There’s something peculiar about
these Chinese restaurant menus from the 1900s.
This one’s from Washington,
this one’s from Ohio,
this one’s from Florida.
In each of these menus, you’ll see Egg Foo Young.
Out of thousands of Chinese dishes,
how did this one fried omelette,
a dish that isn’t even that popular in mainland China,
come to dominate the menus of Chinese American restaurants?
Every dish has a story,
so as my dad teaches us how to cook Egg Foo Young
just like a Chinese chef,
we’re gonna go back in time to learn what it was like
for my parents and other Chinese immigrants,
and how they used dishes like Egg Foo Young to win over America,
a country that openly hated Chinese people at times.
For context, if you’ve never had Egg Foo Young,
it’s essentially a fried omelette,
topped with a savory gravy,
packed with your choice of meat and veggies.
Today’s recipe calls for shrimp.
How do you peel shrimp?
Start about 2-3 segments from the tail,
peel that right off.
Hook under the back.
It's all peeled.
I'm using 31/35 shrimp today.
In the US, shrimp are sold by the amount in a pound.
Our shrimp today is 31/35,
which means there are 31-35 shrimp in a pound,
which is considered medium to large.
If you prefer smaller shrimp,
you would get those with bigger numbers.
If we keep the shrimp whole,
they'd be too big for Egg Foo Young,
so I'm going to halve them.
Don't they have veins?
They do! I'll remove them as I halve them.
Slice them in half.
Slice them open.
If you use smaller shrimp,
you won’t need to cut them in half.
It's very easy to devein shrimp.
Grab some water.
Give them a quick wash.
The veins will wash right out.
Swish them in the water.
They pull right out.
If you want to skip the peeling and deveining steps,
you can buy already peeled and deveined shrimp
from most grocery stores.
All deveined!
Also known as Foo Yung Daan,
Egg Foo Young became this classic American comfort food.
Cantonese immigrants brought it to America,
but what drove people to leave China in the first place?
Opportunity.
Arriving in America was so exciting.
I had such freedom to look for work.
Because in China, I couldn't freely work.
There was no Open Door Policy then.
Now you can work.
My dad, like many other immigrants,
came to America with a sense of optimism
and newfound freedom.
But their struggle was far from over.
When I first arrived in the US,
I was a little scared,
thinking, "How can I live here?"
so for me, I said,
I should start learning English.
I didn't even know how to go to different places
because I was new.
I said, "I need to learn.
I need to learn English.
I need a lot of opportunities to go on my life."
Back then, your grandpa and I didn't want her to work.
We wanted her to study.
But before Jennifer was born, I was a seamstress.
I still worked a little bit after Jennifer was born.
One day, I was sewing,
keep going, keep going,
the needle went inside my finger.
I pulled it out, and then I said, "No more!"
Also, I didn't make money, only $1 a day.
Next, we'll prep the rest of our ingredients for the omelette.
We won't need the entire onion.
We'll just use part of it.
Just about 2 oz.
We won't use the entire onion.
That's enough.
We’ll chop the onion into thin slices.
Then turn 90 degrees and cut those slices in half.
Cut them in half.
A bit of green onion.
For the green ends of the green onions,
we’ll cut into 1-2 inch segments.
Small strips.
We'll chop up the rest.
Diced green onion.
For the white ends,
we’ll dice them up for garnish.
We'll sprinkle these on top.
We have 4 eggs.
We’ll crack 4 eggs into a bowl.
Then we’ll season them.
Add 1/2 tsp of salt.
A bit of white pepper.
We’ll also add a 1/4 tsp of white pepper.
With a little bit of sugar (1/2 tsp), the eggs will whip up beautifully.
We'll beat them later.
Cantonese people aren't fond of adding gravy.
We like to eat it as is.
But the young kids and the Americans at my restaurant,
they love pouring sauce over it.
For the sauce, we'll be using 1 tbsp of oyster sauce,
1 tbsp of light soy sauce, 1 tsp of dark soy sauce,
1 tsp of sugar, a 1/4 tsp of white pepper,
4 oz of water, and 2 tsp of cornstarch.
We have all of these ingredients listed on our blog at madewithlau.com
along with step-by-step instructions and video clips
to guide you as you make the recipe at home.
Now we’ll make the slurry to add to the eggs later.
1 tbsp of cornstarch.
1 tbsp of water.
Mix it up, and then we'll cook it with the eggs later.
For the next step, we’ll need a pot and some hot water.
Turn on the heat and add some hot, boiling water.
We're going to blanch the bean sprouts and the shrimp.
We’ll add about 2 cups of water here.
