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Inside the world of one of YouTube’s most popular food vloggers

What does it really take to eat noodles for a living?

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CHONGQING, China — The Food Ranger and I had arrived at our next meal. We knew it by the smell floating out of the diner in front of us. Blazing hot oil, the funk of coiled pink-brown organ meat, an acidic bouquet of crushed peppercorns, star anise, and scallions all wafted together, promising to numb our mouths. Plastic tables tumble out through the doors of the dining room and down the gray, rain-spattered sidewalk. We’re deep in Chongqing, a city that, with its surrounding areas, sustains a population of roughly 30 million. And yet, this particular joint is well off the Yelp network. I’d never find it on my own, which is exactly what the Food Ranger loves most about it.

Inside, he’s in his element. The Food Ranger, who is white, 31, and originally from Vancouver, Canada, begins speaking in Mandarin. The words slide into the kitchen like a keystone and crack the code — the staff, recognizing that he’s the rare Westerner who can communicate with them in their own tongue, receive him with open arms, and begin annotating the menu in ricocheting Chinese. The Food Ranger darts his eyes to the video camera held steady a few paces away by his wife, Ting, and relays our dining options. “That’s beef intestine!” “That’s silken tofu!” “That’s starch jelly with duck!”

We order it all. A few minutes later, a platter of Sichuan small plates is plopped down on the table in front of us. The Food Ranger does his taste tests, groans in delight, and regales the camera with a description of the fragrance, spiciness, and anesthesia of each bite. I spade tofu on the end of my chopsticks, spoon a dab of coarse chili powder on top, and quickly succumb to the cumin. As always, the Food Ranger is effusive in his praise, and the kitchen staff is pleased to see how much we’re enjoying our meal. After all, it may be the only time this restaurant appears on the Western internet.

The Food Ranger’s real name is Trevor James. He always wanted the bon vivant lifestyle of an Anthony Bourdain or Gordon Ramsey, but he didn’t have a television contract or a generous book advance. Instead, he had a single camera, and so he began loading his own shoestring productions onto YouTube.

Today, the Food Ranger is one of the most popular food vloggers in the world. His specialty is China and the country’s ancient street food culture that hides out in curbside shops all over the 26 provinces. The vendors he highlights are watched by millions of viewers and earn a brief taste of international fame. But these stalls are under threat: The Chinese government continues to crack down on the unregulated food economy. And so the Food Ranger represents a paradox: a YouTuber in a country that blocks YouTube, and a Westerner who has access to the deepest reaches of Chinese cuisine thanks to his Mandarin ability. In a country that’s misunderstood by those outside of its borders, that outsider status is crucial to his appeal.

James has been making YouTube videos for six years as the Food Ranger, and in that time has accumulated more than 3.5 million subscribers, and an additional 600,000 followers on Instagram. Food YouTube is a huge genre on the site. Jamie Oliver will show you the best way to roast a chicken, and Tasty will walk you through a three-course holiday menu. But in this particular content corner — Westerners exploring global cuisine — there aren’t many as successful as the Food Ranger. Other major players, like Mark Chen’s Strictly Dumpling show , or Simon and Martina Stawski’s Korean and Japanese food guides , are millions of subscribers away from eclipsing James.

He moved to China years ago to work on a master’s degree in international trade (while teaching English on the side) and watched as his gastronomical vlogs of the local flavors slowly mushroomed into an international brand. Today, when he’s not on the road, he splits time in Guangzhou and Malaysia with his wife, who he met on a backpacking trip in Turkey. Scroll through his videos, and you will see James, always flashing a toothy grin, pulling the curtain back in rugged Kaifeng, arid Xinjiang, and other dense, vibrant regions that often fly under the radar of Western tourism.

The template is simple; three or four meals in each 20-minute clip, focusing on the sort of cuisine that’s mostly unfamiliar to a non-Chinese audience. (I’ve watched the Food Ranger wolf down fried pork brain, lamb head soup, and steamed, lemongrass-infused snails.) Each video accumulates millions of views, mostly from other English-speaking countries, which provides the trickle of ad money necessary for the next city, the next hotel room, and the next bowl of hand-pulled noodles. On his website, TheFoodRanger.com, he posts comprehensive food guides for cities like Hong Kong and Xi’an, and a directory of VPNs to get around China’s Great Firewall.

His work is the epitome of foodie fetishism, thumbnails plastered with words like “ AUTHENTIC ,” “ EXTREME ,” and occasionally “ FORMER WAR ZONE. ” When I meet James in Chongqing, he’s only a few cities deep into a worldwide noodle tour that will take him through Central Asia and into southern Europe. The whole trip will last at least two years, he says, a journey that plenty of Bourdain-weaned millennials would sign up for in a heartbeat.

Knowing Mandarin helps. It’s something that distinguishes James from the other white men who’ve attempted to explain China to western audiences: The Food Ranger doesn’t need a translator. That’s part of what makes his videos fun; we relish in the cook’s sudden chumminess when the Westerner reveals he speaks their language.

Sometimes, a crowd begins to circle, drawn in by the cross-cultural, cross-continental exchange. “The foreigner is making you famous!” piped one onlooker in a recent Chengdu video as a shopkeeper in a microscopic stall heaped twice-cooked pork into a ceramic bowl. James doesn’t travel with a boom mic or a brigading production crew, and he thinks the stripped-down, single-take, #relatable nature of his videos keeps his subjects in their element. Also helpful: his Chinese wife behind the camera, ready to handle some of the more knotty translation problems, and relieve a baseline of apprehension in the subjects.

“I try to show them my excitement for the food, and how cool what they’re creating is, and how cool China is in general,” James says. “When people see me really into it, or asking really specific questions, or just giving a thumbs up, they [open up]. It’s everyday for them, but here’s a foreigner who thinks it’s the coolest thing in the world. They share so much. That’s my goal.”

Now we’re in a Chongqing alleyway deep in a concrete, working class neighborhood. The hunt is for xiao mian — a local specialty composed of wheat noodles, creamy yellow peas, and chili-stained ground beef that pumps warmth through your nervous system. James opens up the navigation app on his phone, revealing dozens of different pins he’s dropped throughout the city map — potential shooting locations.

He researches using an app called Dianping (think Chinese Yelp), but also through early morning walks, on which he identifies the stalls, corners, and cookouts with the longest lines, happiest customers, and most mesmerizing smells. The xiao mian house we’ve selected is perfect, in that it looks more like a garage with a propane burner than a restaurant. James launches into his enthusiastic introductions, and together we watch the woman behind the pot concoct a blend of sweetness and spice that’s responsible for the single greatest meal I’ll have during my time in China.

“You just gotta get that first ni hao,” he’ll later tell me. The Food Ranger’s very own diplomacy.

James is clear that he makes his videos for a Western audience, though his wife does upload them to Chinese video sharing services. In China, he tells me he operates in relative anonymity. During the day we spent together, he’s only recognized twice — unsurprisingly, by other English speakers. The Chinese Communist Party’s blackout of Google, YouTube, and Facebook on the mainland means that the Food Ranger is celebrating Chinese street food on a platform that, legally speaking, Chinese people are not allowed to see.

This is emblematic of a contradiction that tails the Food Ranger, as both a person and a YouTube brand. James tells me a number of times that his videos are not a political act. He says he is proud of how the Food Ranger portrays Chinese people as buoyant, garrulous, and, most importantly, different from one another — given how the population is often painted as a grim monolith by the West.

But he stops short of saying that his street food commentary should be lumped into any broader analysis or advocacy of domestic Chinese issues. “We like to stay away from any politics whatsoever,” James explains. “We do food and positivity, and that works wherever we go. There are so many different ideas everywhere, and we don’t want to get into that.”

This is an increasingly unsteady stance in modern China. In the past few years, the country’s municipal authorities have cracked down on the unregulated street markets in the busy metropolises of Shanghai and Beijing , which has purged countless carts from their usual corners. The government justifies these clearances in the name of hygiene and pollution, but the cooks under the gun are usually poor migrants from outlying provinces who’ve moved to urban centers in search of better means. Dominique Wong, a journalist working in Beijing, talked to two mobile cart vendors earlier this year about their struggles during the purge for the publication Culture Trip. Today, she says, neither is working —broken down by the constant police scrutiny.

