Discover Delicious Travel Surprises In 5 Fabulous European Destinations
.Photo Courtesy of PBS / Lucky ChowAmong the most engaging, enlightening experiences that travel can inspire is better getting to know a destination and its people through food. Eating is sightseeing for your palate. That tasty purview is celebrated by on-the-go-entrepreneur Danielle Chang—creator, producer and host of PBS-TV’s popular Emmy Award-nominated Lucky Chow show—who has made it her heartfelt mission to introduce Americans to Asian cuisines, delving into how diverse flavors have flourished around the globe, bridging cultures and fostering far-flung friendships. Chang’s upcoming eighth Lucky Chow season, premiering May 1, features five episodes with plenty of pleasing reasons that keep her televised journeys feeling fresh: behind-the-scenes peeks and perks; thoughtful and thought-provoking conversations with chefs, restaurateurs, farmers, purveyors, artists and local insiders; a hungry curiosity for travel; and appealing filmmaking visuals (yay! director and camera crew)—all of which feed viewers’ wanderlust. Now she touches down in Europe—Berlin, Copenhagen, London, Paris and Northern Italy—to serve up surprising insights and under-the-radar finds. Sure, when you travel abroad, especially in Europe, it’s a given to initially focus on well-known country-centric staples, such as crêpes in France, pasta in Italy and sausage in Germany. Yet opening yourself to novel, multicultural dishes that leap beyond classics further stretches your horizons. After all, that is what fun, enriching travel buoyantly bolsters: an understanding of the unknown and a keener appreciation for the best of the best. “Join me,” she enthuses, “on a delicious journey across Europe.” “Europe is often seen as the epicenter of culinary tradition,” says Chang. “But never for the infusion of Asian cuisine.” Yet, the impact of the Asian diaspora is significant. “This season we explore how Asian culinary influences have taken root across Europe,” she explains. “Whether it is chefs reinterpreting heritage through a new lens or communities preserving traditions far from home, each story reflects the movement of people, culture and identity. Through food, we uncover the ways cultures evolve, intersect and ultimately bring us closer together.” A rising wave of young, innovative chefs are elevating this movement. Below are some brief highlights from this well-fed series to whet your appetite.How to Tune In: For the first time, this new season of Lucky Chow can be accessed free on PBS.org—perfect timing for May’s Asian American Heritage Month. Lucky Chow’s seasons one through seven are currently available on Chang’s website, her YouTube channel and via PBS. Plus, here is my illuminating Forbes interview with Chang. Copenhagen, Denmark: Premieres May 1Chang hefts a locally caught cod at popular Den Grønne Kutter fish store in Torvehallerne Market, Copenhagen, Denmark.Photo Courtesy of PBS / Lucky ChowFor centuries, hearty Danish meals included heaps of pork, potatoes and dark rye bread. Another quintessential dish? Smørrebrød, an open-faced sandwich of buttered (or larded) bread topped with boiled egg, meat or seafood (such as salmon, mackerel, pickled herring, shrimp), cheese or spreads and veggies (such as cucumber, red onion). These steadfast favorites remain renowned. Yet, via Lucky Chow, you’ll be astonished to learn that Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese and Korean kitchen techniques now often shape Nordic ingredients, Baltic seafood and regenerative farms. “In Scandinavia, fine-dining is synonymous with seasonality and regional identity, working with what grows here, when it grows,” explains Chang. “But it wasn’t always this way. Just two decades ago, the idea of farm-to-table dining was radical. Eating local wasn’t yet a virtue. That changed in Copenhagen more than almost anywhere else in the world. This city and its restaurants helped redefine what modern fine-dining could be, rooted in place and in the seasons.... At some of Scandinavia’s most influential restaurants, Asian ingredients, techniques and flavors are being woven into this local-first framework. I thought that I would have to look hard for signs of Asian influence. After all, Asians make up under 1% of the Danish population. But I am blown away by how Asian chefs are remaking Nordic cuisine in their own image. I predict that the next big trend in fine-dining will be ScandiAsian.” Chang with chef-owner Jonathan Tam of Jatak restaurant, Klippingegård Farms owner William Perch-Nielsen and farmer Scott Chancellor.Photo Courtesy of PBS / Lucky ChowOne of Chang’s keep-life-fascinating skills is seeking out intriguing local voices, such as Jonathan Tam, chef and co-owner of one Michelin-star Jatak, an intimate Copenhagen gem with distinctive, changing Chinese-emboldened “solar menus.” His wife, co-owner and architect Sarah Frilund master-planned the restaurant’s layout, which displays every step in the cooking process with an open kitchen. Another jewel: Saji, a