Good Taste is a menu for eating well in the Bay Area. This week, we share a special conversation with TV culinary legend Martin Yan of Yan Can Cook fame and Brandon Jew, the acclaimed chef behind Mister Jiu’s and Mamahuhu restaurants. Mamahuhu is offering a Yan-inspired Mongolian beef dish through May 31 as an Asian American and Pacific Islander Month tribute.
I’ve met and interviewed Martin Yan a few times, and it’s always a thrill. But when he and Brandon Jew and I jumped on a Zoom call last week to talk about Mamahuhu’s Mongolian beef special, I had to properly fangirl over this pioneer. When I was a kid, I watched a lot of the local PBS station KQED, which we called Channel 9 in the pre-cable days, where I learned a lot about Chinese culture and cooking from watching his Yan Can Cook series.
“I grew up on you, Julia Child, Jacques Pépin, and Big Bird,” I told him. “You are legends!”…