On high heat.
Great, the water is boiling.
Once the water boils, we’ll add in our shrimp.
After just 15-20 seconds,
we’ll take out the shrimp and set them aside.
The shrimp are cooked once they curl, it's very fast.
About 90% cooked through.
About 4-5 oz of bean sprouts.
After just 10 seconds, we’ll follow with the onion.
Onion.
Don't you usually stir-fry the vegetables?
Why are you boiling them this time?
We'll mix it in and pan-fry it together.
They're folded into the eggs.
That's the reason.
Now we'll take them out.
After 30-40 seconds,
we’ll drain the bean sprouts and onion.
For brief moments in time,
America was eager for Chinese immigrants.
What happened?
Well, going all the way back to the Gold Rush in 1850,
city leaders in San Francisco actually had
a welcoming party for Chinese immigrants.
America wanted partnership with Chinese immigrants.
Word spread like wildfire
through villages in the Guangdong province,
and the Chinese flocked over by the thousands
in search of the gam saan, or gold mountain.
But America started pulling the rug out from under the Chinese.
Whites became increasingly threatened by the Chinese,
and the tension calcified in 1882,
when the US President signed
what became known as the Chinese Exclusion Act,
completely banning Chinese immigration.
Now, there were still hundreds of thousands of
Chinese immigrants in America,
and what they had to endure was tragic.
Between 1885 and 1887, in just two years,
anti-Chinese groups harassed, massacred, and burned down
over 200 Chinese communities all across the US.
Obviously, throughout the 20th century,
Chinese communities persevered in America,
otherwise the Lau family wouldn’t be here today in the Bay Area.
But, there was a lot that had to happen
in order for Chinese communities to thrive in North America.
And a big part of our cultural acceptance was
through Chinese food and dishes like Egg Foo Young.
With that, my dad will now share
his expert tips to fry the perfect Egg Foo Young.
Heat on.
Beat the eggs.
Then we’ll add the cornstarch slurry
and continue beating it together.
The wok is hot enough now.
It's smoking, see?
Time to add the oil.
At least 2 tbsp of oil,
because these eggs are half pan-fried, half deep-fried,
so we'll need more oil.
"What is the best type of oil to use?"
Usually some kind of plant oil.
Like corn oil, or vegetable oil.
Something like peanut oil.
Now, we'll add the shrimp too.
The bean sprouts too.
Mix it up.
Mix up the eggs and all the ingredients.
Pour it in.
This is high heat.
You can gently move the ingredients around
so it’s evenly spread out on top,
but be careful not to move it too much,
as we want the bottom to fry into
a beautiful layer of golden brown crust.
Don't flip it yet.
Any tips for frying without making it too oily?
If you don't want it too oily, use olive oil.
There are olive oils you can use for frying,
the kind that you can use for cooking at high temperatures.
After about 40-50 seconds of pan-frying on high,
we’ll turn the heat to low.
Pan-fry until it's golden brown.
Cook on low heat.
"Any tips on making the egg softer and smoother?"
Start on high heat, then turn it down
to get the inside tender and the outside aromatic and crispy.
Don't cook the entire thing on high heat.
What about when he's mixing or preparing the egg?
Is there anything special?
We add cornstarch slurry to it.
That helps it come together faster.
Also, the vegetables have water in them.
The cornstarch helps the vegetables to stick to the eggs better.
The eggs alone aren't firm enough.
It needs the cornstarch.
Give it a turn.
As it continues cooking,
we’ll carefully rotate the egg
so that it cooks evenly and to make sure it doesn’t stick.
I also wanted to make a special shoutout to thank all of our
wonderful Patreon supporters for helping bring this video to life.
If you enjoy our videos and are interested in supporting us directly,
head on over to patreon.com/madewithlau to learn more!
After about a minute of pan-frying on low,
we’re ready to flip the omelette.
Let's start flipping it.
Push the spatula under and pull it to the side.
Then quickly flip it.
Just like that.
See? You have to pull it to the side first.
So how did Egg Foo Young play into the immigrant story?
Well, when I hear people talk about immigrants,
I usually hear the phrase “they came with nothing”,
which isn’t entirely true.
yes, they were poor,
but they weren’t coming to nothing.
Did he already have a job lined up?
or how long did it take Daddy to find a job?
I found renovation work through someone I knew.
Like painting houses.
Remodeling houses.
You already had friends here?
Yeah, I knew people and met more.
There were people already working here.
Your aunt was here.
Your uncle was here too.
Your grandfather was here.
Immigrants flocked to these bustling Chinese communities,
where they could speak Chinese,
reunite with friends and family,
and find work.
