CIIS Public Programs Podcast

transcript

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This is the CIIS Public Programs Podcast, featuring talks and conversations recorded live by the Public Programs department of California Institute of Integral Studies, a non-profit university located in San Francisco on unceded Ramaytush Ohlone Land. Through our programming, we strive to amplify the voices of those who have historically been under-represented. To find out more about CIIS and public programs like this one, visit our website ciis.edu and connect with us on social media @ciispubprograms.  
 
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Meg: You know I just want to say first of all that my family revered your show, we watched it religiously and loved it because we would go to these big wonderful family Chinese restaurants you know with the huge round tables and we would watch that little turn around thing bring dish after dish in front of us that looked really amazing, but we figured we would never be able to prepare any of this and then we would watch your show and you would break everything down into some good simple healthy techniques that we could figure out. So, you've been revered in my family for a long time and I just welcome you to this show and this dialogue it's going to be a lot of fun. Are you ready for some questions? 

Chef Yan: I am always ready. You know what, I I'm truly honored and privileged to have the opportunity to work with your great team and to let people know what diet, how important diet is so I'm ready. 

Meg: You know especially during this time you know this global pandemic time that we're in right now while taping this show we look at the fact that there's so much social isolation, but you have always said as a food ambassador, an international food ambassador, that food brings people together, but now with the restrictions that we all have on us, is it still possible? 

Chef Yan: Of course. You know, recently they're not in fact the last, since end of February early part of March I have hosted dozens of virtual cooking events and assume and reaching a lot of people. The US, everybody you know is a melting pot okay? We always have a mixed audience whether it's radio or television and some of my guests are liberals, and others are conservative, and I don't ask, and they don't tell me either, you know? We have one common interest, to eat well. Focus on what we eat well and cook well along we can get along a lot better. You know people always can fight all they want after dinner but when we cook, we're all friends and allies in the kitchen. I hope you under yeah, I hope you all agree. Besides, I am the one that holding the big cleaver anyway, people don't want to fool around with when they see my big cleaver. 

Meg: [laughing] Oh my gosh I wonder if you, you've been part of this tradition for a long time. You know, your mother had a restaurant in South China growing up and so is that what actually inspired you when were you in her kitchen? How did this all get started? 

Chef Yan: Yeah, I grew up in my mother's kitchen. In fact, my mother and my father actually had a little restaurant, and I would assume that necessity is the mother of all inventions. When I first came to North America, I found work in a Chinese restaurant. Working in the kitchen, washing dishes, and helping to cut bone the chicken, and my kitchen training was what gave me the opportunity to do a lot of things, and survive all the early winters in America.  

Meg: I followed that, I mean there you were up in freezing Calgary all the way down to LA, you've been everywhere up and down this this continent and I think that I think that love of travel must be in you because you did a whole spice route tour. This is one of my favorite shows in fact. You were looking at China and Malaysia and the spices from all these different places, which I tend to think of as medicine, being a medical anthropologist. But tell us what spice you love to cook with and why? 

Chef Yan: You know, food as everybody knows that food have no national, international boundary. Food brings everybody together. Every Chinese chef must be well acquainted with all the basic taste, flavor, sweet, sour, spicy hot, and all the spices that go into each dish. I started out as a chef in Southern China all Cantonese cuisine is my forte. Over the years, I have traveled through China, all over China from the North to the South, the West, the East and work and learn from great chef and homemakers from different regions. So these days, the manual is a lot of eclectic and one might call pan Chinese, different flavor melt together. Chinese is such a just like the US such a vast treasure box of great cuisines, why stay with just one? 

Meg: I can believe it I mean from Hunan to Shanghai I've tasted them and relished in all of them, it's so sweet. I know that we'll be talking about what you consider every kitchen to have a standard like array of spices or flavors in them, but I'd also love you to talk now about you know, there's been an effort and I see this as a registered nurse and behavioral health specialist for people to switch to a plant-based diet just because it seems to be healthier in the long run. All of our studies look at that, including a huge Chinese study but this heavy emphasis on lots of meat and lots of starches is something that people are trying to really cut back on. What's the healthiest way to eat in your estimation? 

Chef Yan: Well I am, in China there's a they have a very very common a popular saying, Yin and Yang. I'm a big believer of balance. Yin and Yang balance in our everyday life and in our diet. The Chinese philosophy of Yin and Yang serve really well. Nothing should be one-sided, okay? Animal protein must be well balanced with a variety of fresh vegetable, seasonal vegetable to create a healthy combination in each dish, and the same should be our philosophy of life. We cannot if I love to drink but you shouldn’t overdo it. If you love to do certain things, the key is balance. So in our life, just like in a diet you have to have a lead a balanced diet.  

And you go to a typical Chinese restaurant, you see there's a lot of vegetable dishes on the menu and nothing is overcooked, properly cooked. At the same time, a lot of other dishes also have protein and vegetables combined together in a mix. I will show you later on when I cook, but the thing is in Chinese cuisine the most important thing is a lot of people don't realize in China there's a lot of vegetarian restaurants. A lot of vegans, a lot of people particularly the Buddhists the Buddhism in Buddhism the people believe in Buddhists and they actually like in Vietnam, like in Taiwan they actually practice vegetarianism. Nowadays we're lucky because there's a lot of protein based, plant-based, protein plant protein, and plant-based ingredients as well as meat in the market. Now when you go to a fast-food chain you can actually order a plant-based burger, anyway. 

Meg: I know I know I've tried one! I do know that switching to a plant-based diet is definitely healthier in the long run and that's been the long tradition really throughout Asia. I think too that there’s so many… his is another custom that I've seen, when I was traveling in China and when I was also just going to really good Chinese restaurants here, they often start with a soup, and it's a clear soup sometimes. Is this a tradition, I mean? 

Chef Yan: Oh yeah! Very much, in my household. Now you look at I stand for a little bit so you can see. 

