Trigger warning.The following contains discussions about suicide.I want to talk about Chinese takeout because, you know, if you it's like if you go to, you know, Britain, you have BIR, which is British Indian restaurant cooking.
Totally different from Britain, from proper Indian food as it was which is 27 states and they all have very different food but it's called British Indian restaurant cooking and it's something that we now love in England.
We adore British Indian restaurant cooking.We have phal which is a very English dish, it's very hot, which I don't love too much.Chicken tikka masala is a British dish.All of that.
So over here, and maybe it's like Italian American, which is this fantastic cuisine on its own, not to do with Italy, but it's of its own.This weekend, we went to Springfield, Missouri, where you can have the original cashew chicken.
Yeah there's a restaurant we had by mr leon was the first word so what do you think about the chinese take out here does it have that kind of.It's still really good i think sometimes it's very different from china.
but it's really good in its own right.What do you think?I mean, because you're a very special Chinese-American chef.What do you think like that?Things like chow mein and General Tso's chicken and orange chicken is an obvious one, obviously.Right.
So I have a couple. opinions.So the best Chinese food in this country, in America, are the specialized ones.The restaurant that does just citron food and the restaurant that does just kunan food.
Because that chef or those chefs came from that province and that's the food they know how to cook.And they get better ingredients than they had in China.The meat is fresher, the vegetables are fresher.So they can make better.
Same in India with Indian food.
Right, exactly.They can actually make better Chinese food than in China because the ingredients are better with the same technique, right?The same wok, the same gas, all that. I can't.I would never go to a restaurant that does all just Chinese food.
You see the ones that does Chinese, Japanese, Thai.What are you doing?No, you can't.There's no way you can do Japanese, Thai, and Chinese well.You don't have three great chefs at each special.That's so impossible to do.So definitely avoid those.
Look, Panda Express, who's the elephant in the room, literally a 17 million pound elephant, has a great purpose.At least it's getting Asian Chinese flavors into Americans bellies, right?And it is, for a lot of Americans, delicious.
It's not necessarily healthy for you, right?It's battered protein that's fried, and then coated with this cloyingly sweet.So I don't eat that stuff.But There is a version of orange chicken.
It's not called orange chicken in China, but citrus and chicken have been, that dish has been sweet and sour.You know, Sanari is called three, two, one.Three vinegar, two soy, one sugar.That's the original sweet and sour sauce, right?
That's the sweet sugar and the sour is vinegar.That is sweet and sour.So that did start in China, but then when it came over here, you added, you know, juices and glucose and cornstarch and coyingly sweet.
So it definitely gets bastardized once it got here.But would I rather eat Panda Express possibly than, I don't know, fast food?Maybe.
If I had to choose my, you know, if I'm going to go and eat something that's not good for me, I'd rather have probably something like fried and sweet than double cheeseburger frozen patties, for example.
There is, and I'm going to bring it to you, there is finally some good frozen out there, right?
The way meals are now frozen, you can retain the juices and the flavor, if you keep the sauces different, if you can use an air fryer to keep it crispy, you could actually get some great Asian style food at home without spending a ton of money.
Because right now, I mean, I just went to the local Chinese here with my wife and I was $85 for two of us. I'm like, Oh my god, it's so expensive.Just Chinese takeout.You see Chinese takeout $80 for four of us.Now it's almost double.
And I don't I couldn't believe that there was I went to a restaurant once I had a $28 pot pie.I'm like, Wait a minute, guys.This is this is rice noodles with two shrimp and three pieces of chicken.But
That's why the restaurant industry is so hard right now, right?You gotta pay 20 plus, 25 bucks an hour for the cooks.Chicken is twice as much per pound than it was two years ago, et cetera, et cetera.
And the customer's never going to really want to pay 26 bucks for a pot pie.So it's a real, right now we're in a real quandary.It's really hard.You're a high-end restaurant, you're fine, right?
Because there's plenty of billionaires and French Laundry, Danielle, that's fine. It used to be low in restaurants, McDonald's and whatnot, but now McDonald's is having problems, right?Because it's not cheap anymore.
I mean, you take a family of four, McDonald's is not just $20, although they have the $5 meal.So we have a real challenge right now.And I think more people, because it's such a tough economy, are cooking more at home, but they also aren't chefs.
They need better ways of being able to do it. I think frozen actually is a solution for that because the hello fresh is all those great services are really expensive.Right most people in america can't it's only fifty dollars per head per night.
