(UPBEAT MUSIC) Captions by Antony Vlug. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2017 Growing up with my parents owning a noodle factory, I've always had a passion for Chinese food and hospitality. Over the last few years, my main focus was coffee. I've competed at coffee competitions all around the world. I've learnt a lot about the language of flavour, and I've found that to be intertwined with my passion for food. And there is an issue I want to address. My name is Sam Low. I am 25 years old and a modern Chinese Kiwi. I want to prove to New Zealanders that Chinese food is more than just your cheap and quick takeaway. I'm going to help New Zealanders get to know us beyond the stereotype. When you think of Chinese food, the first thing that comes to mind is sweet-and-sour pork egg foo young and your beef and broccoli. But Chinese gastronomy has a rich history, and it's more than your Friday night cheap eats. I'm going to show the complexity of Chinese cuisine by putting on a pop-up restaurant, which celebrates the Chinese food that I grew up eating. While I am proud of my cultural heritage, my lack of Cantonese has stopped me from learning more from my parents. They speak very minimal English, and my Cantonese is equivalent to a 7-year-old. I find it very frustrating that I can't communicate with my parents properly, and I want to change that. Sam,... Yes. (SCOFFS) OK. (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) All right. This is pretty close. (LAUGHS) Yeah, gold nugget. Ma, there's something I wanna do, and I'm gonna try my hardest to explain it. I wanna cook stuff like this. Like wontons, cho cho, fried rice. Like, stuff that I grew up eating. What do you think? So, if I did the pop-up, would you come to it and... try the food and the experience out? Cos I really wanna show you and Dad my authentic take on Chinese cuisine. OK? Yay! High five. It means a lot to me to have Mum's support. I'm going to take her advice and get out there and learn as much as I can about Chinese cuisine and culture. It is important to me to use this as an opportunity to connect with her more authentically. Hey, do you want to try some Sichuanese style food? Yeah. Most Kiwis think that good Chinese food is having terrible takeaway once a week. Little do they know, Dominion Rd in Auckland actually has some of the best Chinese food in New Zealand. I've brought my friend Tee Why along, and we'll be eating out in some random places on Dominion Rd just to get inspired by it all. Yeah. Call me crazy, but I've got a craving for pig ears at the moment. Sure. Yeah, do you wanna do that? Yeah. Sweet. What's great about this is that they're using animal parts that aren't actually highly prized. But by preparing it in a certain way, you actually preserve a lot of textures. Yeah. It's just the whole fact those are the ear, people kinda get grossed out by it. Yeah. Which is weird. I'd love to make something like this, where it plays a lot with texture. A very similar texture would be jellyfish. Oh yeah. I think, yeah, seasoning jellyfish really well would actually make something as well. I think if you present food to somebody, I think they'll usually try it. It's just getting people to the spot of eating it that's the hard part, but once they're there and you present it to them, it's in front of them, they'll usually try it. So what can they expect when they walk into your establishment, or your pop-up? I think I'd prefer a quite intimate, probably 20 to 30 people. Communal tables, like, long benches. Stuff like that. Yeah. What do you know about the history of the dishes that have inspired you? To be honest, not a lot. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. So what are you gonna do? Probably go see professionals, like Chinese chefs who actually know the history and the background of these dishes. Yep, that sounds good. Hmm. For me, food is so nostalgic, and some of those dishes reminded me of childhood, but I don't know the heritage behind them. I'm off to learn from Sifu Bo and Robbie from the yacht restaurant to see what I can learn. (ALL EXCHANGE GREETINGS) Thank you for having me today. You're welcome. I'm super excited to learn about these traditional dishes. Can Sifu show me how it's done? We're gonna do steamed free-range chicken. Oh, nice. The chicken dish in traditional Chinese is very important. Chicken is one of the main dish that has to be on the table. Oh, cool. Yep. Awesome. Mm-hm. It's important the chicken have the head and the legs and the wings. The whole chicken? The whole chicken, yeah. The whole cycle or completion. There's a beginning and there's an end. That's good to know. Thank you. Would you like to try a piece? Yes, please. Thank you. It's delicious. That actually has a very interesting flavour that I could really use for my pop-up menu as well. Oh, OK. Yeah, so I'm super excited about that. Is there any advice that you could give me? The main thing is that you have to have confidence in your cooking. Understand the dish, and you understand the tradition and what's required of it. I got so much out of that. Robbie mentioned a really good tip, which was to believe and feel confident with the food that you're serving as well. In that way, you could actually sell that