(calm music) - When I was six, I immigrated to Houston, Texas, from Taiwan.

Back then, I was the only Asian kid in my entire school, and good Asian food was hard to come by.

Since then, the Chinese and Vietnamese populations have boomed, and Houston is now one of the country's best cities for Asian food.

And if you want the best of the best, you'll go to an Asian strip mall That's where I met some of the city's brightest culinary stars.

(upbeat music) (calm music) Growing up in Alief, an ethnically and economically diverse section of Houston, the Blood Brothers, Robin and Terry Wong and their childhood friend Quy Hoang, were well aware of Texas barbecue.

At Blood Bros. BBQ, they have brought Chinese and Vietnamese flavors to bear on a Texas staple.

So what kind of food did you guys grow up eating?

- Chinese food and Southern food - Oh, okay, this is a brisket fried rice and a chow fun with brisket, is this?

- Yep.

- Yeah, and people love it.

- You know, it kind of tastes like the Chinese larou, the Chinese, right- - Right, right, right.

- The Chinese smoked meat.

- Sure.

- Maybe that's why there's so many similarities, because like my dad who won't eat anything that's non-Chinese would eat all of this with pleasure.

- I hope so, I hope so.

(calm music) - We always like to say we just take flavors that we grew up with, put it on traditional cuts of meat that you would see in barbecue and use traditional barbecue cooking methods, and it's worked out for us.

So this is where all the magic happens, smoke shed.

- This is incredible.

Look at that glaze.

- Yeah.

So these are our gochujang ribs.

We actually will do a gochujang glaze on top of 'em and then also top them with sesame seeds and green onions.

- So what has gone into, on top of the ribs?

- I made a rub, gochugaru flakes, red chili flakes, a lot of sugar.

You know, Asians, we love our sugar.

(laughs) Little bit of salt and pepper.

We sell it by the pound, or people, a lot of people will buy the whole rack.

- Yeah, yum.

(upbeat music) We wanna bring that backyard barbecue vibe to the masses.

You know, when we first started, you know, we've been open here five years, but we started this journey in probably, well, 2012, but the barbecue was 2014.

And when we first did our popups, you know, we're like, "Hey, what's a good backyard barbecue?"

Good music, Robbie would DJ all the events, good beer.

- [Robin] First, his house got to be too small of a venue.

- [Quy] Yeah, to host all my friends.

- So why don't we call some of our guys in the club business and do it at their spot, so- - Right.

- [Robin] So as a club owner, "You mean I'm gonna have a free food vendor.

I'm gonna have a free DJ.

You're gonna bring a couple, 300, 400 people to my venue, and I get to keep all the sales?

You don't want a percentage?

Come on, bring it!"

- [Danielle] Right, brilliant team work.

- Yeah, we're always, you know, backyard barbecue, good food, good friends, and good booze, right?

So this is our pork loin seasoned with Chinese five spice, sugar, and salt.

It goes on the pork loin, we smoke it, and then we slice it thin and cover it in our char siu sauce.

This will go on our Char Siu Banh Mi.

Chicken liver pate, so this is basically our take on a traditional Vietnamese banh mi.

You know, we all grew up here eating this.

This is a garlic butter aioli.

In Alief, I mean, this is, back then, you can go to the place, get these for, what, like $1.50.

It's gone up a little bit over the years, but...

This is our char siu in here.

- [Danielle] That's a lot of char siu.

That's a very generous portion.

- [Quy] Oh yeah, we like to feed people here.

(laughs) - [Danielle] Yeah.

- [Quy] Jalapenos, pickled carrots and daikon, some cilantro, and I can't tell y'all what this is, secret seasoning.

(laughs) - [Danielle] Secret sauce.

- And this is one of our banh mis that we have on the everyday menu.

- Ooh!

Can I have that right now?

- Yeah, for sure.

- Thank you.

Wow, you're not kidding around here.

(Quy laughs) - And that's kinda what we try to do.

We try not to stray too far from what is traditional, but we try to put our little twist on it.

- Mm-hmm, what do your parents think of your food?

- Oh, they love it.

- My mom is literally, he knows, she's here once to twice every week.

(laughs) She is.

- She's our biggest fan.

- Yeah, she is.

- So they live here.

- And she told me, and my mom was the first one to tell me when we put the rice on the menu, "It's okay."

