What Happened When China Legalized Restaurants

Series XM podcasts. [MUSIC]

There's an out-and-green pepper sauce.

“Dryed scallop and shataki mushroom sauce.”

Dramented tofu sauce, mashed garlic, chopped chives. Do you have a specific combination here way, huh, that you like, that you do? Hot pots, flavors, heavy. So, I use less, extra.

I want way hung, signature sauce. Ah, okay, I got it. [LAUGHTER] Oh, I'm blocking the robot. Sorry, sorry, bud.

[MUSIC] This is the sport full. It's not for foodies, it's for eaters. I'm Dan Pashman. Each week on our show, we obsess about food to learn more about people.

Earlier this year, I got the opportunity to go to Bay Jinks. We could have podcast and conference, organized through NYU. Recently, there's been an explosion of interest in podcasts.

“So they want me to talk about the craft of making podcasts,”

booking guests, and interviewing people.

I had never been anywhere in Asia, so obviously this was a very exciting opportunity.

Not just to connect with aspiring podcasters, but also to eat. So today, we're kicking off back to back episodes recorded on my trip to China and Japan. This week, we're focusing on China's restaurants scene, which didn't even exist 40 years ago. [MUSIC] When Chairman Mao died in 1976, China was one of the poorest countries on the planet.

The government was struggling just to feed everyone. For a long time, all restaurants in China were government owned. And they weren't intended for a nice night out with friends. They were mostly canteens for communal eating, focused on breaking out enough food just to keep people from starving. But in the 80s and 90s, the Chinese economy slowly opened up.

The government began allowing private ownership of restaurants, which grew at an incredible pace. Today, China has a vibrant and varied restaurant scene. We're going to tell you the stories of two very different places. With help from a couple of people. You can call me Wei Hang or Li Wei Hang or Wei Hang Li.

Wei Hang Li is a food writer and podcaster based in Beijing. She mostly covers fine dining.

“She has her finger on the pulse of the ever-changing food scene in Beijing, and she's also very fashionable.”

When I meet her, I notice that she's wearing these pink acrylic earrings. Each one is in the shape of a uterus giving the middle finger. I'm also joined by Yebu Ji, an audio producer who is born and raised in China and now lives in New York. After a few years producing a show known as the "Visse American Life" of China, she went to NYU for a master's degree in audio journalism.

Yebu is also the host of the podcast and conference that brought me to China. Do I have to be in... No, you don't have to be. But you're kind of already are. Yeah.

Like many audio producers, I know Yebu prefers to stay off the mic. But she and Wei Hang are my guides for this episode, so you can hear a lot from both of them. Sorry, Yebu.

Our first stop is dinner at a place called Chef 1996.

So we're just at the entrance to chef ranch 96 and they have a little fire with a grill on top, and what are these tangerines? It's just orange. It can help people who sound the best. But I would say tastes better because it's really cold outside.

It's very warm welcome, literally warm welcome me. You're on one hand, you're right, Yebu. It's just a warm orange, a hot orange, but also it's really different. Yes. From a cold orange.

Yes, yeah. Wei Hang, what do you think? Um... Welcome. Yeah.

All right, well, I feel welcome, let's go. We walk inside. Chef 1996 is a Michelin selected restaurant on the outskirts of the Chayong district of Meijie. Before we sit down to eat, we get a tour of the restaurant.

Here are these giant glass jars filled with pickles and hot peppers on display. Huge cuts of meat aging in the window. And tons of framed photos and articles. So along the walls, we have like the history of the restaurant. Yeah, I do think this is so cool, so you can see it.

The story goes like this. Wang Gong came from Sichuan province in southern China when he turned 16 he moved to Beijing. This was in the 80s, just as China's new leader, Deng Xiaoping, was starting to make economic reforms in the country. Restaurants were slowly opening and Wang found work as a cook.

They made 80s where a heavy time to be in Beijing. Deng Xiaoping was making economic reforms. He was also enacting political reforms, which made it possible for pro-democracy protesters to organize in March, which was not what Deng had in mind when he started reforms. The government cracked down.

In 1989, many of these protesters were massacred in Tiananmen Square. A lot of citizens began losing faith in the government. The Tiananmen Square story was too big for the government to sweep under the rug and

In 1992, he announced that economic reforms were back on and the country would be opening

up in ways it never had before.