confidence to consumers, But for me, I'm still working on that confidence. I'm really inspired, but I'm worried I've got too much to learn in a short space of time. Plus I need to finalise my menu. I need to source my ingredients, find the staff, and more importantly, lock in the location for my pop-up. Finding the right place is crucial for my pop-up dining experience, so I'm bringing my friend Tee Why with me to check out Atomic Coffee Roasters to see if it's a possible venue for our modern Chinese restaurant. Hi. I'm just looking for a venue to book out to run a pop-up restaurant concept. Cool. That sounds awesome. We hire out the venue all the time, so I can show you around and see if it suits. Awesome. Cool. So, this is the open space where you'd have seating. We can rearrange any of the furniture. We've got full dishes facilities, and then you would have free range on all of this. Back here is our prep area. All this bench space, the ovens ` whatever you need. Cool. Yeah, cool. So, what do you think? Oh, I think it's great. It meets all the criteria that I need. And it's got a good, solid fundamental base to actually build from as well. So, you're thinking of having lanterns or anything along those lines? Uh, I haven't really thought about it, but now that you bring it up, I guess I am, but it's actually a good point, cos I think it's gonna add a lot more warmth and a lot more red and colouration as well. The last we spoke, you were very keen on better understanding the tradition behind the food. How are you progressing in that front? Food ` tick. Went to see a master chef. Cultural elements and ritual understands ` not so much. I think it will make the pop-up more authentic, and it could inspire your pop-up, and, you know, you could include things like the lantern. You really put the lantern in there, eh? Lanterns, so, yeah. I better see it on the night. (LAUGHS) OK. Yeah. I often burned incense and performed rituals with Mum and Dad, but to be honest, I don't really understand why I'm doing them. I'm hoping Colleen Tan from the Auckland Chinese community centre can help me by explaining one of the most important rituals ` the hungry ghost ceremony. The ghosts have come from the underworld, as it were. There's no peace if the ghosts are, sort of, hopping around. We want them to go back to the underworld, so that they are at peace, so what you want to do is make sure that if they are hungry, you feed them and say, 'Now, look, we're gonna feed you for the year. Now go back there.' 'See you next year.' Hmm, yeah. Or if they're really, really restful, they won't come back next year, so as the years go by, the hungry ghosts reduce. These are the large incense sticks that we'd normally give to our ancestors, and they burn for quite a while. My mother used to use them as a time in Hong Kong, and so that we would know that the duck or the goose was ready and it's had its three hours. (LAUGHS) Interesting. Yeah. And also we want them to have a good time, and they've got money to spend in the other world. Right. The money is burnt. We're gonna burn them. We also have other things that we burn with them, all made of paper mache, so that you can burn them, so there are aeroplanes, there are boats, there are cars. Even iPads and iPhones now. (LAUGHS) So a very modern world we live in. So, my parents have been doing this ritual ever since I could remember, but how long has this been going on for? Generations of it. The house my great-grandfather built, it had an altar exactly like this, so I guess they would have celebrated it then as well. For my pop-up event coming up soon, what can I do to promote good luck for my event? I guess, Sam, to make it really, really genuine, you have to have the genuine feeling inside and not just 'it's just a ritual'. Yeah. So what I think you need to do is clear your mind, have a bit of inner quiet, peace, before you do that, and I think you'd do well. That's an amazing tip. Thank you. OK. I respect the way our parents honour our ancestors, and now this feels like something I can really believe in and want to keep alive for my future. It's time to take what I've learnt and put some of that feeling into my food. Hey, Ma. These are the three sample dishes I'm thinking of making for my pop-up. Do you want to try some? OK. This is jellyfish. Yeah. Is it OK? All right, I'll dim it down for the pop-up. And this one is soft tofu with century egg and shiso. Yeah. Yes. OK, cool. This dish is inspired by Sifu Bo from the Yacht Chinese restaurant. I've just poached the chicken and added some ginger and sesame oil as well as a dressing. So, what do you think, Mom? OK. OK, thank you. Yep. Impressing my mom means a lot to me, and she is always going to be my toughest critic. She liked parts of it, but I still have a lot of refining to do. I'm naming my pop-up Da Lin. I'm actually just about to pop the invitation for my pop-up on Instagram. And I'm kinda nervous about it. There's so much to think about and so much to do, so I gotta go. Today's a special day, because it is the hungry ghost festival. I'm super excited, because now that I have a deeper understanding of this ritual, it means that I can perform it with Mum and connect with her on a more personal level. It also means that I get to