They can't afford that you can't spend sixty bucks on food at night if you're a family it's just it's too much money no you absolute cut i do want to mention here that i made it so i don't know where it comes from in china but i made almost like a tangerine.
chicken where i'm not sure where in china but i was it was a recipe i had to check sorry i can't hear you no no sorry no no you go if you if you go to uh china um i've discovered this tangerine chicken when i was there it was tan and it was very you put the tangerines out on the
pavement or in the yard, so they dried, dried, dried.You mix those, you created a tangerine powder.I was taught this by a Chinese chef when I was in China, and he said, this is like what we call, and I don't know where it was.
I can't remember where I was traveling around China.But I made that for my wife, and she still goes, well, I prefer Panda Express.
Can you read, this is backwards or forwards?
So this is- No, no, spicy dan dan noodles.Oh, I love dan dan noodles.
I've recently just partnered with Nestle and I'm producing a whole new series of Asian style frozen foods, but authentic.So like this dan dan, this has mala, this has Sichuan peppercorn and chilies and actually is spicy.
And it's literally a three-minute nuke in the oven.It's under $5.And this is a way of getting good deliciousness into you without having to break the bank.And we even have, because you know, it's called Ming's.The brand's called Ming's.
It's called Ming so let's go and see that if we're in any supermarket that has it.
We just launched two weeks ago.We're just launching in the Midwest and it's going to get, in theory, should be national shortly. And we also have stuff like this, like sweet and sour chicken, right?But this is an air fryer.
So all of this, the chicken, the peppers, the fresh pineapple get air fried crispy.And then this true sweet and sour sauce with fresh pineapple juice and the vinegar and the chili is on the side and you drizzle it on top.
So this is something I'm pretty excited about because I think this is a great way to get good, tasty Asian food in you without breaking the bank and without taking an hour to prep because we all work for a living.
Let's go back to Chinese food when I've eaten it in China.So I want to know just five dishes.What are five dishes that are your top five?
My five favorite Chinese dishes? Yeah, that you could mention from China is not not East West Chinese, right?Chinese, my favorite dish to eat to cook to serve.Yeah, is is not just Peking duck.
It's tea smoke Peking duck, which I can't wait to serve you one day I created this dish.My restaurant's called Baba.It's in Big Sky, Montana, right at the Yellowstone Club.And we have these beautiful vertical ovens.And
Again, through trial and error, I've made Peking duck my entire life.I've made tea smoked duck also my entire life in two different processes.One is fried, and one of course, you dip, you blow up, you hang, you dry, you roast.
I love Peking duck, but my biggest issue quite often, even at the best ones in Beijing, at Quan Ji Da, at Da Gong, all these original Peking duck places.The skin is phenomenal, right?The skin is just crisp, it's so delicious.
But sometimes the meat is kind of dry and not succulent, it doesn't taste good.Because Peking duck really was created for just the skin, right?The traditional way is San Che, Peking duck three ways.
They make the soup out of it, they take the meat, they make a stir fry out of it. They do stuff with it.I've even had, they fried the bones up and you dipped it and ate the bones in a five spice salt.All delicious.
But for me, because I also trained in France, is I want the skin crispy and I want the meat.So I created this technique of first dipping and hanging it, get it just like a traditional piggy duck.
But the first thing we do the next morning is we cold smoke it.We use black leachy tea and cherry wood and smoke it.And that does two things.One, it flavors the meat.
Because again, the meat's been, there's five spice salt on the meat and oranges and scallions, right?So it's getting flavored. and then smoking it, but it also dries the skin out even more so than just a fan, because you're smoking it.
So now when I serve this tea smoke peeking duck, you're eating it for that.And I cut it with the skin and the meat.I don't do skin separate than the meat.I do it because I want it to be one homogeneous bite.So that's by far dish one.
My favorite go-to noodles I just showed to you in my frozen version is the dan dan mian.I love dan dan mian.Real dan dan noodles, right?I mean, for those that may not know, ma la is the secret.Ma la is a Sichuan way of cooking.
Ma means to numb, and that's what Sichuan peppercorns do. It numbs your mouth, prepares you to be able to eat spicier.La means spice, spicy.So ma la is the base of Sichuan peppercorn.So you can eat spicier.
As you know, Simon, it doesn't necessarily protect you the next day, but as you're eating it, it does protect you.So you can eat it as spicy as you want.I love ma la.And you've already mentioned it.Guo guo, fire pot, right?