Meg: Yeah. 

Chef Yan: For 35 years I have not gained one pound. My weight ranged from 136 to 138 pounds for 35 to 37 years because I practice the Yin and Yang diet. Soup in the beginning of a meal is very very much very popular in Southern China, and you go to a lot of restaurants Canton and Hong Kong and places the first thing they serve you a clear soup. Just like you go to the Japanese restaurant they give you a little clear miso soup or they have a little few slices of seaweed and a few pieces of tofu and you drink it, and the great thing about this is this is like a cleanser it cleanses your palate. It gets you ready, and also when you finish a clear soup which is pretty rich a chicken broth, or vegetable broth, the great thing about this is this gives you the opportunity to really set it up and then you don't feel as hungry because before you eat anything you have half a bowl of soup then you don't feel as hungry. 

Meg: It adds to that whole balance that you talked about right I know principles of balance through five elements, Chinese medicine and everything you have things in in seasons with hot and cold. I mean I had a kidney stone last week that was driving me crazy but in Chinese medicine they would say well there's a lot of damp heat going on in your yin. 

Chef Yan: Yeah, yeah damp yeah damp hot, hot air and cool air dampness. So but anyway, yeah I think the important thing is that it also helps when you have a soup during you have the soup that what happens is they also help you to clean up cleanse not only cleanse your blood it actually it nurtures is very nurturing, it's very nurturing. It is just like a clear a light soup to nurture and get everything ready and just also serve as a source of libation during your meal. This is important. 

Meg: Sets the stage for your digestive system too. You know, I think that you've talked to us a lot about how Americans and North Americans and people everywhere can start to enjoy more vegetables more of a plant-based diet, but I'll tell you, doesn't it take a lot more preparation? I mean I know when I try to convince friends to do it, they say “oh it's the washing and the cutting and this and the that…” the preparation time for making more vegetables, talk about that. 

Chef Yan: Well in old days this is very true, but nowadays you can go to a salad bar and they just pick up the vegetables already cut up for you. You just buy this a combination of salad and then you come back it's already a stir-fry dish already cut up for you. And in fact, a lot of the supermarket now you can actually buy a package of stir-fry vegetable with different combination with broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, celery, everything is already there. So, I think in the old days we worry about all of these, we don't have to worry about it anymore because lifestyle change and the supplier and the supermarket are getting, preparing, and offering things that people want, people use, people need. 

Meg: They're getting wise to us finally. You know… [Chef Yan: yeah] You going after your master's degree at UC Davis in nutrition and food science, Chef you've seen a lot of changes. 

Chef Yan: Let's go back to the vegetable, let's go back to the vegetable part. The great thing about this in Western cuisine okay and vegetable is always considered to be a side dish. They always cook to death, you know? Spinach is cooked to death, everything that's cooked to death, the mushroom cooked to death. But in Chinese cuisine we often add vegetable into the main dish and cook everything together and never, never overcook. So, when you overcook something you know that you lose some of the heat sensitive vitamins like vitamin C, and a lot of things it's lost and then also the text the color, the texture, and the nutrients is lost. So it's very important, you go to a typical good Chinese restaurant they never, never overcook the vegetable we actually we actually cut down actually in a true sense also you cut down the preparation of cooking time because when vegetable normally doesn't take too long to cook. So you cook the meat, almost ready you put the vegetable in and let the juice from the meat flavor your vegetables so in the true sense it's the healthiest way to cook. 

Meg: So, you're telling us how to get the most nutritionist value out of our food but what are some of the techniques? I mean is it steaming, or wokking, or boiling? What do you like doing? What's the best food techniques to get the most?  

Chef Yan: Yeah, yeah great question, thank you. We have a popular saying, we all live to eat but don't eat to live and eating to live is basically survival. We are very, very much beyond that now because we live in a country of abundance. But the most important thing is it's not about quantity it's about better quality of ingredients, fresh ingredients. Chinese believe you eat with the season, you eat with the freshest, you never overcook anything. Whether it's vegetable or seafood they never over steam the fish until they dried up. They never overcook the chicken until they dried up, it's always marinaded. So it doesn't mean it's what good quality ingredient whether it's protein, seafood, or vegetable. Eat better doesn't mean that eat more. You eat better, you eat quality, you eat quantity, not quantity but eat quality. 

Meg: Yeah, and that quality counts because it takes care of a deep level of hunger too. If you don't get that nutrition in, you're always hungry. So, the cooking technique…  

Chef Yan: Yeah, cooking it also helps too because when you steam or double boil just like the Chinese you never overcook anything because everything is maintained a 100-degree centigrade 220, 12 degree below so you never overcook it. So, in Chinese cooking the key is do not overcook. 

Meg: I'm going to remember that, not use the smoke alarm as my timer. 

Chef Yan: And rule number two in Southern China is, puts a great emphasis on steaming and the technique, the preparation technique, the cooking technique. You do a lot of poaching, a lot of steaming, stir frying, braising, stewing. So you add less oil, and that is not overcooking either when you basically the Chinese have been not invented, but Chinese been practicing slow cooking low temperature long time cooking for a long, long time. When you do stir fry high temperature short time. When you do poaching or you do double boiling it's a little bit longer and you cook a much lower temperature, you don't destroy as much. So that's the reason why it is important. So through my entire career, this is what I do. I practice good healthy cooking, okay? 

Meg: Thank you so much for those techniques. I'll tell you it's enlightening, but some people are wondering “does this take a lot of extra gadgets in the kitchen?” Should I fall for every brand-new gadget advertised on my Bed Bath and Beyond flyer? 

