Chef Tian Yong and his team at Bistro Na's in LA serve over 100 dishes on their menu. This popular restaurant specializes in making traditional Chinese aristocratic cuisine that was once only reserved for royalty. Its vast selection includes favorites like crispy shrimp and handmade noodles, as well as impressive dishes like its Peking duck (also known as Beijing duck), and king crab served in four ways: steamed, deep-fried, infused with steamed egg, and served on noodles.
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00:00The restaurant was founded in Beijing.
00:05It's very popular with the locals.
00:09It's our first restaurant in the U.S.
00:14We came to Los Angeles because there are a lot of Chinese people here.
00:22The way we do it is complicated.
00:27There are more than 100 dishes on the menu.
00:31Where is the specialty of our restaurant?
00:35Our boss's ancestor was an official in the Qing Dynasty.
00:43The restaurant is a family-run restaurant.
01:03Today I'm going to make a king crab for you.
01:09We have a fish tank in the back.
01:13We feed the crabs with fresh seafood.
01:16The seafood will be full of meat.
01:20The king crab costs about 1,000 yuan.
01:28We usually make three or four dishes for the customers.
01:32This way, the customers can eat a table full of crabs.
01:38We don't feed the crabs for more than four days.
01:42We usually use up all the crabs.
01:46Now I'm going to make the first dish.
01:49The king crab is made with Huadiao wine.
01:55We use Chinese Huadiao wine to steam the crab legs.
02:02This way, the crab will have a strong Huadiao wine flavor.
02:06And it won't spoil the taste of the crab.
02:11This is an onion oil.
02:15This is salted egg yolk.
02:20This is a pure duck egg yolk.
02:24The outside of the crab will form a shell of salted egg yolk.
02:29This way, the outside of the crab will have a crispy salted egg flavor.
02:33And the inside of the crab will not lose the taste of the crab itself.
02:42The third way is to steam the crab eggs.
02:50The third way is to steam the crab eggs.
02:58Every morning when I go to work,
03:00the first thing I look at is the soup.
03:04There is a saying in China that says,
03:08a cook's soup is like a soldier's gun.
03:12A cook's soup is like a soldier's weapon.
03:19There are pears and snow fungus in the soup.
03:24The snow fungus is used to make the soup thicker.
03:27And red dates are added to make the soup more colorful.
03:30These are all very nutritious for Chinese food.
03:34So drinking some pear soup can make the soup lighter and more nutritious.
03:40I'm going to make the soup first.
03:43First, I'm going to make the soup for stewing.
03:46And the soup for stir-frying.
03:48It's a very popular drink.
03:52Because the soup is infused with all kinds of ingredients.
03:56After a long time of stewing,
03:58the taste of the ingredients is all infused into the soup.
04:01In fact, all the nutrients are in the soup.
04:03So we use this method of extraction,
04:06the method of extraction of umami or umami,
04:10to make this soup.
04:12Then put it in the stir-fried dish.
04:14When it boils, turn it down to low heat.
04:17It'll be ready in about an hour.
04:22Okay, we're going to have a meeting now.
04:25Meeting, meeting.
04:27We have a meeting at 10.30.
04:31And then we have half an hour to prepare for the meal.
04:37And then at 11, our restaurant is officially open.
04:42There are about 20 umbrellas.
04:45Pay attention to the ground.
04:47Okay.
04:48Okay, I don't have any here.
04:50Okay, everyone.
04:54In fact, our method is more complicated.
04:59Because there are more than 100 dishes on the menu.
05:01And you don't know what today's guest's preference is.
05:05What does he want to eat?
05:07This is the shrimp we use to make crispy shrimp.
05:09The shrimp we use to make crispy shrimp.
05:11This is a kind of white shrimp produced in South America.
05:16And then this shrimp is used a lot every day.
05:19So there must be a special person in charge of this step.
05:22Remove the shrimp legs.
05:26And then open the back of the shrimp.
05:28And then let the meat and skin separate.
05:32And then the shrimp inside.
05:35Now we dip the fresh shrimp in flour.
05:41Dip in a kind of fried flour.
05:43There are several kinds of flour mixed together.
05:46The second kind of flour is put on the shrimp skin.
05:49It can play the role of crispiness.
05:51It can fry the shrimp skin.
05:55If there is too much flour, the noodles will be mushy.
06:00If there is too much flour, the shrimp will lose its freshness.
06:03This is a kind of flour we make ourselves.
06:05After the flour is dipped, it is stored in the refrigerator.
06:09It's just for this meal.
06:12For example, for lunch, for lunch.
06:13For dinner, for dinner.
06:15There is a basic estimate.
06:17Like today, it's probably 50 to 60 servings.
06:21If it's the weekend, it's about 200 servings.
06:26In China, we use a frying pan to make oil and fry.
06:35The temperature can reach 220 degrees Celsius.
06:40But here, we use a frying pan.
06:43The temperature is 380 to 410 degrees Celsius.
06:46It can't reach the high oil temperature requirement.
06:50So when you fry the shrimp, the shrimp skin is not easy to be crispy.
06:56Bring the noodles here.
06:59In fact, our restaurant is a kitchen.