Foie gras, the Japanese call it shabu-shabu, which by far is the best way to eat A5 Kobe or Wagyu, anything.Everyone, if you've never had shabu-shabu and you want to eat the most beautiful melt-in-your-mouth meat in Japan, it's shabu-shabu.
Don't get a steak of A5 and sear it.It's just too rich and too much.You don't need that much fat to eat in a steak.It's like eating a lobo foie gras by yourself.Too much is not good. But a hot pot, because it's the best way to share a meal.
We do it all the time at home with my kids.My parents did it all the time.And all you need is an electrical, you know, they have now you have induction burners, but just an electrical heating that can boil water.
We did chicken stock and water just to make it more flavorful.And you would have
everyone around, up to eight people with your thing, you put your meat in, your shrimp in, or your fish cakes, and this, and then the noodles, and then the veg, and then you drink the broth.It's a whole other deal.
And I love it at restaurants too, because at restaurants, you could have like spicy mala broth, or a kimchi broth, and you can have a neutral broth too.
And then they just keep bringing out plates and plates of beautifully sliced meats and fish and chicken.Even in Beijing, I remember when I was, first time I was in Beijing, I was 10.
And I went to a communal hot pot restaurant with my dad, and it was a gigantic 10-foot diameter hot pot.But everyone had a compartment about this big in front of me, just the two walls.We all shared the same broth, right?
But this is pre-COVID, but the broth is boiling, so it didn't matter.And we all shared the same broth, and we all cooked it in, and that was the way they did hot pot restaurants in China.
And it probably wouldn't have done well in America, sharing a broth with 10 other people.But it's just such a great way to share a meal, right?You literally are cooking together.So that would be my best dumpling.
I was going to say my best dumpling, my best bite. is something you may not have heard of.It's in streets of Taiwan, in Taipei, called Goubili Baozi.Goubili Baozi.Gou is dog, right?This is not a dog dumpling, Philip.
but the name of the dumpling, it's shaped like a hockey puck and about this thick, right?So it looks like a hockey puck.It's hot water dough, like a pot sticker dough.And it's pan-seared on both sides with the juiciest pork in the world.
So when you bite into it, it's like a soup dumpling with all that juice, but it's crispy on the outside because of the way they cook it.And go believe balls, it literally translates means, not even a dog would eat these baos.
So Gobele, that's a Gobele, not even a dog would touch it.Wow.So not the greatest marketing name for something you want to sell, but my grandpa used to take us to these places.You used to get, I think it was like five for a dollar.
I mean, it was so cheap back then, but that was by far the best dumpling ever, Gobele balls.
Oh, you're making me feel so hungry.I mean, seriously, I think of anyone I've ever had on this show, you are making me feel so hungry.I think we might have to get some Szechuan food in this afternoon.
Don't threaten me with a good meal, Simon.I think the way the Chinese cook whole fish, is the simplest, most perfect way.
When you have a beautiful, if you have a beautiful fresh fish, steaming the fish whole, just with ginger and scallion and then flashed with a hot peanut oil, for the cheeks, right?
My mom used to fight for the cheeks, the head, the eyeballs, and the tail.They didn't care about, and my grandma and mom would fight.You got the tail, I got the head.You get the head, I get the tail.
And, but it was always a discussion, but I've never had a better bite of fish.It's more succulent and it's just, and you can taste the fish, all of the fish.
Cause it's just lightly, again, ginger, it's got a little bit of soy sauce and then the peanut oil. It's the most simplest way, and for the record, I say this all the time when I do my new style sashimi.
New style sashimi popularized by Nobu Matsuhisa, right?When he opened Matsuhisa in Las Vegas 45 years ago, Nobu told me this story.He would have all these elderly ladies come in, oh, I don't eat raw fish.
He's like, please sit down, let me do something for you.And he started flashing his sashimi with hot olive oil.And they're like, oh, this isn't raw.It's still raw, right?But in their heads, it's cooked, and people loved it.
That's created new style sashimi. For the record, he stole that idea from the Chinese.We've been flashing fish.Yeah, great.It was steamed fish, but we've been flashing fish for 2000 years.So I kind of stole it back because I do New South Sushimi.
I always credit him because I had it first time with him.But I mean, I love cooking fish of all sorts.I think when you steam it like that, it's the way to show the fish off the best.