casual restaurant run by two best friends, Sam Tobing and Jimmy Orlando, who grew up together on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. After both attended culinary school, they reconnected in Copenhagen. Now Tobing and Orlando have introduced intensely flavorful Indonesian fare, aromatic and spice-layered, incorporating Danish ingredients into their homeland’s recipes. It is uplifting to hear them talk about their dedication to serving guests—to bestow kindness and nurturing through what they call their soul food. Northern Italy: Premieres May 8Chang and Xin Ge Liu, fashion designer, owner and chef of Il Gusto di Xinge, at her namesake restaurant in Florence, Italy.Photo Courtesy of PBS / Lucky ChowWith Chang as your lodestar, tour Florence, Milan and Prato, admiring these cities’ beauty and bounty. “Ever since Marco Polo voyaged to Asia 700 years ago,” says Chang, “the Italians have had a closer connection with China than any other European country. What surprises me aren’t the differences between the two cultures, but the overlaps: The shared reverence for fine butchery; pasta worked by hand; and a deep belief in feeding people well as a way of showing care, respect.” This is a meaningful co-mingling of skills and sentiments. Milan’s Chinatown “looks like nothing that I am used to,” she adds, as its streets are lined with ornate Italian architecture. “The evergreen argument,” continues Chang, “goes like this: Did noodles start in Italy or China?” At restaurant Ramen a Mano in Milan, where Chinese Lanzhou-style noodles are hand-kneaded and -rolled, owner Francesco Wu will tell you that China got there first. “But for me,” Chang says, “that debate evaporates the moment I watched dough being worked by hand—wheat and water, time and pressure: It’s a universal instinct.” For Wu, a bowl of noodles is less about origins than about belonging. He previously had successful careers as an engineer and a restaurateur, who served Italian food, “before he finally felt confident enough to serve traditional Chinese noodles to an Italian audience,” explains Chang. Also helping Chang to navigate her route is Elisa Wong, a Chinese-Italian actress who was raised in Italy. “What is particularly Milano about this Chinatown?” Chang asks Wong, who replies: The mix of dumplings and a glass of good Italian wine. Particularly in the summer, when street food is in vogue, you can sample small plates from a variety of restaurants at outdoor tables and chairs, as you festively move through the neighborhood with wine glass in hand. In Florence, at the luxurious, chic Il Gusto di Xinge, a couture house of Cantonese cuisine influenced by Hong Kong, designer, owner and chef Xin Ge Liu “has built it into a place where dim sum are fashion pieces and every aesthetic choice speaks to cultural elegance,” says Chang. “Xin Ge is a provocateur who puts on culinary theater. The menu is a journey for the senses.” Gazing at the meticulously detailed courses being presented to Chang in the stunning contemporary space is intoxicating, a multitude of expressive color, composition, finesse and quality. Berlin, Germany: Premieres May 15Chang with sake specialist Yuuki Itoh at a Japanese izakaya, REI Bar, which feels like a secret sanctuary in Berlin, Germany.Photo Courtesy of PBS / Lucky Chow“Since The Wall fell in 1989, Berlin has combined cultural depth with affordability, attracting artists from around the globe,” says Chang. Asians have been drawn to Berlin for its creative freedom and tolerance for experimentation. “This once-divided city is not just a crossroads for artists, it’s also a melting pot for different art forms where music, fine art and, yes, food all share the spotlight,” she explains. Culinary artist Alexis Convento, who moved from New York City to Berlin, incorporates her heritage’s Filipino flavors and other physical forms into her gorgeous edible art displays. “Who doesn’t like playing with their food?” rhetorically asks Convento with a frolicsome gleam in her eyes. She is part of a growing Berlin community of Asian visionaries. “Berlin allowed me to try something new and different, to redefine myself,” she adds. Her work is instilled with kapwa, the Filipino concept of shared humanity. Another international phenomenon that has blossomed in Berlin: Japanese listening-bar culture with analog music. After all, music is the heart of Berlin. At trendy REI Bar, a Japanese izakaya, sake specialist Yuuki Itoh introduces Chang to a tasting of spirited sakes: “His sake list is as carefully curated as his vinyl collection,” says Chang. A veteran deejay, Itoh draws on his Japanese and nightlife background to establish an oasis where food, drink and music interweave invitingly. “We would like this place to be...a gateway into Japanese cuisine, bringing in Japanese tapas-style, a casual way of drinking, also with shareable dishes amongst your friends and family,” he says, clearly leaning into welcoming a comforting scene. And at Monsieur Vuong, a pioneering Vietnamese restaurant that specializes in tender glass