We’re back with some Singaporean bangers courtesy of actor, director, and producer Yvonne Chapman of Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Air Bender and Hulu’s The Season. She shares her mom’s lahksa and curry chicken with us and gives us a glimpse into the Calgary Asian experience (spoiler: kids are still kids and will/won’t try things!)

We talk with her about growing up with Singaporean and Hong Kong influences, adding on more classes as a way to deal with the stress of classes, and her path from pre-med to finance to acting!

Of course we talk about Avatar and The Season, the badass Avatar Kyoshi, and the Venn Diagram of viewers who might be watching both at the same time (Freesia!!). Plus a shared childhood seaweed moment and shout out to the OG of reusable containers, Country Crock.

We took a little break but we came back with not one but two fantastic guests: friends and fellow artists, Christy Chan and Cathy Lu, who coincidentally picked the very same dish, tomato egg, despite having grown up a thousand miles apart. But maybe that just speaks to how much of a classic this dish is (and I guess the point of this show!)

We talk about Cathy’s life growing up in vibrant, diverse Miami, and the contrast of Christy’s childhood in rural Virginia where her family owned the one Chinese restaurant–and tikki themed at that! Of course we talk about how they each came to be artists, and why their AAPI identity is a part of their art practice. Plus, fashionable pregnancies and the freedom that can come from being just a touch feral!

Ahead of Mother’s Day we’re talking to Cassandra Lam of Mama Lam’s about her own mama’s Malaysian curry chicken that she ate almost weekly growing up.

Her mom missed Malaysian flavors so much that she perfected her curry paste, plus a few others, and Mama Lam’s was born. We talk with Cassandra about growing up with a Malaysian mom, Cantonese dad, and as a New Yorker, making the leap from marketing to a small food business, and her OG food pop-ups. And of course, we spend time talking about Mama Lam herself. She’s not a regular Tiger Mom, she’s a chill Tiger Mom.

Plus Cassandra talks us through the other Mama Lam’s products and gives us great tips on what to make with them. Not even sponsored at all. We just love this curry paste and can attest to how good this curry chicken is!!

We’re back with more beef stew and we couldn’t be more delighted to have guest Ingrid Hu Dahl share her very special Taiwanese American recipe with us.

Author of Sun Shining On Morning Sun, Ingrid tells us about her mom’s recipe, the ways in which this classic beef noodle soup became a beef stew, and what it was like growing up the hapa child of a Taiwanese immigrant mom and Scandinavian American dad in 1980s central New Jersey.

Plus, what it was like growing up with a mom who was at the forefront of AI (yay? eek?), summers in Taiwan, becoming courageously bold and boldly courageous, and the magical mysteries beheld behind kitchen doors.

The madness is back!!! We partnered again with our podcast cousin InfatuAsian and bookshop home On Waverly on our second annual March Madness of Asian Cuisine! This year we went with pan-Asian bangers in a round of 16 that was far, far from inclusive, but so much fun!

This year we kicked it up a notch with bites and prizes from new and old friends:

Apisol with refreshing honey seltzers, Mama Lam's yummy Malaysian sauces, Lunar Bakery with some delicious baked tarts, Lulu's Asian Kitchen with some of their just-released frozen dumplings, and HEYDOH with their small batch soy sauces.

With special guests:

Hannah Chea (Miss SF Chinatown 2025) and Adonis (Food recommender and culture keeper).

Listen in to see if your favorites made the top 16, how egregious our audience may or may not have been with their votes, and what Asian favorite went all the way!

We’re absolutely freaking delighted to be joined by Laurence Louie, chef/owner of Rubato and current Top Chef contestant.

We talk with Laurence about his beloved Chinese bakery staple bolo bao, how it shaped his culinary career, and its place on his current modern Chinese American menu.

Plus, growing up around his mom’s canto rock band, his journey from AAPI activist to hand-pulled noodle apprentice, and of course, representing the culture on Top Chef.

The lightest of spoilers for the first couple of episodes of season 23 of Top Chef, so listen with caution, but also go catch up immediately.

It might be 80 degrees out here in the Bay Area but we’re drooling over this episode’s dish, oxtail beef stew with Christina Wong Singh, founder of AAPI Empower Hour. On this episode we talk with Christina about her childhood disdain turned adult love of this arguably American Chinese dish.

We go hard on junior high school with New York City public school lunches, Jamaican beef patties, and math talents. Freesia can barely wrap her head around growing up in New York while Sam and Christina are incredibly nonchalant about it.

Plus, raising mixed Asian kids–as in, two Asian ethnicities–men who cook, and keeping culture and language alive through a generation or two of assimilation.

This episode we welcome Satsuki Ina, author, psychotherapist, producer and so much more! We talk with Satsuki about one of her favorite childhood and new year’s foods, inarizushi and her mom’s special take on it.

We spend some time talking about her very important book The Poet and the Silk Girl, which chronicles her parents' experience as Japanese Americans imprisoned during WWII, and talk about how so much of those experiences is still relevant today and the work for Satsuki that that continues to fuel.

We also talk about Satsuki’s experience as a kid running around Japantown and San Francisco in the 1940s and 1950s and her family’s weekend Chinese restaurant routine, which honestly sounds pretty great.