Suddenly, you could do more than just open a small business. You could borrow money, hire staff, open a second location. Investment started flowing into cities and young people started moving to those cities from the countryside and search of opportunity. Here's Wei Hong.

This moment, China develops very quickly. People get much more money and they have better lives, so they need much more. Better restaurants. Wang Gong was learning how to cook and run a restaurant right in the middle of this economic transformation.

Then, he experienced a different kind of transformation. While working as a chef, he met Liang Di, a waitress of the restaurant. She was also from Sichuan problem. The restaurant is a romance. It always chefs cannot meet more girls.

They just hang around in the kitchen and meet her. They are two to meet the, maybe waitress, yes, a waitress. Soon after they got together, Wang got his big break.

“One important people came to eat here and sing, "Oh, the restaurant is so good.”

Your guys do the really good job. If you want, you can do battery and I will give you the opportunity." It's like all the officials. They had government officials.

So they came to eat at the first restaurant, as we're almost working at this, said, "We

like what you're doing here. The foods are really good. You should try them all. The government also need more smart young people." Yes.

It says, "Examples." I, oh, interesting. So they wanted him to be an example of, like, follow this guy's lead. This is what we want you to be doing. We hung gestures to a framed paper on the wall.

This is very important. This is the paper about how they opened the first restaurant in 1996. In order to open up his own place, Wang needed a letter from officials in his hometown. He said, "We agree with Mr. Wang to open his own business and hope Beijing can support it."

So this is an official declaration, like I'm a letterhead from the Sichuanian government local officials and saying, "We support him getting his own business." He kept following. I know you imagine just that you want to open your own business.

“You need to let your hometown's government to allow recommendation letters from the”

government. Wang and Liang D got married and opened a restaurant in Beijing called Meju Dongpo in 1996.

They were among the first to bring spicy Sichuanese food from the south of China to Beijing

in the north. D, now known as Chef D, is the head chef here at this restaurant and I'm able to grab a few minutes to talk with her. She's sort of a local legend in her industry. Yeah, but in way hung later, told me that the fact that she came out and talked with me was

a pretty big deal. I was curious to ask her about the early days of their restaurants, introducing people in Beijing to Sichuanese flavors. What do you think was the reason why it was so successful so quickly? You know what I mean?

It's a very quiet restaurant. Oh, do you have your Thai好吃? Food. I guess that's the... I mean, in New York, Sichuanese food is like one of the most popular, one of the hot, growing types

of Chinese food, as you know, from living there. Yeah. Do you want to know why? Why? Why?

Yeah, why? Why? Why? Because it's very simple. Because it's very easy.

Because it's very easy. Because it's very simple. Because it's very simple. Because it's very simple. Because it's very simple.

Because it's very simple. Because it's very simple. Because it's very simple. Because it's very simple. Because it's very simple.

Because it's very simple. Because it's very simple. Because it's very simple. Because it's very simple. Because it's very simple.

Because it's very simple. Because it's very simple. Because it's very simple. Because it's very simple. Because it's very simple.

Because it's very simple. Because it's very simple.

“It's like a relaxation relaxation, relaxation. So, so she's had it. It's, yes, it's people.”

Strong flavor makes people feel satisfied. Eventually, Wong and Chef D created the major Dong Po restaurant group, which grew alongside China's middle class. Today, the group includes 114 restaurants, mainland China, and four in the U.S. They also have a line of packaged foods. Wong stepped away from the daily operations a few years ago. Now, Chef D serves as CEO of the group, while also working as head chef here at Chef 1996, which opened just a few years ago.

Unlike most of their restaurants, this one goes all in, on fine dining. It was just added to the list of Asia's 50 best restaurants from the organization that does world's 50 best restaurants. This place is so fancy that almost every table is in its own private room with its own sitting area in addition to the dining table. Every room has a frosted glass door. You press a button, and it slides open silently. Dining here costs the equivalent of about $150 per person,

but when you adjust for cost of living, it's more like going out in the U.S. than spending $300 a person. There's a grown number of fine dining restaurants in cities across China now,

You want to go out for a date night for celebration.

