Why We Eat: Chow Mein
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- Опубліковано 13 сер 2021
- Lucas Sin, chef of Nice Day Chinese and Junzi Kitchen, breaks down the history and evolution of a classic Chinese-American dish: Chow Mein. In this episode of Why We Eat, Lucas explores the migratory patterns of Chinese-Americans as well as regional cooking practices to trace the growth and popularity of this iconic pan-fried noodle dish.
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Somebody get this guy a netflix documentary. I'd watch that all day.
Netflix production is the worst
O
Love seeing white people appreciate us.
@@AllenHanPR so not just people then? what tells you he is white..? was this a white bashing comment because of the whole Netflix stereotype or what. Hopefully not.
Agree.
There's something really lovely about how he doesn't disparage the way chow mein has deviated from the traditional recipe, and instead celebrates the many delicious versions that have been developed.
I agree, I’m from the UK and Cantonese food merged with traditional English fish and chip take outs and became its own thing in the north of England.
The dishes I grew up with might not be “authentic” but they are valid to me and some of my favourite food. English fish and chop style chips with orange chicken or “bbq” sauce or chair sui pork. Food evolves as people travel and those dishes tell the story of Cantonese people in working class northern English towns.
Lucas has a great way in how he tells the story of the dish both exposing us to the original while not disparaging regional changes and in doing so bridges the gap narratively between them.
@@jamesoakley5742 to add, I’m also from the uk and my parents are from Hong Kong and own a takeaway in the north of England. The food they cook at the takeaway, typical American/English Chinese food, was the food I ate growing up and i would refer to it as Chinese food. I did also eat more traditional food like dim sum steamed fish etc but this was only if my parents had time or we went out to eat in Chinatown
It is a really cool thing, I think it's great that "American Style Chinese Food" has kinda become its own category, it's like by separating it from the original we are no longer beholden to all the tradition. This needs to happen to Italian food next, yes we get it that's not how you make it in Rome, you can also shut up and enjoy a delicious meal.
Yes thank God. The number of cooking channels of youtube where they speak about Western variations on Asian food as some kind of grave act of oppression is so irritating.
@@jamesoakley5742 wow fish and chips with orange chicken sauce or something like that? Going to have to remember that for if I'm ever in the north of England!
Literally cannot get enough of Lucas, his cooking mastery is only matched by his amazing knowledge of the history of the dishes he's making. A master in the making.
Like Martin Yang back in the day.
Cooking mastery? He literally threw some egg noodles in a pan, cooked it as a patty, then put it on a plate and dumped some shit on top. That chow mein does not look appetizing at all. Maybe it's the traditional way, but I don't care about tradition; I care about taste, and that does not look like a tasty chow mein dish.
Imagine not being able to appreciate a chef's obvious passion for history and the simplicity (and deliciousness) of a dish like hong kong style chow mein. Poor @Jack Hoff lmao
@@jackhoff3910 no it looks good
@@rayyiu4043 Dumping noodles in a frying pan then sprinkling some shit on top does not take skill. Even my 90 year old grandmother could make this dish. He might be a good chef when it comes to other things, but this chow mein dish is just sad and it's boring.
When the history lesson is just as good as the cooking.
Dude exactly! What a dope combo!
It would be better if it was accurate.
@@TheDougNutz what wasn’t accurate?
@@TheDougNutz Thank you. Read my main thread comment.
@@junethanoschurchill6750 see my main thread comment
This guy needs to be more everywhere than he is now. What an excellent teacher. Make this man famous, Internet!
Right?! Thought i was watching Discovery/History channel, I was more amazed by the knowledge of chow mein and Chinese-American cuisine
Netflix Ugly Delicious move over! Give this guy a contract! 💗
He’s awesome and all the ladies will love him
Lucas DEFINITELY deserves celebrity more than Akwafina; he knows how to speak ( no word fillers: ah, yea...)
+ for a Hong Konger, his English is superior.
That little tidbit about Edward Hopper’s famous painting “Chop Suey” is what sets Lucas Sin apart from the others when it comes to cooking and giving historical and cultural context to the food he makes. Super impressed with this guy.
I wish this was an hour long I can watch and listen to this guy all day
Netflix has some good documentaries on Chinese American food.
I always have mad respect for chefs who actually respect what diaspora have done and contributed to dishes and how cultural exchange or other cultures engagement with a cuisine shapes it. Too many times I see people like putting down diaspora food and its really sad to see.
Very true. If we don't have diversity, we would become "bland" peeps repeating the same stuff everyday. It's good to see variations on traditional cuisines.
If you haven’t seen the documentary The Search for General Tso I highly recommend it. And I agree with your post, well said.
Perfectly stated!
amazing comment 💯
This guy is SO knowledgeable, easy to listen to, and charming. I hope to see more videos on Chinese food history/recipes with him!
