That's actually
how I got my,
my feet into the door,
you know,
just cooking Chinese
people good Sichuan food.
You, you have to really
understand the culture,
understand the food,
understand the people.
And when you
get served by the owner
of the restaurant,
it's just something
really special, you know?
Just connecting
with each other.
I think that's the most
important thing with
a restaurant experience.
Yeah.
And as, as I always say,
fuck Munchies, fuck you,
and fuck yourself.
Yeah.
Cheers.
Cheers to that, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah.
Hey, fuck me too.
My name is Han Chiang,
I am the owner
of Han Dynasty.
Han Dynasty is authentic
Sichuan restaurant.
But I started about
seven years ago.
My obsession pretty much
is I want to introduce
Americans about
this cuisine.
To me, I think Chinese
food in America is,
is a big insult to me.
The first time I ate at
a Chinese restaurant I,
I did not know
that was Chinese.
I think it's a big scam
that the early Chinese
people came here and
tried to scam Americans
making shitty food and
just charge a bunch of
money, and you know,
has no skills
involved whatsoever.
Sichuan cuisine is found
to solve problems.
It's all about mala.
Ma means to know me.
It's the only cuisine
that uses seasoned
peppercorn.
It gives you that
numbing sensation.
I started to extend
out of the suburbs.
Second one is
in Roseburg,
that's another
suburb location.
The third one,
I opened in Old City,
Philadelphia.
Many University City,
Cherry Hill,
Jersey, and New York,
East Village.
The way we expo
the dishes is,
we send out
whatever's ready.
I tell all my customers,
you know, everything's
gonna come out as soon
as they're ready,
steaming hot, because
it's family style.
I cannot stand when
people comes in here like
with four people, order
four of the same thing.
It makes no fricken
sense, whatsoever.
It's fucking retarded,
you know?
Like, why wouldn't you
get four things and
try four
different things?
Well, my chefs are all
Chinese, from China and
most of the wok chefs,
they were chefs in China
already so they have the
skills, the experience.
My motto of working with
my staff is just at work
I'm very, very strict and
after work I'm the most
chill guy there.
You know, we can get
fucked up together,
you know, have fun.
But at work people
have to, you know,
do what I ask or
I go fucking nuts.
Yeah.
I actually had no
restaurant experience
when I first opened.
Everybody doubted me.
Even my dad doubted me.
He's like, you can't,
there's no way you'd be a
successful business man.
I got kicked
out of college.
I was 26.
I was living at home,
no girlfriends, you know,
mooching off my parents.
And I,
as a kid growing up
I always felt I couldn't
be somebody special, and
I realize what
I'm doing is not
just a disappointing
thing for everybody but
it's a disappointing
thing to myself.
So I just woke the fuck
up, wanted to work.
And my biggest goal,
it wasn't about money or
about anything.
It was about, you know,
making my mom proud, just
proving everybody wrong.
I think one of the
reasons that, you know,
make me successful is,
I put my restaurant
before my own life.
I mean, Han Dynasty to
me is everything, man.
Like coming
from a slacker,
a black sheep,
this is the only chance
I can prove
everybody wrong.
And, and, and
thank god I did it.
Cheers motherfuckers.
Munchies.
Dynasty.
Cheers.
Time to get fucked up.
Last night, we met at
University City with
Mark, who's my partner.
So it begins.
Chris is the bar manager.
Kevin is my GM.
Grabbed some roadies, and
we started heading
over to Barbacoa.
Let's get this
motherfucker open.
We're going to a famous
Philadelphia artist,
Isaiah Zagar's.
Yes.
Out to eat
authentic barbacoa.
With my good friend
Ben Miller and
his wife Cristina.
They cook awesome
authentic
fucking food, man.
That's all I crave about.
All the time.
They are selling strictly
out of their apartment,
usually, every weekend.
I would say, like,
90% of their patrons
are Mexicans, so you
know that's a good sign.
Hello, how are you?
Hello, doing good,
love you.
Hi, how you doing, guys?
Good, good to see you,
wow.
The location we cooked
in is a really awesome
place, and
I've never seen any
places quite like it.
It's a lot of
artsy stuff.
Yeah, you're here
to have a meal?
Yes, sir.
You ready?
I'm ready.
All ready?
Yeah.
I love your place, man.
I love it.
Absolutely.
All right.
Isaiah is an amazing guy.
Julie is amazing.
Very, very nice people.
I try to surround myself
with those
type of people.
Hey, boss.
What's up, man?
We've met up with Ben and
Cristina.
I first met Ben when he
was working at Amis.
Just a very good dude.
Hardworking.