Chef Yan: No, no, no definitely not. Definitely not, you know why? Because in a typical Chinese kitchen you have a wok or stir-fry pan and I have a knife I'll show you all you need is a knife a good night because you do a lot of cutting and chopping anyway again and slicing. So, one of my best friend to stand by my kitchen is my Chinese chef knife, and a well-seasoned wok if you have a cast iron wok. So they are not only, they're not electric, not digital, and not controlled by satellite or artificial intelligence. It's just you and your knife in your on your hand. It's not electric knife but a knife. So good food started with great ingredient and great imagination and make sure you take care of all your kitchen friends like a good wok and a nice sharp knife and that's the key. 

Meg: That's it, good and don't fall for all the other gadgets. Thank you for that. Well I thank you for the great advice you've been offering people and I also know that right now so many people are having to stay home, shelter at home during this that they're really kind of getting sick of their own cooking and there's something that we know in medical anthropology and in medicine called boring palate syndrome, where if you're not intriguing your palate and your tongue you're actually not giving the brain certain stimulation. Lots of new studies that I'm following particularly on this. So at a time you can offer these first-time cooks at home who have been so used to going to restaurants or getting carry out and they say I'm sick of my own cooking, what can you offer them to get out of that boring syndrome? 

Chef Yan: You know, first of all they always say variety is the spice of life. You know even I give you the truffle, I give you caviar, I give you a goose liver, but if you eat it the same thing over and over again you get fed up you get tired. So, the key is as I mentioned earlier the great thing about America is America is a great melting pot. People from all over the world, all the cuisine, all the culture, all the colorful customs, music everything coming from all over. So, we never can get tired of trying new things. So a lot of restaurants even in Chinese restaurant now you have you have Thai restaurant, ramen restaurant, Korean restaurant, Cambodian restaurant, a Mediterranean restaurant, Iranian restaurant, all kind of restaurant. So when you go out to eat a key is to try out different things. Open up your palate, open up your mind, and open your heart out and to receive and enjoy the cuisine that offer to us in America and this great country, the variety you see.  

So that's the reason why a large industry of hard-working, particularly during the pandemic a lot of the restaurant is suffering and a lot of a very good number, great number of my friends as well as colleagues are hard working in the restaurant, they're not getting all the support. So, I hope all of you go out and do some take out and support them, give them support, and it is also true, everybody can learn to cook the basic.  

Just like other all the other things that I have just made you know I make paella for my own kitchen, but I do it Chinese flair add some Chinese element I add some shiitake mushroom, I add some sesame salt, I add some fish sauce, oyster sauce, and Chinese sausage but you know. So maybe that reminds me in our time is in the spent in the Spain in Spain because I spent some time in Spain during a river cruise and I love paella so much I decided to do it, so I turned that into Chef Yan's personal version of the seafood rice paella. 

Meg: Sounds so delicious. This is why we call you an international chef is because you have combined these flavors and flavor enhancers and spices and foods and vegetables and yet you still bring them into this incredible healthy cuisine you know? Which is primarily plant-based little bits of meat here and there whatever is needed, fish absolutely.  

This is so great you know there's I've studied something as a medical anthropologist and that is that whenever a cultural exchange of food, and spice, and flavors takes place and includes planting and harvesting methods as well, there's always been this sort of giant leap forward in our civilizations from the opening of the spice trade route from Asia across North Africa of course over Europe from pan-Pacific travel back and forth even early in South America. You know, there has been all sorts of investigations on why do we take this sort of big giant leap forward in civilized life whenever we exchange food, spice, and flavors? And that's where we're studying this neurobiological effect right now that actually the stimulation on the tongue relates directly to the brain and with every explosion of every punctuated kind of growth like this of sharing food across the world there's been greater cooperation, greater understanding, so you are truly when I say an international food ambassador, I mean it with great respect for the way you have brought people together. 

Chef Yan: Yeah, great I'd like to comment a little bit more on that. For instance, for centuries you know we talk about food, every time when a new food the new cuisine introduces a new spice it bring up a lot of social, economical, and cultural not upheaval but, excitement. Throughout the years you know that the Chinese have the noodle, and then the Italian have the pasta right. So nowadays, everybody have all kind of you to you go to Japan they have ramen okay. The Chinese, Italian have been fighting over the origin of pasta. Well, let us settle it in the kitchen. Cooking Chinese noodle is like enough in a pasta sauce, now using angel hair pasta, right? So all of this is cultural exchange, when cultural exchange people exchange people learn from each other and we become a better world and a better economy, politically, economically in terms of exchange. So like I said, have fun with it and then you never get bored when you use different ingredients. 

Meg: Well, I love that, thank you. You really have a very deep in your bones understanding of this, you know? This is who you are, this is from your upbringing in China, your mom's restaurant, whatever you were doing her kitchen, your family, to all the international exchanges and extraordinary shows that you've done on PBS and elsewhere, where you traveled it was just exciting to watch and to understand how this uplifts our spirit and makes us connect with each other. 

Chef Yan: You know I've been very fortunate like you, you know we travel around the world, I normally pre-pandemic I actually travel about 250 days a year worldwide. We travel from Europe to Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Northern Europe and then all over Asia, all over China, Australia, everywhere. The only place I've never visited is Russia and also South America or South Africa. But I have traveled all over, I work with all kinds of people, home cooks and some of the home cook you used to be surprised some of the home cooks are so good and then they produce dishes they've been just like you go to Malaysia, you go to Vietnam, you go to Singapore, and people, elderly people have been cooking the same dish, the same single dish, for 60 years, 70 years and they sell it on the street, and then I guarantee you that's the best dish you have ever tasted. 

Meg: It's some of the best street food I've ever had. 

Chef Yan: Yeah, street food, that's it. 

Meg: And it's interesting too, to see how every place that I've gone including Russia and Kiev has its favorite fermented food, you know which we know is so good for the healthy gut as well. [Chef Yan: Oh yeah] Foods whether it's pickles, or sauerkraut, or tempeh, you know you have an appreciation for those too. 