And I'm like, "Just relax.

I'm working on it," you know?

And then when I got it to where I thought it was good, she was like, "Yeah, it's much better."

- This food really, truly is a personification of you guys and this diverse community that you grew up in.

And it's so Chinese Texan.

- We know that we have been an inspiration for some people, and not just Asians, other barbecue joints that want to do something creative but are scared.

They contact us all the time and are like, "You guys gave us the courage to try something different, to put something new on our menu."

- But it's not like this is just hodgepodge fusion as in you're just putting, you know, wasabi and mashed potatoes together to call it Asian, you know?

- I've done that, by the way.

(laughs) - These flavor combinations make a lot of sense.

And so, and also it was born out of necessity and circumstance of living in this melting pot, right, where you do have the Vietnamese and the Chinese and the Texans coexisting.

And this is the food that came out of the soil.

- Definitely.

- We set out to just do Texas barbecue, and then when we were doing that for a few years, it was like, " Let's have some fun.

Let's do something different and see if it works."

And then people started paying attention, and they were like, "Wow, that's different.

That's really good.

What else can you do?"

And we were like, "Well, let's try this.

Let's try that, let's try that."

(calm music) - In the bayside suburb of Seabrook, I met up with Samantha Tran, a second-generation Vietnamese American who runs the family business, Rose's Seafood.

It's a bustling fish market and a shining example of how immigrants turn hardship into triumph.

Tell me how Rose's Seafood got started.

- Well, Rose's Seafood is basically a dream.

My parents came over here, oh, 45 years ago, without disclosing my age, so.

(both laughing) But they came over here, they immigrated with eight of their kids.

They lost everything from the Vietnam War.

So when they came here, they didn't have much choice of what they wanted to do, but they had to try to feed us.

So they started selling seafood on the side of the streets.

And then they were able to finally find a place and pretty much find roots.

And we've been in Seabrook for over 45 years.

I am the youngest of eight.

- The youngest of eight?

- Yes.

- Wow.

Well, that's a huge responsibility.

- (laughing) It is, but you know because it's a family business, it works because we are all really good at working together.

So I have a brother that does like the wholesale distribution of seafood in Houston.

I have a sister who has like a shrimping, you know, packaging and pier.

So we get her shrimp from here.

And then there's us here, the little small retail market, which I enjoy 'cause we get to know the people.

- See that you have a lot of Vietnamese ingredients and condiments, and then you also have a lot of Cajun spices here.

I mean, what's the kind of the ethos behind the market?

- Because the area that we're in, especially in Houston, is so diverse, so people want to cook a little bit of something different.

But like for my mom, her little tiny dream was to have also a little Asian grocery store.

(laughs) So she's like, "I want a little corner to sell my Asian grocery."

And I was like, "Okay, you get dry seasoning, Mom."

(laughs) (upbeat music) - How did they find a way to cope with their new life here?

- It was hard.

My parents had a little small house across the street, so it was basically a one bedroom, and it was 10 of us living in there.

So we all like, you know, pretty much slept together.

And my parents always told me to go out, get a college degree.

Go do whatever, you know, brought you, brings you passion.

And so I lived in Austin for a while, and I worked there, but then my dad got sick and then, so he actually called me and asked me to come back home to kind of help 'em out.

To be able to do something, especially your career, you gotta have a passion and heart, and I got that from my dad.

And so I was just kind of meant to be here and kind of continue his legacy.

- Now, what are your hopes for the future of the business?

- To continue here, I mean, there's a reason why we built, rebuilt this store after we lost it from the hurricane to kind of stay forever as long as we can and to just kind of make my dad proud.

You know, he's not here with us anymore, but I hope that, you know, everything that we do here continues to make him proud, and you know, be able to pass it on.

(bright music) (calm music) - When Vietnamese refugees arrived on the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, many of them took up shrimping, an arduous profession that was familiar from their home country.

They battled racist boycotts and intimidation to become a significant part of the local fishing economy.

At Cajun Kitchen, John Nguyen honors those forebears with his seafood-heavy Cajun boil rich with the flavors of Vietnam.

- All right Danielle, let's go into our kitchen.

- Oh, my god!

- Let's get this started.

- Thank you.

So excited to be here.

- Here is an apron and some gloves.

So the first thing we do every day is we get some fresh live crawfish in.