For people like me who had terrible listening skill even with my first language, I can still pretty much understand everything he said in one-go.
Right before he adds the pork, you see him rest the chopsticks in the oil. A great visual cue to know when the oil is hot enough is you will see small bubbles around the chopsticks.
I'm from HK and it's a common skill your nan or mum teach you when you walk into the kitchen haha
Wow I was just about to comment and ask about this, but you answered it before I even had to. Thank you!
You, 受人尊敬的廚師, are a Genius. [I learned Chinese 60 years ago and still study it today - and I have had many opportunities to interact with Chinese people over the years.\ Your explanation of the dishes you presented are 'spot on!' They also explain a lot of history. Many thanks for your generosity.
Sir you wrote in traditional chinese, well done
you're a badass
I absolutely love how he talks about how Chinese dishes have evolved and branched out over time in different regions and the whole cross cultural connection between all of them
Loving these history bits, it's nice over the last 5+ years to finally take pride in what my family did with what they did in their restaurant
As you should be! ❤ Chinese food has been and is the "gateway food" for so many Americans (me included). It was the first type of food I had as a kid that wasn't an American standard. I loved my fried rice and we all loved the family that made it for us, Walter and Amy Huang.
This chef is giving a history lesson about Chinese food while being humble and grateful to where Chinese food is today. Many communities in America has Chinese food in there traditions from Jewish people eating Chinese food on Christmas to Chinese takeout and mumbo sauce created for the Black community.
I know all about it. I grew up working in a Chinese take out as well - the long hard hours, little to no days off. As a kid, I hated going there after school instead of hanging out with friends or after school programs. But looking back, it gave our family a house and economic stability. My parents are luckily retired now, but if they still had to work, I’d be scared for their livelihoods. The pandemic has been brutal for all, especially those in the service and restaurant industry.
Same with mine
That's awesome, I would love to come visit your family's restaurant or their home for a nice meal. Cheers friend
Give the man his own show already!
im 5 minutes in and i can already tell this video isn't going to be long enough. lucas' knowledge and the way he conveys that knowledge to me is incredible and im basically hanging on every word (about a video on chow mein!). good stuff, more of the same please
Love this dude. Best host in a long time for sure. Man knows his Chinese and American food history well, makes for a great watch.
Very interesting to hear about the differences between east/west. I’m from the west coast and I’m familiar with the thick noodles. Mmh I want some now 😋
i've only had the east coast style and now i feel like i took it for granted haha. and so many american-style chinese restaurants have since closed and kind of gone out of style so i no longer know where to get that dish i once had many times during my childhood.
@@clee89 ya it’s hard to find someone who does it well. There was a place here in town that everyone loved and had been there for years but they switched owners and now it’s not the same :(. Hope we can all find a good place someday :)
I'll give you a thick noddle n'amsayin
East coast style most times don't even come with noodles. It blows my mind how that became a thing
This guy, Lucas Sin, is so good! Love this series too - there's always an incredible history behind the foods we eat
This is a history lesson, cooking tutorial, and ASMR all rolled into one
Excelent video
As an American living in Hong Kong, his storytelling is on point. Keep posting. - Asian Food Nerd
Lucas is so cool, I love hearing about the history of chinese-american cuisine. He seriously needs to write a book or something. I can listen to him for hours.
I just made this last night using your video as a guideline. It was so incredible and my wife couldn’t get enough of it. Thx Lucas, this is now a staple at my house.
I think Lucas Sin is bound for big things - amazingly knowledgeable with a beautiful pace to his chat
Munchies, this is phenomenal. More of Lucas please. Incredibly knowledgeable and skillful and a fantastic presenter.
This was fascinating, and Lucas did an incredible job offering historical perspectives on the dish while explaining the steps to make his version. I'd watch a full-length documentary in this style any day!
I love how engaging Lucas is whenever he talks about food; he talks about the name, ingredients, history 🤩 always fun to watch
What an excellent presentation of history and cooking. Munchies, bring this person back as much as possible.
Lucas is a king. Please keep this show. This is so important and crucial to educating folks.
Yes ! He is a historian and a chef all mixed up into one. Amazing !
Lovin' this series, the chef's historical and cooking knowledge is fascinating
Wow! Never would I‘ve expected to hear about the origin of Hoppers paintings in a cooking show. Lucas Sin is a very knowledgable man and a great chef!
This series is incredible. Some of the best stuff I've seen on Munchies in years.
By far one of the best cooking show hosts I've watched! Lots of hosts tend to blabber about whatever just to fill some silence and sometimes trip up on their own words that make it difficult to watch. Lucas just articulates so well, it's a real skill!
Wow. I very much appreicated, not only the content of the lesson, but the confidence with which it was delivered. He has the knowledge and the skills to share it in a way that is very engaging.