Chef Yan: Well, talking about fermented food. You know, soy sauce is fermented, fish sauce is fermented, miso is fermented, kimchi fermented. I was just recently did a show called Martin Yan’s Cook Korean Food and I was so amazed. In every single village, every single restaurant that I visit, the chef and the homemade, home cooked in all the villages they actually make their own kimchi, they make their own soy sauce, and own chili sauce, they grow the chili, they harvest the chili, they make their own pickled chili and then they also pickle a lot of things. Kimchi is not just pickled vegetable, pickle meat, pickle seafood, pickled fish, just like sauerkraut and just like anchovy a lot of these are pickled. A lot of them are because of preservation in old days there's no refrigerator and there's no refrigeration so you got to preserve your food. So pickling, fermentation, drying, and oiling it, and salting it become a preservative technique that you can preserve the food you can survive the entire winter. 

Meg: Got a beautiful understanding of traditional foods and traditional food preparation, and I think now we're all kind of itching to see you prepare a little something. So end this section of talking together and move into a cooking portion. 

Chef Yan: The kitchen, now this is my home kitchen and I've been cooking and sharing my love of food, my passion of food to thousands and millions of people around the world and today I want to show you a few things. We're doing something, healthy okay. I have a few dish that I'm going to show and tell that I have prepared but I want to show you a dish that you will find in many Chinese restaurants, particularly Cantonese restaurants, soup for the day. 

Here I'm going to show you these ingredients this is very popular, you go to a lot of Chinese restaurant you see this. You have a whole chicken, black skin chicken, silken chicken. The feather is silken white, and the skin is dark okay it's called dark skinned chicken very, very popular. And then I use, instead of doing that I use big drumstick, I use big drumstick okay. And then here is mountain yam this is mountain yam; I slice it, and this is the dry mountain yam, and this is the fresh mountain yam from here okay. This is very popular in Korea, in Japan, and in China so I have this ingredient. I also have goji berry this, is really, really good and this is really one of the most popular in fact you go to supermarket you can actually buy goji berry as a snack and you can actually eat goji berry as a snack nice and sweet, very healthy it's good for your eye too. Now of course, this is ginseng, fresh ginseng from Wisconsin, and this is the dry ginseng also from Wisconsin, and then you can buy wild Wisconsin ginseng or farmed Wisconsin ginseng. The wild ginseng cost about maybe about five to ten times more than the regular farm ginseng and then we I also have some ginkgo nut, now you go to Korea, Japan and different part of China they have gingko nut trees gingko nut trees. These are gingko nut, this is and they actually in Japan you can buy gingko nut pill. This is also very good we have ginger; ginger is very good for your throat and you have irritation, and you have infection, and this is good also good for your flu, and then of course shiitake mushroom.  

So, what I'm going to do is I water blanch this so this way it will be nice clear soup I water blanch this and I put all the rest of the stuff into this container right here. I have one chicken breast, a chicken you can use chicken breast, you can use chicken thigh, but the broth is very clear not much fat because I poach the chicken and get rid of some of that rendering some of the fat then I put some of the stuff in I put ginseng okay and I put fresh and dry ginseng. Why I put both? Because the fresh one after that you can eat it it's nice and sweet and crunchy. The dry one is basically for flavor and then I have a couple pieces of ginger. Now I have a couple pieces of shiitake mushroom, now this is a dry shiitake mushroom I'm going to show you very it adds flavor to our broth to give them more dimension like the umami okay. And then I have goji berry right here goji berry and put the tiny bit tiny bit of this here and then I also have a tiny bit of ginkgo nut I put the ginkgo nut right here gingko nut and then mountain yam this is the mountain yam. I peel it and I slice it and this is really, really white this is the dry mountain yam I also put this and for a lot of the Chinese herbal tonic they use a lot of these they use the dry one if you buy the fresh one it's perfect and then after that I will put this and I turn this on I'll turn this on look at I put everything here already. I want to show you, you can see all of these can you see that yeah beautiful very good and then I put this over here and then I turned it on, and I steam it. I let it steam now this is called double boil, that means this is also slow cooking because everything is cooked by the steam, the steam is at the most 212 degrees okay and that's the reason why we do this.  

When this is done, I'm going to let it make the second dish and let it cook, and the second dish is look at this, this is our second dish, but before I do the second dish, this is vegetarian stir-fry. Earlier we talked about a lot of people are talking about plant-based protein, which is also healthy, but you got to have a variety of plants, a lot of variety of vegetables to give you a balanced diet okay. Now this is a tonic soup, and we drink this you go to a lot of Chinese restaurants particularly Cantonese you can order this sometimes they can go anywhere from ten dollars a serving to about a hundred dollars US a serving, depends on what kind of ingredient they put whether you put a wild ginseng or whatever. Now we're talking about the tonic, you know in this package here the package the package here you go to the store you can buy packages like this okay package like this this uh combination of Chinese herbs, soup all these herbs for soup of the day. Now look at let me let me show you some of these here I'm going to show you this. Look at this in this particular one you got red date, you got tangerine peel, you got figs, you got ginseng, and you got this wonderful we call adenophora, and then the long end, this is the dragon eye. And all of these are most common herbs that they use in a variety of tonic soup and herbal soups okay, so these are the most common.  

Now come to the second one, look at this look at this this is look at all these just like you go to Chinatown you remember when you go to Chinatown there's a Chinese herbal shops right, the herbs up they have a lot of cabinet just like you go to a, it's like you go to a pharmacy they have all the medicine cabinet and you go to Korea you go to Korea you remember you go to Korea and Japan they have that too. A lot of and then this, let me let me quickly go through this now this is figs, dry figs okay. And this is almond, and this is almond okay look at almond, and this is soybeans okay and this soybean, and this is ginger slices ginger slices okay, and this is the mountain yam again and this is the lily bud, the dry lily bulb okay, and this is what they call polygonatum. 

Meg: Looks like a bark. 

