(spirited orchestral music) - [Danielle] Ever since Marco Polo voyaged to Asia 700 years ago, the Italians have had a closer connection with China than any other European country.
I'm here to learn about the diaspora.
But what surprises me aren't the differences between the two cultures, but the overlaps, a shared reverence for fine butchery, pasta worked by hand, and a deep belief in feeding people well as a way of showing care, respect, and belonging.
(lighthearted music) I'm Danielle Chang.
Join me on a delicious journey across Europe.
(lighthearted music continues) (lighthearted music continues) (lively music) I'm at Via Paolo Sarpi, Milan's Chinatown.
It is lined with classic Italian architecture.
It looks nothing like the Chinatowns I'm used to.
My nose takes me to a promenade crammed with food stalls and restaurants offering tasty cross-cultural treats.
Elisa Wong, a Chinese Italian actress who was raised in Italy, is my guide.
What do you think is particularly Milano about this Chinatown?
- I think it's the mix of getting dumplings and a glass of wine.
- Mm.
- So you can still feel like in Italy by drinking good Italian wine, but adding that up with some dumplings.
- [Danielle] And there you have the Peking duck.
- Yes.
- That's a sign of Chinatown in- (Elisa chuckles) - Yeah.
- Universal language.
- And you can see all the signs that are in Chinese, and then the translation in Italian.
You can find dumplings in Italy with different sauce, different filling, and it's something they're more familiar with.
And you get to taste a bit of everything.
- Yeah.
- 'Cause every portion is small, and just take one, you chat a bit, and then you move on to the next one.
- Mm-hmm.
- You take a bite of everything.
Sometimes they take a glass of wine from one shop and they go around in the area.
- Oh, really?
- And then just take it back.
- Oh, I think that should be a universal practice.
I like that.
- (laughs) Yeah.
- What is this Chinatown renowned for?
When people think of it, do they think about food or do they think about the people?
Is it stereotyped in any way?
- I will say if you say Chinatown in Milan, it will be street food.
- Street food?
- Yeah.
Having a Italian aperitivo.
- Yeah, a Negroni.
- (chuckles) In Chinatown.
- Exactly.
(wistful orchestral music) During our stroll, we stop at Macelleria Sirtori, a traditional Florentine butcher renowned for its locally sourced meat.
It has been on Via Paolo Sarpi since 1951, long before the area became known as Chinatown.
But when this Chinese dumping house opened next door, a fusion of cultures was born.
What are some of your most popular Chinese dishes?
- [Staff Member 1] The noodle, Chinese rice noodle.
- [Danielle] Uh-huh.
- [Staff Member 1] Or rice, meat, beef-pork mix.
- Uh-huh.
(wistful orchestral music) It smells like a skewer that you would find in Beijing with the cumin spices, but it's made from Piemontes beef.
So it's fatty and rich.
The quality of the meat is so different.
So that's why you only have to cook it for a very short period of time.
There's a literal window that connects the two shops.
And this is such an amazing marriage.
(cheery orchestral music) So we're using this amazing beef from Piemonte to make Chinese dumplings.
Wow, they're really focusing on the quality of the meat.
So they're only cooking the dumplings for six minutes.
It's called ravioli crudi, raw dumplings.
(choir singing in foreign language) - I have these raviolis.
They're dumplings, jiaozi, made with the same beef.
The star is definitely the beef filling.
It's only cooked for six minutes to show off the quality of the meat.
Si.
(bystander speaking Italian) (Danielle speaking Italian) (choir singing in foreign language) Ooh - [Danielle] The evergreen argument goes like this, did noodles start in Italy or China?
At Ramenamano in Milan, Francesco Wu will tell you that China got there first.
But for me, that debate evaporates the moment I watch dough being worked by hand.
Wheat and water, time and pressure, it's a universal instinct.
For Francesco, a bowl of noodles is less about origins than belonging.
He had successful careers as an engineer and as a restaurateur who served Italian food before he finally felt confident enough to serve traditional Chinese noodles to an Italian audience.
So is this ramen or is it a Chinese noodle?
- [Francesco] This is Chinese ramen or Chinese lamian.
- Uh-huh.
- This is the original one.
- Why is it important for you to show Italians what Chinese hand-pulled noodles are all about?
- [Francesco] It's important to everyone.
The noodles, ramen, is from China.
This is the original one.
This is like Italian pizza.
- But I learned that before you opened this ramen place, you had an Italian restaurant.
- Yes.
At the beginning, is very hard to show to Italian people.
