The host of HBO Max’s ‘Take Out’ talks Taiwanese markets, grilled squid, and Asian food in America.
Lisa Ling is a ambition dinner party party node . The honor - win journalist has carried an insatiable oddment across the globe , as a reporter onChannel One News , a server ofNational Geographic Explorer , and a particular letter writer forThe Oprah Winfrey Show . She ’s insure everything from the civil state of war in Afghanistan to the humanist crisis in North Korea .
In her latest HBO Max docuseries , Take Out With Lisa Ling , the storyteller explores the Asian - American culinary communities who have determine the identicalness of the United States , spanning the bayous of Louisiana to Orange County ’s Little Saigon . She taste everything from Bangladeshi hilsa to Hot Cheeto - crust Japanese musubi , while also diving into her own family history , as the granddaughter of Chinese restaurant owner .
We catch up with Ling to shoot the breeze about her newfangled show , the changing perceptions of Asiatic food , and her favorite night market memories .
Photo by Alicia Cho for Thrillist
Thrillist : Can you share what it was like being raised in a restaurant family ? How do you imagine it shaped your curiosity for food?Lisa Ling : My grandmother learned how to prepare in a restaurant because , when she immigrate to the United States , the eatery provided an chance for my grandparents to eke out some semblance of the American dream . Despite the fact that both of them were very extremely educated — my grandfather had an MBA — he could n’t get rent in finance and she could n’t get hired to work in the professional world , either .
So restaurants were one of the very few ways that Asian the great unwashed — more specifically , Formosan people — could have a business . So they opened a Chinese eating house in the 1950s without sleep with how to ready . One day , one of the James Cook in the restaurant called in sick . So my grandma , who had been work out in the kitchen , sort of watch over him , had to put on the apron and start fudge herself . And she learned how to make these dishes that appeal to a non - Chinese clientele , like testis foo immature and chop suey and so on , but she never cooked those foods in my home .
She cooked much more reliable food in the home , and what I would say about growing up in a restaurant menage , specifically a Chinese kin , is that I never learned how to cookbecauseof it , because for my grandmother , the Taiwanese restaurant was a mean for survival , and she wanted better for me .
Photo by Alicia Cho for Thrillist
Do you believe American attitude towards Asiatic nutrient are changing for the better?To me , it ’s a no brainer . Despite the secernment that Asiatic hoi polloi have endured since they first showed up in America , somehow Asian food has been able to transcend that discrimination . I signify , there are more Chinese eating house in America than there are McDonald ’s , Pizza Hut , Taco Bell , and Wendy ’s combined . And these days , you ’re likely to find all different kinds of Asian restaurants — even in the pocket-size township in America . So food is , I opine , the good way to understand a acculturation that has been misunderstood in America for far too long .
Now it seems people are seeking out more reliable Formosan dishes , rather than those plan for a non - Formosan patronage . Oh yeah . I mean , the American roof of the mouth has become so much more evolved . And I reckon Asian food and flavors are so much easier to evolve these day , with the proliferation of all the eating house , the different food shows , and the rest of entree . Now you’re able to have authentic Asian foods delivered to your doorstep in the Wake Island of all these bringing services . I think all of those thing have bring to the phylogeny of the American palette and the desire to get the most unquestionable kinds of Asiatic foods , as controvert to the egg foo young and chop suey of the past .
I ’d sleep together to hear about some of your own experience , bring out dissimilar Asian dishes as you traveled throughout the world . Growing up , when I was take to Asia with my family — I chit-chat Taiwan , Singapore , and Hong Kong — nothing shake up me more than going to the night market . I mean , as a kid , it was an chance to stay up late , first of all , and Nox mart were like this societal center . I would generally go to Asia in the summer because that ’s when I was off of school and the solar day were torturously humid and live . And so the cities just came alive at night when temperatures cooled down a little bit . The nighttime markets in Taiwan , for case , would literally stay put assailable all night long and were comprised of full metropolis block . And you could get the most exotic things . The socializing , the communal nature — it was all just so much fun .
Photo by Alicia Cho for Thrillist
What does “ street food ” intend to you , and what do you think are some misconception that are often associated with it?From an American lens system , I think the perception live that nighttime markets are not clean and that you might need to spend the next 24-hour interval next to your toilet bowl . And while I have had some of those experience after eat up street food[laughs ] , the night markets that I ’ve visited throughout Taiwan , Singapore , Hong Kong , and even Thailand , have been very , very clean . Things are made right there , out in the open , in the grocery store . There ’s an exciting flavour in every cubicle .
Was there a food that you discovered at a dark grocery that just kind of blew you away?I remember baby-sit on these little stools with Styrofoam bowls of oyster bean . I commend love these Lycopersicon esculentum that were slightly seared and stuffed with dry out plum . And there would be , like , three on a marijuana cigarette . So you get that very savory , very sweet kind of sour , pungent flavor . Never far aside would be the grilled squid , which was always something that I have it off as a kid and still love today , and that you could smell from a nautical mile away . And , of course , the stinky tofu in Taiwan that no matter where you go in the dark securities industry , you could smell . And I really like to eat it as well[laughs ] .
Why do you think Asian street food in particular is so conducive to events like night markets ? What makes the culinary art so honest “ on the go?”I in reality do n’t consider them “ to go ” because , for me , it ’s such a communal experience . At the night marketplace in Taiwan , for example , you may in reality model in front of the carrell and eat . It ’s the all - encompass experience of just hang out all night and having little bits . What ’s great about Nox grocery store nutrient is its bite size . You do n’t get these pile plates of anything . There are just these little Styrofoam bowls or spliff of things , so you’re able to have from a plethora of stalls before the eventide is over . By nighttime ’s ending , you could have eat up 12 or 13 little dishes .
And there ’s no formality involved . I mean , it ’s just super casual . With these BM you ’re literally so close to the earth and it does n’t matter which side your fork is on . It ’s just the meat of communal , free-and-easy experiences .
Through your show , have you learned of any other Nox markets in the states?I just learned about the footling Saigon one for the first fourth dimension . But when 626 open here in Los Angeles , I could not have been more excited .
It ’s interesting that we do n’t really have a culture of late - night eat in the U.S. , besides , maybe , the 24 - minute diner . Do you think it ’ll make its room over here soon?I think it ’s commence to modify . There are these pocket , in Las Vegas , San Diego , and much of the San Gabriel vale here in LA , of these little comic strip mall eating house that are all Asian . I mean , they do n’t stay put up passing late , but there are definitely piazza where you could stop in one strip center and hit up five or so places for different tastes . Wherever there ’s an85 ° C Bakery[laughs ] , there ’s usually a minuscule biotic community form of hanging out .
Do you have any tips for navigating Nox markets?Don’t eat too much before you go , and do n’t corrode too much at anyone ’s stall . You by all odds do n’t need to get full on one matter , because there ’s just so much to experience . Be inclined for your predilection buds to have an orgasmic experience all night long — and a completely varied one at that .