Oh, and let's finish this with talking about your books, and your time on TV, and the thing that I always say about you is you're very—what's the word I was looking for? You're very philanthropic as well.You're very philanthropic.
So you're always reaching out to people who you, I think you did the Food Allergy and Anaphylactic Networkers.You've done all kinds of people.You're doing Family Reach, I think.I don't know whether you're still doing that now, but all these things.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.I'd love to talk about it a little bit.Yep.
Yeah, thank you for giving me the opportunity.So first of all, No one touches Jose Andres.Jose Andres is the hero of all hero chefs, right?I mean, he literally is.
Of course he is.Of course he is.
I mean, he is.Yeah, he really is.And I've known Jose my entire life. If anyone deserves a Nobel Peace Prize, it's Jose, and I think he will get it actually.
Of course he does, absolutely.
He literally, and his formula is so good, every chef in the world is a potential World Central Kitchen chef, because wherever the disaster is, there are some restaurants not affected and some aren't, so he just figures the ones that aren't affected, funds them so they can stay open and operating, and then start feeding FEMA, police, fire, all that.
Jose is amazing.I've done a lot of stuff with him.There's nothing more heartwarming when you go to disaster and you're cooking for these people that literally have lost everything.I was in the Bahamas after that horrible one.Abaco was wiped out.
It was just wiped out.Just to get water in a plate of rice and beans, there's nothing more powerful than the ability.I just said it earlier, make people happy through food.That's fantastic. just to get people food so they can live.
I mean, that's the most basic, basic premise, right?And that's why World Central Kitchen is amazing.So what I've done, so I help Jose a lot as much as I can.
And as a side note, I'm also very proudly part of Team USA mentor, the organization that Thomas Feller, Daniel Bluett, and Jerome Beaucoup started.That's our fundraising arm for Team USA to compete in the Beaucoup store.
So that for culinary is something I'm very fond of because I think Again, France with Paul Bocuse, Monsieur Paul, who really wanted to bring the best chefs in the world together.I fully support that.
But my main philanthropic work is this great foundation called Family Reach.I've been with them 13 years.We're the only national charity that financially helps families dealing with cancer.
Right now in America, a cancer diagnosis to the family is the number one reason of personal bankruptcy. think about that.
Trust me, I know, you know, you know, you have money, I have money, my wife had this and, and, you know, I can't imagine all the stuff I buy on Amazon all the time.And if I had to think about like, we can't afford it'd be just unbelievable.
So family reach through food.I created an event called cooking live And I've done it 24 times all over the country.I bring the best chefs in each city.
I was in Chicago at Stephanie Eisner and Grant Atkins and Takashi in New York, you know, New York we had. Rocco and Todd English and all these guys, so all the great chefs.
We get them in a room, we cook live, meaning we plate and cook, do a demo like TV, because everyone on TV, the comments are like, I wish I could eat that.Well, here you actually get to see it on TV screens being made and then you get to eat it.
And I have proudly raised, Simon, over $13 million for Family Reach over the last 13 years. And I meet these families, and I see these kids, and I hug these kids.
And I know I helped keep these guys out of the homeless shelter, literally in their home.And now they're in remission.And again, like what Jose does, we have a platform to be able to do something and give back.
And there's nothing more basic than food.And food, of course, is also the best magnet to bring people together.So the fact that we can, through food,
not only raise money, but help families and hopefully get them through cancer or get them through the disaster.
That's the power of food, which is why all of us chefs, I can speak for every chef, that's why we're so happy that we're chefs because we have a platform.We can always cook for someone else.
We always have the skill set for the rest of our lives to help other people, which is just a really humble place to be.
Okay, so just before we go on to some fun questions from me to you, let's just talk about how you got into television and how you started to do, what's it now, five or, I don't know, how many books you've written now?
Five.I'm working on a sixth one.So yeah, so I've written five books and they're, you know, as you've seen, they're how-to books to get people to cook delicious food easily at home. The book that I'm working, Tato's Happy Chef is my next one.
And that's a whole, that's a book.It's somewhat memoirs, but I've been blessed.
I've been very happy cooking, but I also think there's a whole, my newest philanthropic, and I just was at with my friend Harris Schwartzberg yesterday, is about mental health.Because mental illness in this world, in this country is rampant.
It's pandemic.And unfortunately people are starting to talk about it more. I mean, people are talking about it more, thank God, it's no longer embarrassing to talk about it.