- When is Louisiana crawfishing season?

- Louisiana crawfish season usually is typically from January to July every year.

It kind of depends on the weather.

The weather affects whether it starts early or whether it starts late and whether it ends early and whether it ends late.

But typically January to June, July.

The process is, it comes in.

Some of them will not made the trek, so we gotta make sure we take those out.

- This guy definitely did.

He's like snatching onto me right here.

- [John] They're very lively, but they are, they have some mud on them because, you know, it's called a red swamp crawfish for a reason.

So we put them in the water here to wash them a little bit.

Basically now he's sorting out the ones that are still kicking.

- [Danielle] Oh, my god, there's a bunch on the floor.

- Yeah, so you know, (laughs) this is what happens.

And if you go to Louisiana, like, on the side of the road, there'll be crawfish crawling around like just like this.

- Really?

- Yeah.

- All right, well, these are definitely alive.

- Yeah, they're definitely alive.

So the majority of the crawfish that's consumed in the US is from Louisiana, from the rice fields in Louisiana.

And typically when they're not growing rice, then what they do is they have crawfish.

So their land is basically used for two purposes, for crawfish when it's in season or rice when that's in season.

Do you know a lot of Vietnamese people actually ended up doing fishing as a way to provide for their families after they moved from Vietnam?

A huge chunk of them moved to Houston or Louisiana, I think because of the climate.

It's very similar to Vietnam.

It's hot, it's humid.

But a lot of them did fishing, shrimping, crabbing as a way of living in Vietnam, and when they came here after the Vietnam War, that was something that they were familiar with, and I think it's just made them naturally gravitate towards the coast.

So yeah, a lot of Vietnamese people still in the fishing industry.

I have uncles who still shrimp and crab.

- What makes this Viet-Cajun?

- So with our Cajun, Viet-Cajun we do start it with a traditional Louisiana boil, 'cause to me, you know, we gotta honor where this food is from.

So we do all our crawfish seafood is boiled and soaked in a typical Louisiana boil.

It has garlic, it has celery, bay leaf, all the crawfish seasoning, cayenne pepper, lemon, lime, orange juice.

So here we have a bunch of different pots.

Some of them are used for crawfish, some for corn and potatoes, some for blue crabs and snow crab, king crab, other things.

So yeah, for us, this is where it starts, where we give it the traditional Louisiana Cajun seasoning.

When we make it Viet-Cajun, we go over here, and the food is cooked very traditionally in an Asian wok.

And then we add Asian spices, seasonings, you know, orange, lemon, maybe Thai basil, green onion, stuff that you typically think more of in Asian food.

So that's where the Viet-Cajun part of our crawfish comes in.

This is just super sweet corn on the cob, but we soak it in our Cajun boil.

So whenever you eat it with your seafood, you can get a little bit of the kick and a little bit of the seasoning.

(gentle music) - [Danielle] Everywhere I went in Houston, the familiar flavors I had grown up with came rushing back to me in new and exciting ways.

- Vietnamese food, we use a lot of garlic.

We use a lot of garlic, we use a lot of sugar as well.

For example, if you eat Vietnamese braised pork belly, it has a lot of sugar in it, or braised catfish has a lot of sugar in it, garlic, onion.

But yeah, that's where the Vietnamese part of it comes in.

And some, a lot of extra butter, some other sauces that I'm not gonna tell you what is.

So for example, Thai basil, we gotta use fresh Thai basil leaves to give it that nice aromatic when it comes out of the wok.

Now you understand why they call it the red swamp crawfish, 'cause it has such a nice red, deep color.

- Oh, my god, that's a beautiful one.

- Oh, he got some liquid butter in there.

He has the vegetables and the fruits, some orange, some lemon, and green onion.

He's adding some Asian sauces to it, some secret Asian ingredients, Vietnamese ingredients.

And that sugar will give it a little bit of sweetness to it.

The citrus part of component of the kitchen special helps to balance out the richness.

So you have the acidity helping out to balance all the butter and the garlic and a lot the seasoning.

(gentle music) - It made me proud that we've crafted such delicious combinations from seemingly disparate but wholly complementary flavors and cultures.

- All right, Danielle, are you ready to dig in to your- - I'm so ready.

- Viet-Cajun boil here?

- Yes, I think I'm gonna be Crajun for it.

