(lively music) - [Beryl] Every culture
has a noodle dish. What makes them different are
not only the types of noodles. - (laughs) It's everywhere. - [Beryl] But the sauces, the
textures, the cooking styles. - I'm sorry, but I'm
gonna have to break this. - [Beryl] Pretty much
anything and everything. A million Italians just
cried across the land. - Everything is like slow prep, and then you're like,
"Everything now!" - [Beryl] My name is Beryl,
and this show explores how our foods can bring our
different cultures together, and this is our noodle episode. (lively music continues) Today, I've paired
up Mae and Zeeshan to swap their make-on-repeat
noodle recipes. Zeeshan will make Mae's
Cantonese Classic, ironically named
Singapore noodles. (gasps) Oh, my god! (laughs) While Mae will try
a Burmese-Pakistani hybrid dish called khausa. - No, I've never cooked
Pakistani food before. - [Beryl] This episode will
definitely have you rethinking what you know about noodles. - Oh, it's intense, oh! - It's like a cardinal
sin or something. (bright music) - Hi, Zeeshan. My name is Mae. And I understand you're going
to be doing Singapore noodles, which is a misnomer because
it is a Cantonese noodle dish. - I'm making Singapori noodles. All right, starting
with the shrimp. - [Mae] I was originally
born in Canton, China. - I'm a very lazy cook,
so I ended up using the ginger garlic
paste. (laughs) So me peeling ginger and like
mincing it is not a thing. - [Mae] It's not a
common dish China, but in Hong Kong, it's
a very common dish because that's where it
was invented in the 1960s. And of course across the USA, everybody knows
Singapore noodles. But if you go to Singapore, most people have
not heard of it. - Slice up celery, just- - [Beryl] How do you
feel about celery? - I hate celery. I hate celery. It is the one thing
I never wanna eat. - [Mae] I think this
noodle dish looks fresh, colorful, and delicious. And it's beautiful
because you use turmeric, and then you have
all the vegetables. It's one of the best
pasta dishes in the world. - All right, time
to make the sauce. So just sugar,
oyster sauce, water, and curry powder
and turmeric powder. It's gonna be bright yellow. Oh, it's intense, oh! - It's got like a savory
sweetness, though. - Yeah, it's very,
it feels like it goes really well with seafood. - I grew up in the Chinese
restaurant business. When the restaurant
closed at night, I would go in and experiment. I loved cooking. - It's also one of
those (laughing). - [Mae] My tip is not to
soak the rice sticks too long in the hot water. It cannot be too soft. - [Beryl] Everywhere. - It's everywhere. - [Beryl] What did Mae say
to you about the noodles? - [Zeeshan] She said you don't
want it to be overcooked. - [Beryl] Check it at three. - Yeah. - And then see what's up.
- Set a timer. - [Mae] You have to
test it by tasting it. It has to be soft but chewy. - Done. - Yeah, that's a winner.
- Yeah, done. - All right,
- Done, four minutes. That was four minutes. Okay, so next step, here we go. Heat up the wok. Add the shrimp. (gasps) Oh, my god! (laughing) It's all
happening, baby! - It's all happening. - All that prep. Woo-hoo-hoo! (wok sizzling)
Whoo! (laughs) - [Zeeshan] Oh, wow. - [Mae] Your vegetables have
to be done Chinese style, which means do not overcook it. - [Mae] It's a very
colorful bowl of food. - [Beryl] Mae said it would be. - [Zeeshan] It's like a rainbow. - [Mae] It's a bit challenging. - The oil's really
throwing him for a loop. (Zeeshan and Beryl laughing) - [Mae] But it's so
beautiful, colorful. - It is so colorful! - Yeah, it's like
a rainbow in here. - Wow, oh, the timer.
Okay, go, go, go! - Everything is like slow prep, and then you're like,
"Everything now!" - [Mae] I love making
Singapore noodles for my hubby, 'cause he loves it, and
we eat it once a week by candlelight. - It's an arm workout. - This looks really good. - Yeah.
- You need me to tap in? (laughs) Oh, you did. (both laughing) - And I think that's
why my marriage has lasted all these days. He can't cook for beans. I've always had so much
fun making this dish, and I hope you love
it just like I do. Love, Mae. (bowl clanks) - [Beryl] (laughing) Nice. - Smells really good, too. Gotta make the perfect bite, a little bit of
vegetables, the noodles. It's light. It's
really refreshing. She's right about the
crunchiness of the vegetables. If they were soft, they
wouldn't, it wouldn't work like. But once you mix
everything together, like the mixture of the
curry paste, the noodles, and all the peppers,
it's like a, you get a different
texture in every bite, which is like very exciting. So I wasn't really sure like
what it's gonna taste like, but eating it,
like, it makes sense why it's so special of a dish. The most surprising thing
was the noodles and the eggs. - [Beryl] That looks cool. - Yeah.
- Have you ever cooked eggs in this much oil? - No. The way we fried the eggs
and then chopped them up and sliced them, it
becomes like a part of the noodles itself. So when you take a bite,
you like look for the eggs, 'cause the eggs have
a really nice flavor. So you like try to
line them up together. So like I'm always looking
for the little pieces of eggs. - [Beryl] Do you often
cook with bean sprouts? - [Zeeshan] I'm not a big
fan of bean sprouts, either. - Why?
- When you get a nice bowl of pho, I
leave the bean sprouts out. - [Beryl] (gasps) How do you
feel about the bean sprouts? - Beans, oh, did we put the
bean sprouts in? (laughs) - [Beryl] Yeah! - I do not know where the
bean sprouts went. (laughing) - And you were like,
"Oh, I don't like bean sprouts.
