Asian Food, American Dreams

The rise of China has meant the rise of Chinese culinary traditions in America. Danielle checks out an industrial kitchen where traditional "confinement meals" are made for new mothers across the country; an underground Manhattan cocktail den whose main ingredient is the fiery liquor baijiu, the world's most heavily consumed spirit; and a wedding in the heart of San Francisco's Chinatown where old world and new meet at the banquet table and on the dance floor.

A new generation of chefs and entrepreneurs is finally bringing the amazing cooking of the world's second-largest country to a broad American audience. Danielle interviews a former financier who offers a light, healthy take on Indian classics at his fast-casual start-up Inday; the adventurous restaurateurs behind Babu Ji, where meticulous preparations and a Bollywood vibe have led to breakout success; and a Silicon Valley engineer who got her start in the food business selling homemade chai by bicycle in the hills of San Francisco.

Danielle gets back to her roots in an episode devoted to the distinctive, rustic cuisine of Taiwan. With Cathy Erway, author of "Foods of Taiwan," she hits a Chinatown market and then makes the island's most famous dish, beef noodle soup. At Taiwan Bear House, started by homesick young expats, she tries a New York take on the box lunches known as biandang. And in California's Orange County, she pays a twilight visit to America's closest counterpart to a classic Taiwanese night market.

Asian cuisine is increasingly the engine driving the growth of the American food industry. Danielle talks to three Asian-American entrepreneurs about the secrets of their success: Tim Wildin, the young Chipotle executive whose Thai aunties' recipes contribute to the menu at Shophouse; Lynda Trang Dai, once known as the Vietnamese Madonna and now the queen of banh mi sandwiches in Orange County's Little Saigon; and Charles Phan, the ground-breaking chef whose Slanted Door was named best restaurant in the country by the James Beard Foundation.

Ivan Orkin, the renegade New Yorker-turned-Japanese-ramen-chef, discusses ramen culture in New York versus Tokyo. Chef Nakamura from Sun Noodles explains what makes a great bowl of ramen. Later, seafood purveyor-turned-ramen-chef Yuji Haraguchi creates a New York deli-style version of his broth-less ramen dish, mazemen, using sustainable and typically discarded seafood from a nearby supermarket. The episode ends in Berkeley, Calif. with a tour of the local greenmarket from three former Chez Panisse chefs. After traveling to Japan, they opened a restaurant in the U.S.