“It’s completely changed the street environment,” Wong says. “It’s less vibrant, less alive with the sound of cooking and the sight of people lining up. For customers, it’s less convenient and tears away at the social fabric of the community.”

James has made a career highlighting the exact cuisine that’s under assault by China’s rapid development. Obviously, he’s noticed the effects of the injunction. It has become harder for the Food Ranger to find the places that make his documentation valuable — the teensy plastic stools, the prices that hover around three-and-a-half yuan (about 50 cents), and the aroma of Sichuan pepper billowing out of a silver pan perched on the edge of the street.

So I go back to the political question one more time with him. Perhaps James doesn’t see himself as an activist, and perhaps he feels like he doesn’t know enough about the Communist Party’s infrastructural policies to critique them. But does he feel any passion for the preservation of a cuisine that he celebrates on his channel? Does he want to fight for jianbing carts? Once again, he demurs. The Food Ranger believes these quandaries are outside of his purview.

“It’s harder for us to find those [local] places, it’s sometimes frustrating, but I’m not here to really judge on what they’re doing,” he says. “For me personally, I do love those street-style places. I do get kinda bummed out about it.”

I ask Wong a similar question. I wanted to know how she felt about a Westerner who’s made a living showcasing Chinese street cuisine, without fully contextualizing how that same economy fits into the dramatic ways China is changing. From her perspective, a YouTuber can always be digging a little deeper.

“It’s one thing to enjoy a tasty bowl of noodles, but what else ? Food tells a lot about a city, and its people, and it can be political,” Wong says. “If you’re not willing to explore any of this, you’ve got to wonder what the point is, and what you’re bringing to the table.”

Luke Winkie is a reporter from San Diego. He has written for Rolling Stone, GQ, the Washington Post, and the New York Times.

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What the producer of the hit YouTube series ‘Eat China’ wishes people knew about Chinese food

Over the course of the past two years, Clarissa Wei has learned what it takes to become a Chinese opera singer, pushed back against racism-fueled tropes about dog-eating , and traveled to almost every corner of China to meet the people growing, cooking, and sharing what feeds the most populous country on earth.

But her most recent video series, Eat China, goes back to basics: a 13-episode introduction to the regional cuisines of four major regions in China in which she gets to tell Americans what she wishes they knew about Chinese food while pickling bamboo in Sichuan, touring a Hong Kong market with a local, and attending dim sum school.

For the American-born producer at Goldthread—Hong Kong–based South China Morning Post’s sub-vertical dedicated to food, culture, and identity—this was a passion project. Wei jokes that she created the back-to-basics series to have something to forward to her friends in the U.S. when they ask her about Chinese food. But in reality, the series fills a knowledge gap about the cuisine without resorting to dumbing anything down or using clichés, which—along with the snappy, fast-moving pace of the four- to eight-minute episodes—makes it intriguing and watchable even for those who already know a fair amount about the cuisine.

The first episode provides an overview of Chinese cuisine, broken down into four regions, then a trio of episodes focus on each region. Each episode comprises an introduction, a food tour guided by a local, and a cooking demonstration.

“There’s been plenty of articles and books,” Wei says about the Chinese food landscape, but few film crews have the budget to go in deep with the kinds of fixers and producers necessary for these. So, with the paper’s backing, Wei took advantage of her position working out of Hong Kong and covered those fixer, writer, producer, and host roles herself.

“Chinese food is nuanced and very dependent on geography,” Wei says. And that’s her top message, if viewers take nothing else away from the series. Wei recently returned from filming in a village in Yunnan that had its own wild greens the locals foraged, while “the neighboring town has no idea what it is.” Even at the province level, she found, it was hard to generalize about Chinese cuisine. In the U.S., the history of immigration spread new ideas and changed cuisines, but in China, she explains, “[the cuisine has] just been rooted in what that village has been producing for hundreds of years.”

The deep knowledge of those villages is a crucial part of Wei’s work in China. “Farm-to-table influencers are becoming so big,” she says of the YouTube and social media stars she films. “Now there are people who can just use the phone and some basic editing software, and they show a glimpse of their daily life, and they’re going viral because we haven’t seen these things before.”

But the difference between the foreign viewers and the Chinese audience, one influencer mentioned, is that the Westerners consider it a sort of fantasy world, while the videos make domestic fans want to go home and spend time with their grandmothers. It has become a major movement, with influencers endorsed by the Chinese government, going on to conduct TED talks and even getting sponsored to go back to their familial villages to properly learn the food.

Producing a program about one culture for a different one, as with Eat China , highlighted another audience difference for Wei. “The biggest challenge was getting sound bites relevant to [foreigners],” she says. In Tianjin, she interviewed a man whose family had been making baos (buns) for hundreds of years, hoping to hear about how he makes them, how he got good at it, and what his struggles were. But he wanted to discuss how many government certificates the company had received.

Still, moments like eating a raw shrimp from the Shanghai market, dressed in fermented tofu—her favorite bite from the show—made the uneven discussion worth it. “I was skeptical, because you don’t eat raw river shrimp here,” she says, but it was tasty and illustrated the hyper-local, hyper-seasonal nature of Chinese food.

Wei gets excited talking about harvesting fish from rice patties with the food influencers as part of her various videos, and she sees Eat China as a method to help more people acquire the foundation they need to explore those more intricate parts of Chinese food culture. “You can see a chef from a different region and understand why she uses a bunch of peppercorns or understand if they’re from the north, why they eat a lot of offal or cumin,” Wei explains. “After a while, you begin to see these patterns.”

Ultimately, Wei hopes the series makes Chinese cuisine more accessible, enticing viewers to grow their taste buds and explore new flavor profiles. “It’s sort of a guide,” she says. “Pick your flavor, and go.”

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China Food Tours

Recipient of TripAdvisor's Travelers Choice Award for Best Foodie Experience in the World.

China's #1 Food Tour.

“You will hear it for yourself, and surely it will fill you with wonder,” wrote Marco Polo of his travels along with the Silk Road into the heart of a four-thousand-year-old culture. Often regarded as one of the first European explorers to bring back tales (and noodles) from the far-east, the Silk Road connected Cleopatra’s Egypt to China a thousand years before Polo was even born.

One in seven people on earth call China home, many of whom can tell and trace hundreds of stories about their community’s food heritage. That history runs deep here. Come and see the flavors merchants like Polo risked lives and years over and the stories they’ve left behind.

Our Locations:

Our Popular Multi-Day Trips Through China.

We’ve spent years searching for the best things to eat and do in China, everywhere from our favorite cities to the far corners of China’s wild west, and now we’re sharing our secrets with you.

We’ve personally explored, curated, and designed each of these trips that range from 4-8 days. If you’re ready to truly experience China like a local, see the best sights, and of course eat the best food – you came to the right place. Pick and choose the trips you like, or combine them to create your next ultimate adventure!

Why People Choose Us:

By sharing the living history of cuisine by the hands that make it, we're changing the way people think about food and its role in the universe.

Experiences Led by Locals.

Only guides from each city can give you a true taste of the area in food and culture, all trained by our founders to ensure a perfect experience. We also work with the community through local producers and partners to ensure you’re getting a real local taste of what each community can do.

Get Fed, Leave Full.

We are not a tasting tour, if you leave hungry or thirsty, we aren’t doing our jobs. Most of our tours feature unlimited food and drinks (beer too!) The best part? You won’t have to worry about what to order or how to communicate with the owners at each stop. Everything we eat is tried and tested, plus you’ll see how it’s made and learn about the families who make it.

Craft Beer & Beverages Included.

The local culinary scene in every city is defined by food and drinks, so we make sure you experience it all! Our evening tours include (unlimited) alcoholic beverages along the way, and at least one stop to sink a glass (or few) of locally produced craft beer. All your bases are covered with us.