- "Oh, I don't like that." I did not even notice
the bean sprouts at all. - [Beryl] And what
about the celery? - The celery, oh, yeah, the
celery's actually gone, too. I hate celery. I hate celery. I think it just
adds to the flavor, but I don't really touch 'em. I don't really
notice them at all. I was very-
- So maybe you found a way that you like these ingredients. - Oh, I think I could
use them in some way. - [Beryl] Is this a dish that you could see
yourself making again? - 100%, I'd definitely
do that again. - Let's see how it is. - Do another bite. Me hungry.
- Yeah. (whimsical music) Mm, wow! - Every time I take a bite,
I taste something different. - Good job. - Thank you. Thanks for helping. - This is delicious. (lively music) So you're just gonna
press Play there. - Dear Mae, my name is Zeeshan, and today you're going to
be making Memoni khausa. I currently live in Brooklyn, and my family is
originally from Pakistan. Khausa originates from Burma, where the Memon community
lived in that area and moved down to Pakistan. There are different
ways to make this, but this is how
my family does it. - I love it. I can't wait. I always wear
aprons when I cook. Otherwise I feel naked. - [Beryl] (laughs) I love
that. I feel the same way. - [Zeeshan] Khausa
is a noodle dish made with a yogurt-based
broth and a spicy tomato soup. I think this dish
really shows how food moves around the world
and around communities. - [Beryl] Have you ever
cooked Pakistani food before? - No, I've never cooked
Pakistani food before. - [Zeeshan] To me, it's
authentically inauthentic. - [Beryl] I got it.
No, no, no, I got it. - Okay, but I'm gonna
use my initial... - God, this is-
- Okay, wait. I just, here, wait.
I just need a spoon. (lid pops)
There. - Oh, my god! That's
something I'm learning! - Where there's like
a little space here. - My god, Beryl! (Beryl laughs)
That's fantastic. - I like this dish because
it's such a comforting meal. It's spicy, tomato-y, savory. It just holistically works
together really well. It has a variety of
textures that play together. You won't find this dish on
a Pakistani restaurant menu. My mom learned it
from her neighbor. All her sisters make it. My
dad's sisters all make it. It's a dish that really kind
of lives within the community. - This is the real hot chili. Oh, my god, the
color is gorgeous! - [Zeeshan] I like this dish because it's a very
comforting meal. It's hot, soupy broth with
noodles, all the toppings. There's a multitude of
flavors and textures going on. It's spaghetti,
curry, beef meat. Mainly the Pakistani
diet is a lot of rice, vegetables, flatbreads. I might know somebody
from Pakistan that has the same
background as me, but they're from a
different community. They don't eat this dish, so
I can introduce it to them. (blender whirring) - [Mae] Oh, my god. (blender rattling) - [Beryl] Oh, no! - [Mae] Sorry. - Oh, my god.
- This is not working. Oh, my god. What happened? - [Beryl] Oh, my god! Oh,
no, your blender is dead. - That's all right. Don't worry. It's an old, old blender. I can't believe it!
That's never done that. - [Beryl] Well,
hopefully it hasn't, 'cause I think it's
broken. (laughs) - It's all right. I never
use this, so it's fine. - Here are a couple of tips. For the yogurt, if
it's not looking thick, it will get thicker
once it cools because of the flour
as it cools down. - It's good. - I would say throw
rules out the window. For the spaghetti, you're
gonna break it in half. - [Beryl] Do you ever break it? - Not since I read that
you're not supposed to. It's like a cardinal
sin or something. - [Zeeshan] You don't
want too long of a noodle, and you wanna overcook it
since you want it to be soft. - [Beryl] A million Italians
just cried across the land. - I know. - Mae, I think
you'll love this dish because it's very easy to make. It's incredibly delicious, and you get to make
it your own way. Instead of a
build-your-own taco bar, it's build-your-own khausa bowl. For me, I need to have
lime, cilantro, onions, chaat masala, and sour cream
and onion potato chips. I hope this dish inspires you, and I hope you love
it as much as I do. Love, Zeeshan. (whimsical music) - Oh, my god, it does
look very different from what I'm used to,
but it looks delicious. (gentle music) Mm, I love that sour taste. When I saw the recipe, I
said, "Hmm, I don't know. I don't know how it's
gonna taste there." But when you put all the flavors
together, all the spices, it's just comes
together so beautifully. And look at the color.
This is the real hot chili. Oh, my god, the
color is gorgeous. It's not only the
spice, but the appeal, the eye appeal is so important. And this dish has it all. In many ways, it's almost
like a French sauce, you know, because it's so rich, much more rich than
I ever imagined. And I would never think
in a million years I'd be using potato
chips, okay, in food. But this is so
different and tasty that I'm looking at food in sort of a different
way, you know? I love it. - Zeeshan, we just
wanna say thank you. - Thank you, Zeeshan. - We had so much fun.
- Thank you. We did, and you opened my
eyes to different flavors, and I am going to
continue making this dish. - Yes!
- Thank you. (gentle music) (bright music) - I hope you enjoyed this
episode of "Pan Pals." Let me know in the comments, what is your
favorite noodle dish? My current obsession are
miso butter noodles, so good. By the way, if you
like home cooking, you should check out
the latest season of "The Great American Recipe." The show features eight
talented home cooks in a competition that
celebrates the diversity and flavors of
foods across the US. You can watch the
first episode here on the PBS Food YouTube channel, and check out the
rest of the season every week on the PBS app
and your local PBS station. Check it out in the
links in the description.