Chef Yan: Yeah. And a little leaf okay the leaf fruit slice it thin. So, this is another combination and then now let's come to this one okay. 

Meg: Seeing these I've never seen them all like this. 

Chef Yan: Yeah, yeah you've never seen them. The Chinese herbal store is store just like a museum of a plant a planetarium a museum of dry fruit. Now everybody know that actually modern mass medicine is all derived from traditional medicine and they by trial and error for thousands of years in different parts of the world and then people try different herbal remedies and then they found oh this, this is good for this, this is good for that it's about trial and error. Now look at this we started out with this, this is called codonopsis. 

Meg: We're gonna trust you on that. 

Chef Yan: And this is the dong sum right here you go can you see that okay, and this is right buckeye look at this, this is dry, and this is dragon fruit, maybe this dry dragon eye, and this is don gua, this is angelica, and this is licorice okay, and this is atractylodes okay. Bai Zhu, in Chinese it’s called bai zhu, okay. And this is white peony, and then this is fu ling, wow look at this, and this is fu ling, and then and this is poria, poria black.  

So, all of these, look at that all these are wonderful herbs, thousands and thousands of them when they put it together, this is how they do it they put it together, and put in a pot and double boil them for about two to four hours and then you drink the liquid - that is a tonic. That's a healthy tonic because all the goodies slowly, slowly seep into your tonic, your soup, then you drink them to replenish okay. And it's a cleanse and they replenish. Now these are some of this is another one that I drink regularly um in the winter. It get rid of your damp element in your body and you know what this is right? This is the lotus blossom. 

Meg: Wow!  

Chef Yan: And this is barley, this is the raw barley. This is the pop, cook, prepare, pop barley. And this black-eyed pea, this is goji berry. I have been drinking this every week for the last four months and I feel good yeah. It cleansed it cleanse me it cleanse my whole body it gets really the damp particularly in the winter and it's a little foggy where I live is a little foggy and it's really damp and misty so this is to get rid of my dampness in my body so that's the reason why. So, these are the a few of the things that I choose out of maybe about five thousand different herbs and spices they identify Shen Nung, the Chinese herbal bible of the Chinese herbal medicine, and these are just some of the common ones.  

Now this is what we're gonna have, I want to show you I want you to take a look at, after your double boil it for approximately two hours or three hours look at how beautiful look at that look at how beautiful. I'm going to show you to take this out, this is a gadget you should have this is a robotic gadget you put this over here and you put this over here and you lift this up like this look at that. Isn’t that amazing? Then I'm going to let it continue to cook at the back, so we don't have to waste this this is really good. Now I want to show you, I'm going to do a stir fry dish okay with this. Now look at this let's go through the ingredients now these are all healthy and you do not have to have protein, meat to come up with all the wonderful, wonderful nutrients a balanced nutrient. Here I have oyster mushroom, little baby mushroom.  

Meg: Beautiful. Everything looks so beautiful.  

Chef Yan: We have shiitake mushroom, squash, and then we have green onion. We have celery, we have red pepper, we have gingko nut. Well, this is cloud ear. This is black fungus. Cloud ear. But here! Yeah, this is what gives you the calcium as well as plant protein. A lot of vegetable protein right here. This is pressed spicy tofu. I want to show you… 

Meg: Where are we going to find all these things? 

Chef Yan: You can buy them in any Asian store, any Asian store. We're lucky to live in America, and everywhere you go, there is always an Asian store. The Asian store carry all of these. The good thing about this is they are vacuum pack, you put in the fridge, it lasts for months. You put in a freezer it lasts for years. Okay because it's already well seasoned already pressed on a lot of things. Now look at this I'm going to show you when you cut it looks like this. It looks like this. Okay, look at this it looks like this and I cut it at an angle, I cut it in half first and I cut it one, two, three, and four. Now look at this. This is loaded with protein. Plant protein. I'm going to show you how quickly it is too. 

Meg: Good. What kind of oil?  

Chef Yan: First, I heat this up and I use... now this is something I want to show you, I use not the ordinary oil. I use the oil can withstand high temperature without smoking. Most oil smoke around 370-degree, 380-degree max but this one, this is 485 degrees Fahrenheit before it smoke. Is called the camellia tea seed oil, it's a tea seed oil. The camellia flower. Tea seed oil. And then this, the great thing about this is I'm gonna use this, okay, the great thing about this is it is natural organic, is extracted virgin extraction. In people... in southern China and people in Taiwan they know how good it is. Sometimes you can even put this in your face as a lotion and it's amazing. Okay it is it's wonderful it's loaded with vitamin A and also antioxidant a lot of antioxidant there's also a wonderful zero cholesterol. 

Meg: That’s important  

Chef Yan: Yeah, very important. Now I have garlic. I want to show you how easy the minced garlic, I have a piece of garlic here and a piece of ginger here and a couple of pieces of ginger, a couple pieces of garlic. I want to show everybody how easy it is to mince garlic. [loud slapping sound] Already minced.  

Meg: [gasps] Easy with that! 

Chef Yan: That's how I do it. And then this is ginger mince. [slapping sound] Now you do not believe that actually minced right? Look at that – I actually have minced it. Look at that, see that's how you do it. Garlic and ginger, why I use ginger, why I use garlic. Garlic and ginger is widely used as a not only as a flavoring but also it has medicinal benefit. Ginger particularly. You go to Indonesia, you go to Vietnam, you go to Japan, you go to China; when you get a soft roll, when you have a little food... hey ginger tea okay and I have garlic and ginger here to give the flavor because I want to have something really healthy. Okay, and then when this is done, I will stir this.  

Meg: So you're actually cooking it?  
 