But specifically in the chef world, in our industry, I mean, there's so much mental illness, right?And there's so much, there's drugs and alcohol as well, which doesn't help, right?
And anyway, I think that's something that, the only thing I can say right now is if you know anyone that has anxiety or depression or suffering, talk to them. You will regret if you don't.That's all we can do.I'm not a doctor.I'm not qualified.
But I can still talk and see how you're doing.And us men, we're the worst.It's four times more suicide than men than women.Because we always say, oh, we're good.We're good.We're fine.Because we're men.We're good.And that's what every man says.
Of course, we're good.I'm the head of household.I have to be good. Right.And that, but they're not.And I've had two friends kill themselves.Right.So it's, it's a, it's a real issue.
And, and that's my next, the whole thing with happy cooking is a program on develop, and I'll go quickly at 30 seconds on this.Imagine imagine 40, 40 students, right?
These are people that are dealing with anxiety, depression, because every high schooler and college kid right now. If you're beautiful and can sing and dance, you're fine.If you're a brainiac with a 4.2 GPA, you're also fine.
If you're a star athlete, you're also fine.But that leaves 65% of the student body that are in the middle.They're not good enough to make varsity.They're not pretty enough to do this.They can't have rhythm.They can't sing.
So they don't know what they want to do.They don't know whether they're going to college or worse.They don't know what they're going to do after college.
And then you add some drugs and alcohol and they get depression, maybe a broken household, whatever it is, mental disease.
My idea with Happy Cooking is bring these 40 people, a couple of therapists to make sure everything goes well, but everyone on the first day makes a chocolate chip cookie.You get your, here are your knives, here's your hat.It's a one month program.
This also solves an economic issue, which I'll touch on in the end.Everyone makes a chocolate chip cookie.Then they bite, they try it. Then they realize that, wait a minute, I just made something that I made that actually tastes good.
I'm not completely useless.I shouldn't have zero self-worth.I actually have a reason to be here.Then you take this basket of cookies and you go out into the world and you start giving it to strangers and they start smiling.
Then you're like, wait a minute, I just made someone happy through something I made. Okay, maybe this is something I could actually do.Because as you know, Simon, you don't need talent to be a great chef.You just need a hand.You may need two hands.
I know there's a chef that has one hand who's a great chef.You just need to have, you don't need rhythm, you don't need anything.You just need to be able to stand and you need to be able to work hard.
And for those that are in this program, that start getting the passion for cooking, they could be a great chef easily one day.Because the way the chef world works, and right now COVID took out over a million cooks in our country, right?
We need people.We don't need amazing chefs right now.We need cooks.We need people that can prep.So after a month program that you get into it, you know that this is something I can do and it's tactile.You just made a quiche and you tried it.
It's delicious.It's tactile.It's not like, It's not even like a writing a song or a piece of art.You got to wait for the reaction of your formula.This is the plate comes back empty, the plate comes back clean, right?
It's so immediate gratification, which is what people need when they're depressed and having anxiety.And this is something like Jose's formula.Every chef in this country can be a happy cooking chef too. They can do it in L.A.at this program.
They can do it there.We can do it at Johnson & Wales and CAA.But it gets people into a workforce, but more importantly, it gets people thinking they're not useless, because no one in this country is useless.Everyone has a purpose.
They just got to find it.And I was lucky.It was like, because I was Chinese, if you're Mexican or you're Jewish, you're going to have food, food, food, food, food.And it's easy to become a chef because you're just surrounded by food.
Not everyone has that.But if you actually think about, wait a minute, I can do something that can make me happy and someone else happy. That's a great job.So that's something I really want to get into.Sorry.Sorry.Just like that.
So that's my six months. I don't ever, ever have to be sorry on this podcast.This is all about what you want to do.And we've done some history and but I want to know about who you are.
Doesn't that resonate with you, Simon?Isn't that just like, oh, of course it does.I work.I would actually, you know, actually work.
It absolutely does work.And then before I can ask you some fun questions, tell us about TV and how you got on.I know that's how people are going to know you.
Yeah.So I tell you, 1990, 1995, 1995, there was a show on Food Network called Dining Around, Nina Grissom and Alan Richman.It was one of the first, they did three chefs in half an hour.
It turned out to be their talent search show, because at that moment, they just had memorable how to boil water.And I think maybe Mario and Bobby would just started, but they didn't have enough chefs, right?They needed more chefs. I didn't know that.