Also, not only culture, but show everyone we are doing something good for Milano, for Milan, for Italy.
Before this Chinatown, was denigrated, was painted as a place not sure, Chinese people do the wrong things, and so on.
So we change the narrative.
- Mm.
- We change.
- [Danielle] What do you want people to know about being Italian and Chinese?
- Italian Chinese is look very as a good person, hard worker, hard-working, hard workers.
- [Danielle] Well, people learn through their stomachs, right?
- Yes.
- So when they eat this, they know it tastes different from Italian pasta.
- Yes.
- This is Chinese noodles.
- [Francesco] Yes.
- And so you're teaching people.
- And we want to show Chinese restaurant, Chinese dish, is not only Cantonese rice, spring roll, and so on.
- Thank you.
I think that you've fundamentally changed the spirit of Chinatown in Milan.
- [Francesco] We try.
- Yeah.
- We are still trying.
- [Danielle] Yeah, one bowl at a time.
(gentle music) Milan's Chinatown is like a postcard, an idyllic snapshot of what being Chinese in Italy can look like.
But Prato, a city just an hour away from Florence, tells a grittier side of the immigrant story.
This city is home to the largest concentration of Chinese residents in Europe.
It has been supplying the fabrics for Milan's fashion houses since the 1800s.
In the 1980s, Chinese immigrants began coming here to work in the textile factories.
My guide here is Marco Wong, Elisa's father, a fourth-generation Italian Chinese and one of the first Italians of Chinese descent to serve on the city council.
He takes me on a tour to see how Chinese migration has reshaped this city.
- This wall has a very characteristic story because it used to be considered a symbol of the degradation of this neighborhood- - Ah.
- Due to the Chinese presence.
Because previously, this wall was full of ads of prostitutes.
And so they suggested to make it more beautiful.
And so they paint it in red because red is the color of fortune in China.
- Mm.
So what are the main industries that the Chinese are involved with in Prato?
- The main industry are those closely related to fashion.
(mellow music) Maybe 15 years ago, this was some abandoned warehouses and factories.
And there was the need for parks and social spaces in the area.
- So basically, people are coming here to make money, make a quick buck, and then go back to China.
They're not here to- - Yes, that's the idea- - Huh.
- But in many cases, when they're back to China, they realize that they are not so Chinese anymore.
(both laughing) There is something common in Italian culture and Chinese culture because the food is important.
It's not just getting nutrients.
It's a way to socialize.
Chinese menu, in the '80s, in the '90s, was a sort of puzzle of various Chinese dishes put together so that an Italian coming to a restaurant would say, "Oh, wow, for sure, I like this."
It was a way to offer something that for sure would be appreciated by Italians.
(mellow music) (vendor speaking Chinese) - [Danielle] Ah, (speaking Chinese).
(vendor speaking Chinese) (Danielle speaking Chinese) (vendors speaking Chinese) (Danielle speaking Chinese) (Danielle laughs) (vendor speaking Chinese) - [Danielle] Ah.
(vendors speaking Chinese) - [Danielle] (speaking Chinese), ah.
(vendor speaking Chinese) - [Danielle] Ah.
(vendor speaking Chinese) (Leone laughs) (Leone speaking in foreign language) - Marco's friend, the artist and Prato native, Leone Contini, is interested in how the migrant population has literally rooted itself into Italian agriculture through farming small gardens filled with Chinese vegetables, often on community or found land that other residents protested.
Where does your interest in Chinese agriculture or Chinese vegetables come from?
- The neighborhood.
(chuckles) - Because you live in Prato and- - Si, it's the neighborhood.
I live in the countryside.
You see, we have this common language, which is the language of the plants, the seeds, how they sprout, how you have to take care of them.
It started, no, in a way.
Especially little farms, the farmers don't buy the seeds, so they reproduce the seeds locally.
- Uh-huh.
- And this is the best way to create a new local variety through the years.
- What vegetables are being grown here?
- These are string beans.
And then you have these beautiful beans down there with the flowers.
- Like a flat- - Once you cook them, they turn green.
- [Danielle] They turn green.
- [Leone] And they're very beautiful.
- Right.
- The beans, when they're with the white stripe.
- I mean, the Chinese have been well established in Prato since the '80s, and they now comprise 15% of the population.
I mean, what is the solution to actually bridge these cultures?
- Engage in curiosity and, how to say, facilitate other people to engage in curiosity, and asking your neighbor how you name this and how you do.
It's day by day.
And both Chinese and Italian are very convivial people.