noodles, curries and a signature phở, a broth-and-noodle soup, customers swoon over the fragrant and intense flavors. To discern how Asian food moved from the edges of the city to the center of Berlin’s cultural life, food writer and cookbook author Xi “Sisi” Chen showcases Kantstraße in the Charlottenburg neighborhood, which is lined by dozens of Asian eateries. “I really want to make understandable for audiences....the differences between Korean, Vietnamese, Thai food...and ultimately the people who are coming from those countries,” explains Chen. London, England: Premieres May 22Marina Lai-Lentz, second-generation owner of the Golden Phoenix in London's Chinatown, talks with Chang about carrying her family's legacy forward.Photo Courtesy of PBS / Lucky Chow“Amid the pubs and theaters where Piccadilly Circus meets Soho, a cordon of red lanterns announces a less familiar, but just as exciting landmark: London's Chinatown,” says Chang. “Its origins trace back to Chinese seafarers working the trade routes of the British Empire; men who came ashore with tea and spices in the ships’ holds...and built a sense of home through food.” Symbols of resilience, vitality and versatility, Chinatowns worldwide are marvels of integration and industriousness, often embracing a melting pot of Asian and South Asian backgrounds. That lively neighborhood in London is home to Cantonese, Filipino, Korean, Szechuanese, Taiwanese, Thai, Malaysian, Vietnamese and others. A meander through its streets reveals fish-and-chips eateries near shops selling spicy Szechuan wontons and Cantonese steamed molten-egg-custard buns (a must-try snack), as well as sophisticated tea houses, where, on porcelain plates and silver platters, dainty finger sandwiches and pastries are reimagined with Asian elements. The three-story Golden Phoenix, with its elaborate curved stairway and plush decor, is a set dresser’s fantasy. One of its prime requested dishes features fried-and-roasted Peking duck. “Immigrants came here and they had a very different life than the one they [previously] had,” explains Golden Phoenix’s second-generation owner Marina Lai-Lentz. “So they had to adapt and they did: Chinatown is thriving after all these years.” Enchanting also are Emily and Amy Chung, known as the Rangoon Sisters, who are London-born-and-bred, with Burmese family background. Now physicians with the United Kingdom’s National Health Service, they lead double lives as supper-club chefs and cookbook authors, resparking foods cherished from their childhoods. Paris, France: Premieres May 29 “My ideal Parisian day involves a picnic by the Seine River with my college friend Maggie Kim," says Chang.Photo Courtesy of PBS / Lucky Chow“The city of romance is very good at selling a fantasy and we all come to Paris with a version of it already in our heads,” muses Chang. “I want to learn about Vietnamese cooking in France: How the two cuisines have become interlaced through decades of colonization and then again from the influx of South Vietnamese refugees after the Vietnam War. France was the first western country where Vietnamese migrants settled. How did one of the largest Vietnamese communities outside of Asia change the way Parisians eat and what does their cuisine look and taste like today?” Amid pretty painterly Paris backdrops, Chang treads miles for outstanding dining opportunities, such as Mắm from Hanoï in the trendy Sentier garment district; the restaurant’s casual appearance belies the high-quality veritable Vietnamese menu. Founded by Tuyet Ngna Bui and Tuan Anh Tran Luu, a couple from Hanoi, the house specialty is phở tái chín, a broth-and-noodle soup with thinly sliced rare beef and brisket, considered the indisputable best phở in Paris. Another wow: bánh mì. “Take a French baguette, split it open, add pickled vegetables, paté and fresh herbs,” says Chang. “If you’re looking for a single object that explains the French-Vietnamese relationship, this might be it.” Chef Minh Tri Tran Dinh, who studied at distinguished culinary school Ferrandi, hosts bánh mì pop-ups around Paris. “He takes an almost stubbornly artisanal approach to the iconic sandwich and makes everything from scratch,” reports Chang. At Caphette, pastry chef Anthony Na chats with Chang about another national institution: pastries, which, for a long time, aligned with a narrow perspective about whom France was for. Na, who was born in France, is broadening that outlook, weaving his Vietnamese heritage into the essence of French patisserie by enhancing recipes with Southeast Asian pandan leaves, which are fragrant (similar to the scents of vanilla and coconut) and earning resonating acclaim. That is the mark of sweet success.Chang has cultivated a wide-ranging career. She founded LUCKYRICE in 2009, an experiential lifestyle brand and content production company; spearheaded multiple Asian food festivals in eight major U.S. markets; authored Lucky Rice: Stories and Recipes from Night Markets, Feasts and Family Tables (Random House); and curated exhibitions of Chinese artists.