Off the Beaten Path.

We visit local neighborhoods where real locals live and eat. You aren’t going to find any other tourists here, or run into other tour groups. Our restaurants are local legends, family-owned and often specialize in only one dish, which means the quality is high and the flavor is even better. These places wouldn’t survive without regulars, that’s how you know it’s good.

#1 Food Experience in the World

TripAdvisor's Travelers Choice Awards ranked our Xian Evening Food Tour as the best food experience in the World!

"The Best Dumplings I've Had"

Our guide started us off at a Buddhist temple with an adjacent vegetarian restaurant, then walked us through the former Jewish Ghetto, where 20,000 refugees lived during World War II. Winding our way through the nongtangs (old-fashioned alleyways) passing humble apartment blocks with European-style balconies, where I found the sheng jian bao of my dreams in a small storefront. They were fluffy on top, crunchy on the bottom and filled with savory, fatty juice.

"One of the Best Things to do in Xian"

In addition to trying some of the best eats in the neighborhood, you'll also have the chance to learn about the history of this community and get to meet some of the people who make the best biang biang noodles (so named for the loud way they slam onto the table) and Eight Treasures congee, which was a staple of travelers along the Silk Road thanks to its easy-to-haul ingredients like nuts, spices and seeds.

Get Hungry for Adventure.

A third of our customers were referred by a previous guest. Were you one of them?!

Amazing Experience in Tibetan Yunnan!

“I took this trip immediately after Lost Plate’s other Yunnan adventure (Dali to Lijiang) and the two are very different, but both fabulous. Highlights included dinner at the winemaker’s house in Cizhong and of course Yubeng, which has views that simply cannot be beat. Even if you’re not a regular hiker (I’m not), consider doing the waterfall hike. When you add up the hotels and transport and tours and personal assistance (especially with those pesky Covid tests and health codes), never mind the unending food and drink, I can’t even believe what a value Lost Plate provides. Unless you are a fluent Chinese speaker, you’re not likely to have a more varied, fun, and delicious time in Tibetan Yunnan than by taking this tour.”

TheophaniaSeattle

August 2022

Best Trip I've Ever Done in China!

“From food, wine, places to people who live there. Had such a great experience. Food, wine and scenery. The places visited were further apart so be prepared for three hours drive. Believe me the drives between each places are worth it because the views all around you are breathtaking.”

Internationalbabe001

A fun, memorable, and easy way to plan a Chinese vacation.

“What a memorable trip! I’m not usually one to book vacations with tour companies but Lost Plate has me a convert! Everything was so easy, all I had to do was show up! Especially as a parent traveling alone with 2 kids and my Chinese skills are less than proficient, this made our vacation a breeze. I will go on every trip that Lost Plates offers, if I can. From booking to accommodations, activities, tours, timing, transportation, our sweet and knowledgeable guide, Noble, EVERYTHING was spot on. Don’t look any further, just put your vacation in the hands of Lost Plate.”

Perfect mix of sightseeing and eating!

“This is my second multi-day tour with Lost Plate and I hope it won’t be my last. I saw all the top sights, ate like a queen, and kept my all-important health code green. The last bit might not be the most exciting part of travel but it is the most worrisome if not take care of. I know most people come to Xi’an to see the terracotta warriors and while they are spectacular, there’s so much more to Xi’an and on this tour you’ll get to experience it. The food can be the true highlight in Xi’an, at least when you’re with Lost Plate. It’s hard to choose a favorite meal but I think the evening and morning food tours of the Muslim quarter were my personal favorites. The best part of being with a group is that you can order (and taste) far more dishes than if you were on your own or with just one other person. Plus they’ve done the advance legwork to find you the best places to eat. Highest possible recommendation for anyone who wants the convenience of a tour/guide but an alternative to a big bus tour.”

Get a Taste of Chengdu, UNESCO City of Gastronomy.

“Daisy our guide was knowledgeable and fun (spoke very good English too!) and we got to taste great local food at 4 stops. Capped off the night in a cool bar with plum wine. The tuktuk ride added to the experience and some of the Chengdu food we tasted included Dan Dan noodles, Tianshui Noodles, Lamb Skewers, Dumplings etc., some seasoned with Sichuan spices and all very tasty and delicious. This was our third Lost Plate tour (Beijing evening tour and 1 week Yunnan experience prior) and as always, we had a blast and can only recommend!”

A Taste of Chengdu!

“I had heard Chengdu had amazing food and this tour made sure we got to sample it all. I was only in town with a friend for 1 night so we wanted to maximize our time and eat all the food we could. This Lost Plate tour was the best way to accomplish this. I had done the Beijing Lost Plate Food Tour and loved. On this tour you not only get to eat some of the most famous dishes in this region, but you also get to find the hidden gems of the city in just a few hours. The tuktuk ride is safe and adds charm to the adventure. Our guide Patricia was wonderful and we learned so much about the food culture of Chengdu from her. We ended at the coolest little bar that had so much personality too. Will be back and will definitely try another of the Lost Plate’s tours.”

A Truly Memorable Experience!

My partner and I loved every single moment of this tour. The itinerary took us through breathtaking scenery off the beaten path, it felt like we went on an adventure! Our guide was incredibly attentive and helpful, and we had a lot of fun spending time with her and the rest of the crew. The food was absolutely delicious and we all looked forward to our next meal despite being still full from the previous one! We’ll definitely join more Lost Plate tours while we live in China.

This was a fabulous trip put on by a fabulous organization!

I had already been on their evening food tours in Chengdu and Xi’an, and these longer trips had come highly recommended by a friend. It absolutely lived up to her hype. This is an off-the-tourist-trail adventure for sure, which might not be for everyone, but was exactly what I was looking for. The food was always delicious and the travel and accommodations were as good as the areas allowed. I would strongly recommend Lost Plate for an uncommon adventure!

Ask us anything, we love a good question.

Food tour locations.

Beijing, China

Chengdu, China

Guangzhou, China

Lijiang, China

Shanghai, China

Suzhou, China

Xian, China

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Siem Reap, Cambodia

Bangkok, Thailand

Portland, OR USA

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How to Eat Flushing: A One-Day Food Tour of NYC's Greatest Chinatown

Time and again we've extolled the virtues of Flushing, the Queens neighborhood at the end of the number 7 line that's home to one of New York's largest and best-fed Chinese communities. Few places in this city will feed you better or cheaper, and with an empty stomach and strong resolve, you can fill up on killer dumplings, noodles, and crispy cumin lamb all within a few blocks.

When travelers to New York ask me where to eat, I send them to Flushing. When locals ask me about a new restaurant I'm excited about, the answer's often there. But let's say you have just one day to take a whirlwind tour of the neighborhood. What do you need to try?

Flushing veterans each have their own list of must-eats, and some may disagree with mine. But after years of leading groups of neophytes to feast around Flushing's busy streets, I've come up with an itinerary that's managed to satisfy the most ardent chowhounds. Take a few friends and, depending on how much you devour, you can get away with spending less than $40 a head all day.

Don't eat breakfast.

Mid-Morning Dumplings (and the Food Court of Your Dreams)

Hop off the 7 train and make your way up Main Street to a grubby-looking complex called the Golden Shopping Mall . There, you'll find two floors packed with food stalls hawking everything from hand-pulled noodles to spicy lamb sandwiches (this is one of the first locations of the mini-chain Xi'an Famous Foods ) to exquisite dumplings.

How exquisite? Meet my favorite dumplings in the world : the lamb and green squash dumplings from corner stall Tianjin Dumpling House . This northern Chinese stall sells about 10,000 dumplings a day in over a dozen flavors, but these juicy, aromatic dumplings with tender-yet-chewy skins are the best item on the menu. Also seek out the ace vegetarian dumplings, filled with scrambled egg, glass noodles, and garlic chives. And don't be afraid to ask for some freshly made garlic sauce: raw grated garlic tempered by sesame oil, rice vinegar, and a touch of sugar.

