At Home with our Chinese Chef Lena Fung

Cindy: The ‘Fung’ family’s artistic endeavors aren’t limited to the kitchen. While we wait for the rice to steam, Lina’s husband offers a rare glimpse into China’s cultural history through their treasured art collection and her son’s demonstrate a favorite tradition. Female: Hi Cindy! Cindy: Yes. Female: Ill just want to introduce my husband to you. Cindy: Sure. Female: Hi Andy, this is Cindy. Cindy: Hi Andy, it’s nice to meet you. Welcome to the show. Andy: Nice to meet you. Welcome. Cindy: So, it looks like we have some very beautiful pieces here that we are going to be talking about. What if we try this one first, what do we have here? Andy: Yeah, this one is supposed to be— Cindy: Oh my goodness. Andy: I think this looks like a raging bull. Cindy: Wow, it’s really colorful! Andy: Yeah sure. Cindy: And what does this represent? Anything? Andy: I think it represent prosperity. Cindy: Prosperity. Andy: Yeah. Cindy: Okay. Andy: Yeah. Cindy: And what other pieces do we have here? Andy: Here, we have this golden fan, this is made of gold. Cindy: Oh my goodness, this is real gold? Andy: Yeah, layer of gold. Cindy: I’m not sure if I want to pick it up. Andy: Well yeah. Cindy: Wow, yeah it’s heavy actually. Andy: Yes. Cindy: That’s beautiful. I see a lot of fans every time I look at any kind of Chinese culture, do they represent anything in particular? Fans? Andy: Yeah, fans actually they are very practical piece of tool when you get hot and this is what you use. In ancient days, there’s no air conditioning. Cindy: So, everybody would have a fan and it would keep themselves cool. Andy: Yeah sure. Cindy: Very nice. Andy: Yes. Cindy: Now, this is very interesting here. What is this piece right here? Andy: This is actually I supposed symbolize it, it’s actually a last portion, portion of the Asian currency as a coin. Cindy: So, this is the actual size of an Asian coin. Andy: Exactly, about this times—about this big. Cindy: It’s about this size. Andy: This is enlarged one. Cindy: Not this one? Andy: No. Cindy: Because this would weigh your pocket down I guess. Andy: Well no, I don’t think you can carry too many of these. Cindy: Very nice. Andy: And guess what’s this made of? Cindy: What is this made of? Andy: Yeah. This is made of Chinese tea leaf, highly compressed, molded. Cindy: These are actually tea leaves. Andy: Yes. Cindy: I never would have known that. Andy: You can see, this is only part of it. Cindy: Oh yes. Andy: And we actually use it as—we pure it out little big and you put in the boiling water and make tea out of it. Cindy: So, you can actually make a cup of tea. Andy: Yeah. Cindy: Just by picking it off and sprinkling in water. That is absolutely amazing. How about this piece right here? Andy: This is another piece of article, used to make porcelain. Cindy: This is porcelain. Andy: And this is all probably hand painted. Cindy: Oh my goodness and it’s a lot of detail on his face too. Andy: It is, very detailed. Cindy: We have some different flowers. And is this a special kind of plant or flower in China? Andy: Supposed to be some kind of a lotus flower. Cindy: A lotus flower, very nice. And what kind of plant is this right here? Female: It’s a bamboo and in Chinese we believe bamboo bring a lot of lucks. Cindy: Very nice. Female: Now, the elephants like means they’re fortune. Cindy: This looks very interesting right here. Andy: Yeah, this one is a really unique key piece, this is of course are made of gold. Cindy: Made of gold. Andy: And it’s supposed to be a horse. Cindy: I see yes. Andy: Is he? Cindy: Yeah, he looks as he’s carrying a little flag. Andy: Yeah, he looks like a little bigger funny character— Cindy: Yeah, actually he does. Andy: But this symbolize one of our 12 animals like a— Cindy: In the zodiac. Andy: There is like a zodiac that we have 12 animals, every year it represent, each animal represent every year and it goes in a cycle for every 12 years. Cindy: Okay, so it looks like we have almost like a piece of a costume here and I think on the floor? Andy: Yeah. Cindy: What do we have there? Andy: This is a very interesting piece. We use that for toy that we used to celebrate Chinese New Year. Cindy: Okay. Andy: I believe this is called the lion. Cindy: Lion dance. Andy: And we use it for lion dancing purpose. Cindy: For lion dancing. Andy: As a public celebration of the Chinese New Year. Cindy: Okay. Well, I would love to see what these looks like, so why don’t we get your children Angus and Austin in here to model this. Angus, Austin, can we have you guys in here? We’d love to see you put on these costume. Female: Hi Austin! Angus: Hi, my name is Angus. Cindy: Hi Angus! This is Austin. Hi Austin! Welcome to the show. Andy: Actually put this on, this is how you do it. Angus, would you like to get ready? Cindy: Austin’s going to model them for us. They’re going to show us how to dance with the costume. Okay, won’t you bang around that drum there Angus. Very good! Female: We have a guest. Cindy: Sounds like your guests are here. Why don’t we go and greet them. Female: Yes sure. Let’s see who is here. Cindy: Yes. Female: Hi welcome! Those are our guests. Could you take off your shoes please? Cindy: Hello! Female: Hi! Cindy: Nice to meet you. Savanna: I'm 'Savanna’. Cindy: Hi Savanna. Savanna: This is for you. Female: Thank you. Cindy: That looks wonderful. Hi, how are you? Female: Good, hello! Cindy: Hi! Male: Hello! Cindy: Hi, how are you? Male: Good. Cindy: I’m Cindy. Male: Hi Cindy. Female: Okay, let’s go to the dining room. Cindy: Nice to meet you. Lina’s’ friends at the flavors of India to her Chinese table. The families have enjoyed each others cuisine's and company for years. Well right now, we’re here in Lina and Andy’s beautiful dining room and it looks like everything is set and it looks like you also brought something here for us. Lina: Hi, I've got vegetable—the Chinese noodles with carrots and the soy sauce. Cindy: How nice. Well, that will make a lovely edition to everything that we have here and Lina, I believe this is your mother. Lina: Yes, this is my mom. Cindy: Hi, it’s nice to meet you. I’m glad you could join us, so let’s talk about what we have here on the table. Lina: Sure. This is a couple of chicken and this is my rice I make from my rice cooker. Cindy: And this I believe is that vegetable fried rice? Lina This is a vegetable fried rice and my mom make that. Cindy: That’s very nice and what else do we have? Male: This is a salad with romaine lettuce, cucumber and carrots. Cindy: Very nice. How about the rest of the dishes down there? Male: This one is a called a soya beef. This is made of soy beans and this is also another vegetarian fillet fish. Cindy: So, it’s not actually beef. Male: Look a like beef but this actually is made of soy bean. Cindy: Wow! And how about the last dish? Lina: That’s eggplant made with the garlic sauce and soy sauce. Cindy: Wow, it looks— Lina: It’s also a vegetarian dish. Cindy: And this is also vegetarian, so I noticed you have some of the vegetarian dishes down here and the meat dishes. Lina: Right, because Savanna cannot because they are vegetarians. Cindy: Oh you're both vegetarians. Female: Yes. Andy: Yes. Cindy: And how long have you both been vegetarian? Andy: Yes, since born. Cindy: Since birth. Andy: Yeah. Cindy: So, no chance of you trying some meat today? Female: No. Andy: No. Cindy: If you can’t do that, not a problem. Well, it looks like we are ready to begin having this wonderful Chinese cuisine. I want everybody to stay with us, we’ll be right back.