- [Liza] Welcome, everyone, to "food.

curated.

", a show that takes you behind the scenes to meet today's most inspiring food makers.

Stick around as we explore rich new condiments, quick healthy bites, and their ethnic origins.

(upbeat music) I'm Liza deGuia, documentary filmmaker and food lover.

I invite you to discover the people and passion behind good food in New York City.

This is "food.

curated."

Funding for food.

curated.

is made possible by.

Stele is a globally curated collection of artisanal and independent perfumes.

Hand-picked olfactory experiences that tell a story.

Available online and at two New York locations.

For more info, we're at Stele (dot) nyc.

Support for food.

curated.

comes from CMD Psych.

Bringing a holistic approach to child wellness and women's mental health care.

Helping patients find balance and harmony in their lives.

For more info, head to CMD Psych (dot) com Additional Funding provided by.

You might not know this, but I love to cook.

I'll take on any recipe no matter how long the ingredient list.

But as a New Yorker, I sometimes need a quick fix, a bold sauce or condiment that can apply to a multitude of recipes, or just a grab-and-go.

Here are a few food makers sharing special takes on everyday recipes they grew up on.

(gentle bright music) (gentle music) - [Christine] Okay, and... - [Liza] What's your favorite part?

- I know, prepping shallots.

(laughs) - Shallot.

- Yeah, you like shallot.

- Yeah.

Shallot.

- She likes the shallots, the prepping part, huh?

- Why?

(Cassandra laughing) - Smells good.

(Cassandra laughing) - [Cassandra] Not many people think it smells good, but... - Yeah.

- Yeah.

We always have to fry up the shallots first.

- Beginning, I'm crying.

I'm crying, I'm so happy.

I'm crying, I'm still making it.

- [Liza] And that's your favorite part?

- Mm-hmm.

(Cassandra laughing) Yeah, made me cry, but now I'm not crying anymore.

(laughs) - Hi, I'm Cassandra.

- Hi, I'm Christine.

We are from Mama Lam's.

- [Cassandra] The founders of Malaysian curry paste and hot sauces based in Queens, New York.

(food sizzling) (gentle music) Today we're doing curry, which still has shallots.

Our hot sauce has even more.

Sometimes people say I look like a witch brewing my pot.

Stir, stir, stir.

So Mama Lam's is my mom, (laughs) and it's really about her story because we currently have Malaysian curry paste and hot sauce, and that's what she started making 30 years ago when she immigrated to New York, because her favorite bowl of noodle soup is a curry mee, which is also like sometimes known as curry laksa or, like, curry, we call it curry noodle soup just so that everyone knows what it is.

So we're in my home kitchen right now with my mom.

We're gonna do the curry laksa, curry mee that my mom loves, and then we're gonna do a curry chicken with potato.

That's a fan favorite and also my favorite.

But yeah, didn't you, like, you wanted to make curry at home because you like galimian, right - Yes.

- Yeah.

Galimian is curry mee.

- [Christine] Yeah.

- [Cassandra] So we just added a broth with some water in and then the curry paste.

The fish balls, we do, like this one's actually a Malaysian brand that I got.

- 1985, you really cannot eat Malaysian food.

- [Liza] Okay, so when you got to New York, you couldn't find Malaysia food- - Find any Malaysian food.

- in New York?

- Yeah.

- Only one place in Chinatown.

You see the color?

So I tried to cook by myself.

So I asked my family and how to cook.

And I cook for my daughter, for my husband.

The whole family, they like my curry too.

They love my curry.

- What's funny about, like, my mom is that, like, she has this amazing curry paste and hot sauce, but growing up, she, like, did not have to cook as much.

(laughs) Okay, so that's the broth.

My mom's one of 10 kids.

She grew up in Ulu Yam, which is outside of KL, Kuala Lumpur.

And it was only coming to New York you learned from bah the cooking.

- Oh, the cooking?

Yeah, I learned from my husband.

- My dad.

(laughs) But then, she's very meticulous about, like, find, like, doing it again and again to get the right, like, taste and proportion, so that's why her curry paste has, like, been perfected.

- [Christine] Tum-tum-tum-tum, tum-tum-tum-tum, oh, oh, oh, okay.

- Yeah, so this is a finished product, about 10 minutes.

You just let everything boil and cook down, and that's pretty much it.

- [Liza] And now you can have lunch.

- Yeah.

- Yay.

(pounding bright music) (machine whirring) Back in Malaysia, curry laksa, curry mee is like the most common, like, dish you can find anywhere, like down every corner.

- When you feel hungry, just go to eat curry mee.

(Cassandra and Christine laughing) - [Liza] So is like you would eat it all the time?

- Yeah.

- It's like a street food- - Okay, we eat it like- - very much.