You can get these dumplings (and 98 other varieties) at the nearby Dumpling Galaxy , but they're cheaper here—$5 buys you 12 lamb dumplings—and easier to eat on the run. But do stick around at the Golden Shopping Mall for some fiery Sichuan fare at Chengdu Heavenly Plenty, or Fujian-style tiny wontons at the upstairs Lao Wang Ji shop, or a plate of cold skin noodles from Xi'an. It's hard to go wrong here.

Don't fill up, though. You still have plenty of work to do.

Tianjin Dumpling House

Golden Shopping Mall, 41-28 Main Street, Flushing, NY 11355

Lunch, Part One: More Dumplings

With the Golden Shopping Mall behind you, it's time to start thinking about lunch. But first: appetizers. And yup, you'll be eating more dumplings. Flanking your soon-to-be-lunch-destination are two shops with exceptional wontons in very different styles. If you're feeling ambitious, you can tackle them both, or just stick with one to keep your metabolism from seizing up.

White Bear: A tiny, much-loved shop with a well-known specialty: menu item number six, "wontons in hot oil." Light, juicy pork and vegetable wontons with gossamer skins come dressed in not-actually-spicy chili oil, ground up roasted chili, and nubs of funky, salty preserved mustard root. They're as flavorful a plate of wontons as you could hope for.

135-02 Roosevelt Avenue (on Prince), Flushing, NY 11354

map 718-961-2322

Sifu Chio: Also known as CHML H.K., Inc., this is where you'll find the finest Hong Kong-style wonton noodle soup in New York. The wontons are packed with crisp shrimp and juicy pork, loaded into a rich chicken broth with some leaves of tender greens, and finished off with thin noodles that retain their bite.

Pro-tip: on a nice day, take either of these dumplings to-go and eat them in the quizzically-named Bland Playground across the street.

40-09 Prince Street, Flushing, NY 11354

map 718-888-9295

Lunch, the Main Event: Fu Run

A growing set of Flushing's Chinese demographic hails from Dongbei, a northeastern region of the country with a taste for sturdy griddled buns, doughy wheat noodles and dumplings, and simple country-style meaty seasonings. Witness the Muslim "lamb chop": a rack of lamb ribs braised until fall-apart tender, blitzed with cumin, sesame seeds, and ground chili to set your mouth on fire, battered, and deep fried. It's one of the main reasons you're heading to Dongbei-style Fu Run , but hardly the only one .

Fu Run's fish is also delicious, from delicate whole-fried flounder topped with chili bean paste to nubs of battered "crispy sliced fish" coated with chili and cumin (fish McNuggets!). An unassuming stir-fry of eggplant, taro, and green pepper ("triple delight vegetables") is a reliable hit with a deep, satisfying brown sauce. And for dessert: nubs of taro coated in molten sugar that you pick up with your chopsticks, drop into cold water to set the caramel coating, and pop into your mouth like candy.

map 718-321-1363

I know how you feel now. You are bloated. You have dumpling sweats. You are ready to roll yourself home.

Don't give up. Now's time for a tea break.

Head around the corner and halfway down Roosevelt Avenue to a near-unmarked storefront that leads you down a long hallway. This is in fact one of Flushing's many mini-malls, and if you take the last door on your right, you'll find yourself at Fang Gourmet Tea , a shop where a fiver will buy you a tasting of world-class tea .

Fang specializes in fine teas from China and Taiwan with prices that can climb to several hundred dollars a pound. But for five bucks you can taste any of them in a serene tea ceremony, a half-hour-ish process that shows off the full range and depth of flavors in a tea by steeping it five times. The merchants are some of the city's most knowledgeable but also the most approachable—don't think you need any tea know-how to love this place. And if you're looking for a place to digest your meal(s) in peace, there's no better spot in Flushing.

Fang Gourmet Tea

135-25 Roosevelt Avenue, Flushing, NY 11354

map 888-888-0216 Website

Grocery Break

I know—no more food! (Not yet, anyway.) Instead, we're going grocery shopping, because half the fun of a day in Flushing is bringing the neighborhood home with you.

With 30,000 square feet of space in Flushing's largest shopping mall, JMart is a supermarket to be reckoned with, one of the largest Chinese markets in New York. The selection is astonishingly vast: a lengthy fish and meat counter; aisles and aisles of sauces, condiments, sweets, and instant meals; high quality produce; dry and bulk goods; frozen dumplings, seafood, and buns; and small shops selling Chinese sausage.

Also of note is a small stand called New Flushing Bakery , the sister shop to the location on Roosevelt and Main, and home to New York's finest egg custard tart . Go for the Portuguese variety with its vanilla-flavored custard, burnished top, and beyond-flaky crust. It's best fresh from the oven, but a room temperature tart for the subway ride home is always a good idea.

New World Mall, 136-20 Roosevelt Avenue, Flushing, NY 11354

map 718-353-0551 Website

Dinner: Barbecue or Dosas

It's getting close to dinner time, but your appetite may not be back yet. So that's why your next stop will take you on a 15-minute walk outside of downtown Flushing and into the neighboring suburban communities. Hike one way and you'll hit Murray Hill, a Korean enclave with some great barbecue restaurants. Walk up Kissena Boulevard instead and you'll eventually find a large Indian community clustered near a beautiful Hindu temple.

Mapo: If you're feeling the craving for flame-licked Korean barbecue, Mapo is tops , with its real-deal charcoal grill (for a smoke flavor that will permeate your meat and your clothes) and superior marbled short rib for kalbi . The banchan here are plentiful and delicious, and sides like soups are deeply flavorful (and may come on the house if you're nice).

But this place is really all about the beef: order the kalbi (and plenty of it) and watch the servers grill, flip, and snip your barbecue to perfect doneness; no sauce required to cover up this beautiful meat. A meal here is a little pricier than other barbecue spots, but the upgrade in quality is certainly worth it.

149-24 41st Avenue, Flushing, NY 11355

map 718-886-8292

Ganesh Temple Canteen: For something completely different, visit the basement of America's oldest Hindu temple for a taste of the finest dosas in New York . The temple's canteen, which is open to the public seven days a week, serves a whole roster of south Indian vegetarian food, but crackly-crisp, ultra-buttery dosas are the best of the lineup. Try the paneer dosa, with chunks of paneer folded into spicy mashed potato, and the ghee roast, shaped like a traffic cone and loaded, if you can imagine it possible, with even more browned-butter flavor than the others.

While eating at Mapo can get pricey—as much as $50 a head for a big, meaty meal with drinks—you can stuff a crowd of eight at the canteen for 40 bucks.

Ganesh Temple Canteen

45-57 Bowne Street, Flushing, NY 11355

map 718-460-8484 Website

And for the Subway Home

You've done the hard work now and you're ready for a nice trip home on the 7 train. If you haven't bought some already, head to the Roosevelt-and-Main location of New Flushing Bakery to pick up an egg custard tart. Do note they run out in the late afternoon and close for the evening.

Fortunately, Coco is open later and is even better for soothing stomachs. The international chain makes consistently delicious, high quality tea; you can control the level of sweetness, and the bubbles are fresh with a soft chew. My go-to refreshing specialty: a tart, bracing grapefruit green tea with no milk or bubbles whatsoever. It's exactly what you need after a feast day of epic proportions.

CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice

39-22 Main Street, Flushing, NY 11354

map 718-321-8566 Website

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Chinese Food Tours

Chinese food with its variety and complexity is undoubtedly one of the finest cuisines in the world. It is delicious, healthy and, above all, different.

Good food is surely one of the main elements of a satisfactory tour. For foodies, China Highlights has designed five value-packed private tours, combining China's must-see attractions with meals in carefully selected restaurants favored by local people to ensure a real taste of China.

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You will have an opportunity to taste delicious Chinese food and at the same time not to miss those beautiful and must-see sites of china.

Chinese food is "sweet in the south, salty in north, sour in the west, and spicy in the east." Your will experience salty in Beijing, spicy in Chengdu, sweet in Guangzhou.

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Get a Taste of Asian Street Food With These YouTube Tours

Learn more about the food and culture of other countries through immersive first-person video..