- (laughs) I like that.

This is our Thai basil crawfish.

And to eat it, you basically just kind of pinch here.

Most people, if you wanna get the vein out, sometimes you're lucky, sometimes you're not, but you kind of pinch here, and then you pull it out.

See, I wasn't lucky this time.

- Oh.

- But usually the whole vein will come out.

- Oh, really.

- And if not, you could do it after the fact, too.

You just kind of crack up the tail here, the shell, take off the top part.

There you see the black vein.

- It's like a baby shrimp.

- Yeah, it's basically a baby shrimp.

And then just pop it in your mouth.

Vietnamese people really have created a new genre, sub-genre of Vietnamese seafood here by embracing something that is typical to Louisiana and then just putting their own spin on it.

And before, maybe only Asians liked it, but now we have people coming here who are Hispanic Americans, Indian Americans, Caucasians.

We have people from other countries, people from other states, anywhere, and they wanna enjoy Viet-Cajun food and what it's about.

(calm music) - Pho is America's ultimate comfort food.

Houston takes its pho seriously now, and Christina Dang makes Texas-sized bowls of the best pho I've ever had.

I brought my Texas-sized appetite with me to Pho 54.

Thanks for showing me the kitchen.

Hi.

- [Christina] We have our three soups going on.

- [Danielle] Oh, wow.

- [Christina] This is our bun bo hue soup.

- [Danielle] How long has this been boiling?

- 14 hours.

- Oh, so you make it fresh every day?

- We make it fresh every day.

We have the traditional ginger, onion, star anise, cinnamon, all the good stuff just boiling away.

And my aunt is really meticulous about straining it constantly throughout the day, so the soup stays really clear and pretty.

And then we have the chicken that's boiling over there.

- [Danielle] The broth really is the most important part- - Of course.

- of the soup, right?

- Of course it is, yes, yes.

- [Danielle] How many pounds of meat go in here?

- So just the bones that we boil are 80 pounds, and then our oxtail and our beef ribs are 50 pounds.

The chicken soup, we use 30 pounds of chicken.

And this is a free-range chicken that we use.

We use the whole chicken.

- [Danielle] I mean, that's where all the yummy stuff is.

- Right, yeah, all the collagen and stuff.

So this is the veggies that we use for bun bo.

Traditionally it's cabbage, lettuce, and then some other herbs that we just slice super thin.

The herbs are the Vietnamese coriander, if you wanna open it.

This is traditionally served with chicken and then with the bun bo hue.

- Oh, I love this smell!

- [Christina] Super fresh.

- [Danielle] So good in soup.

- Yes, so for the bun bo hue, I would add both of these just for some crunch.

I like lime in mine.

Some people just like to have the plain soup.

It just depends on your preference.

- I love adding all- - All the stuff.

- Veggies and, yes, and some lime.

- [Christina] And do you like spice?

- [Danielle] I do.

I love spice.

- So we make our own sate sauce here.

It's gonna be on the side.

- Oh!

- It's lemongrass based, so it's a little more fragrant than the store-bought sates.

And if you wanna, you can dip or you can put in the soup, completely up to you.

- Okay, I say I like spice, but then I don't really know Texas or Viet spice level.

- Okay.

It's not too, too spicy, but it's nice.

- [Danielle] Take a little bite, like, do I mix?

Do I just dip it?

- You should mix it.

- Mix it.

- Yeah, and get a spoonful, of a little of everything.

We have the pork hock in there, the Vietnamese sausage with the pepper, the beef shank.

That's the clump that you're holding onto right now.

- Yes.

- And then the blood curd, all the goodies.

Good?

- So good, the soup.

- So good, right?

- It's unbelievable.

- Do you need more lime?

- And the meat, it's perfectly cooked.

- Do you need more?

- I don't know, I need to eat more is what I need.

- So it's the same kind of base that was in the pho soup.

So we have the, all the bones and then the oxtail and the beef rib, and then we have more spices, so like lemongrass, a lot of different spices compared to pho.

Like, this is, I would say a more muted soup, and this really is a flavor packer.

- Is there a proper way to eat pho?

I mean, do you wanna get like a little bit of soup, a little bit of noodles in every spoonful or- - I've seen people eat it all sorts of ways.

Most people literally just shove the noodles into their face.

- Right.

- And then just have soup dripping everywhere, which is fine.