Yes! The adapting skills, the tenacity to not lose the culture and the innovations. That’s so beautiful! Food is innovative and just because something isn’t “traditional” doesn’t make it worse or even bad - it’s different and delicious 🙏🏼
This guy is just amazing. He needs his own show.
I feel like this man wrote a thesis on food at some point, he uses some big words lol and its like non stop knowledge I love it!
Here in Indonesia, we usually deep fried the noodle, not just pan fried. For the topping, we put a kind of Chop Suey called Cap Cay (translated as 10 veggies)
Well, Indonesia has a lot of Chinese migrants who bring their delicious cuisine with them and even blend the dishes with local recipes / tastes. Thanks China!
@@HiddenAgendas hell yeah! Chinese cuisines and its derivative are the best!
The texture would be completely different than the results of the method in the video.
Do you guys use pork shoulder too?
@@jonathanng138 non-halal ones, obviously. The halal ones most of the time substitute it with beef.
I love this so much, its so informative and presented in such a captivating way.
This series is amazing! Lucas is so incredibly knowledgeable and a fantastic host. Keep making these!
As a Hong Kong born, now living in the UK, I too really appreciate Lucas and his videos. It's so good and so much better than most of the content I find on the same subject on UA-cam. All the ingredients he is using, all the shape and sizes and cut of everything, is home to me.
Thank you, Munchies, for giving these charismatic food-historian-chefs a platform to share this knowledge.
Wow. I love it when chefs show off, not only their cooking skills, but the amazing history and knowledge behind their dishes. Great content!!!
I’ve learned more about Chinese history, culinary technique, and general sociology in every second Chef Sin speaks than every year of my life. This guy is a star.
Protect this guy - he is amazing storyteller and teacher. And as everybody says: we need more episode with him or his own show. Wouldn't also mind a cookbook with some stories from him at all.
LOVE all the history and cultural stuff Lucas brings!!!
I love all of the videos Lucas has been in. He’s insanely knowledgeable about food history. I grew up working in Chinese American restaurants and am familiar with the dishes and techniques, but had little knowledge of the history of how they came to be. When I first learned of his restaurant menu and concept, I thought it was just another white washed take on Chinese food without soul or nuance. But knowing he’s behind the menu, I think I can say I was wrong.
A celebration in survival
I would watch an entire series of Lucas just talking about Chinese food. He’s the best!!!
I'm so interested in what this cutie is saying that I'll need to watch it again to see what he's cooking! Lol.
love the amount of knowledge Lucas has, both background history of the dish and its evolutions. that is true food mastery
Chowmein in India means a totally different dish. Hats off to the Chinese influence in dishes all around the world. ❤️❤️
Its the sane stir fried noodles
It's actually just in the US that the term came to refer to a different dish. The original meaning of chao mian/chow mein refers simply to stir-fried noodles that everyone is familiar with. The dish in this video, however, is not chao mian, but is actually "liangmian huang" (literally means "two sides yellow/golden", referring to how the noodles are fried on two sides until golden and crispy). For some reason the term chao mian morphed in the US and came to refer exclusively to liangmian huang while actual chao mian came to be called "lo mein" (lao mian in Mandarin; literally translated as "stirred noodles"), which is supposed to originally refer to an entirely dish altogether (basically a mixed noodle dish which is served with the sauce and toppings laid on top of the cooked noodles which are just boiled, not stir-fried, and you have to mix them all before eating.
TL;DR Americans are bad at terminologies and decided to use them for the wrong things.
@@svyatoslavrurikovich8831 you mean chinese americans? unless you seriously think white people were coming up with names for chinese restaurants
@@booates Chinese-Americans are Americans are they not? Or are you suggesting they are somehow second-class citizens?
@@svyatoslavrurikovich8831 You may have completely missed Sin's point. The dish he makes is 100% chow mien - more than once he mentioned he's making chow mien Hong Kong style. If you order 'chow mien' in Hong Kong, the odds are you'll be served this crispy chow mien most of the time (albeit it can also be called 'double-sided yellow' as you put it correctly). Anyhow, his dish is surely called 'chow mien' in Hong Kong. Of course Americans may have no idea what chow mien looks like outside America, hence confused by the varieties yet having the same name 'chow mien'.
Love this content, getting a little tidbits of food and cultural history in this is really interesting and gets me going on research rabbit holes!
The level of detail here is phenomenal! Even if I never make the actual dish, I will know that I have learnt something. There's something about combining culinary history with a food demo that is so interesting. Thank you for this channel.
I really like hearing about that food history!
I’m glad to have discovered this channel. I love cooking shows that seamlessly add food history.
I love all of Lucas's videos, thank you so much for sharing!
What an amazing story teller!
“Cold tea” is also a boston tradition, you could get beer at the Chinese restaurants after hours when all bars were closed
The information is phenomenal. I spend soooo much time deciphering this info to people.