I was in Santa Fe.And I remember the first thing I ever said on TV, because I'm kind of sarcastic, and I try to be funny, as you know.I remember looking at the camera lens, and I said, hey, I'm Ming Tsai.I was born Chinese.I'm still Chinese.
And today I'm going to cook some lamb.
And the producer actually kind of, well, it wasn't that funny, but the producer was like, well, he actually tried to be funny, which is a lot more than most chefs back then was like, hi, I'm Ming Tsai, I want to cook lamb, which is because we all were bad.
We're cooks.We weren't TV people.But I didn't mind being on TV, right?That's my personality.I always liked the limelight.So I knew to ham it up.So I did that.And because I made that joke that says, come back and do Ready, Set, Go.
So that was Sissy Bigot Show.I went up with Susser Lee, my buddy, who's one of the best stage contests in this world.And we actually tied.
He won two, I won two, and we split it 45-45 down the middle, which is perfect because we're both Chinese and we didn't want to lose space, but we're great friends and we didn't want to meet the other guy.So the time was perfect.
But I also knew at Ready, Set, Cook that this is, the producers were looking at me.Ham it up.So I was throwing tomatoes out to the audience.I was doing more than just cooking.I was trying to do what I did, be a personality.
And then from that, I started doing Chef du Jour, and then Sarah's show, and then I became their Asian expert.Martin already had, Martin was already on PBS doing his thing.
And so Chinese New Year rolled around, I did my Asian, I did a truffle bao, wild mushroom truffle bao.And that was with David Rosengarten. And then Marilyn O'Reilly, the exec producer of all these shows, was like, listen, go get some media training.
There's this guy named Lou Eppes in Massachusetts where I live, two days.It was like $3,000 or $5,000.It was so much money for me back then.I mean, it's still a lot of money now.But back then, that was half of our net worth, practically.
But my wife, who was making more money being a nurse, is like, look, I do think that this could be a career for you.So yeah, I'm going to support that.So she, she copped out the money and I did the media training.
And then basically, that's how I got East Meets West.And, and, and proudly, the very first show I did was a turkey shumai chipotle show.And I did like a three pea fried rice, the turkey show, I did turkey in two ways.
That was a show that they submitted to the Emmys, the first show of an 80-show series, my first show on TV.They submit that, and my agent calls me and says, congrats, you've been nominated for an Emmy.I'm like, what are you talking about?
He goes, yeah.He goes, who else?I'm like, well, Julia and Bob Viola and Marco Stewart. And Brian Nye, the science guy, I'm like, oh, it's nice to be nominated.And by some miracle, maybe they had an Asian quota or something, I win the Emmy.
I won the Food Network's first Emmy.So I'm very proud of that.And they've won hundreds of Emmys since then.But that's when it started.And then after East Meets West, did many, many years of that, then I started doing Ming's Quest. Love Ming's Quest.
Dave was only one year old, two years old.I still worked.I was traveling a lot.Traveling, you know, 100 plus days of the road doing that.And then the last Ming's Quest was in Bali.We were there when 9-11 happened. And we were in Indonesia.
So we're like, we need to get out of Dodge here.Cause we didn't know what was going on.And that, you know, seven days later through Taiwan, through Canada, I get home and then we stopped.
And that's when my wife's like, you're not doing Ming's bus anymore.I mean, the world was different, right?That was crazy.And so, yeah, so that's how it started.I did Simply Ming for 19 years and I loved doing Simply Ming.
And I'm going to bring a version of that back. hopefully by next year.
COVID happened, I did a little bit of it, and then I started doing ming's bing, so now I'm going to have a little bit more free time, and I'm going to figure out exactly what the next one is, because I still love discovering and traveling, and that is still in my bones, right?
And there's so much great food out there that I still need to try.
Well, I know you always do, and I love traveling.We've been to 100 countries, and we're always traveling, so I get that.I really do get that. Okay, though.Now, let's just talk about some other fun questions.Okay, so let's think of this.
If Ming was a meal, what would it be?
It would have to be a degustation.It would have to be a tasting meal.It would have to be many courses.And I think I would have to show, the meal would have to show all the tastes.You'd have to have a salty, a sweet, a sour.
Of course, you need the fifth taste sensation after sweet, salty, sour, bitter.The fifth is umami, as you know.Umami is the depth of flavor.So that would be a dish for dry shiitakes and parmesan and whatnot.And the sixth dish would have kokumi.