- Beyond.

- So good.

I'm glad you like it.

- The lemongrass is really shining through.

- Yes, so the chicken comes with this, this is the mung bean noodle.

So it's a clear noodle.

It's a little bit chewier than like a rice noodle.

I like it just plain, but I will add a little- - Because you respect the sauce, you respect the soup.

- I like it plain.

I like to add a little bit of bean sprouts to it for the crunch.

Some people like their bean sprouts steamed so it's not as crunchy, but then I don't think it's as fun to eat.

And then this is the ginger garlic sauce that we also make here that we dip the chicken in, super, super yummy.

So we have the white meat, and then we have the dark meat as well.

And you also have the option to have it without skin, 'cause a lot of people don't like the boiled chicken skin.

They don't like that texture.

So yeah, like I said, everything is very- - Everything is customizable.

- very customizable here.

This dipping sauce is a ginger garlic sauce with a little bit of the sambal, so a little bit sweet, salty, and spicy.

It goes really well with the chicken.

So you just dip it in.

So I just like eat noodles, and then I dip and chase it with my chicken.

(laughs) - Oh, sounds like the perfect cure-all.

- Yes.

- I mean, something you could eat daily.

- Yes, and then this is our, one of our most popular appetizers.

This is the bone marrow soup.

So it's the same base as the pho soup.

This is the oxtail, and all the bone marrow that has basically come out of the bone- - Wow.

- while it's cooking.

And then we just take bread, and we dip it in.

- Oh, so you don't eat it like- - Oh, you eat it like that.

- Oh, you eat it like that?

- Yes, you can eat like that.

- Oh, okay.

It's just if you wanted something to scoop it up.

Super rich, super flavorful.

- Amazing.

I've never had anything like this before.

- Yeah, it really, it truly melts in your mouth.

- I don't even have to chew.

(Christina laughing) It's all good for you because it's like, it's comfort food.

- Yes, yes, yes.

- And it nourishes your soul, so it just tastes like- - Homey.

- Like, yeah, like a bowl of, a big hug.

- A big hug, yeah, exactly, so this is super popular.

The egg rolls, super crunchy, always good.

- What is this?

- This is Thai basil.

Usually we eat it with just the regular beef pho.

This is my favorite herb, for sure.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, we usually eat it with that.

I like to eat it with my chicken - [Danielle] This is your favorite, right?

- [Christina] Yes.

- [Danielle] I mean, your most popular here.

- [Christina] Most popular, yes.

- [Danielle] I can't believe how much meat there is here.

It's just so meaty.

- So it comes with three to to four oxtails, just depending on the size, and then a huge rib.

- [Danielle] All right, this is really a Texas-sized pho.

- Yes.

- Look at this!

I can't even get all of it on a spoon.

It's well seasoned.

You can definitely taste all the spices, the star anise, cinnamon.

- But not overpowering.

- No, I mean, I could drink this as like a tonic just, instead of tea.

Like, I want a tumbler of this that I could just go about my day- - Yes.

- drinking.

- Yes.

- Do you do that?

- Yes.

- Thai basil.

- [Christina] Add a little bit of that, and I'll help you add some bean - [Danielle] You know, I'm not really like about subtlety.

I really like to overdo it with ingredients that I love, like beans sprouts and Thai basil.

- [Christina] Yes!

- [Danielle] And I'm even gonna add some of these veggies in here.

- [Christina] Yeah!

- This is so healthy.

Can you get extra veggies?

- Yes, of course you can.

(laughing) You can.

You can have anything you'd like here.

- Yeah, I'm tasting the sawtooth now.

- Yes, yes.

- The rau ram?

- The rau ram, rau ram, yep, you got it.

In the past year or two, I feel like I've been seeing more of Vietnamese influence on random menus.

Whenever we go out to eat, I'll see, like, oh this is, you know, Vietnamese-inspired dish, blah blah blah.

And I'm like, "That's really cool."

Like, I don't know, I think that now that people are more inclined to try Vietnamese food and it's not as weird or scary sounding.

- It's heartwarming to see how Asian food has exploded in the years since I left Houston, and it's thrilling to taste the ways in which Asian chefs and restaurateurs are transforming some of the South's oldest comfort foods.

I can't wait to see what the next generation brings to this Tex-Asian mix.

(calm music)