- Uh-huh.
- And this is a very common ground, for sure.
- I wanna eat where the locals hang out, and I end up at a dumpling shop.
They call them ravioli here because that's what they are, dough folded around filling.
It's Chinese technique, Italian vocabulary, ingredients local to Tuscany.
(tag jingling) Like the fast fashion that is recharging Prato's textile industry, fast and cheap food, like potstickers and buns, have refreshed Prato's palate.
(cleavers thudding) What started out feeding the migrant Chinese workers is now daily grub for the native Italians, too.
I think I will get the ravioli with the zucchini, carrot, and egg.
Durian bread.
Hmm.
This looks actually really delicious.
This is a fried taro root with glutinous rice.
This is a sweet bao with hazelnut and chocolate, white chocolate.
Ah.
I even got to go into the kitchen to try my hand at folding dumplings Prato style.
Ready for work.
Let's head into the kitchen.
Wow, (indistinct), it's so beautiful.
Can you teach me how to wrap?
- Ta-da.
(both laughing) (cook speaking Chinese) - [Danielle] Folding it in half.
(cook speaking Chinese) - But it's a very unappealing wrap, actually, compared to yours.
Look how beautiful your wraps are.
Do you wanna give it a little curl?
(cook speaking Chinese) (Danielle speaking Chinese) - [Cook] Ah.
(gentle music) (gentle music continues) Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Yeah, yeah Ha, ha, ha, ha Ha, ha, ha, ha Ha, ha, ha Yeah, yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Yeah, yeah - I grew up eating dumplings and I'm about to try an Italian ravioli, which is essentially a Chinese dumpling but with Italian ingredients.
This one has eggs, herbs, onions, mushrooms, and carrots.
Let's give it a try.
The dumpling skin is so different from what you would find in China.
It's al dente.
It's about the pasta.
It's almost like wrapped in a layer of lasagna.
It's a vessel for delivering the ingredients to your mouth.
These are al dente dumplings.
Yeah, yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Yeah (wistful orchestral music) - [Danielle] 40 minutes from Prato, in Florence, the cultural capital of Italy, one of the most popular dishes among the global Chinese community isn't Chinese at all.
It's lampredotto, beef tripe simmered for hours, chopped and tucked into bread, an Italian classic born of necessity.
At Lupen e Margo, Beatrice Trambusti has been serving it to Florentine workers for decades.
These days, she translates her menu into Chinese for the students and families who line up for a dish that feels intensely familiar.
- There are a lot of Asian people who come here to have it because the flavor, even if it's very local, but meets the taste of Asian people, so.
- How long have you been here?
(Beatrice speaking Italian) - 1986.
- From '86.
She started with her parents and her brother.
Mm-hmm.
(Beatrice speaking Italian) - Basically, it started near here where there was a market where they used to sell the intestines of the cow and they prepared there.
And in the preparation, they had to boil it in hot water.
They had to cut it in slices and then put it in boiling water.
And when it was in boiling water, it moved like it was a fish.
- [Danielle] Mm-hmm.
- [Marco] So they gave it the name, lampredotto, because it looked like a fish, very long fish, that's named lampreda.
(spirited orchestral music) She still has to wake up at 3:30 in the morning.
She cooks everything herself.
- [Danielle] Well, we should try the panino- - Yeah, yeah.
- Lampredotto.
(Marco speaking Italian) (Beatrice speaking Italian) - A shared history of scarcity means that both Italians and Chinese learn to eat every part of the animal long before nose-to-tail eating became fashionable.
I love tripe.
I love all the different textures of intestines and different parts of the meat, so.
But I've never had it in a sandwich form.
Let's give it a try.
Mm.
I love it.
It reminds me of a Chinese stew, kind of like a braised Chinese stew because it has a bit of tomato in it, a bit of spice, and it just melts in your mouth.
This is how a sandwich should be, hot and juicy.
So you eat that side, I eat this side here.
- Mm.
- Yeah.
(mellow music) If lampredotto shows what Florence and China share at street level, there's another overlap further up.
Florence has couture.
China understands luxury.
At Il Gusto di Xinge, that shared language moves from the street into fine dining.
It's a couture house of Chinese cuisine.
Owner and fashion designer, Xin Ge Liu, has built it into a place where the dim sum are fashion pieces and every aesthetic choice speaks to cross-cultural elegance.
Sheathed in fashions of her own design, Xin Ge is a provocateur who puts on culinary theater.
Her menu is a journey for the senses.
