Meet the woman behind A-Pou's Taste, the famous Taiwanese pot sticker food truck and restaurant in NYC. Yeh Chi Yao named her business after the Taiwanese word "a pou," meaning "old lady," sharing her belief that more life experience makes for better, tastier food. Since introducing Taiwanese street food to the scene 15 years ago, A-Pou's Taste hasn't slowed down, producing over 1,000 pot stickers every day.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00 (baby crying)
00:02 (speaking in foreign language)
00:06 - This is the beef noodle soup.
00:22 This is the beef pastikers.
00:25 (speaking in foreign language)
00:28 (speaking in foreign language)
00:35 (dramatic music)
00:54 - I'm waiting for customer coming.
00:57 Normally they come in like 5.45 to 6 o'clock.
01:00 Every customer coming, I know 99% of the customer.
01:05 (speaking in foreign language)
01:12 (speaking in foreign language)
01:16 I'm the only one who provide the facility for them to go.
01:33 This gentleman, the Chinese, he's a plumber.
01:37 Every day before he go to Long Island City,
01:40 he will come in to grab some light lunch
01:43 and then go to work.
01:45 When I come to this country in 1981,
01:49 I walk around the midtown.
01:52 At that moment, all you see only hot dog,
01:57 pizza, peanuts, these three.
02:00 I said, "Gee, it's very boring."
02:02 So I said, "One day if I got chance,
02:05 "I gonna show you how the street food in Taiwan
02:10 "is like."
02:11 This is the original that I start the business.
02:14 I sell in the pasticle, the dumpling.
02:18 So when you see this truck in Manhattan,
02:20 don't forget to say hello.
02:22 I start the business with the pasticles.
02:26 I stay the same standard like 15 years ago.
02:30 I grow my own pork.
02:34 You want about 30% of the fat
02:39 and not 70% of the meat.
02:41 My father helping me, he's my first hand
02:46 and the left hand and right hand.
02:47 Okay, he's everywhere.
02:49 1980 something, this lucky guy or unlucky guy,
02:54 (laughs)
02:55 he come to apply it.
02:57 After I found him, he's a very nice, honest people.
03:01 So he's the one who running in and out, in and out.
03:06 - How would you describe her?
03:09 (laughs)
03:11 - He tell you later, don't tell her in front of me.
03:15 - Long, long story.
03:17 I work with her more than 20 years we are together.
03:21 - This is pork jelly.
03:23 It's from the pork skin.
03:25 You wanna make the dumpling more rich and more juicy.
03:29 If you eat a lot of this jelly,
03:32 your skin will be beautiful.
03:34 Less wrinkle.
03:35 (laughs)
03:37 This is the old traditional way to cook it.
03:40 This is choy.
03:43 Choy.
03:44 Choy.
03:45 Choy.
03:45 Okay, I call this Chinese Viagra.
03:47 (laughs)
03:49 It got a lot of good vitamin in there.
03:53 So the cabbage, we gonna grind it.
04:01 We cut it into small pieces.
04:03 Do you believe I bought this machine all the way from Taiwan?
04:09 (laughs)
04:11 Just put into the box and put into my luggage
04:15 and bring it here.
04:16 You see, you make it, grind it into small pieces.
04:22 One more machine need to come out.
04:26 Spinning machine.
04:28 Like when you washing the clothes.
04:29 She's shaking.
04:32 (laughs)
04:34 Now you gonna suck out all the water from the cabbage.
04:40 This is the herb, all kinds of herb, the spice oil.
04:45 When we process the pork, it got a lot of grease.
04:52 And some of the spice, it take away the grease.
04:56 I need four hours to cook.
04:58 So most of the Sunday I'm here, I do the pork jelly.
05:03 I do those because when I process this type of stuff,
05:08 I don't want anybody to bothers me.
05:10 That's what I spend time here.
05:12 (laughs)
05:13 Lots of work.
05:14 The street car, I only sell the dumpling.