Chef Yan: First of all, I turn this on, and it's hot. I use high temperature. I never overcook the vegetable, but it's not smoking, that's why I use the healthy oil. The oil you use only about a couple teaspoons anyway so don't one little bottle will last you for a long, long time. But anyway when this is nice and fragrant, you put all the ingredients in. Common sense, things that take longer to cook, you put it in first what takes it longer to cook. We're gonna squash and mushroom, celery, squash, and mushroom. Okay celery you put it in first. I forget to tell you I even have this is the soybean sprout. This is very healthy. You go to a Korean restaurant, kimchi... they always give you the little appetizer. Okay, and then all of this I put it in okay separately and then I want to show you how amazing this is. Oh, look at this. I put a tiny bit of broth or water. I'm going to get a tiny bit of water and a tiny bit of water and this is my broth. I put a tiny bit of broth and put it right here. [sizzling sounds] Ah look at that, this is beautiful and then let it steam. Now this is the best way to do things, okay? 

I want to show everybody how easy it is to remove. Some of the people have watched me around the world and I want to show you how easy it is to remove the seed from the bell pepper. Look at that, you see-saw you see-saw this right? You see-saw, see-saw, see-saw, is all done. [Meg laughs] Okay, look at that, very simple, look at that and then after that you can actually cut it up and go - how fast is it? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and one, two, three, four, five, and then this way you can have some additional bell pepper to give that nice color contrast in your dish and that's how amazing this is.  

Now let me show you it doesn't take too long to cook and talking about vegetarian a lot of people don't realize that we can actually find gorgeous mushroom oyster flavor sauce, okay? It's from mushroom, made from mushroom. We put it... this is vegetarian all I need is about two teaspoons and then a tiny, tiny bit of... oh, perfect. You see that? Look how beautiful, you can buy them in all the supermarkets.  

Meg: All right, we'll look for that.  

Chef Yan: Yeah! And then now if you want to... now you are anthropology, you are the culinary apology and this... with earlier we talk about fermented... this is fermented soybean curd, fermented tofu right here. And this is a spicy fermented tofu right here and this would add flavor so if you open it up and put a tiny bit of these... look at that... put a tiny bit of these into it, so your dish will have a totally different dimension of flavor. So, I put a tiny bit of this, a little bit of these... look at that, this is a fermented bean curd. All I need is a tiny bit. [sizzling sounds] I don't want to overdo it okay because I want the vegetable, the flavor, the color of the vegetable. All come up and right before I do it, I put a few dashes of sesame seed oil. [sizzling sounds] That's a few dashes, look at that sesame seed oil and that's it. That's very... you want it... look it's very... look at how colorful this is. If you want something hot and spicy, hey, look at that! I want to show you, I want to show you how amazing this is when it's done. Okay, and it doesn't take too long to cook at all and that's the beauty.  

Meg: No… you've only been cooking in about five, seven minutes or so.  
 
Chef Yan: Yeah, yeah - that's the reason why... that's the reason why the great thing about this is you can actually cook the dish. All the stir-fried dishes is in the preparation. Once prepared, the actual cooking time is three to four and a half minutes and because of that I want to show you… right here nothing is overcooked and everything is in the original color, the original shape. Look how beautiful, look at that. Now our friends from all over the US and all over the world. This is a vegetarian dish for you, okay, and that's amazing right, so in a true sense I think this is done. I'm going to take it out too, I'm going to continue to let it cook a little bit and then people always ask me, “Martin this is amazing!” Look at all these dishes and we'll let this... let this steam [Meg: Mouthwatering!] and then I want to remind everybody to save money and to really enjoy cooking.  

As I mentioned earlier, you have a good stir-fry pan or wok, okay, this is non-stick so when you want to cook healthy you use less oil. So the way to do it, use a well-seasoned wok or a non-stick frying pan or non-stick wok. Secondly, use high temperature in short time. When you do stir-fry it's very fast, so you don't overcook them. Look at this and look how beautiful this is. Look as it cools up and the steam is very steamy, look at that it's amazing, huh? And high temperatures, of course, if you want you can do it like the restaurant to touch up a little bit. Why? I'm still steaming this, look at how beautiful this is. Look at that. 

Meg: The colors are gorgeous in it, and they're firm so nothing is mushy right?  

Chef Yan: Nothing is overcooked, nothing is mushy, and it is so beautiful and that's the reason why you know cuisine brings all of us together. We learn from each other and I also want to show everybody from around the US how you can save money by boning your chicken. I want to show you how important it is we have a perfect sharp knife in your kitchen. As your good friend now, here I have... show you this is the one that I use, this is the one that I use, okay? And they come with this little box like this okay? I want to show you a sharp knife. Is a safe knife. I want to show you how sharp this knife is. This is paper towel, two pieces of paper towel. Okay there's two pieces so one here and up two pieces okay [chopping sound] and then from two pieces you fold it. It's four and then it's eight and that is 16. I want to show you when you have a sharp knife, one cut [chopping and clattering sounds] sharp knife no?  

Meg: Oh…that’s sharp… 
 

Chef Yan: When you have a sharp knife, it is a safe knife because you don't force yourself. Now the true test of a good sharp knife is use newspaper. You slice it, but this is even more a true test. Paper towel very soft, very hard to handle. I'm gonna show you how fast this is. One! [chopping sound] Look at this, incredible yes?  

Meg: Incredible, yes. That was my daughter’s complaint was she’s come to my house and I had dull knives. 

Chef Yan: [laughing] I will send you one as a gift don't worry. Now let me show you, let me show you the difference one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight. Now you are anthropology… anthropologist and you know that in different cultures different belief, different taboos, different traditions, different heritage and then in Asia number eight is a good luck number. Number eight is like... number four is a bad luck number. One number, nine number, eight is good that number. Now when I cut it like that, let me show you when you have a sharp knife this is what you have. Eight pieces look at that, isn't that amazing? Nice clean cut. Chinese paper cutting. When you travel to China, in different parts of China they actually have paper cutting artists. To use a scissor to cut, I use my knife to do it, now I want to show everybody why I'm doing this.  