These communities also often had Chinese associations,
which helped new immigrants figure out where to live in America.
On the recommendation of these associations,
many Chinese immigrants fanned out all across the US,
In many places, there was no work,
so Chinese immigrants had to forge their own opportunities,
often in the form of restaurants.
Chinese associations essentially had this whole playbook
of how to cater to white people,
from English-friendly names of restaurants like Dragon Palace,
down to exactly what to offer on menus.
This was critical,
because if you were the only Chinese family
running a restaurant in a white town,
you had to understand what your clientele would eat,
otherwise you’d go out of business.
Egg Foo Young was part of this
Chinese playbook for “white people food”,
because it was basically an omelette
that was both foreign and familiar.
Americans ate omelettes all the time,
but Egg Foo Young has this addictive mixture of flavors
that fall outside of the typical Western palate.
And that’s why dishes like Egg Foo Young
helped win the hearts of Americans,
because food has this uncanny ability to bring people together.
Obviously, it’s not like Egg Foo Young erased racism.
We still have a lot of work to do,
but Chinese food is often people’s first encounter with our culture,
and it’s a wonderful invitation
to start to build empathy
and a shared sense of humanity.
I know a lot of you who watch Made With Lau are not Chinese,
and don’t speak Cantonese,
so it’s not everyday that you would get to sit down
with a 70 year old chef who doesn’t speak English
and pick his brain.
One of the broader goals of our channel
is to help break down the barriers that we have,
language or otherwise,
and that our videos help spread compassion, love,
and a sense that we have more in common than meets the eye.
"What is the best temperature to cook this at?"
After the crust has formed, cook it on low.
That's how you get the eggs nice and aromatic
all the way through.
If you fried it all on high heat, it would burn right away
while the inside hadn't even cooked yet.
Give it a turn.
You can tell by looking at it,
golden brown means it's done.
We’ll check the bottom occasionally
to see if it’s approaching our desired color.
Nearly done.
We’ll slide the omelette around the wok
to make sure it’s not sticking.
Why doesn't it stick?
The wok is hot enough
so it won't stick.
After about 3-4 minutes of pan-frying on low on this side,
we’ll flip it again.
The goal is to have similar color on both sides.
We’ll let this side cook for a final 30-40 seconds.
It's done!
Turn the heat off.
In a bit, my dad is going to show us
how to make the famous gravy, but first:
as a summary for pan-frying,
we’ll first heat the wok til it’s hot,
then add oil.
When the oil is hot, we’ll add our egg mixture,
making sure the heat is on high.
After the first minute or so when the crust has formed,
we’ll turn the heat back to low and pan-fry for another minute.
Make sure to slide it around to ensure it’s not sticking
and check the color of the bottom occasionally.
We’ll carefully flip the omelette
and turn the heat back up to high
to form the crust on this side.
After the first minute,
we’ll turn it back to low
and cook for another 2-3 minutes,
also checking on the bottom color
and sliding it around.
We’ll quickly flip again to get the top side hot
for just 30-40 seconds,
then we’ll plate.
A lot of the timing of the cooking
depends on your preferred consistency,
cookware, and the oil you use.
For example, if you don’t like it with as much crust,
lessen the time you cook it on high.
If you like the egg more well done inside,
you would extend the time you cook it on low.
Before we move on with the recipe,
May is Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month,
and we wanted to highlight an amazing Asian-owned business.
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The founder, Diana Ho, has a huge heart
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She actually designed the T-Shirt I’m wearing now,
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We’ve linked their website in the description,
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with code MWL10.
Let's cook the gravy now.
Pour it all in,
when it boils, it's done.
We’ll pour the sauce we made earlier into the already hot wok.
Then we’ll turn the heat on to low
and continuously mix the sauce.
Cook it on low heat.
If you don't mix it, it'll get lumpy.
Let's add some water.
My dad adds about 2 oz of water here
because he thought the sauce was getting too thick.
The consistency is up to your preference.
Let's add sesame oil.
We’ll add a couple drops of sesame oil here.
This is our oyster sauce gravy.
Was it popular in the 90s and the 2000s?
Lots of people ate it.
Because there are lots of ingredients in the eggs.
It has meat, vegetables, and eggs,
and there's some sauce to moisten it.
Is it this popular in China?
No, not really.
Egg Foo Young is not very popular there.
Basically, Egg Foo Young is a very ordinary dish.
Our Egg Foo Young is complete!
I hope you all enjoy it!
Hong Doy, come eat Egg Foo Young!
Cheers!
Thank you for your questions!
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