“We're asked for to to a room where I meet Jati Wong, daughter of Mr. Wong and Chef D.”

She's joining Weihang Yabu and me for dinner. Well, cheers. Thank you. Thank you. We sit down at the table where I see the tasting menu in store. Three pages, 16 courses. But before any of them arrive, I just want to make sure I have the recording that a man and a suit wearing literal actual white gloves.

I just came in with a tray of like vegetables and herbs and chilies to present them all to us. It was right down was raining like an antique store.

Yeah, which was, that was like amazing. I loved that and the white gloves are really nice touch.

The courses start coming. There's beef, shank, tripe, and tongue piled in a mound in a bright red broth of Sichuan numbing spices. There's a salad of cured pork and shredded Chinese radish and greens. Then there's something Jati calls and she can salad. When you take one chopstick from it, you will have all the ingredients together.

“And you must taste all three ingredients together.”

The chicken and onions and the chilies. Yeah. And like people in America will hear chicken salad and they'll think like mayonnaise. But that's not even that's nothing, nothing like what this is. But yes, the flavor of the onions with the chilies together is like really unique. You said your mom invented this?

I think so. We'll go with that. We will go with that. We'll see how. Yeah. I'm curious to ask Jati why her mom wanted to try her hand at fine dining for the first time. I think if we ask my mom, she will have a different answer. But since you asked me, I think in my opinion, the reason she opened this restaurant because

she really need this. And she loves to study into fine dining. And she's never done fine dining

before. But I think an opportunity came and she wanted to challenge herself.

“I think this is her frame. Yeah. You said that's your answer. What will your answer be?”

Her answer would be more official. What is? Yeah. For the company, well, she feels like you kind of need this kind of restaurant to boost up the branding of the company. But I think the real reason is she loves this. She just wanted to do this. Yeah. As soon as Jati finishes this thought, more food arrives. Many of the courses involved a giant

cart being wielded into our dining room with some fanfare. One has a platter of smoked meats, so big and varied. It would put any Texas barbecue place to shame.

So now we've moved on to this incredible assortment of smoked meats that is being carved

paper at the inform for us. Each one has a different economy to put on it. What's interesting to me as we go through all these incredible courses is like you're saying it's not. Yes, this restaurant started as Sichuanese. But it's not like it's just serving like the classics. It's not just like, like, oh, it's not just traditional Sichuanese. It's inspired by that. But then it's combining Beijing flavors and other inspiration to create

something that's like really unique. Yeah, this is very more than a bottle of wine to make it is traditional based on tradition. Right. Right. The course is keep coming. One after another. Yeah, just the lid. Oh, my god. Like rice sandwiches, the made eggs is very, little tiny like fried sandwiches. Rice? Oh, that's right. Oh, my god. I got to put the lid off. We got to eat this.

This looks too good. You can hear the rustling as I frankly put my recorder down so I can pick up my chopsticks. Priorities. Each dish somehow seems better than the last. All right. So a couple minutes ago, they brought in like the most beautiful wagyu beef you ever seen and cooked it in broth with green Sichuan peppercorns. It was incredible. Now, this teaspoon-moked duck situation just came out like under a giant glass full of steam and smoke and they lifted it up

and there's teaspoon-moked duck underneath. How did it in Sichuan they would do it? In very local way, just the, they don't have the crispy skin, just to have some teaspoon flavor and the other thing. So the teaspoon-moking is Sichuanies, but it's cooked here like sort of in a peaking duck style. Yeah. So it's sort of like fusion between these two regional styles. Right. And you're saying, yeah, but that's part of sort of how they got into the Beijing market by sort of

like a little familiar, but also more upscale and different. Right. Oh, mercy. The skin on this duck is impossibly thin and crispy. The meat perfectly tender, a little smoky. And then there's like an orange marmalade on the side for a tiny dip of your bite before you eat it. In my nine days in Beijing in Tokyo, that teaspoon-moked duck was the single best thing I ate. Between bites, we have more time to

line, but she was growing up. She felt like her parents first restaurant was another child to them.

