(relaxing pop music)
- Hi, I'm Pamela.
Today I'm making my children's favorite
Taiwanese beef noodle soup.
- [Kyle] Our dad really loves beef noodle soup as well too.
One evening when you can smell it in the kitchen,
it's usually like a homecoming, or someone did good.
- [Rebecca] So I think there was one story where
our grandma carried him to get beef noodle soup from Taiwan,
- [Pamela] Yes.
- [Rebecca] When he was like,
in the sixth grade or something.
(laughter)
- [Pamela] I think that my husband and I
were very courageous to uproot our family
from a familiar place to start a new adventure overseas.
My kitchen is filled with happy and warm memories.
We still celebrate most of Chinese holidays,
so we would make dumplings together
in the evening for Chinese New Year.
When we first came to America 24 years ago,
the children were still very young.
They did not know any English,
and I was still learning English myself.
There were challenges, for sure,
but then we learned and we adapt.
And over time, it becomes easier.
- [Rebecca] You know, I think my mom was pretty open
to having us try like different foods from supermarkets.
Like I enjoy going to shopping with her,
just like trying like, Lunchables,
because that's the thing like that we bring lunch to school,
and it's hard to pack beef noodle soup
in the little lunchbox.
So I think my mom was already pretty open,
just letting us kind of adapt to, you know,
the different lunches that, you know, we want to try.
- [Kyle] In elementary school,
I would bring dumplings to school,
and it has a very strong smell,
so a lot of kids would kind of make fun of me,
but now if I were to bring dumplings to work,
people would love it and wanna have a piece,
so it's something I've grown to be very proud of.
- [Pamela] I was inspired at a friend's potluck party.
Someone had brought beef noodle soup,
but I was inspired to try and make my own version.
I asked my friend how they make theirs,
look at different recipes and experiment.
I had to try the different cut of meat
and played with different ingredients
to perfect my recipe that my family and friends enjoy.
- [Kyle] Another tradition that we have is really just
coming home together, sitting down for dinner,
and talking about each other's days,
while my mom was busy running in and out of the kitchen.
And we celebrate life and celebrate each other's companies.
When I come home from school or from work,
and I see my mom in the kitchen,
that's a sense of being home.
- [Rebecca] Definitely a comfort feeling, you know,
when my mom is cooking in the kitchen.
Takes me back to Taipei, we're sitting in alleyway,
that small street,
we're crowded next to the table next to us,
we're slurping on the noodles, it's humid outside.
But the warm soup somehow makes it that much better.
- [Kyle] At least when we were growing up,
slurping noodles was not deemed as inappropriate
or ill-mannered, in fact, it would signify that
this dish is made really well for me to
discard all manners and just inhale what is in the bowl.
(slurping)
(laughter)
- [Voiceover] Oh, yes!
(relaxing pop music)