wish for success for the pop-up. I'm just hoping that it will change the negative stigmas on Chinese food, and hopefully everyone will enjoy it. I'm also hoping that the ghosts will be full and content and wish me good luck. I feel like I'm getting closer to my heritage and also you as well. In Chinese culture, we don't normally say these types of things, instead we would serve you some food or rice to say that we are bonding and getting close, but I would like to say that I'm doing these rituals with you and learning about these different cultural experiences have made me closer to you and understand you and your background a lot more as well. Thanks. So, what's left to prep for this evening, Sam? Uh, after the shopping, I need to get to Atomic, unpack everything. I need to make sure the ambience is right as well for the night, like proper Chinese decor that's not gonna be too tacky, but tacky enough. So, keep it Chinese? (LAUGHS) Yeah. (LAUGHS) Yeah, there's a lot to do, eh? Have you got any food critics coming tonight or any professional reviewers? Yes, I've organised one food reviewer called Relish the Memories, but there's a lot of industry people arriving, so she's not the only one I have to impress, but hopefully I can leave a mark. Everyone's a critic. Everyone's a critic. Yeah. Is any of your family coming tonight? Mamma Lo is. Cool. Yeah. She will probably be the toughest critic on the night, eh? Well, everything's in place for tonight. Hopefully, my diners will be able to understand the complexity of my culture and get the reviewer to sing my praises on Chinese food and hopefully change those stigmas on Chinese food as well. I guess I'll find out tonight. I'll get someone in charge of cutting the salmon for tartar. Someone needs to be full-time making the fried rice. Cool. Thank you for helping me out tonight. Basically, it's not fine-dining service, so we are serving Chinese food. We are trying to make it friendly and authentic, but not to over-serve as well. Everything's ready to go, but the real test will come down to taste and flavour. The stories behind each dish represents me getting a deeper understanding of my heritage, and it is important to me personally that these are represented on the plate. Here we have a jellyfish salad. This is served with a sesame and white vinegar dressing. Nice. Thank you. This looks amazing. What do you think of the jellyfish? I think it's really good, yeah. Much better than I was expecting. Hi. I bring wontons. They basically represent gold nuggets. What's inside is almost considered like a reward, so inside is chicken liver pate with truffle. In Western culture, truffles, liver pate is very luxurious and very rewarding, so enjoy. The silken tofu with the dehydrated century egg was definitely the most intriguing, I would say. That would scare a few people, I think. Yep. But there's nothing to be scared of when you try it. Yeah. It's really good. A little bit about Chinese food ` there's hot and cool, so that means, basically, yin and yang. A lot of the dishes we ate were very hot, so like the wontons, the fried rice, stuff like that, so to balance the body, this is sugar water, and it's basically a broth made out of purifying or toxic-removing ingredients, so apricot kernels, goji berries, dates, white fungus and lily bulbs as well. Enjoy. Thank you. How is everything tonight? It's good, man. I really enjoyed it. Awesome. It's a little bit eye-opening. My experience of Chinese food is going to get dumplings at 2 o'clock in the morning when you're drunk, so it's a little bit different. I mean, there's` Style of meal. It's totally` Yeah, that's one part of Chinese cuisine, but there's, like` China's so large. Like, obviously, there's a lot of regional and culinary, kind of, identities. One thing I found with Chinese food in the past, it tends to be quite greasy or overwhelming, but this is really good. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you. Thanks. How was everything tonight? I was just so impressed with the variety, all the different dishes that you did,... Yeah. and the way that you managed to incorporate those quirky ingredients. I learned so much, and I think people will be so excited to know that they can get modern Chinese. You know, we're seeing modern Thai; we see modern Japanese. But modern Chinese isn't a big thing. And, yeah, I hope that you'll be able to fill that gap for us. No pressure. (LAUGHS) Hello, Sam. What did you think of the meal tonight? Hey? Yeah, awesome. (CHUCKLES) That's so cool. Thanks. Going through this journey has definitely made me and my parents a lot closer, but not just because of the passion about Chinese food, but also it's made me realise how important it is to carry on my culture and heritage and my upbringing, to hopefully pass that on to future generations. For my future diners, I just wanna say don't be afraid of trying anything new. Try pig ear, try chicken feet, try sea cucumber. Without curiosity, there's no progression. I feel like going through this journey, it's just` I'm on the right track on the beginning of changing Westerner's perception on Chinese cuisine, and I'm excited for the future. Captions by Antony Vlug. www.able.co.nz Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2017