Oh, I got it. One that got a lot of attention. Why did they're not home? Why are they always

out there with work? Why is the restaurants so important to them? And I'm just home alone. They always expected that eventually she'd work with a family's restaurants. I grew up with my parents

“saying you will do this. You will do this. And you must do this. And I think me, myself, is a kind of”

a little panicked. Rebellious. Rebellious. Rebellious girl. Jioti wanted to be an artist. It's been a few years early on trying to make it as one. But it was a struggle. So her mom approached her again about joining the business. She came to me and she talked to me about this again and again. And then my, my feelings changed. My feelings are very different to like a child. And I just, I feel so sorrow for her. And I wanted to do something for her. And that's how I started.

Now, Jioti manages two of her family's other restaurants. She's come to understand why this industry is so demanding. Why it took so much of her parents' time. After more courses, including Kung Pao prawns with charred chilies, mopotofu and dandan noodles, I am stuffed. And it's time for dessert. But the dessert that arrives isn't the one that was printed on the menu. Wayhung feels like she's got a prepare me for this one. I'm not sure if you have ever tried

“first nest. I don't think so. Does that what this is? Do you want to know what exactly is?”

Sure. Yeah. Tell me. It's what's wrong with the bird. Right? Swallows, uh, saliva. All right. Yeah. One day nesting, right? The user's saliva is to create the nest for their, I don't, any collect that. Well, they, they have like professional seafood. I did it. It's a professional swallow, saliva collectors. I know people too. It has been seen as one of the most precious kind of ingredient. It's like very special. Very special, very expensive, very hard to get. And it's, it's only like

royal people like people who live in palace and enjoy this kind of food. I guess that's us today, then, how you able? Yeah. So the dish is called bird's nest. But it's more like a soup with little crispy bits, almost like kataifi. But it turns out those are hardened bits of saliva. Males swallow saliva firms up when exposed air, which is how the nests hold their shape.

“The smaller bits turn soft in the soup, given the broth of gelatinous texture. Honestly, it's unlike”

anything I've ever eaten and it's really good. Lightly sweet, a little thick. Like I said with

those crispy bits, as I think back on it, I'm a little sad that I'll probably never get to eat it again.

Then comes another off-many dessert. Is it a black sesame? Oh, oh, man. I love black sesame. Wait, is it tongue you in? I know it. Yes, I know tongue you. I haven't had tongue you in about 10 years. So it took me a minute to place it. It's soft, chewy, glutinous rice balls with various fillings. In this case, my absolute faith, black sesame. The rice balls are served in a light warm syrupy broth. And this one is insane. I mean, and that was one of the most the lightest

softest, most delicate rice balls that I've ever had. Wouldn't it be crazy for me to ask them for another black sesame, rice ball? Yes, the tongue you always asked. Yeah, just one that was so good. Yes, I have one more glutinous rice ball filled with black sesame. They're too good. As I head back to my hotel and reflect on the meal, the word that comes to mind is rooted in this. This wasn't like, oh, we turned smoke duck into foam, like the molecular gastronomy people would do.

And it also wasn't like this. We found this ancient tree bark and fermented it for six years to make it edible. It was just extremely refined, well-done versions of the food and ingredients of these regions, with thoughtful tweaks or additions. But it was still rooted in the real foods of the place that people here actually eat. Coming up of visit another restaurant in China that couldn't

have existed 40 years ago, but this one's radically different from the first. It's an incredibly

popular hot pot chain called Heidi Lau. It's part restaurant, part entertainment venue, and part spa. Let's coming up, stick around. Hope you're hungry because it's time for some ads. Welcome back to the Sportsful. I'm Dan Pashman and heads up Boston. We have finalized the line up

choice guest would be. And the overwhelming response was reporter Matt. So guess who's coming?

Reporter Matt? But that's not all. I'll also be joined by Irene Shang Lee of May May Dumplings and Ian Cauchem W. G. B. H. He did that cod father story with us recently. He'll join us with a new story about monkfish. That's May 1st. W. B. R. City Space and Boston. Get info and tickets at

“sportfull.com/live. All right, back to the show. And by the way, if you want to see picks and videos”

of everything you hear me eating and experiencing in this episode, I'm gonna be hosting a bunch of stuff to Instagram this week. Follow me there at the sportfull. Also quick heads up. There's a bit of explicit language in this section. The day after my meal at chef 1996, Yebu and I go to Heidi Lau. We would soon be joined by Weihang and others. Heidi Lau is a chain of hot pot restaurants that has over 1,300 locations across China. It tends to draw big groups for a fun night app.