Lucas is a pleasure to watch and listen to. His food looks delicious, and his narrative is so interesting. Please post more of his videos.
This guy is so knowledgeable. I never knew I had an interest in food history before I started watching him.
Now THIS is good content. Good job, Munchies.
Whoever does the editing for this, you are doing such a great job capturing the best parts of Lucas in this. Such an enjoyable video to watch both because of how Lucas presents the dish and the history and how well its edited down and distilled into a very very watchable 10 minute video.
This is amazing! I love the combination of history and cooking demo!
Love the history lesson! He's a great food communicator.
Literally my favorite dish ever. I appreciate the history because it makes sense that I only get the one I love in Chinatown. Any other restaurant I order chow mein from its thick noodles that are not crispy or they give me these weird crunchy things with the stirfry sauce. Yum!
One of your best videos. Fantastically informative and a joy to watch
Loved everything about this video. More please!
You know the instruction is top level when it makes you excited to prepare the dish yourself, I've checked and have everything except chives in the house already.
Lunch tomorrow coming up.
How do we get more of Lucas? This guy is brilliant. Educational and fun to watch!
Wow, I love his explanation and history about the dish & cuisine. Awesome stuff!
I love him and his explanation of Chinese food and its history. MOAR PLEASE!
Yayy! Lucas is back!
Wow he turned chow mien into a masterclass. I feel this is such an overlooked dish and in North America, Chinese cooking is often a "cheap food" but this proves it doesn't always have to be and it can be so rich 😍
Outstanding!! Thank you for posting
More of Lucas Sin! I'm learning so much.
MORE LUCAS VIDEO! HE NEEDS HIS OWN SHOW!!!!
I like how we get both a History and a Cooking lesson at the same time. This guy is great.
Super enjoyed watching someone that is a foodie and passionate about not only the food but the historical context of the food and why it is that way. Thank you
Every new video of Lucas Sins' I watch, the more I adore him! Charm, intelligence and passion in his work.
It's obvious this guy loves what he does. And he doesn't talk down to you, he makes everything super accessible.
Another banging episode with Lucas!
What a teacher you are. Thank you. Teachers are my heroes. Congee in the hospital felt very comforting and healing.
I like this new series “why we eat” well done vice
The way he pronounced "chow mien" in Cantonese leads me to believe he probably grew up in Hong Kong when he was younger. He definitely deserves his own show. He's very talented, articulate, and proud of his culture.
HK is his birth city.
I have been looking for this recipe in what feels like forever! Thank you for posting. I will be following
Thank you! Your videos are informative and delightful.
MOAR LUCAS VIDEOS!!! ❤
The style of chow mein Lucas makes in this video is the kind I grew up eating. Just like Gramma's chow mein!
But he doesn't use any soy sauce. How can it be chow mein? Surely, it's better with soy sauce. Sorry, but I don't get it. I know he's knowledgeable etc but I don't see Chinese people doing it this way.
@@ryand141 he's doing it the way you find it in Hong Kong restaurants. Maybe if you listened to what he's saying you'll learn that there are regional variations. His cooking here is absolutely authentic.
This is THE quintessential Cantonese dish for sunday tea-house family lunch, aka yum cha (飲茶)
N yum cha need to serve with other dish call yum mee...
@@mulkanmulkan5620 i also like to serve mi cok along with both of those dishes
What is this dish called in Cantonese Chinese?
@@violetviolet888 濕炒肉絲麵, “wet” stir-fried noodles with shredded pork
@@darthcoward Thanks, how do you pronounce it in Chinese phonetically in English?
I love watching this guy cook! I appreciate hearing the history of the dish, too. Thanks so much!!
I absolutely love these type of videos and this chef so so so much
Chow Mein has always been my favorite food. This was some awesome history. 😁
This guy is very, very good at explaining food. Possibly the best I've ever seen.
Loving this series!
Love you, Lucas! Amazing work!
Also, because of the Chinese exclusion act of 1882, the only Chinese people who could gain legal entrance and residency to the US were people who performed services (food or laundry labor) were on work contract (cookie laborers) or merchants (people with money)
that’s why there are so many chinese restaurants and laundromats and grocery stores. it was the only way to keep from being deported or becoming undocumented
and in fact a lot of chinese restaurants became the loophole for Chinese immigrants to gain legal entry to the US.
so like yeah there were tons of people who “didn’t know how to cook” who worked Chinese American kitchens, sure as hell beat being a coolie and doing back breaking dangerous labor
Many many moons ago my friends Stevey Lu told me to try the seafood noodle from the new chef from China cooking at the Tropicana in AC. I have spent the rest of my life perfecting that dish and it is done with such similar techniques. It’s my favorite thing in the world to eat.
This show is great. So relaxing to watch. Great work
This man is dropping knowledge on us. Great video!
The view count to like ratio just shows how good this video is