Cristina is
a wonderful person and
she cook awesome food, so
I guess that's why
Ben loves her.
We will be making
tortillas and
barbacoa and pancita.
I'm very happy
that Isaiah Zagar
has been so
supportive of us.
I came to Philadelphia
to hone my skills and
I worked two years for
Marc Vetri.
He's the one who gave me
the courage to do this
the way I really
wanted to.
I'm the only one who's
cooking barbacoa.
People like it a lot now,
but
it was hard to find
a market for it.
But now, a lot of
people know this food.
A lot of people come
from other cities just
to eat barbacoa.
What is pancita?
Pancita, well,
the panse means stomach.
So it's it's the stomach
lining that's stuffed
like a sausage without
all the testicles and
intestines, heart and
kidneys.
Barbacoa and the pancita
steam together for
about ten hours, and
all its slow drippings
form this broth.
Well, that smells so
deliciously gamey.
Oh my god.
Chiles with onions,
fava beans,
all of this you can put
in your barbacoa taco.
And, and this is?
This is green salsa,
also red salsa with red
chilies, garlic, onions.
You're welcome, guys.
Thank you.
My favorite thing I
was eating last night
was the, has to go
with the lamb soup.
I'm a big fan of lamb and
they do lamb so well.
Everything was
family style and
there was a lot
of vegetables.
There was the tortillas
with the,
the lamb stomach.
I just love when the lamb
is cooked right,
sings in my stomach.
Oh fuck yes.
Oh my gosh.
Let me make love
to that tongue.
You want an eyeball too?
I've never had a lamb
eyeball before.
I'll give you
an eyeball too.
Eyeball, tongue,
fucking taco.
I did have a lamb eyeball
for the first time.
And it was very good.
Mm.
Mm.
Oh my god.
So good.
It was pretty spicy to me
because all the cuisines
has a different
type of spice.
You know, Mexican,
there's a lot of
fresh pepper.
Like for my food,
it's mostly like dry
chili pepper, chili oils.
So I'm very used to
those type of spice.
You know, but trying
something different
is just as good, but
I don't have as high
tolerance for that.
I sweat.
It's quite an experience
to have such awesome food
in a very awesome place.
You know,
with good company, yeah.
The busboy's here.
Yeah.
We all started off
as busboys here.
We are all busboys.
Thank you, Isaiah.
Love you.
Thank you so much.
After Isaiah's house,
we start heading
on over to Amis.
It's Brad Spence,
a good friend of mine.
Tacos do not get any
better than that,
my friends.
It doesn't.
Our customer
base is like,
probably half
restaurant workers and
half like
construction workers.
And like really excited
white dudes that get
up early on a weekend
morning just to
get your barbacoa.
Yeah, for sure.
For sure.
So where we going?
Amis.
Amis.
Amis is where
it's all started.
Amis is Mark Vetri's
restaurant,
and Brad is
a partner of his.
He's a very
passionate chef.
Like, very fresh stuff.
I love getting
the pastas.
My favorite has to
be the veal tongue.
What's up?
What up?
I'm making you a pizza.
Awesome.
How's everything going?
Everything's good.
I'm fucking
drunk as fuck.
Good man, good.
I've been drinking since
fucking 3:00.
Troy here.
I'm gonna make
a pizza for you guys.
I've got a whole pan.
I'm gonna make you
guys pizza al taglio
with a little tomato.
A little tomato
pie with some pig.
Han's gonna chop
the head off.
It's gonna be beautiful.
And we're gonna
chop the pig up.
When I go to visit my
friends' restaurant,
I usually don't even
look at the menu.
And I love everything so
you really have to trust
the owner, the chef,
the guy experience,
you know, nobody knows
the menu better than
the chef or the owner.
Thank you for
your hard work.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Thank you, thank you,
thank you.
Thanks, guys for coming.
Thank you, Brad.
All right, let's get the
pig, let's get the pig.
Let's not, don't cut
your fucking thumbs
off, all right.
Oh yeah.
Aw, come on, dude.
Yeah, get at that piggy.
There you go.
There you go.
Brad made a whole pig.
He chopped out the body,
started making love
with the heads.
Get some skin in there.
Get some of
the belly in there.
There you go.
These are dried
hot peppers.
This is total Jersey
style, you take them,
you dry them out and
then you throw them
in the deep fryer.
They're like
potato chips, man.
Spicy.
Spicy?
Fuck yeah they're spicy.
You got tomato pie.
I think cooking a pig
to put on a pizza,
it would be a lot
of fricken work, so
it has to be
fricken good.
Deep fried hot peppers,
provolone cheese.
You know, really nice,
juicy pork.
And this is very good.