All right, Yebu, Friday night at Heidi Lau. What do you say? You're rolling your eyes? No, no, no, I'm going back to my normal mode. I love it. Look around. We're what mode were you in a minute ago? I'm tired. Yebu has been running around for the past three days over seeing this whole conference. So she's gonna write to feel worn down. But walking in the Heidi Lau provides me with a shot of a

adrenaline. So this is a gigantic restaurant. It almost feels like the floor of a Las Vegas casino. There must be several hundred seats in here. The walls are all gigantic screens all around us. Currently it's plastered and happy birthday signs and hearts and balloons floating up at it. Among the flashing screens and ring lights and the balloons are other surprises. What are these robots doing though? They are like a designating the dishes. I'm not preparing the

“dishes. The robots prepare the dishes. I think so. That's what we're all doing, Yebu. I know, right?”

Doing the Chinese. Whatever is the Chinese human or Chinese robot. Right, so the robots are reaching in. There's just like stacks and stacks of containers. It really is in there. Like this is lime, I think. Oh, this is spanned. There's a tray and a conveyor belt. And the robot pulls out the different meats and veggies that is rolling through to the hot pot. And let me tell you, there's a lot more to Heidi Lau than just the food. As soon as we sit down

at the table, my name is called. Just like that. Yebu and I are off to a different area. So this is the famous signature service that Heidi Lau provide you is you can do your nails here or I have to control myself. I'm not to say hand, drop, but to do your hand. Cut that. To do your hand here. Is that the literal Chinese translation of getting nails done? Exactly. Yes. Exactly. So maybe you are next.

I've never gotten my nails done. And as I learn, neither has Yebu. So this will be a special experience

for both of us. We sit down and share our next to each other and begin by getting hand with Sages. When we talk to the fact that we're going to come to Heidi Lau, you said you'd be a little bit

“embarrassed to come with me. Yeah. Why? No, with you. Just I think you will see. You will see.”

I think Heidi Lau more focus on performances. Like the aura they are creating. They're like a Disneyland kind of an atmosphere. Right. The screens, the anime shown in this stadium seating waiting room. Like a beginning of your nails done. Don't let your glass be empty. They pour one drink after one drink and now after one drink. And just this kind of set of factions. They want to like they stopped into you. And over the top service. Over the top. So you're a little embarrassed to come

here. Just because it's like such an over the top spectacle. Can't yes. Yes. And I just told you

like before I'm a such a big um people observe like a people watching lover. So I always like

counseling my focus on the people around me, not on the food. So when I'm having Heidi Lau, it's always like, oh, that table is having a birthday. Look at their faces. Are they awkward? Or look at the new deal. It's like Heidi Lau. It's not doing right now. So yeah, it's never about the food. And I don't think maybe I shouldn't say this out loud, but I don't think they have very good flavor. It's very like mediocre, because it's satisfied everybody. All right. My trying to get my nails done,

huh? I can understand that. And yet when I look around people are having such a good time. In some ways it reminds me of Benny Hanna. You know, the kind of place you go with a big group to celebrate something. But the food comes with a sort of show. This show is turned up to a level. Dance and they have a like a very iconic birthday song that now a lot of young people replace that with the traditional birthday song. So you were here that probably later. Can we tell them

that someone in our table is having a birthday? Yes, because it's huge. It's a it's a it's a center

Yours? I think it's for yours. Well, no. I'm going to make you enjoy Heidi Lau. You were going to

“be filled with a joy of Heidi Lau before this night is over. If you think I have to anything”

right during your trip, please treat me wise. Please treat me good. I don't want to be the center of Benny. But Yebu is withholding something from me. As I learned from others in our group two days before, it really was her birthday. I knew I had to give Yebu the special birthday celebration that she didn't want. Sorry, again, Yebu. The cultural force that is Heidi Lau can't be ignored. To the point that as Yebu said, young people there have replaced the traditional birthday song

with the one they hear at Heidi Lau. The person who started it all is John Young.