Kokumi is the sixth taste sensation you may not know about, Simon, discovered in Japan, which is umami with fat. So kokumi actually lingers even longer in your palate, in your throat, in your gullet.So think braised shiitake oxtails.
So that's umami-based, super savory, but with the fat, it lingers.So that, I'd have to have six dishes that would touch on each one of those.That would be eating Ming.
Okay.If Ming had to go back in time to any meal, Where would that be?
If I, if I could go back in time right now, I would, I wish I was with my grandpa on the streets of Taipei.Cause he would grab my hand.We'd go to a place called Ximending, which is like concrete open space.
Kind of like Singapore has like Newton circuit.This is like two or three stories concrete food hall.
and literally you'd walk, and everyone knew my grandpa because he was a businessman in Taiwan, and they would literally grab your hand to put you in a plastic chair and then scallion pancakes would be in front of you before you could say no.
So then they made a sale.And it was the best scallion pancakes, the googly balls, the potstickers you could ever have for 10 cents a bite.I mean, the price was just so, I'm talking about 50 years ago, right?
And that street food, the crispiest, most elegant scallion pancakes for like 10 cents.That, I wish I could go back there, especially with grandpa.Yeah, he was just saying, he was the man of the streets and everything.He loved to eat.
And he loves showing me off because I love to eat.And I used to have a hot sambal, lajiao eating contest.I would always try to eat more sambal, more lajiao than my grandfather.And I'm talking about I'm six and eight.
and you know, he'd always try to show me how much I could eat.And he, he in his retirement, he and grandma in Dayton, Ohio, they came to be close to one of their four sons.My dad was, I think their favorite son because they came to live with them.
My dad took care of them the best.And they learned how to cook. They had cooks in Taiwan, right?So they never really learned how to cook.They loved great food.But then they started learning how to cook from scratch.
They started growing their own cucumbers.They made their own chili, the sambal.He made their own katsa.And then he learned how to make noodles.Then he learned how to pull noodles.Then they started doing pan-Scandinavian dumplings.
And like Friday night at 5 p.m.going to grandparents was my favorite time of the week. every week in Dayton, Ohio.And my brother hated it.My brother's a little bit older.He wanted to go out, go drinking, meet the guys.I'm like, you kidding me?
We're going to go to grandpa's for a drink and mahjong, mahjong and dumplings.There's nothing better.
Nothing.Oh, that's fantastic.One more question before we ask you to.If man had to go back in time to see the invention of anything, what would it be?
I mean, I think I think by far the best invention for us has been travel, the airplane. Without the airplane, we wouldn't have seen all of these countries.You're not, I'm not going across the Atlantic Pacific anytime soon on a boat, right?
The airplane has made this globe, this globe one, one, one place, right?Because now you can get anywhere in a day.And, and because of that, you get to discover all the wonderful culture, flavors, people of those countries.And I, and I don't think.
I don't think there's a better way to educate the next generation, our children, than to take them. wherever you can around the world, or at least around the country.But you need to see how other people live.
Because once you do that, you start appreciating everything you actually have yourself.And then you also start realizing what I can do to actually make their living better.Because that's how this globe should work.
This country is so divisive right now.We don't have another five hours to talk about this.But if everyone could just sit back and take a breath, and just really look in the mirror, like, what do you, what kind of world do you want for your kids?
Right?I mean, you don't want to say, sorry, we had this world because I made these bad choices and this people ran it and everyone's mean and everyone has guns and everyone is racist.
That's a world we could live in and half of the world kind of lives like that now.But that's not the world I want to live in, nor do I want my kids to live in and their kids.And we have, you, me, we mature adults have the ability
to help guide coach the right way.And I'm not talking about politics.I'm just talking about being kind, being good to your fellow. human being of any skin color, any ethnicity, of any gender, it doesn't matter.
Oh my God, just share a bowl of rice or break some bread, especially the people you don't agree with because we're never going to get out of this.The wall has been built and no one, people won't even talk right now.It's so divisive.
We've got to get over that because we don't.We're going to have an incredibly horrible world moving forward and we can't.
I'm not going to stand for that. No, and I don't think we should ever talk about, ever get away from that.
Yeah, we went to the Stans of Uzbekistan, all of those last, and they're, you know, Russian built, and when you go and see them there, but the people there are so kind, so kind, and yet you go there and go, well, who are these?
