Where to try the food on ‘No Taste Like Home with Antoni Porowski’

In National Geographic’s series No Taste Like Home with Antoni Porowski, six Hollywood stars follow the Queer Eye star on a journey through food and time as they travel through their ancestral homelands in search of family history. Starting with just one homemade family recipe, Porowski helps stars Awkwafina, Justin Theroux, Issa Rae, James Marsden, Florence Pugh, and Henry Golding connect with their pasts by eating foods that fed their ancestral lineages and exploring the places they once called home.  

(Related: Antoni Porowski wants you to learn about your ancestors—through their recipes.)

Recipes Jajangmeyon, Korea 

With its roots in Northern China, jajangmyeon is among Korea’s most popular dishes, available at thousands of restaurants across the world alongside dozens of instant and frozen versions at grocery stores. The dish, recognizable by its signature glossy, midnight hue, is a variation of the Chinese dish zhajiangmian that migrant workers from Shandong brought to Korea in the late 19th century. 

Jajangmyeon is a rich yet hearty dish, typically made with wheat noodles, ground or diced meat and/or seafood, vegetables (like zucchini or cabbage), and aromatics including ginger and garlic, and chunjang, the sweet-savory caramelized black bean paste that gives the dish its distinctive black shade. 

The dish is so well-known and beloved that it plays a starring role in the unofficial Korean holiday, Black Day, on April 14, when single people celebrate or commiserate their singledom with friends over a bowl of jajangmyeon.

Where to try it in Korea: Almost anywhere. This dish is so ubiquitously known and loved that there are tens of thousands of places to find it in Seoul alone, but the Chinese restaurant Ehwawon (이화원) in Yeonhui-dong has been perfecting its silky version for three generations. 

(Related: Everything you need to know about bibimbap, Korea’s famous rice dish.)

Recipes Tortellini en Brodo, Italy 

Traditionally found in cities like Bologna and Modena in Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region, tortellini en brodo is a regional specialty, highlighting the quality and history of its ingredients. This dish should not be confused with tortelli (this dish’s larger namesake), tortelloni (also larger but with different fillings and preparation), or ravioli (different shape, different fillings).

Tortellini is pint-sized, barely an inch big, and folded into chubby rings stuffed with a mixture of meat, like prosciutto or mortadella, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and nutmeg. Once filled and folded, the tortellini is simmered in a golden broth made traditionally with capon, a castrated male chicken, or a mixture of chicken and beef bones and served to float in the savory soup. 

Where to try it in Italy:  Some of the best examples of regional cuisine, including tortellini en brodo, can be found at Trattoria di via Serra or All’Osteria Bottega in Bologna. Both restaurants are mentioned in the Michelin Guide’s Bologna Restaurants, with Trattoria di via Serra receiving a coveted Bib Gourmand award. 

(Related: Chef Angela Hartnett’s guide to eating in Emilia-Romagna.)

Recipes Soupe kanja, Senegal

This okra and seafood stew is one of Western Africa’s most popular dishes and is usually found in many of the countries along the Atlantic coast from Senegal to Guinea. Born from the region’s rich fishing traditions, this stew uses a multitude of fish, fresh and dried shellfish, okra, peppers, and other aromatics simmered in candy-apple red palm oil. Once simmered and reduced, this thick stew is often served family-style over rice.

Though this dish might be unfamiliar at first for many diners outside Africa and the African diasporas, you’ve likely eaten or heard of its later incarnation. If you’ve ever visited New Orleans or the Creole regions of the world, soupe kanja is the progenitor for one of this cuisine’s most iconic dishes: gumbo. 

Where to try it in Senegal: In Dakar, the family-owned Chez Loutcha is a popular and colorful local haunt that serves Senegalese staples alongside Cape Verdian and other menu items.

(Related: Drumbeats and heartstrings: tuning in to the rhythms of Senegal.)

Recipes Chicken with mushrooms and bamboo, Borneo

Chicken with mushrooms and bamboo possibly gets its influence from multiple sources. The first, manuk pansuh—or chicken cooked in a bamboo stalk with tapioca or cassava leaves—is a staple of Sarawak cuisine and is often prepared during festivals by the Iban and the Bidayuh peoples. The meat is typically seasoned with aromatics like torch ginger, galangal, and lemongrass before being stuffed into the bamboo. 

The second influence comes by way of Malaysia’s significant Chinese population, which has existed across Malaysia and the Indonesian archipelago as early as the 13th century. Various versions of a dish featuring chicken with mushrooms and bamboo shoots can be found in both China and Malaysia and are made with ingredients that would be easy to source in the mountainous regions of both countries. 

Where to try it in Borneo: Serving Sarawak cuisine for more than a decade, Lepau Restaurant in Kuching showcases dishes from numerous indigenous communities, including Iban, Kelabit, Ulu, Bidayuh, and beyond, offering diners a rich entry point into this region’s most celebrated foods.

(Related: We are what we eat: Diving for dinner with the sea gypsies.)

Recipes Shepherd’s Pie, UK

Like many recipes from the 18th and 19th centuries, shepherd’s pie was a way for families with little money or access to expensive ingredients, like prime cuts of meat, to stretch what they had to feed the household. First referred to as cottage pie in the late 18th century, this dish has changed very little from its original recipe and still features many of the same ingredients. 

Ingredients for this British dish include ground beef or lamb/mutton (a fairly accessible ingredient for the sheep farming region in this dish’s early days) and diced vegetables in a rich gravy. One of shepherd’s pie’s distinct identifiers is its pillowy mashed potato topping, which is spooned atop the hearty meat mixture and baked to crisp, golden brown perfection. 

Where to try it in the UK: The Ivy restaurant has posted its iconic version of shepherd’s pie online for people who are unable to make the trip to the restaurant, located in London.

(Related: Where you can find the best British pubs that serve food.)

Recipes Chicken Fried Steak, Texas

This simple and beloved Southern American diner classic has changed very little from its European ancestors. Similar to Austria’s wiener schnitzel, chicken-fried steak is just that, typically a thin cut of beef, often a tenderized cube steak, dredged in flour and eggs before frying. The breading and frying technique gives the dish its signature name, though technically, pan-frying instead of deep-frying would make this dish “country-fried”. 

German and Austrian immigrants who migrated to Texas in the 19th century and later became cattle farmers are believed to have brought chicken-fried steak to the United States. It’s one of the tastes of home these communities carried with them to America, says rancher Jim Kearney. “Food is the last thing to go,” says Kearney. “That’s what people hold onto as a symbol of their former life or wherever they came from.” 

Where to try it in Texas: Dallas’ original farm-to-table Celebration Restaurant has perfected its grass-fed, chicken-fried steak for more than 50 years. Make sure to order it with the house specialty spicy jalapeno gravy.