grandmother, aunts, and cousins — who cooked, cared for, and nurtured their families.

The adorable 6-inch-tall puppet grammy cooks up "human sized" Korean food with "a lot of heart and a side of kimchi." For instance, in this utterly charming video, Tiny Grandma demonstrates how to make dandelion kimchi. She first goes out to the garden and picks some dandelions and places them in her tiny little basket, explaining that all the parts of the plant — roots, stems, and leaves — are edible. She then heads back to the kitchen where she whips up a basic kimchi sauce, washes and blanches the greens, and the adds them to the sauce. She lets them ferment for a day, and then chows down when they're ready. YUM!

And here's Tiny Grandma making a Korean breakfast sandwich, Totoro onigiri, and cucumber kimchi. The food looks amazingly delicious, and it's all super cute, too!

Tiny Grandma doesn't just cook all the time, though. She also relaxes and spends time with her cat. Here she is enjoying some honey butter chips and some cookies with her cat. The videos are so wonderful and heartwarming! And the crunchy munchy ASMR is an added bonus!

Of course, Tiny Grandma isn't actually making all of the food nor eating all of it. Peter explains that he animates Tiny Grandma, cooks the food, and, yes, eats it as well (lucky!). In a cool series of behind-the-scene videos, Peter reveals how he poses and films the doll to make Tiny Grandma appear to be cooking and eating. For example, here, you can see the behind-the-scenes filming of Tiny Grandma making veggie pancakes, and here you can see how the final video turned out.

If you want to learn how to make Tiny Grandma's mouth-watering dishes, Marie and Peter have posted all of the recipes, including Halmi's Ramen Bowl, Rose Tteokbokki, Tiny Grandma's Gimbap, and much more, on the Tiny Grandma website.

See more of Tiny Grandma's videos on YouTube or Instagram.