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Take Out With Lisa Ling is a new docu-series presented by US journalist Lisa Ling. Shining a spotlight on the culinary contributions of Asian Americans in the US, the show's debut on HBO Max is on 27 January.
California born and raised Ling - whose grandfather opened the first Chinese restaurant in Folsom, California, in the 1950s - explores the stories and experiences of Asian American food families in the new six-part series. Her journey takes her from the Bangladeshi community in New York, to the only remaining Japanese restaurant in Boyle Heights, California, while also revisiting her own roots through her family’s restaurant, Hop Sing.
Take a look at the trailer below:
She told NBC News: “We thought this [show] could be the perfect opportunity to tell these buried histories through something that most Americans have come to really love and cherish, which is Asian food.”
Ling makes for an empathetic guide, exploring the little-told stories from the inside out, on a journey which she says also helped her to connect more with her Chinese culture. “I spent the first 17 years of my life ashamed of my ethnicity - I just didn’t want to be different from everyone else and that applied to the food I brought to school," she wrote on Instagram. "Today, I packed noodles, soy sauce fried egg, seaweed packets and French/Chinese cookies for my girls’ lunch - I would have never brought those things to school when I was a kid!”