Meg: I don't think I've ever deboned a chicken.  

Chef Yan: I'm going to get it. I'm going to show you now look at this, this is done. I am removing this and then I have this tool. [clattering sounds] Take it out, beautiful, ah… amazing. Be careful, okay. [Meg: yeah] The most important thing is a potholder. Let's get a potholder just to play safe. I hold on to this like that and I put this right over here. Ah… look at that. This is what we have done, and this is the dish that we will show you earlier and this is the stir-fried dish and then I have another dish show-and-tell.  
 
This is pan-seared halibut over soba noodle. Look at that soba noodle. Very, very clean taste, And then I have another dish, and this is amazing, and this is another wonderful thing. Look at that, this is steamed chicken. Steamed chicken with shiitake mushroom and a garlic flavor sauce and this is edible flower… pea, from the pea shoot in my garden. I have all these from my garden, and this is also grown in my garden, look at that, and then I have another dish for you.  

Look at that, look at all the things that I show you. This is a dish that everybody can make around the country around the world. I use fuji apple, carrot, and chicken. I want to show you we have chicken; we have a spoon so you can scoop it out. I have apple, fuji apple, I have carrot, I have chicken. Look at that and this soup is so healthy and so wonderful and so nourishing and so powerful. The whole family is gonna love it so now I'm going to show. You talk about all the things that we have been talking about. I'm going to show you how to bone a chicken in 18 seconds.  

Meg: You show me, I'll stop buying those pre-roasted…  

Chef Yan: I want the people who have never seen, seen it before please pay attention because I only have one chicken. [both laugh] Okay, and then I want to show everybody here is a chicken, okay? And this happened to be a free-range chicken. Cost me a little bit more but everybody know why I should do this. The reason is when you go out to buy a chicken breast, a chicken thigh, already cut up you pay a lot more money. The chicken breast will cost you $4.95 to $6.95 a pound, depends on where you are. Kosher $6.95 okay? Depends on where you buy it okay? Which city, and where, and what a supermarket… but you can actually bone your chicken very simply and then you use different parts of the chicken to do different things and use the carcass to make my soup stop and that's how I do it okay? Now let me show you once again how you should properly hold on to the shaft of the knife here. It's not that I have this time, full tank, this is full tank right here. Triple rivet, very durable... when you... and also there's a perfect contour here. You see the contour because my finger is here, so it does not hurt because the curve. Most of the Chinese chef knife do not have this curve okay, and then when you hold the knife always hold the knife like this. Index thumb, and three finger here, perfect. See right here, push it yeah. Hold on to it, perfect contour yeah okay perfect contour of your knife and not only that, you hold on to it properly with firm grip.  

Now I want to show everybody how wonderful it is. Not only you save money it's actually a lot of fun. You can make use when you go out to buy a chicken cut up they still charge you for the chicken carcass because they have to cut up the chicken that's the reason why you have to pay more, okay? Not only that, it costs them probably… the butcher probably makes about 60 dollars an hour okay? So now look at this, I can do it in 18 seconds but I will slow down a little bit so you can see what I'm doing okay? Agree...agree? if I go too fast – boom – done! 

Meg: I don’t know…you're pretty funny, you're probably going to do it faster.  

Chef Yan: This is the wishbone; this is the breastbone. I would have one cut on one side of the breastbone, another cut on the other side of the breastbone. I'll turn it upside down immediately and I turn it up and one cut along the back all the way so I basically cut up the chicken in half in terms of the skin I cut them in half so then I hold on to this and I disjoin this and I hold it and I disjoin this and I pull it off. Now I'm ready, okay.  

Meg: Ready, goodbye chicken.  

Chef Yan: You count... you count three, two, one, okay? 

Meg: Three, two, one. 

Chef Yan: Okay. One cut, another cut oh no one other cut hold on... this whole chicken breast comes out like that chicken breast comes out and hold on to this and then you look at it and that chicken thigh comes out like that and then this is the last piece of the tender on right here. You push it and you cut it like that and then you turn it to the other side. You disjoin this and you push it like that and then you're holding this and you push it like that and then the last piece of the tender comes out like this and this is the last piece of tender and this is the chicken carcass. Look at that. 

Meg: Amazing, amazing, amazing!  
 
Chef Yan: And then I want to show you, I want to show all the people from around the country, around the world how easy it is to do it now. Here if you buy this in a supermarket, just this piece alone yeah $4.95 a pound. You buy the whole chicken $1.34, $1.54 a pound, okay? I will show you how easy it is to remove this chicken breast. You hold to your knife properly use the tip of your knife the whole thing comes out, fantastic, look at that $4.95 okay. And then I want to show everybody how easy it is to actually make a drum stick you can make a drumstick out of these, okay? [clattering sounds] Yeah, we drumstick out of these, look at this, amazing, and then you can also make a drumstick out of these. Let me show you here, yeah, this is the chicken wing I want to show you. I have one cut right next to the joint, one little cut right here and then I pushed this, that I push this and the whole thing comes out and both bone comes out. Look at that, you get another. This is the smaller piece of bone I remove it like that and then I remove the wing tip, okay? The wing tip I put it in my broth and then you know, what? I have a drumstick.  

Meg: I've seen them. I wondered how they made them!  

Chef Yan: Look at them yeah and then you can save a whole bunch of drumsticks. So normally when I buy my chicken, I'll buy three or four chicken so I have a whole bunch of these six or eight of these, then I can use it for different and then I use this for lemon chicken and I use this, cut up this to make Kung Pao Chicken or General Tso’s Chicken and I use this for stock pot so right so each one chicken you can save it for all kind of dishes and that's the beauty of doing things now of course… 

Meg: That was fantastic.  