I’ve always believed that the best way to discover great food while traveling is to simply walk around the place you’re visiting without any expectations. Start at one street corner and follow the scent and the crowd. I have fond memories of doing this on my last pre-pandemic trip to New York City. These days, however, with fuel and food prices higher than ever, there’s another way to immerse oneself in a city’s dining scene without actually traveling.

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Enter YouTube, which features more than 500 videos uploaded every minute —a far distinction from a decade ago, when it was just 35 per minute. It’s not all instructional how-tos and funny cat videos anymore. With more variety comes great diversity, and more ways to educate oneself about other cultures. The best YouTube videos let you experience things that once required a physical presence. Thus, it’s become my new rabbit hole.

After my partner recently sent me some videos about Huế, a city in Vietnam, I’ve discovered a treasure trove of virtual immersive experiences originating from Vietnam, as well as other countries in Asia. They’ve educated me on the countries’ food history and popular food trends and gave me a behind-the-scenes look at how much hard work and dedication it takes to feed people every single day. Here are some of my favorite channels; maybe you will delight in falling down the rabbit hole, too.

What the Pho

What the Pho began in the summer of 2020, when Van Vu, a Vietnamese student studying abroad in Michigan, posted her first video on YouTube about her experience in a “military quarantine camp” in Vietnam. The video went viral, and thus began her YouTube career. She mainly covers food, travel, and Vietnamese culture, along with short personal blurbs, like why she decided to move back to Vietnam . While this channel is highly edited in true influencer style, I found the videos to be educational and uplifting. Van highlights popular places and foods associated with those places, but she also highlights off-the-path food stalls and differences between eating in America versus eating in Vietnam. Best of all: I learned things I didn’t even know about my own country!

Watch if you want to learn more about Vietnamese food, “travel” around the country, and learn how its history influences the foods available today.

Check out: the Lunch Lady stall , Bun Bo Hue , Differences in Pho  

Street Food Thảo Vy

Alternatively, Street Food Thảo Vy is the opposite of influencer style. What attracts me about the channel is its simplistic nature. The videos appear to be unedited walking tours, from someone with a lot of time on their hands who simply wants to represent their city as it is. Watching these videos made me feel like I was on a walking tour with a local friend. Sometimes there are short, casual interviews with the street vendors; other times, they’re visits to certain food stalls. Many of the foods featured are Vietnamese desserts and snacks. Everything is in Vietnamese, but the camaraderie between the street vendors and their customers is both evident and authentic, and the colorful foods might make you salivate even more as you watch how they are made.

Watch if you like long, winding street food tours interspersed with conversations with the locals.

Check out: bánh da lợn , banh xeo , bánh dân gian

From the very first video I watched, about a seafood restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand, I knew this channel was special. Like What the Pho, Yummy GO appeared on YouTube two years ago. Since then, they’ve amassed 477K subscribers, impressive for a new channel. To me, Yummy GO is like a food travel diary, blending in language that I understand (English) with places that I know very little about. It’s like visiting a new city for the first time and feeling the culture shock but knowing that your amazing friend is here, ready to take you on a delicious tour filled with tips from a local. A lot of videos feature Thai street food, along with Korean and Chinese cuisine. The best part is the “behind the scenes” look at how many vendors make their foods, making it a delicious and educational experience.

Watch if you like travel diaries and want to go behind the scenes to learn more about Thai, Korean, and Chinese food at the same time.

Check out: Good price and quality Korean buffet , Bangkok seafood restaurant , seafood skewers in Thailand

JJin Food began two years ago and has morphed into one of the most watched channels in this space . About 1.92 million subscribers tune in for their real-life depiction of Korean food and culture. This channel is more of a modern take on Korean street food, blending in restaurant coverage and popular food trends in Korea. For example, this video about Montreal- style bagels wouldn’t necessarily be categorized as “traditional” Korean fare, but it was fascinating to see how it has become so popular in Korea. You could argue that this is a westernized way of showcasing food from Korea, but I think it’s brilliant, because I learned things about both cultures that I didn’t know before, all with English descriptions, making it easier than ever to understand.

Watch if you want to learn about modern Korean street food and Korean restaurants and be introduced to unique foods.

Check out: Korean street food , loach soup , tteokbokki restaurant

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China Food Tours & Recommended China Tour Packages Covering Culinary Experience

Chinese food has won its reputation and popularity for its exquisite cooking skill, numerous dishes and unique flavors. With thousands of years’ development and cultivation, Chinese food has formed its own culture. The Chinese food culture is rooted in traditional Chinese philosophy, which means that Chinese cuisine is the reflection of the harmony and balance of nature . Influenced by Chinese philosophy, today’s Chinese cuisine not only pursues to satisfy a gourmet appetite , but also does its utmost to preserve people’s health.

We believe: food is a destination. Some people say: falling in love with a town for someone you love resides in it. We say: falling in love with China for its fascinating culture, beautiful scenery, as well as the most delicious and irresistible Chinese food.

As a foodie, how can you miss the chance to feast the most authentic Chinese cuisine as well as the opportunity to appreciate the most beautiful scenery and the fascinating culture of China? We have chosen the most popular cities, which are also the food center of China, to be your tour destinations. Start your memorable foodie’s tour with us!

Information About Chinese Food

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Gourmet Tours in Famous Chinese Food Cities

Peking Roast Duck, Sichuan Hot Pot, Mapo Tofu, Kung Pao Chicken…Have you ever taste these famous Chinese cuisines? Well, if you haven’t or if you want to eat the most authentic Chinese cuisines, our food center tour packages are designed for you.

Beijing, Xian, Chengdu and Shanghai are famous food centers of China. You can taste most of Chinese cuisines in those cities. Beijing & Xian are the ancient capitals of China; Chengdu is the home of cute Giant Panda and the Land of Abundance; Shanghai is the most developed city and the economic center of China; while Guilin has the picturesque scenery of China. Different cities have different local flavors and different culture, history and highlights. Choose to visit according to your preference. These short tour packages are perfect for you if you only have a time-limited vacation. If you have a special requirement on cuisine flavors or destinations, please contact us and our travel consultant will try their utmost to satisfy your needs.

3 Days Xian Muslim Flavor Tour with Local Family Visit

Most of Xian local food is Muslim food. Mutton and beef are eaten a lot in this tour. Dumpling and local snacks are also the highlights.

• Activity & Attractions
• Tang Dynasty Show
• Local Family Visit
• Terracotta Warriors
• Ancient City Wall

2 Days Chengdu Gourmet Tour with Cooking Class

Sichuan cuisine, like Hot Pot, Mapo Tofu, Kung Pao Chicken are features in Chengdu tour, local snacks are also famed in the country.

• Attend Cooking Class
• Jinli Old Street
• Play with Panda
• Renmin Park

4 Days Beijing Food Hunting Tour

You can savor Peking Roast Duck and local snacks in this tour. Beijing is also famous for its Muslim food, mutton shashilik is very tasty.

• Great Wall Hiking
• Forbidden City
• Summer Palace
• Tiananmen Square

2 Days Hong Kong Best Food & Cultural Must-sees Tour

Get a highly culinary joy with must-eat food in Hong Kong, like Dim Sum, Egg Waffles, Pineapple Bun, Milk Tea...

• Victoria Peak
• Nan Lian Garden
• Temple Street
• Sham Shui Po
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5 Days Guilin Food & Scenery Tour

Beer Fish and Guilin Rice Noodles are flavors of Guilin. You can also learn to cook some Chinese cuisines in the tour.

• Li River Cruise
• Longji Terrace Hiking

6 Days A Bite of Jiangnan Tour

Shanghai snacks, like Steamed Buns, and Zhejiang Cuisine, like Dong Po Pork, are all your choices in this tour.

• Hangzhou Cuisine Museum
• Yuyuan Bazaar
• West Lake Biking
• Suzhou Garden

3 Days Guangzhou Food Tour

Guangzhou is the core place to enjoy traditional Cantonese food, like Roast Goose, Dim Sum, Wonton Noodles...

