This is part of an ongoing series of interviews I’m doing with my favourite Chinese foodies that I follow on Instagram. Come and follow the #ChineseFoodiesofIG hashtag on Instagram and leave a comment showing your support for these talented folk!

Where are you from? Where are you really from?

Helen: I am from Beijing, China where I lived the first 12 years of my life. I lived in Budapest, Hungary for the next 6 years before coming to the United States for college. But my family lives in China.
Leo: I am born and raised in San Diego. I am half Portuguese, quarter Greek and quarter Irish New Zealander.

What does home taste like?

Helen: Home tastes like a combination of the Yangtze River Delta, Chengdu, Harbin, and Beijing. My grandparents on my father's side emigrated from the Yangtze River Delta to Beijing, where my father was born. My grandparents on my mother's side emigrated from Chengdu, Sichuan to Harbin in Northeastern China, where my mother grew up. We ate quite a mixture of regional foods from all these regions.

Leo: Tacos and Linguica

Rice or noodles?

Helen: I grew up with my father's side of the family, so rice and very thin dragon whisker clear broth soup noodles was my preference growing up. However in the recent years I have really grown to love noodles too.

Leo: Noodles for sure. I just really like them and you can go deep into a story of cultural history, techniques, and flavors from region to region.

Share a food memory:

Helen: Summer of 1989, my parents and I lived in the traditional courtyard residents next to Tian'anmen square. Power outages were frequent that summer which led to all the families sharing the courtyard to spend their evenings together outside in the courtyard. One day my mother made these green pepper and gourd dumplings. My friends and I couldn't stay away from these amazing dumplings and raided these cold dumplings in the dark throughout the evening until they were all gone. These were the best dumplings I have ever had and I will never forget them.

Leo: During our trip to Tengchong, Yunnan, the rain brought us to eat lunch at a random little farmhouse restaurant by a wetland. The meal was the best piece of place and time I have ever experienced, purest in ingredient and simplicity. Ingredients from our meal were all produced by the large green valley we were in. Opium seed crusted crispy fish that was freshly caught from the wetland waters, spring chives and hearts of wild rice stalk with a few slices of simple cured pork and micro sized shrimp scooped from the wetlands behind us, super flavorful clear chicken broth with tobacco flowers using freshly slaughtered chicken that grew up foraging in the lush wetland vegetations, blood sausage steamed and sliced, a few dishes of freshly foraged world class mushrooms washed in spring water running through the wetlands, mound of fiddlehead and young shoots of ferns also foraged just on the base of the mountain across the road from the wetland valley, locally grown rice, sliced chili and ginger condiment and more. The food was as wild as the place where they came from, and you can literally taste it and there's nothing like it.

What’s in your fridge at home?

Fermented tofu, olive pickled mustard greens, leek flower paste, homemade soy milk, homemade fermented sweet rice, homemade cured pork belly, Cosmic Sass (our own fermented chili), homemade salted duck eggs, homemade fermented chopped chili, homegrown Fresno and Thai chilis and 4-5 more chili condiments, homemade tepache. A piece of pork belly, sausage casings, alliums and herbs from the yard, some veggies and fruits, Topo Chico.

Who's your Chinese food legend?

Helen: my grandmother

Leo: my wife

What’s a Chinese recipe everyone should learn?

A simple homestyle Xiao Chao (stir-fry). Most people get stir-fries all wrong by combining too many different ingredients in a disproportionate way that often don't work together. Learning to marinate the meat correctly and understanding the proportions between various ingredients and seasoning is fundamental to learning homestyle Chinese cooking, and can be applied to many dishes across the board.

Dream dinner party guests:

All of our most loyal fans who have been supporting us since the start, Helen's grandmother, Fuchsia Dunlop, Li Ziqi, Leo's La Mian teacher, Evan Kleinman.

Most underrated Chinese ingredient:

In the West, probably cooking wine.

What would you like to tell the world about Chinese food?

Chinese food is as diverse as the climatic and geographical conditions that informed the cultures that created the various tastes in the first place. Not only does each dish tell a story of the land and its people, many traditionally dishes were also medicinal. we truly believe Chinese food is one of the most approachable and accessible window into Chinese history and culture, and it is why we are committed to telling its story through our work.

#ChineseFoodiesofIG: Helen & Leo of Chinese Laundry, LA