[Synth Music playing]
[KF Seetoh] Welcome, welcome! So, we're at My Zhao kitchen.
I feel that this restaurant is very unique.
It's located in the [...] area and it's a very humble restaurant.
And the idea behind the whole concept is very simple.
Three guys — Ben, the chef, and a friend of his got together,
and they decided to bring back comfort flavors from mommy's kitchen — from all kitchens.
So, a lot of flavors here are what I call "traditional mommy's food."
I know it's been said to death, everybody's trying to reconceptualize it,
but this is as true as it gets. Uh....
And there's an edge. Although the dishes here *look* comfortable....
General Tso's chicken. And there's Mummy's Braised Pork with bamboo shoots.
And it's pork with a kidney. You know, dishes like this....
Seemingly....
Seemingly (you know) familiar, but it's not!
I — talking about a bowl of this, what can be considered their national dish....
It's braised pork — a lot of fat in there, I think they use a lot of neck....
And you put it over soft pulled rice....
And you would turn to this — like this. Join me, come on!
Oh!
[Chef Steve Jilleba] And then you have a little pickle on the corner there, huh?
[KF Seetoh] Yeah.
It's....
[Chef Steve Jilleba] ....so tender!
[KF Seetoh] It's a nice cheeseburger to Americans.
Its comfort to the Taiwanese.
It's like Singaporeans have their chicken rise, or Malaysians having nasi lemak....
Or Indonesian friends having Beef Rendang....
It's comfort.
Eat this and you're gonna call mommy, you know?
How are you, mom? "I miss you!"
And notice, they just place one piece of pickled daikon on there, because when you eat this....
Man, the horses go *Rarrrr! Rawww!* You just want to eat non-stop, but....
But they put this one piece of daikon in it....
[KF Seetoh] It's, "Whooooaaaaaaaa." Hold your horses! [Chef Steve Jilleba] And it cuts the fat a little bit.
[KF Seetoh] Enjoy, enjoy the whole moment.
And it just calms it, and oh!
Lu rou fan (滷肉饭). That's what they call this.
[Chef Steve Jilleba] It's excellent.
[KF Seetoh] Have you had anything like this?
In your course of traveling the whole universe?
[Chef Steve Jilleba] You always have different dishes with rice in it.
You know? But again, this with the pork and that the fattiness behind it....
....or the smoothness, I should say....
[KF Seetoh] Would you understand why this would be so comforting?
[Chef Steve Jilleba] Oh, it's because it's braised a long time.
Because the chef was saying — — like three days, you're braising?
[KF Seetoh] I dunno. I think so.
I mean the whole thing just collapses when you put in....
Oh, so smooth....
And....!
This is the original, or rather, the Taiwanese General Tso's chicken.
It's just so famous in your neck of the woods.
Is it the same? Is it the same?
[Chef Steve Jilleba] It looks very close, I mean.... I mean it looks like, you know....
It's again the Brocc on the side, it's a kind of a chili- type sauce.
So, a little bit of heat behind it....
So, you can see the peppers....
It's got a little more vinaigrette in it.
It's a little bit hotter than what I had in the States.
[KF Seetoh] The ones I had in the States, they may use vinegar. Vinegar doesn't come true. [Chef Steve Jilleba] They seem sweeter, huh?
[KF Seetoh] And he uses a very good quality soy sauce — it's very important.
[KF Seetoh] Hmm, thank you.
Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow....
That's kidneys and it's a lean pork in a broth that's infused with sesame.
[Chef Steve Jilleba] And some ginger? [KF Seetoh] And there's some ginger here to cut through all that porkiness.
[KF Seetoh] And this is very, very, very hearty,
This? This I don't think about mother, I think about grandmother.
When they serve a kidney like this, you gotta eat it immediately
with just a dip of soy sauce.
Let it sit and that crunch will be gone.
[Chef Steve Jilleba] Nice piece of pork.
[Chef Steve Jilleba] I wanna try a little bit of the broth.
[KF Seetoh] Mmmmm! There's a chewy, crunchy softness to the texture. Try it!
This is another dish, which is very popular here....
Braised pork. And you know, they really love their braised meats.
I think the hallmark — the main ingredient in their kitchen is a very good quality soy sauce.
There's the savory salty soy sauce.
And there's a caramelized soy sauce, very thick like honey.
It's not salty, it's just....
[Chef Steve Jilleba] It's not sweet.... It's not a sweet soy sauce. [KF Seetoh] It's.... uh.....
[KF Seetoh] It's neither sweet nor salty. And that gives it this flavor here.
[KF Seetoh] And they cook this with shoots — bamboo shoots. [Chef Steve Jilleba] Bamboo shoots.
[KF Seetoh] And just [...] very [...].
[Chef Steve Jilleba] That's a beautiful color to it.
[Chef Steve Jilleba] There's some anise or fennel in that.
[KF Seetoh] Yeah, probably. [Chef Steve Jilleba] And I got just one little piece of it, so.... yeah.
[Chef Steve Jilleba] So, maybe star anise or something.
[KF Seetoh] The short-cut would be to use five-spice powder but if you....
.....place a piece of star anise in there,
then you're really gotta watch. You can't leave it in there for too long,
[KF Seetoh] ....otherwise it just change.... [Chef Steve Jilleba] ....The whole flavor....
[KF Seetoh] Yeah, one o'clock and five o'clock, it tastes different in the pot.
And this is very interesting too.
Um, I've never had this but....
I can certainly feel the comfort behind this dish — it's just chopped chives.
And it's stir fried with century eggs in a brown....
[Chef Steve Jilleba] So, preserved eggs, yeah? [KF Seetoh] Preserved eggs, yeah.
[KF Seetoh] So, you notice there's some heat in here? [Chef Steve Jilleba] Yeah.
[KF Seetoh] Yeah? It comes from a special chili from [...]
And you can't see it, you know it looks harmless,
but the heat is in there is really nice, so.....
This is not a dish you can commonly find around, but....
It feels so much like home.
Just chili sauce already has a very thick chili paste.....
I just want you to try the thick soy sauce....
.....That smoky, sweet, savory sensation.
Not just savory soy sauce dip.
It's a caramelized soy sauce.
It's not salty and this gives it that smoky.....
....sweet.
You know, I just asked him about some of the new dishes,
they're gonna come up with and, uh....
Well, he hopes to get ideas from some of these old chefs in smaller villages — concepts of dishes.....
Sometimes they make offerings to the altar, to the ancestors.....
There's this idea about this fried fish that they put on the altar,
and how they would take it back and then they cook some vegetables,
or some sauce reduction
and they fry the fish again and put it over the fish.
So, they get all these ideas that comes from society.
[KF Seetoh] Inspired by.... It's history! [Chef Steve Jilleba] Well, history, too.
[KF Seetoh] So, the guys not really inventing stuff. He's just picking up ideas.....
[Chef Steve Jilleba] And lost.... Maybe some lost ideas. [KF Seetoh] It's preservation.
[KF Seetoh] It's preservation.
[KF Seetoh] Thank you very much.
[Chef Steve Jilleba] Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
[music playing]