• Chen Clan Ancestral Hall
• Yuexiu Park
• Huacheng Square
• Xiguan Ancient Houses
• Wenming Road (Food Street)
• Qingping Market

Classic China Tour Packages Covering Chinese Food and Culinary Experiences

If you have more time or if you want to taste more Chinese cuisines in your tour, our classic Chinese food and culture tour packages are suitable for you. In the following tour packages, you can visit more cities and taste different kinds of Chinese cuisines in the tour. Take your time to swallow the essence of Chinese food and culture, and wait and see how Chinese cuisines and culture surprise you. All tours can be customized, please feel free to contact us if you have any special requirements.

A Taste of China: 8 Days Best China Food & Culture Tour

Beijing and Xian - the ancient capitals of China, Shanghai - the most developed metropolis of China. In this tour, you can catch the best chance to see China's past, present and future! Taste the most authentic Chinsee cuisine in Beijing, Xian & Shanghai! This gourmet and culture tour perfectly blends the travel and food together, satisfy your eyes as well as your stomach.

Visit: Beijing / Xian / Shanghai

• Visit Shanghai to see the dazzling modern city with its magnificent landmarks;
• See the magnificent wonders of China: the Great Wall and the Terra Cotta Warriors;
• Take a meaningful visit to local family in Xian to learn how to make dumplings and have close contact with the enthusiastic host;
• Savor numerous local snacks in Beijing, Xian & Shanghai.

8 Days China Gourmet Tour with Ancient China & Panda

Beijing, Xian & Chengdu are three main food centers of China. This tour may satisfy everyone's taste. Light and fresh cuisines in Beijing, Muslim flavors in Xian, and spicy cuisines in Chengdu. Besides, you will also enjoy charm of the ancient capitals of China, take a lesuire tea time in Chengdu, and spend a great time with the cute giant panda.

Visit: Beijing / Xian / Chengdu

• Visit the hometown of giant panda, and spend a happy time with these cute pandas;
• Explore the history and culture of China in Beijing and Xian;
• Taste the famous Peking Roast Duck, spicy Sichuan Hot Pot, and other delicious local snacks;
• Attend half-day COOKING CLASS in Sichuan Cuisine Museum to make typcial Sichuan dishes;
• Emerging yourself into the leisure local life, drink Chinese tea in traditional teahouse.

Ultimate Taste for Foodie: 13 Days Classic Foodie Travel in China

As a foodie, how can you miss this classic foodie travel in China. You can not only taste the most delicious Chinese Cuisine in this tour, but can also experience the vast and beautiful scenery of China, and have fun time with the incredibly cute giant panda. Enjoy treasures of China in one go!

Visit: Beijing / Xian / Chengdu / Guilin / Shanghai

• Discover the royal emperors’life and learn the dynastic changes through the ancient capitals;
• See the cute giant panda in Chengdu and have a real happy time with these lovely creatures.
• Enjoy a leisure time in the traditional towns and get up close with the finest scenery under heaven in Guilin;
• Stroll along interesting food streets, like Huguo Temple Snack Street, Muslim Quarter, Jinli Old Street, Guilin West Street and Yuyuan Bazaar to fully taste local snack;
• Enjoy happy time when taking a visit to local family to make dumplings and COOKING CLASS to learn make Sichuan cuisine;

Start planning your tailor-made holiday to China by contacting one of our specialists. Once inquired, you’ll get a response within 0.5~23.5 hours.

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Celebrating 12 Years of Delicious Food Tours - Small & Large Group Team Building Available

CHINATOWN FOOD TOUR

Quick Details

Hour Glass   Duration: 3 hours

Map Marker   Stops:  Five different tasting locations

Food Tastings: All food included. Enough food for lunch. Vegetarian friendly. No Vegan options.  Click here for food substitutions.

ABOUT CHINATOWN FOOD TOUR

Don’t fall for the culinary tourist traps when you’re in San Francisco’s Chinatown! Sidewalk Food Tours of San Francisco offers an irresistible food tour in the cultural hotspot of Chinatown.

Explore the remarkable and historic culture and foods that define Hong Kong and mainland China. Taste authentic Cantonese, Mandarin, and Szechuan cuisine from five Chinese-owned and operated restaurants, food establishments, and bakeries.

Tasting Locations

(We go to the 5 following delicious places, subject to change)

*Private Tour tasting locations may be different than ones listed below.

• New Hollywood Bakery: (est. 1991): Our favorite light and buttery buns filled with barbecue-flavored cha siu pork.
• Xian House of Dumplings: Handmade noodles and dumplings in the Chinese tradition
• House of Dim Sum: Some of the best dim sum options in Chinatown, SF
• Grant Place Restaurant: Local favorite known for Hong Kong-style dim sum and Chinese specialties.
• AA Bakery: (est. 2002): Freshly made, out of the oven, Hong Kong-style egg tarts cooked to a smooth flan-like perfection with a buttery flaky crust.

Behind every great food establishment in this city, there is an equally great story of history, tradition, and even innovation. On our Chinatown food tour, you discover these amazing histories while tasting what has made these Chinese restaurants and bakeries so prized among locals.

Discover just what makes our food tours the best in the city!

Tour Highlights

• Enjoy a variety of five delicious foods from the best specialty food stores and ethnic eateries.
• Three hours of delicious fun with a wonderful guide
• Our fun, fascinating, and knowledgeable tour guide divulges tidbits of information only locals know.
• Walk hidden streets and alleys off the beaten path.
• Hear fun and interesting stories about the Chinese immigrants’ arrival in SF, the Tong Wars, Chinese architecture, and more.
• Visit the Chinese Fortune Cookie Factory, the oldest Buddhist Temple in SF, and an authentic Chinese market.
• Taste a variety of styles of Chinese cuisine, including the best-baked bun, dim sum, and egg tart, all without waiting in the long lines.

Private Chinatown Food Tour

Want to make our delicious and fun Chinatown food tour a private event? Contact Us! We specialize in curating the best private culinary experiences.

• Chevron down Meeting Location

Pacific and Grant Avenues, San Francisco, CA.

The tour meets in front of the East West Bank, located at 1066 Grant Ave San Francisco, CA 94133 . The cross streets are Pacific and Grant Avenues; please meet on the Grant Avenue side.

The closest BART station is Montgomery. It is about a 20-minute walk to the meeting location. The Portsmouth Square Parking Garage is located at 733 Kearny Street, between Clay and Washington Streets, and is about a five-minute walk away from the East West Bank.

• Chevron down What's Not Included?
• Feel free to bring a bottled beverage. Some of the food establishments supply water.
• A tip for your guide. It’s customary to tip between 15%-20% of the ticket purchase price.
• Chevron down Activity-Specific Policies

Please review the seller’s policies for this activity. Once tickets are purchased, these are binding.

• Non-refundable, cannot be rescheduled Once purchased, tickets cannot be refunded and cannot be rescheduled because your space is being guaranteed at the event.
• Activity takes place rain or shine The activity runs regardless of weather conditions. In the rare situation where the seller is forced to cancel the event, ticket-holders are allowed to reschedule to another time (subject to availability).

Related Food Tours

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• Map Marker San Francisco
• Clock 11am-2pm
• Calendar Friday & Sunday

MISSION DISTRICT FOOD TOUR

The Mission District is one of San Francisco’s most interesting and eclectic neighborhoods, combining a range of influences into one unique culture. This three-hour walking tour includes tastings at five different establishments.

• Clock 11:30am-2:30pm
• Calendar Saturday & Monday

NORTH BEACH FOOD TOUR

This three-hour walking tour gets you off of the main drag and into the beautiful side streets of North Beach and the Barbary Coast, offering the opportunity to discover unexpected shops, sites, and bites.

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What Would a TikTok Ban Mean for the Food World?

The app has become the de facto way many people encounter new recipes and scope out restaurants

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A version of this post originally appeared in the March 17, 2024 edition of Weekend Extra, a place for the freshest news from the food world. Subscribe now .