Every plate, every color, every aspect of the decor is inspired by her mood board, her readings, and her vintage finds.
- So this is a... (Danielle laughs) - [Danielle] Is it edible?
- [Xin Ge] Yeah, people ask, "Can we eat this?"
- Right.
- And then I say, "You can eat the vase."
(both laughing) - [Danielle] It's a shrimp ball?
- [Xin Ge] Shrimp ball.
Shrimp with mozzarella.
- [Danielle] Shrimp with mozzarella.
And then what is this?
- [Xin Ge] The plum sauce.
- [Danielle] Plum sauce.
- [Xin Ge] Yeah.
- Well, I think this dish is so emblematic of what you do.
I mean, I didn't know what to expect when I came to a dim sum restaurant in Florence.
And you've completely overwhelmed and surprised me.
How do you want people to feel from experiencing your work?
- Through the storytelling, through the images, and through the small details.
Surely, don't ya feel the same as I do If you don't, I'll run away to spite you - And then I think, oh, this is interesting.
I can do something, like some idea I used from fashion to food, transfer to food.
And that make me feel very excited because I really, my blood is fashion.
(laughs) - [Danielle] Ah.
- So I can transform the idea to food on the dishes.
And I can see the client, they are surprised by that.
(laughs) I think fashion is around us.
It's not only for the clothes.
It's a glass, chopsticks, and with a chair, T-shirt, and everything.
- [Danielle] So this is the amuse-bouche?
- [Xin Ge] Yeah.
- [Danielle] And what is that?
- [Xin Ge] So this is a chicken liver with a spring roll, okay?
And filled also with the daikon gel and wasabi.
And here, you have the beignet filled with (indistinct) cream.
- [Danielle] (indistinct) cream.
- [Xin Ge] Yeah.
- [Danielle] It's familiar but completely new- - Mm-hmm.
- To me at the same time.
- Mm.
(gentle music) And then you have the har gow.
Har gow is a traditional Hong Kongese dim sum.
This foam made with the heart of the shrimp.
- I wasn't expecting the citrus flavor.
It really brightens up the shrimp.
And the wrapper is so thin and delicate.
This is really a jewel.
- So here you have the Shanghai smoked fish, which is sea bass deep fried.
And then we use the traditional Shanghai sauce, which is five-spice, oyster sauce, and stuff, and (indistinct), and lemon.
Then after, we smoke it with cherry wood.
Uh-huh.
The recipes, also, this one is coming from the south of China.
It's made by taro, and then filled with (indistinct) cream and with a Spanish cold soup.
And combination with the bamboo mushrooms.
And here, you have the Petit Voyage.
We use the purple cabbage for the color.
The sauce is a French sauce.
Instead of a (indistinct), we used soya sauce.
- It's excellent, but it's too beautiful to eat.
- So we serve our duck.
It's the chest served with cotton candy.
And I gonna complete your dish with a sauce made with orange juice, cinnamon, and gochujang.
It is a paste of fermented pepper.
- And now we are coming our dessert.
So I open it, yeah.
- [Danielle] I know this is gonna be delicious.
- [Xin Ge] And you have also the nuts- - Uh-huh.
- And you have the date, the three date.
But we are quite happy about that because the local people are like, "Oh, this tiramisu is so good."
We say, "Thank you."
- [Danielle] Oh, the sesame is amazing.
- So here, you have our pre-dessert, which is kind of a oolong gel with a white peach cream.
And then you have the peach candy and then the kumquat.
(gentle music) When I was seven years old, more or less, I remember my math teacher, she was often always bring the rice, okay, which is uncooked, to school and she put it on the oven there.
And then after the class, and she bring back with the rice is done by this box.
- Oh.
How do I eat this?
What is in the syringe?
- [Xin Ge] Is a rum, a spicy rum, okay?
- Uh-huh.
- [Xin Ge] And here, you have the kumquat powder and duck yolk cream.
- [Danielle] It looks like ice cream, but it's not.
- No, no.
(laughs) It's a bao.
- I eat it with a- - You know what I would suggest?
Just take it in hand- - Take it?
- And bite it.
- Okay.
- And suck the cream.
The flavor of the rum.
- Perfect ending.
- [Xin Ge] Mm-hmm.
- We eat with our eyes (Xin Ge laughs) after all.
- For sure.
- [Danielle] The world of Xin Ge, how would you describe it?
- It's very dramatic, (laughs) yeah, and very sensual, fun.
(dishes clattering) Sorry.
(laughs) Who's that?
(gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (jaunty orchestral music)
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