07:02When we are busiest, it's like a war.
07:09There are many stalls.
07:12They have their own work.
07:15For example, they make their own pastry.
07:17Then they make cold dishes.
07:19Then they make hot dishes.
07:21They do the opening work first.
07:23It's the preparation of the first meal.
07:26For example, setting up some small ingredients or some tools.
07:33Next, we are going to make the red date meat.
07:37Now, let's prepare the main ingredients of the red date meat.
07:42It's for seasoning.
07:45Scallions.
07:46Put the scallions underneath.
07:48They won't stick to the bottom of the pan.
07:51Second, after steaming, the taste of the ingredients will come up.
07:58When we fry the meat,
08:00the scallions will be separated.
08:05They won't stick to the bottom of the pan.
08:07In this way, the meat skin will be facing down.
08:10When we stew the soup,
08:12we use wine, Huadiao wine,
08:16soup, soy sauce,
08:18and a little bit of red rice wine.
08:23We mainly use red date water.
08:26We also use rock sugar.
08:28We use rock sugar to make the color of the sugar.
08:30Because when the sugar melts, it will have many colors.
08:33This is caramelized sugar.
08:36Red rice wine.
08:38This kind of rice is made by brewing wine.
08:42After brewing the wine,
08:44the wine will have the color of fermentation.
08:49First, we boil it on high heat.
08:51In this way, the meat will be fully cooked.
08:57This is the traditional way.
09:00This is the traditional way.
09:09This is the traditional way.
09:17When we started to make Beijing roast duck,
09:20we didn't design Beijing roast duck.
09:24Now, this step is to scald the skin first.
09:28Let the duck skin set.
09:31But this duck is different from the domestic duck.
09:34Domestic duck is raised for 42 days.
09:39The meat will be very tender.
09:41The duck here needs four and a half months to five months to achieve this effect.
09:48The duck in Beijing is not so tender.
09:51In fact, the process of making Beijing roast duck is very complicated.
09:57It takes 12 days to make a roast duck.
10:01If you want to make 100 roast ducks a day,
10:04you need at least 1,200 inventory.
10:07So it takes a lot of space to make this.
10:11Then we hang the special skin water.
10:14In this way, the duck skin will be crispy when we eat it later.
10:18If you don't hang the skin water,
10:22the duck skin will have no color,
10:24and the color will not look good.
10:26Secondly, the skin will not be crispy.
10:30The skin water has vinegar and honey.
10:34Each master has his own recipe.
10:39Because this recipe also depends on the actual duck.
10:43The skin of the duck is thick and thin.
10:46The fat of the duck is more or less.
10:48The meat of the duck is tender and not tender.
10:51But the duck here is different from the domestic duck.
10:57For more than 40 days,
10:59no matter how good the duck meat is,
11:01it can't be as thick as the skin fat.
11:05So it's really hard to eat roast duck here.
11:12But I can guarantee that
11:14everyone who eats roast duck here
11:17can experience the real taste of Beijing roast duck.
11:28Now we have a noodle shop's master, Xiang,
11:31to help us cook.
11:33Master Xiang has been doing this for nearly 30 years.
11:36He is a noodle shop owner in China.
11:38He makes a lot of noodles here.
11:41The following is making noodles.
11:44It's about 1 kg, 1 kg, 2 kg.
11:49Handmade noodles for fried sauce noodles.
11:51We want to make noodles that belong to our own taste.
11:54That's how it's special.
11:56Because the taste of noodles in each region is different.
12:02For Beijing, noodles must be very chewy.
12:06Then add salt inside to make it more chewy.
12:11Because this noodle can only be cooked and eaten on the spot.
12:15Maintain the traditional Chinese style.
12:21We hope to bring our best to everyone.
12:27This noodle takes about 20 minutes to ferment.
12:34Now he's going to roll the dough into a pancake.
12:39So that when we make noodles later,
12:42the noodles will come out more evenly.
12:46When making noodles in the north,
12:48the noodles must be a little thicker.
12:50So that it will taste better.
12:53It will be very chewy.
12:58It takes about 4 minutes to cook.
13:01There are pork, green onion, garlic, and sauce inside.
13:19This is vinegar.
13:22We make our own vinegar.
13:24We serve it in front of our customers.
13:26We have waiters to finish it.
13:28We grew up with a passion for this noodle.
13:36When making this pear soup,
13:38you can use this to make the sauce.
13:42Actually, this pear soup is a very cheap drink.
13:48But it's worth a lot of money.
13:50In ancient times,
13:52you could buy a lot of things with a lot of money.
13:54The value would be very high.
13:56This soup must be made very well.
14:06The style of our restaurant is the same in China.
14:12In fact, the boss remembers his family,
14:16his original self.
14:18In fact, when the guests come,
14:21there is a feeling of having guests at home.
14:24There are currently 158 tables in our restaurant.
14:33At most, we have received more than 800 people.
14:41After that, we made an adjustment.
14:46We can't have so many guests waiting outside.
14:49Because the waiting time for the guests is too long.
14:53Because our food doesn't come out very quickly.
14:58In fact, it's all done step by step.
15:01So we hope that the guests have a good dining environment.