The House passed legislation on Wednesday, March 13, that could lead to a ban on TikTok in the United States if the app’s owner, the Chinese company ByteDance, doesn’t sell its stake in the app. On Tuesday, April 23, the Senate followed suit , and on Wednesday, April 24, President Biden signed the bill into law. Now, ByteDance must divest from the app within a year. It is “the most serious threat yet to the video-streaming app’s future in the U.S.,” according to NPR .

American legislators have argued that the app is a national security threat since, as the AP explains , “ByteDance is beholden to the Chinese government, which could demand access to the data of TikTok’s consumers in the U.S. any time it wants.” (This kind of tracking has precedent .)

A TikTok ban — should it go into effect — would have huge ramifications for the food world, given that TikTok has surpassed Instagram and traditional food publications as the way to launch a food career today. Because of its algorithm, the app offers budding food creators the possibility of “ explosive growth ” and has, as a result, reshaped the landscape of food stardom , the cookbook world , and even the grocery store . The hashtag #FoodTok accounts for at least 2.6 million posts, and the app has become the de facto way many people encounter new recipes. What would a ban mean for the food world?

It’s not the first time this question has come up. In May 2023, the state of Montana passed legislation banning TikTok in the state, though it was blocked by a federal judge in November who cited that it violated free speech. At the time of the bill’s passing, Montana-based food creator Spencre McGowan , known on TikTok for her cottagecore cooking videos , told NBC News that the app provided her with essential income, thanks to brand sponsorships on her social content. Food creators told Bon Appétit that because of TikTok’s faster growth compared to other platforms, their earning potential on the app is higher. The app has become a “lifeline,” one creator told NPR on the heels of the current national legislation.

Beyond finances, however, Bon Appétit ’s Sam Stone noted that any potential TikTok ban would especially harm new and budding cooks, recipe developers, and food creators as the app, despite its problems and annoyances, has “already helped remove many of the gatekeeping and other hurdles that amateur chefs may face taking a more traditional path in the food world.” Essentially, creators who have pre-established followings on other platforms or have the backing of traditional media or publishing would be slightly insulated from the loss of the short-form video platform by virtue of their other avenues for recipe and content distribution.

Of course, restaurants, however begrudgingly, also rely on TikTok more and more for business. The app has proven to be a hugely powerful marketing tool with a sense of populism, which is especially compelling for restaurants who might not have the resources for a flashy PR firm. There’s a general sense that TikTok can save a struggling restaurant from going under — and it has . When restaurants are desperate to stay in business, the app can be the one thing keeping the lights on. The app has also revitalized interest in older restaurants: Despite having been open for five years, New York City’s Golden Diner, for example, has recently seen a huge surge of new customers , leading to hours-long waits.

If there’s any immediate takeaway for food creators and other food businesses that rely on TikTok, it’s this: Relying on any single app for your livelihood is a risky choice, especially when all of them are subject to huge forces outside their control. Diversification is the name of the game.

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The Evolving Danger of the New Bird Flu

An unusual outbreak of the disease has spread to dairy herds in multiple u.s. states..

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email [email protected] with any questions.

From “The New York Times,” I’m Sabrina Tavernise, and this is “The Daily.”

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The outbreak of bird flu that is tearing through the nation’s poultry farms is the worst in US history. But scientists say it’s now starting to spread into places and species it’s never been before.

Today, my colleague, Emily Anthes, explains.

It’s Monday, April 22.

Emily, welcome back to the show.

Thanks for having me. Happy to be here.

So, Emily, we’ve been talking here on “The Daily” about prices of things and how they’ve gotten so high, mostly in the context of inflation episodes. And one of the items that keeps coming up is eggs. Egg prices were through the roof last year, and we learned it was related to this. Avian flu has been surging in the United States. You’ve been covering this. Tell us what’s happening.

Yes, so I have been covering this virus for the last few years. And the bird flu is absolutely tearing through poultry flocks, and that is affecting egg prices. That’s a concern for everyone, for me and for my family. But when it comes to scientists, egg prices are pretty low on their list of concerns. Because they see this bird flu virus behaving differently than previous versions have. And they’re getting nervous, in particular, about the fact that this virus is reaching places and species where it’s never been before.

OK, so bird flu, though, isn’t new. I mean I remember hearing about cases in Asia in the ‘90s. Remind us how it began.

Bird flu refers to a bunch of different viruses that are adapted to spread best in birds. Wild water birds, in particular, are known for carrying these viruses. And flu viruses are famous for also being shapeshifters. So they’re constantly swapping genes around and evolving into new strains. And as you mentioned back in the ‘90s, a new version of bird flu, a virus known as H5N1, emerged in Asia. And it has been spreading on and off around the world since then, causing periodic outbreaks.

And how are these outbreaks caused?

So wild birds are the reservoir for the virus, which means they carry it in their bodies with them around the world as they fly and travel and migrate. And most of the time, these wild birds, like ducks and geese, don’t even get very sick from this virus. But they shed it. So as they’re traveling over a poultry farm maybe, if they happen to go to the bathroom in a pond that the chickens on the farm are using or eat some of the feed that chickens on the farm are eating, they can leave the virus behind.

And the virus can get into chickens. In some cases, it causes mild illness. It’s what’s known as low pathogenic avian influenza. But sometimes the virus mutates and evolves, and it can become extremely contagious and extremely fatal in poultry.

OK, so the virus comes through wild birds, but gets into farms like this, as you’re describing. How have farms traditionally handled outbreaks, when they do happen?

Well, because this threat isn’t new, there is a pretty well-established playbook for containing outbreaks. It’s sometimes known as stamping out. And brutally, what it means is killing the birds. So the virus is so deadly in this highly pathogenic form that it’s sort of destined to kill all the birds on a farm anyway once it gets in. So the response has traditionally been to proactively depopulate or cull all the birds, so it doesn’t have a chance to spread.

So that’s pretty costly for farmers.

It is. Although the US has a program where it will reimburse farmers for their losses. And the way these reimbursements work is they will reimburse farmers only for the birds that are proactively culled, and not for those who die naturally from the virus. And the thinking behind that is it’s a way to incentivize farmers to report outbreaks early.

So, OK, lots of chickens are killed in a way to manage these outbreaks. So we know how to deal with them. But what about now? Tell me about this new strain.

So this new version of the virus, it emerged in 2020.

After the deadly outbreak of the novel coronavirus, authorities have now confirmed an outbreak of the H5N1 strain of influenza, a kind of bird flu.

And pretty quickly it became clear that a couple things set it apart.

A bald eagle found dead at Carvins Cove has tested positive for the highly contagious bird flu.

This virus, for whatever reason, seemed very good at infecting all sorts of wild birds that we don’t normally associate with bird flu.

[BIRD CRYING]

He was kind of stepping, and then falling over, and using its wing to right itself.

Things like eagles and condors and pelicans.

We just lost a parliament of owls in Minneapolis.

Yeah, a couple of high profile nests.

And also in the past, wild birds have not traditionally gotten very sick from this virus. And this version of the virus not only spread widely through the wild bird population, but it proved to be devastating.

The washing up along the East Coast of the country from Scotland down to Suffolk.

We were hearing about mass die-offs of seabirds in Europe by the hundreds and the thousands.

And the bodies of the dead dot the island wherever you look.

Wow. OK. So then as we know, this strain, like previous ones, makes its way from wild animals to farmed animals, namely to chickens. But it’s even more deadly.

Absolutely. And in fact, it has already caused the worst bird flu outbreak in US history. So more than 90 million birds in the US have died as a result of this virus.

90 million birds.

Yes, and I should be clear that represents two things. So some of those birds are birds who naturally got infected and died from the virus. But the vast majority of them are birds that were proactively culled. What it adds up to is, is 90 million farmed birds in the US have died since this virus emerged. And it’s not just a chicken problem. Another thing that has been weird about this virus is it has jumped into other kinds of farms. It is the first time we’ve seen a bird flu virus jump into US livestock.

And it’s now been reported on a number of dairy farms across eight US states. And that’s just something that’s totally unprecedented.

So it’s showing up at Dairy farms now. You’re saying that bird flu has now spread to cows. How did that happen?