- yeah, every day.

- [Liza] So then, like being in New York, you can't access that all the time, so then that's why she ended up making curry paste at home.

- We like it really golden.

It's like I tell people that we do the hard work for you.

(Cassandra laughs) - Yeah.

- You taste the garlic, you taste the shallot on it.

- [Cassandra] We use a lot of shallot.

- [Christine] Yeah, we use a lot - We probably use at least 100 pounds of shallots a week to 200.

This is the curry powder mixed with the coconut milk.

So we just make it like a very paste consistency, and then we cook it into the shallots and garlic.

My mom's definitely like taste tested a lot of different types of curries, blends, and this is the one that she liked the most and, so she's been using it for over 30 years.

- When I cook it, I smell it.

Yes, that is the smell I want.

- [Liza] How did you find your curry powder?

- Oh, actually from my mom.

(Cassandra and Christine laughing) That is a traditional curry from Malaysia.

- No wastage.

(laughs) (pounding bright music) When you cook it down and with the garlic especially, it gives you like a full, like, savoriness to it.

Mix it in.

Can you just give me like a fast forward video of stirring?

Like it gets really tiring.

So the curry is definitely more on the popular and just feels less heat, but for the people who want spice and love spicy, they're like our most dedicated hot sauce fans.

They're just like, "It's so good So yeah, so this is the hot sauce we're using today.

This was made yesterday.

So our hot sauce is a lot of shallots, garlic, and then it's cooked in sunflower oil as well, chili peppers, water, and salt.

So no shrimp paste in this one.

- [Liza] On a scale of 1 to 10, how hot is your hot?

- I think, at least 8.

- For somebody that eats spicy, it's probably like 7.

I'd say 7.

But if someone doesn't eat spicy at all, I don't ever tell them to try the hot sauce.

Because they will- - Kill me.

- try to kill me, yeah.

(Cassandra and Christine laughing) Pretty delicious and pretty spicy too, so if you like spicy, definitely recommend it.

(pounding bright music continues) (steam hissing) (gentle music) This is the shortened version of my mom's chicken curry because, like, usually she use a full chicken, but we like to use chicken thighs 'cause it's easier to eat and also, like, you know, you can just have in your fridge and, like, chop it up.

Curry.

(food sizzling) Boom.

So we launched the brand as Mama Lam's in 2016.

I feel like we kind of were very, like, first, like we're pretty much the first to market with a Malaysian curry paste.

- Okay.

- All right.

Just let it, like, absorb that curry.

And the flavors are just, like, just amazing.

Like people, you can just use it as a seasoning in, to add it to anything.

(machine whirring) All right, we're ready.

We're ready to jar.

(laughs) Curry coming through.

Curry coming through.

I had so many people I encounter, I have to educate them.

One, curry paste, nobody knows what it is.

And then two, we're trying to sell Malaysian curry, so it's like makes it too- - It's very hot.

- Our traditional medium is definitely are bestseller.

The vegan ones are pretty good too.

Quality control, sometimes we do a taste test.

Just very sporadically, though.

Okay.

(light upbeat music) Mm.

We're putting Malaysia on the map for a lot of people.

- Yeah, I'm happy.

You know, people like my curry.

(Cassandra laughing) - She was happy.

- Yeah.

- You know, Malaysian food could be one of those, like, staples where you can have in your rotation every week.

So that's really where, like, this whole idea of, like, "We should, like, you know, introduce Malaysian curry and, like, her curry specifically to everyone."

- One chicken- - Mm.

- one second, one second, one second.

- [Liza] Smile.

- Mmm.

- Yummy.

(gentle bright music) (gentle piano music) - Technically, it's easy to make Onigiri is very simple.

But my product is different.

(laughs) - Where are we?

- Yeah.

- [Customer] My daughter is totally obsessed with the onigiri.

- Oh, thank you so much.

- No, thank you.

- I'm so appreciative.

Thank you.

- That's so nice.

- So nice.

(Sayuri laughing) I'm eating onigiri every day.

I'm thinking onigiri every day, all day long.

All the night, even in my dream Hi.

I'm Sayuri Oyamada, owner and maker of Oyamada Onigiri.

Based in New York City.

(laughs) (rice rattling) Rice is very important for making onigiri.

So this is a high quality Japanese rice.

It's short grain.

Always using the short grain.

You can see the individual ingredients also.

- [Liza] And the individual rice - [Sayuri] Individual rice and seaweed.

(gentle dreamy music) - [Liza] Smile.

(Liza laughs) - When I was a child, my mom and the grandmoms always cooking the Japanese food, and then they taught me how to make Japanese food.

This is umeboshi.

It's very sour and salty.

Very traditional Japanese ingredients for onigiri.

Yeah, yeah, it's like a pickles.