John opened the first Heidi Lau in 1994 in Sichuan Province. Like with Mr. Wong and Chef D from

Major Dongpo Group, he started at a time when restaurants in China were really beginning to take off. He soon expanded eventually coming to Beijing. Heidi Lau kept growing and growing. By 2018, Zhang was a billionaire. For most of Heidi Lau's story I spoke with Jason Tang, a food Instagrammer and podcast host who was really tapped into the restaurant scene in Beijing. He told me that as Heidi Lau was expanding, it was getting a little bit too successful. Zhang was likely

concerned that the Chinese government would want to get involved, maybe take a stake in the business or crack down on them in some way. Zhang listed Heidi Lau on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, so the company would have international shareholders who would resist any Chinese government attempt to get a piece of their pie. And he moved to Singapore as many Chinese billionaires have.

To be clear, Zhang has never said on a record that he made these moves because of the Chinese

government. In any event, the Chinese mark on the culture is undeniable. Tonight, Heidi Lau is rocking. At our table, Yebu and I are joined by Wei Hong and others from our podcast and conference group. As our food starts arriving, I turn to Wei Hong to tell me what everything is. She's wearing her trademark earrings. Each one, a uterus, gives him a finger. This is how to say this. Middle finger. Yeah, it's so f*ck you man. That's all. I just want to review all the different

things that we have been putting into our different hot pots. There are multiple pots of bubbling broth in the center of the table, different flavors and spice levels, whatever you pick. Then there's an assortment of meat, fish, tofu, veggies. You pick up a piece of something with your chopsticks, hold it in the bubbling broth for as long as you want. In the case of the meat, long enough to cook. Let me, so I thought there was mushrooms. Yes. There was seaweed. There's a tribe which beef

stomach. There's vegan imitation beef tribe. There's tofu skin. There's fried tofu skin. There's shrimp balls. There's beef and pork. Yes, you all right. And different tofu meat. Right. We got our shots of Baiju. We have beer. Yeah. And we had the sauce, what we made.

“Is there anything else that we've been going in there into the broth that I figured?”

Oh, what about the uterus that we probably have? Lutus slice. Lutus slice. Lutus. Oh, Lutus root, actually. Right. Okay. Hot pot is very communal. Everyone's reaching over each other to grab different pieces and dunk them in different bras. It's a style of eating the fits perfectly with a restaurant built for group celebrations. That said, I haven't eaten as much hot pot as Yebu in my life, but I do feel like while it's all good, none of the food blows my mind. What does

blow my mind is the atmosphere, which continues to escalate to ever hire levels of absurdity. We ordered hand-pulled noodles, which are brought to the table by a guy in a red edidas track suit, a proceeds to stretch the noodles by waving them over his head, snapping them in our faces, and all but using them to jump rope. Then comes a Chinese face-changing guy. This comes from Sichuan opera, but Heidi Lau has helped bring it to the masses. This guy has dressed in an

ornate traditional costume with a mask completely covering his face. The facial expression in the mask is a little scary. You walk around the restaurant, allowing it to each table. Periodically

covers his face with a fan for a split second. When he moves the fan away, the mask covering his face

“has completely changed to a new expression with new colors. It's like magic. I think maybe there's”

also a band playing at the far end of the room. It's getting hard to isolate where any noise is coming from. There's still one part of Heidi Lau that I haven't experienced. And also today's birthday, right? We must let her take her, boss. Did Ellen tell the people who were here? That it's Yabu's birthday? Not yet. I would hear it. Okay, make sure they know. Of course. You've maybe they can make an extra big and surprise. Yes. Do you think Yabu will be angry?

- Well, almost there. - Oh, come on, Yabu. Yabu tries her best to show us how uncomfortable she is. But... In this moment, Yabu kind reminds me of Chef D. She claims she gave into the birthday celebration

“out of a sense of duty for everyone else. But I think deep down, she did it because she wanted to.”

All right, we got it. Heidi Lau is kind of irresistible. Yabu. I don't know about this experience.

I had my first nail down. I had my first birthday party in a public. What else I can ask?