Anyway, so finally, and this has been, I just want to say, this has been, Easily, easily one of the best interviews I've ever done.You have so much to talk about.You have so much stories to tell about.You have so much.I mean, it's just great.
It really is. So I want people to see your social media sites so they know where else to find you, because I know you'll share it then.So please, what are your social media sites?
So yeah, I mean, TikTok and Instagram are my two biggest.So both are Ming Tsai.
So would you like to spell that?
Yeah, M-I-N-G-T-S-A-I. And so that's for Instagram.And TikTok is Chef Ming Tsai.So it's Chef Ming Tsai for TikTok.And I love... The great parts about social media like TikTok and Instagram is I still get to teach, right?
I'm showing people how to do a dish.And I still, that's why I love being a chef, right?I love showing people how to do something easier or a quick hack or whatever it is.And I have fun with it.I mean, I love the banter.
I did my first TikTok, I made fried rice.Very simple, right?But I did the very controversial, technique of using hot fresh rice, which is how I learned watching Din Tai Fung chefs make their fried rice.
Din Tai Fung has by far the best fried rice in the world.And I'm watching through their glass, and they're not using leftover cold rice.And I know that's how fried rice was created, which is what all the comments said.You know, fried rice is great.
I do know that, how to use leftover fried rice. But if you want fluffy, hot, delicious, singular grain fried rice, use Hot Fresh.And it's, first of all, it's so much faster because the rice starts hot and it's delicious.
But because of the controversy, and there is Mr. Roger, what are you going to say, Mr. Rod, all this, 6 million people commented on it. It was just absurd.But that's the power of social media.
And I love the fact that there are 6 million people that like fried rice.Some agree with the way I cook it, and some didn't.But what a great banter.That's what this country is going to be talking about.
If we just talked about fried rice, we would have a lot less problems in this world.
Yeah, I went to the very first Din Tai Fung in Taiwan.
And they gave us the, we had the very, it was a foie gras dumpling and it was so fantastic.
They did a foie gras dumpling?They did a truffle.They did a truffle soup dumpling.
No, a truffle dumpling.You're right.
There's a truffle.I was going to mention that for everyone listening. Because you can't go to Taiwan get a gobeli balls anytime soon But if you live in America go to didn't I phone and I don't work with these guys guys I just love this.
It's the best restaurant chain Chinese chain in the world and They do exactly that Simon.They have a truffle soup dumpling It's 25 bucks for like eight of them, but it's worth every single penny.
It's by far the best dumpling Commercially, you can buy at a restaurant today in America or none
We went to see them in Century City recently.I've been there.We had lunch with them.Well, not with them.For us, the two of us.Everything was perfect.It's perfect.
They're cucumbers.Perfect cucumbers.Everything is perfect.They just opened in New York.I can't imagine how busy they are in New York. I mean, they must be crushing it there.It's incredible.I mean, you see the art.
You see them making those soup dumplings.
It's unbelievable how talented they are.They're beautiful.Well, I mean, this has been absolutely a blast for me because I've wanted you to be on and we've been running around trying to get you, well, not you, but just us trying to get it.
So I'm going to say, Thank you to you for coming on, and I hope you have enjoyed being on Eat My Globe as much as I have, because quite frankly, why I do this show is for me.I don't do it for anyone else, but I get a lot of people listening to it.
But I just do it so I can have a great conversation with the people I love.And with scholars, and I have one of the historians from Yale come on, and he's an amazing guy, Paul Freeman.It's all about me, really.But it works.
And then we put it out to everybody, and then they love listening to it. So I want to say thank you again for being on because it's been fantastic.
Thank you for doing Eat My Globe.I think it's a fantastic platform. And like most of us chefs, we love telling our story.And then if we can get any information out there to help, that's even better.So hats off to you for doing this.
And I've so enjoyed our friendship, Simon, over the years.And I know that's going to continue.And we've got to go back and get some more fish and chips in London sometime soon.Henry's like, can we go back and get some fish and chips?
I'm like, yes, we can.But we've got to call Simon first.That's fantastic.
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episode of Eat My Globe, things you didn't know you didn't know about food.The Eat My Globe podcast is a production of It's Not Much But It's Ours and Producer Girl Productions.
We would also like to thank Sybil Villanueva for all of her help, both with the editing of the transcripts and essential help with the research.
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