Yeah, it's a pickles.

- It's pickle.

- It's pickle.

(gentle dreamy music) So my countryside, Niigata Prefecture, it's the most popular in Japan.

The Niigata rice is very popular in Japan.

It's a nice high quality rice.

It's good for the making onigiri.

First step is washing rice.

That most important things is water, and then you can see the binchotan.

That it's we call the charcoal.

So absorbs the impurities from the tap water.

So basically, onigiri is traditional Japanese, onigiri is like rice and ingredient is put inside and covered with rice.

And whole wrap is a seaweed.

It's kind of soul food.

Rice is very delicate.

Have to be gentle.

Washing with six or seven times, change the water.

One of my biggest motivation is, it's creating something new.

(gentle bright music) Onigiri is like my babies.

(gentle bright music continues) Mostly, my flavor is very, so mixing some, it's traditional and new.

It's like a New York style and also Japanese tradition.

And then more special.

First bite is important.

This is spicy takana.

Takana, it's a spicy, and the takana is Japanese mustard.

So usually, most of the onigiri ingredients, it just only center, like this, and then covered.

But I'm always teaching to the, more like a sandwich.

And then first bite is here.

There.

I established the food companies in the middle of the pandemic.

I was suffer many, many difficulties and also fear that time.

Meantimes, I was cooking the Japanese food, only Japanese food every day.

I realized how important it's to focus on the what we eat in order to live a healthy life.

That's why I decided to do making onigiri.

The last is salt.

The one rice ball is 100 gram of rice.

This is a perfect shape.

Onigiri is very healthy.

So for example, the salmon with yuzu and kale mixed with miso, and also seaweed with cream cheese.

That's good matching.

That flavor is good.

And also avocado and the shiso, it's perfect combination.

That it's like a chemistry.

I had fun, that's it's creating and then developing the onigiri flavors.

That it's my fun time.

Yeah, my passion.

(soothing music) Basically, we are using water a lot.

My finger is always- - [Liza] Wet.

- Wet.

Actually, I'm not chef.

Actually, I'm actress in Japan, in the film industry and also TV commercial.

(soothing music continues) - [Customer] You make this?

- Yes, vegan.

Most of it vegan.

Still warm.

I got lucky because customers buying a lot.

Yeah, customer say it's very delicious.

And also, they know it's quality of rice.

And also, umeboshi is quite famous.

I feel now onigiri is more popular more than before.

So I decorate to the modern and the Japanese style.

(soothing music continues) I think I become a more stronger.

When I was in Japan, I just an actress.

I was just actress.

I hope you try Oyamada Onigiri.

Oyamada Japan is borderless.

It's for all.

- [Liza] Yay.

(Sayuri giggles) - [Sayuri] And crispy and fresh.

And then take off that side, three.

(seaweed crunching) (Liza chuckling) Mmm.

(Sayuri laughs gently) (gentle bright music) - [Liza] So Leetal, help us say - Matbucha?

(laughs) Matbucha.

- Matbucha.

Easy.

Hi, I'm Ron, and this is Leetal.

- We are the chefs and founder of New York Shuk, creators of your Middle Eastern Pantry.

(food bubbling gently) (light music) - We're excited to introduce our latest matbucha.

Matbucha, not matbucha.

And this product we've been working on for quite a long while.

Matbucha is a tomato-based condiment, which is very, very traditional in my side of the family.

I'm half Moroccan, so this is where it comes from.

(gentle upbeat music) - For me, matbucha is a celebration of the everyday, 'cause that's exactly what it is for us.

You know, I always make sure that we have a batch of matbucha in our fridge because whenever we have a batch of matbucha in the fridge, I know we're sorted.

It doesn't matter if we have time to cook, we don't have time to cook, we will- - And we don't have time to cook.

(Leetal chuckles) - We will have dinner on the table in 10 minutes.

(gentle upbeat music) - [Ron] This recipe of matbucha has been in my mom's family pretty much forever and ever.

There's no such thing as starting a meal without matbucha and the rest of the salads that are, you know, being laid out on the table.

- Every culture has, like their own way to celebrate the bounty of tomatoes.

And, you know, I think here we are so fixated with Italian style of tomato sauce that we think it's time to grow beyond that and really introduce other flavors and culture to the mix.

And that's what we're trying to do with the matbucha.

- So it's somewhat more of a chunkier variation of a tomato sauce or something like that.

- Oh my god, this is so fun.

Oh my god, this is so fun.

(laughs) - [Ron] Yeah, you put your thumb here and then you just go around the thumb.

- [Friend] Hold on, hold on.

- I like that.

(Leetal chuckles) Girl.

(Ron laughs) - Well, making matbucha is more like a family affair just because of the mere fact that you need a lot of tomatoes to make a very small batch eventually of matbucha.