It's perfect. Thank you. All right. If I had to say cheers again, come on, bye. Throughout my time in Beijing, I was struck by how new and everything seemed. On a tour of the city's narrow alleyways, a guide pointed out some stone carvings around a door. And I said, "How old is that?" And he said, "That's 70 years." And I was like, "70 years." Where's the stuff that's a thousand years old? Part of it is that during Mao's cultural revolution of the

“'60s and '70s, huge parts of the city were raised. It was a push against anything old,”

a move towards modernization. But it's also that China has grown at such a breakneck pace over the past few decades. A lot of it is new. Many people in their 30s told me their parents

could never have imagined the thrive and restaurant scene of today back when they were kids,

just trying to get enough to eat. The night before I leave Beijing, I go out to eat with Weihang and Yabu one more time. Yabu says that when the Chinese economy opened up in the 80s and 90s, there was also a shift in mentality. Before that, if you were striving economically to do better for yourself and your family, it was seen as a betrayal communist ideals. By trying to earn more money, you weren't helping the collective. When the economy opened up, a new thinking emerged

that it was okay to want more to try to do better for yourself. In many respects, those reforms have worked. Today, the World Bank lists China's extreme poverty rate and effectively zero. But in all this striving, Yabu says something else has been lost. Everything you talk about before, like the food has grown, like hugely, the styles, the quantity, the quality has grown and it's become super convenient. But that means no one is getting anything

through their own hands, through their own heart. We expect everything our wishes to be fulfilled in one second. But what are we actually wishing for? And a lot of the youngs live alone in big cities. They just stay away from their hometown. But you relate some youngs in big cities. They just eat alone. So, eat alone is opportunities for response, but it's also a little bit lonely. People move to big cities to find better paying jobs opportunity. It seemed like the right path,

maybe even the only path. And yet, a lot of them were unprepared and are still unprepared for so much change. In China, there are full of anxieties. It's like a puzzle game. Nobody know what will happen next year. Nobody know what will happen in 10 years. Try to be a very practical, we like to plan, we like to stick to, in a stick into a comfort zone. But now it's like, there's no comfort zone anymore. So, it's a risk. And

risk, we're not very used to live a risky life. Thank you so, so much to Yebuji and Weihang Lee for all of their amazing work and to Jason Tong for talking to me for this episode. And thank you to Ellen Horn, director of NYU's podcasting and audio journalism program for organizing this trip and inviting me.

“It was a really, really special experience. Remember that if you want to see picks and videos”

of my time in China, follow me on Instagram at the Sportful. One more quick note. When I was at

chef in 1996, they served me that bird's nest suit for dessert. I was convinced that I'd never be able

to try this precious rare dish ever again. What turns out, you can get premium bird nest suit

along with bird's nest drinks and supplements, but she says they're pretty low quality with

“very little of the actual special ingredient. That of course didn't stop me from ordering some,”

I'll record my first taste and post it on Instagram. One final note, if you live in the

U.S. and want to try a Heidi Lau, you're in luck. There are now locations in New York, Texas, California, Arizona and Seattle. Next week on the show, our Asia trip continues. We explore recent

“tensions between China and Japan, which are playing out in the fishing trade. I'll find out how”

it's affecting restaurants and businesses in both countries. That's next week. Why wait for that

one check out last week's show with Ifra Ahmed, who's documenting Somali recipes and stories in her new cookbook, Somalia. We have an Iftar dinner together and she shows me a trick for making

“some booths that I will be using in my own cooking forever. And hey, Junior, you can listen to the”

Sporkeful in a serious XM app. Yes, the serious XM app has all your favorite podcasts. Plus over 200

ad free music channels curated by genre and era. Plus live sports coverage. Your podcasting app have that and there's interviews with a list stars and so much more. It's everything you want in a podcast app and music app all rolled into one. Right now, Sporkeful listeners can get three months free of the serious XM app by going to seriousxm.com/sporkeful. This episode was produced by me along with Managed and Producer. I'm a Morgan Stern and Senior Producer on Drace O'Hara,

who is edited by Camille Stanley. Our engineer is Jared O'Connell and our intern is Morgan Johnson. Music helped from Black Label Music. The Sporkeful is a production of serious XM podcast our executive producer is Camille Stanley. Until next time, I'm Dan Paschman. And I'm Julia from Singapore, reminding you to eat more, eat better and eat more better.