Get the fuck out.
So this is like.
How is that not
the best pizza?
This is Rome meets
New Jersey meets
Philadelphia.
Oh god.
Cheers, motherfuckers.
After we finished
the pizza,
we start heading over
to Prime Stache.
It's I used to be right
next door to them, so
we had a very close
relationship.
That pizza was probably
the best pizza I ever
had in my life, man.
Yeah.
Thank you.
That was the best pizza.
Yes.
Weren't we going to like,
have beers with
Eagles players?
Yeah, that's where
we're going right now.
Prime Stache is actually
owned by Brent Celek from
the tight end of the
Philadelphia Eagles and
my friend Hee.
Now how old were you when
you started
playing football?
I started playing
in seventh grade.
I played, you know,
I played soccer
all before that.
Jason Kelce is
an awesome, awesome dude.
I mean, I have met a lot
of athletes and he is
the most down to earth
person I have ever met.
Prime Stache is American
comfort food with
a little twist.
So basically how we got
started my partner Brad
Celek have been friends
for about seven years.
I said, you know what?
Let's screw it,
let's do it.
Here we are after
five years of
talking about it.
Then I met up with Han.
He was our neighbor.
Han is like a cartoon
character, Mr.
Magoo, the guy from The
Hangover, and Han in one.
No I've been spending so
much time in
this kitchen.
I'm actually starting
a restaurant with my,
with my buddy.
We're gonna start
a wings joint.
So.
And that's,
that's what
we're here for.
We're gonna cook some
fucking awesome wings.
And we're gonna conquer
the world with wings.
It's all about crispiness
and spiciness,
I think, wings.
We came up with some
ideas about how we
think wings should be.
And I hope that you
guys can appreciate
what we're doing.
We're trying to take
it to the next level.
Here's my pulled pork.
Here's my roast pork.
Last night, he made this
pork sandwich heaven.
It was like three types
of pork, pork belly,
pork shoulder,
and pulled pork.
It's three of my
favorite pork parts and
you can cook it
in one sandwich.
It's, it's off the hook.
I wanna fuck
this right now.
And, then, that's a Ron
fucking Burgundy.
Oh.
Oh my god.
I mean, this is like the
sandwich that I wanna eat
it and fuck it later.
So who could put down
more of these, you or
Andy Reid?
Andy probably.
Andy is a fat pig.
Great man.
I love you man.
Salut.
And from Prime Stache,
we just walked across
the street to my
restaurant in Old City.
Hey motherfuckers!
Let's go!
Hi. Hi. Hi.
Hey!
We came in, we already
have, all the staff was
eating already because
last night was the,
the last day of Chinese
New Year and so we kind
of just get together and
celebrate it.
I cooked a couple wings
last night, dry pepper
chicken wings and
the cumin chicken wings.
I didn't cook
anything all day,
I just want to
cook something.
Which one's the MSG?
Know why Asian people
don't have zits?
Why?
Cause they put MSG all
over their face. Is that?
No, no.
I'm going to
take some home.
MS motherfucking G.
I call it Vitamin M.
MSG.
I'm gonna add some
garlic and scallions.
That guy,
he's my head chef.
He's the master,
he's my teacher,
he teaches me everything.
I try to learn from
all my chefs and
he always gives me
criticisms, you know,
he's like you have
to take criticisms,
you know, you have,
you have to make yourself
better all the time.
Let's move on, we've got
a second course coming
up, it's fucking
Sichuan hot pot.
Let's move to
the front now.
So this is motherfucking
Chinese hot pot.
You gather a bunch
of crazy stuff.
This is duck tongue,
heart, and kidney.
This is rabbit ears.
This is actually Spam.
Come on, come on,
come on.
Let's eat up.
This is more like
a family thing
to us, you know.
Just taking care
of everybody and
making sure
everybody's happy.
Hot pot is a very
family sharing kind of,
you know, the whole time
you'll be drinking,
cooking, talking,
you know,
just having a lot of fun.
You are ready
to be a man.
I can't go party
every day.
I have to work very hard
in order for me to party.
I crave for
that balance, you know.
It's just, it's just
a reward for myself.
I can work years,
you know,
really if I
party every day.
Yeah.
Where are those
fucking strippers?
We shall see.
You're getting
strippers tonight?
Titties.
Did you really
get strippers?
We're right here.
We don't know.
Oh, dude.
You better get strippers.
I want fucking strippers,
man.
Well we've got.
Clash of Clans.
My clan is called Da
Nang Noodles, join now,
motherfuckers.
Yeah.
Can't touch Han.
Da Nang Noodles,
join up my clan.
Where the fuck
are my strippers?