And, you know, to do it all by yourself, that's pretty sad, right?

So, you know, you just get a bunch of people to come and mostly, you know, traditionally, it would've been, you know, like family, but since Leetal and I are just here by ourselves, we use our friends as our immediate family.

Matbucha, you know, has a very specific significance because it was something that we all, in my family anyways, really, really love.

- It's made from tomatoes, garlic, chili peppers, so it has a bit of heat to it.

It has some tanginess from preserved lemon.

That is our kind of signature take on it.

- Now is very good time to introduce Middle Eastern ingredients because people are more open to them.

- [Friend] But she's there.

- Done.

- One more time.

- [Friend] What's it... - [Leetal] Matbucha.

- [Friend] Matbucha.

- Yeah, perfect.

- Matbucha.

- Can you say it?

- Matbucha.

- Matbucha.

- Yeah.

- Bucha.

(group laughing) Kha, you know, there.

(laughs) - Matbucha is something that was always there for us, meaning it was there when it was a high holiday as, you know, like a small plate on the table.

It was there during the week when you had to make, like, some sort of like a quick fix meal.

- And everything is cooked low and slow until you get a very rich, jammy, tomato-y flavor condiment that you just want to put on everything.

So I think when people taste it, they expect, like, all these kind of burst of, you know, ethnic flavors, and they are surprised by the simplicity and how clean the flavor is.

(gentle music) - It's meant to be consumed straight out of the jar.

So that means you can open the jar, you can simply put it on bread and eat it as is.

And it's delicious as is.

It doesn't have to go through any other processes in order to enjoy it.

- Sometimes I feel like it's easier to say what you can't do with matbucha because we literally use it for like breakfast, lunch, and dinner, for any and every application.

(gentle majestic music) (matbucha sizzles) - You can crack some eggs in it and you're creating your own shakshuka.

You can cook chicken or beef with it.

You can cook lamb with it.

You can, you know, like add vegetables into it.

But I think again, you know, just, matbucha is such an everyday thing that it's pretty much impossible for me to imagine my life without it.

(shakshuka bubbling gently) (gentle majestic music) (cooking spoon scraping) (gentle music) The things that would really pop out is gonna be, you know, like the flavor of the tomatoes.

We have found that in New Jersey farmers grow local tomato called Jersey fresh tomato.

For us, it just made sense, just like my grandma used to do back in the '50s and '60s in Israel when they grew their own tomatoes in the backyard.

So we just decided to look for a type of local tomatoes that would be, you know, like really awesome quality tomatoes made into our matbucha.

(gentle music continues) I think the name matbucha is a little more challenging for people, but it's also part of the fun because whether you're gonna call it matbucha or you're gonna call it matbucha, it doesn't matter.

The fact is that you're trying to say it.

The fact is that you're trying to pronounce, you know, something that you didn't try to pronounce, you know, like 5 or 10 years ago.

(steam hisses) (gentle music continues) - I think we both just thought it was time to expand people knowledge beyond you know, the few flavors that people perceive as Middle Eastern.

And people know, like, all the lavish stews and couscous and harissa, but because this is, like, simple home food, like really just tomato, garlic, chili peppers cooking away, it's so ingrained in the DNA that no one actually took the time to be like, to introduce it.

(gentle music continues) And, you know, call it what it is.

Not just like a Moroccan tomato sauce or Tunisian tomato sauce, but we feel like so strongly about, first of all how these flavors can, like, really impact, like, the day-to-day cooking, that we really kind of saw the value in putting it out there, no matter how difficult it may be.

The main thing is to kind of, to give respect, you know, from where these flavors are coming from and to take it to where we think it should be now.

And we think matbucha is that flavor to start with.

(l (gentle music continues) (upbeat music) - Artisan food makers are reaching deeper into their cultures to offer a diverse array of products from so many different backgrounds.

I invite you to taste and explore these local food businesses working to enrich our plates even when we're on the go.

That's it for this episode of "food.

curated."

I'm Liza de Guia.

Be sure to connect with us on social media and eat more stories.

I'll see you next week.

(gentle bright music) Funding for food.

curated.

is made possible by.

Stele is a globally curated collection of artisanal and independent perfumes.

Hand-picked olfactory experiences that tell a story.

Available online and at two New York locations.

For more info, we're at Stele (dot) nyc.

Support for food.

curated.

comes from CMD Psych.

Bringing a holistic approach to child wellness and women's mental health care.

Helping patients find balance and harmony in their lives.

For more info, head to CMD Psych (dot) com Additional Funding provided by.

Craving more about the stories behind the craft.

Dive deeper into the makers we care about.

On our social pages, and at foodcurated dot com.

[music] [music] [music]