05:21 I've been selling that for eight years straight
05:24 before I open the restaurant.
05:27 I have to consistently set up the format.
05:32 Everything maintain the same.
05:33 It's researcher.
05:35 Everybody know if you wanna go eat pastik
05:38 and go to Apple, the food cart.
05:40 (upbeat music)
05:43 (speaking in foreign language)
05:47 (speaking in foreign language)
05:51 (speaking in foreign language)
05:55 (speaking in foreign language)
05:59 (speaking in foreign language)
06:27 (speaking in foreign language)
06:56 This is antique.
06:57 Antique leather.
06:59 The more you wear, the more shiny it gets.
07:04 This is my winter uniform.
07:07 (laughs)
07:08 Every winter I wear it.
07:10 Before I was a fashion industry,
07:20 whatever lady accessory, you name it, I make it.
07:23 I read the advertisement, they said,
07:25 "Food cart for sale."
07:27 (laughs)
07:28 That car is owned by a Chinese young gentleman.
07:33 He said, "Can you really handle it?"
07:36 I said, "You don't know my power, so don't judge me."
07:40 Until now, he still come to see me, visit me.
07:45 He call me big sister.
07:47 We gonna cook the one you make this morning.
07:50 You wanna put the oil slightly touch,
07:55 not a lot, okay?
07:56 I had the best location in 72nd and Broadway,
08:01 right in front of the Trader Joe's.
08:03 But when the city, they changing the regulation,
08:07 they move the bus stop two feet near to my food cart,
08:11 then I have to force to move.
08:14 Every time when I go somewhere,
08:17 whole bunch of people, they come to fight.
08:21 This is the ugly part of the street food.
08:25 Plus, I'm getting too young (laughs)
08:32 to push the cart.
08:33 You know the food cart, it's about 5,000 pound.
08:37 Every morning, I have to transfer
08:39 three food cart to the street.
08:40 Okay, let's go taste the food that you make this morning.
08:45 This is the top seller, the pork.
08:49 Okay, please sit in.
08:51 (laughs)
08:51 (slurps)
08:52 (upbeat music)
09:16 Everybody have their own character.
09:19 Five finger, one short, one long, one tall, one short.
09:24 You have to try to work together.
09:26 When we go home, we just sleep.
09:28 Then this morning, we are here already.
09:31 So, this is a family.
09:33 We make our own chili oil.
09:39 This is the chili, Sichuan chili.
09:42 When they start to grind this one,
09:43 everybody sneezing.
09:45 (laughs)
09:47 (upbeat music)
09:50 (speaking in foreign language)
10:18 Sichuan chili, yes.
10:20 Star anise, bay leaf, cinnamon, the spice.
10:24 Make your mouth numb, peppercorn.
10:27 This is the chow go.
10:28 You need to break it in order the fragrance comes out.
10:33 Smell it.
10:34 (speaking in foreign language)
10:45 (speaking in foreign language)
10:49 Hi, good morning, Crabby.
11:08 (speaking in foreign language)
11:11 Okay, get the cell set.
11:15 I just switch.
11:16 (speaking in foreign language)
11:22 Hi, Captain.
11:29 Hi, I'm the busy bird.
11:33 If I'm really tired, you know what I do?
11:36 I sit here, I meditate.
11:39 I sit down, I calm down, close my eyes,
11:43 and then for five minutes, the energy come back.
11:46 Try, okay?
11:48 You don't put the negative energy on your mind,
11:52 on your heart.
11:53 You are not happy, go to eat something, drink something,
11:57 and then one coffee will make you,
11:59 "Hmm, energy come back."
12:01 They ask me, "How many more years you want to work?"
12:06 I said, "As long as God give me the energy,
12:11 "give me the ability, I will keep going."
12:14 Every day I'm happy, working happily.
12:19 (upbeat music)
12:21 (upbeat music)
12:24 [BLANK_AUDIO]