Chef Yan: Chinese New Year is coming February the 12th, right? February 12th. February 12, the Chinese New Year, the Chinese celebrate New Year with a lot of food and I want to make sure everybody eat healthy and cook healthy and eat healthy. That's the whole event we're talking about, the whole meeting the whole seminar. Today is about eating healthy and trace your route and appreciating others culture and cuisine and be amazing. Be amazing is to the opportunity to get to know more people, to make new friends, okay? So, I want to make sure all of you get opportunity... oh another thing that I want to tell you, every morning I would drink this. I would have pistachio nut with avocado.  
 
Meg: Avocado pistachio nut and a smoothie it looks like. 

Chef Yan: This and banana smoothie okay and a lot of people. Everything I do is about health. Now people ask a lot of people don't eat pistachio nut like this they just eat it as a snack, but this is the way to go besides stir-fry I also crush it and put it in my Kung Pao Chicken. And this is a very high level of wonderful unsaturated fatty acid and put a potassium very high in potassium. The great thing about this is they can also supposedly lower your chance of cardiovascular disease and cutting down and also bursting with wonderful fibers, minerals, and unsaturated fat. So, use this is good to keep the cholesterol and your blood sugar in check.  
 
Meg: That's how you start your day.  
 
Chef Yan: I drink this every day – healthy, okay. Now here is a pomelo. A pomelo and when you cut the pomelo you cut it up like this, okay one, and, two, and three and you just hold open it up like this and you push it down, push it down, push it down, push it down, push it down.  

Meg: It's like a grapefruit. 

Chef Yan: Yeah, it's grapefruit. Chinese grapefruit. It's great – pomelo. You hold on to this and you're gonna... and then this pomelo when you open it up it looks beautiful like that. Look at that. This is pomelo, one of my favorite foods. Pomelo. 

Meg: Really nice, loaded with vitamins.  

Chef Yan: Yeah, wonderful vitamin C all kind of, and then you know what we do, we will dry this up. We'll dry this up, and after you dry this up, you peel this a little bit. The rind okay, you peel this after you dried it up and I put this into casserole dish smells so good. It smells really good. One of these pomelo, let me show the honorable pomelo, the pomelo you put in your kitchen. You put the pomelo in the kitchen it is so aromatic. Better than those sprays pomelo you put it in your kitchen right here the whole kitchen smell wonderful. 

Meg: It's a great fruit.  

Chef Yan: And they last for a long time! I have this for almost four weeks already because they're so thick. Look at how thick the skin is. When the skin is so thick, they don't dry it up at all so that's the reason why they're so wonderful. Pomelo is often, because Chinese New Year, pomelo is often available and often used in for this play for giving out as a gift because pomelo in Chinese more like means abundance and then abundant surprise so it's with this you give it to your friend to symbolize abundant surprise of good luck, good fortune, happiness.  

And then this is another one that I grow in my backyard. Look at that. This is citrus. This is basically a citrus and smells really good. Look at that how beautiful the thing… 

Meg: It looks like a sea anemone.  

Chef Yan: Yeah, it is called Buddha's hand. Buddha's hand it's very popular in Thailand and Vietnam use it for display. It's really good so all of these are not only each served as a vegetable, as a fruit but has a lot of health benefits. Vitamin C is loaded with vitamins all kinds of stuff, so I'd like to take this opportunity also tell you when people celebrate Chinese New Year the first day, they always serve a vegetarian dish so now you know that I have this. I have all of these, the whole meal so this is time for dinner.  

Meg: [laughs] Really. 

Chef Yan: I am truly honored and privileged today to share my love and my passion of food and my travel and all the wonderful things that…about herbs, about health with you locally, nationally, and internationally. It's truly an honor I hope we'll meet again when I travel around the world and just remember, if Yan can cook so can you.  

Meg: You know, I think that you have shared some of the most incredible ancient wisdom that's honed through centuries of Chinese wisdom about foods, and food is medicine. Food is preventive medicine for long-lasting lives, so thank you so much Chef Yan, and it’s just a pleasure seeing you in action again. I love that part. 

Chef Yan: I'm so glad we share the same stage and to spread the good word. The good word about Yin and Yang, about balance, about you know people say, “oh junior pandemic children please I am bored I don't know what to do.” Find something to do. Keep yourself occupied and enjoy things that you normally don't have the time to do. When I used to travel so much now, I work in my garden, I have a vegetable garden. I have a herb garden because of that it gives me the opportunity to continue to enjoy life and all you have to do is for more recipe visit yancancook.com and then also go to Facebook and the Instagram. Go to Facebook and Instagram YanCanCook.  
 
Meg: We're so happy to have you, thank you so much for your generous time you've shared here with CIIS and with all of our audience. They're going to be watching for years to come I believe.  

Chef Yan: We all are together, and we all share the wonderful things about different culture, and then this is amazing place to live and I believe we all appreciate being in America and God bless America.  

Meg: What a positive message for right now when people need it more than ever. Thank you, Chef.  

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Thank you for listening to the CIIS Public Programs Podcast. Our talks and conversations are presented live in San Francisco, California. We recognize that our university’s building in San Francisco occupies traditional, unceded Ramaytush Ohlone lands. If you are interested in learning more about native lands, languages, and territories, the website native-land.ca is a helpful resource for you to learn about and acknowledge the Indigenous land where you live. 
 
Podcast production is supervised by Kirstin Van Cleef at CIIS Public Programs. Audio production is supervised by Lyle Barrere at Desired Effect. The CIIS Public Programs team includes Kyle DeMedio, Alex Elliott, Emlyn Guiney, Jason McArthur, and Patty Pforte. If you liked what you heard, please subscribe wherever you find podcasts, visit our website ciis.edu, and connect with us on social media @ciispubprograms. 
 
CIIS Public Programs commits to use our in-person and online platforms to uplift the stories and teachings of Black, Indigenous, and other people of color; those in the LGBTQIA+ community; and all those whose lives emerge from the intersections of multiple identities.  
 
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