So we don’t know exactly how cows were first infected, but most scientists’ best guess is that maybe an infected wild bird that was migrating shed the virus into some cattle feed or a pasture or a pond, and cattle picked it up. The good news is they don’t seem to get nearly as sick as chickens do. They are generally making full recoveries on their own in a couple of weeks.

OK, so no mass culling of cows?

No, that doesn’t seem to be necessary at this point. But the bad news is that it’s starting to look like we’re seeing this virus spread from cow to cow. We don’t know exactly how that’s happening yet. But anytime you see cow-to-cow or mammal-to-mammal transmission, that’s a big concern.

And why is that exactly?

Well, there are a bunch of reasons. First, it could allow the outbreak to get much bigger, much faster, which might increase the risk to the food supply. And we might also expect it to increase the risk to farm workers, people who might be in contact with these sick cows.

Right now, the likelihood that a farmer who gets this virus passes it on is pretty low. But any time you see mammal-to-mammal transmission, it increases the chance that the virus will adapt and possibly, maybe one day get good at spreading between humans. To be clear, that’s not something that there’s any evidence happening in cows right now. But the fact that there’s any cow-to-cow transmission happening at all is enough to have scientists a bit concerned.

And then if we think more expansively beyond what’s happening on farms, there’s another big danger lurking out there. And that’s what happens when this virus gets into wild animals, vast populations that we can’t control.

We’ll be right back.

So, Emily, you said that another threat was the threat of flu in wild animal populations. Clearly, of course, it’s already in wild birds. Where else has it gone?

Well, the reason it’s become such a threat is because of how widespread it’s become in wild birds. So they keep reintroducing it to wild animal populations pretty much anywhere they go. So we’ve seen the virus repeatedly pop up in all sorts of animals that you might figure would eat a wild bird, so foxes, bobcats, bears. We actually saw it in a polar bear, raccoons. So a lot of carnivores and scavengers.

The thinking is that these animals might stumble across a sick or dead bird, eat it, and contract the virus that way. But we’re also seeing it show up in some more surprising places, too. We’ve seen the virus in a bottle-nosed dolphin, of all places.

And most devastatingly, we’ve seen enormous outbreaks in other sorts of marine mammals, especially sea lions and seals.

So elephant seals, in particular in South America, were just devastated by this virus last fall. My colleague Apoorva Mandavilli and I were talking to some scientists in South America who described to us what they called a scene from hell, of walking out onto a beach in Argentina that is normally crowded with chaotic, living, breathing, breeding, elephant seals — and the beach just being covered by carcass, after carcass, after carcass.

Mostly carcasses of young newborn pups. The virus seemed to have a mortality rate of 95 percent in these elephant seal pups, and they estimated that it might have killed more than 17,000 of the pups that were born last year. So almost the entire new generation of this colony. These are scientists that have studied these seals for decades. And they said they’ve never seen anything like it before.

And why is it so far reaching, Emily? I mean, what explains these mass die-offs?

There are probably a few explanations. One is just how much virus is out there in the environment being shed by wild birds into water and onto beaches. These are also places that viruses like this haven’t been before. So it’s reaching elephant seals and sea lions in South America that have no prior immunity.

There’s also the fact that these particular species, these sea lions and seals, tend to breed in these huge colonies all crowded together on beaches. And so what that means is if a virus makes its way into the colony, it’s very conducive conditions for it to spread. And scientists think that that’s actually what’s happening now. That it’s not just that all these seals are picking up the virus from individual birds, but that they’re actually passing it to each other.

So basically, this virus is spreading to places it’s never been before, kind of virgin snow territory, where animals just don’t have the immunity against it. And once it gets into a population packed on a beach, say, of elephant seals, it’s just like a knife through butter.

Absolutely. And an even more extreme example of that is what we’re starting to see happen in Antarctica, where there’s never been a bird flu outbreak before until last fall, for the first time, this virus reached the Antarctic mainland. And we are now seeing the virus move through colonies of not only seabirds and seals, but penguin colonies, which have not been exposed to these viruses before.

And it’s too soon to say what the toll will be. But penguins also, of course, are known for breeding in these large colonies.

Probably. don’t have many immune defenses against this virus, and of course, are facing all these other environmental threats. And so there’s a lot of fear that you add on the stress of a bird flu virus, and it could just be a tipping point for penguins.

Emily, at this point, I’m kind of wondering why more people aren’t talking about this. I mean, I didn’t know any of this before having this conversation with you, and it feels pretty worrying.

Well, a lot of experts and scientists are talking about this with rising alarm and in terms that are quite stark. They’re talking about the virus spreading through wild animal populations so quickly and so ferociously that they’re calling it an ecological disaster.

But that’s a disaster that sometimes seems distant from us, both geographically, we’re talking about things that are happening maybe at the tip of Argentina or in Antarctica. And also from our concerns of our everyday lives, what’s happening in Penguins might not seem like it has a lot to do with the price of a carton of eggs at the grocery store. But I think that we should be paying a lot of attention to how this virus is moving through animal populations, how quickly it’s moving through animal populations, and the opportunities that it is giving the virus to evolve into something that poses a much bigger threat to human health.

So the way it’s spreading in wild animals, even in remote places like Antarctica, that’s important to watch, at least in part because there’s a real danger to people here.

So we know that the virus can infect humans, and that generally it’s not very good at spreading between humans. But the concern all along has been that if this virus has more opportunities to spread between mammals, it will get better at spreading between them. And that seems to be what is happening in seals and sea lions. Scientists are already seeing evidence that the virus is adapting as it passes from marine mammal to marine mammal. And that could turn it into a virus that’s also better at spreading between people.

And if somebody walks out onto a beach and touches a dead sea lion, if their dog starts playing with a sea lion carcass, you could imagine that this virus could make its way out of marine mammals and into the human population. And if it’s this mammalian adapted version of the virus that makes its way out, that could be a bigger threat to human health.

So the sheer number of hosts that this disease has, the more opportunity it has to mutate, and the more chance it has to mutate in a way that would actually be dangerous for people.

Yes, and in particular, the more mammalian hosts. So that gives the virus many more opportunities to become a specialist in mammals instead of a specialist in birds, which is what it is right now.

Right. I like that, a specialist in mammals. So what can we do to contain this virus?

Well, scientists are exploring new options. There’s been a lot of discussion about whether we should start vaccinating chickens in the US. The government, USDA labs, have been testing some poultry vaccines. It’s probably scientifically feasible. There are challenges there, both in terms of logistics — just how would you go about vaccinating billions of chickens every year. There are also trade questions. Traditionally, a lot of countries have not been willing to accept poultry products from countries that vaccinate their poultry.

And there’s concern about whether the virus might spread undetected in flocks that are vaccinated. So as we saw with COVID, the vaccine can sometimes stop you from getting sick, but it doesn’t necessarily stop infection. And so countries are worried they might unknowingly import products that are harboring the virus.

And what about among wild animals? I mean, how do you even begin to get your head around that?

Yeah, I mean, thinking about vaccinating wild animals maybe makes vaccinating all the chickens in the US look easy. There has been some discussion of limited vaccination campaigns, but that’s not feasible on a global scale. So unfortunately, the bottom line is there isn’t a good way to stop spread in wild animals. We can try to protect some vulnerable populations, but we’re not going to stop the circulation of this virus.

So, Emily, we started this conversation with a kind of curiosity that “The Daily” had about the price of eggs. And then you explained the bird flu to us. And then somehow we ended up learning about an ecological disaster that’s unfolding all around us, and potentially the source of the next human pandemic. That is pretty scary.

It is scary, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed by it. And I feel like I should take a step back and say none of this is inevitable. None of this is necessarily happening tomorrow. But this is why scientists are concerned and why they think it’s really important to keep a very close eye on what’s happening both on farms and off farms, as this virus spreads through all sorts of animal populations.

One thing that comes up again and again and again in my interviews with people who have been studying bird flu for decades, is how this virus never stops surprising them. And sometimes those are bad surprises, like these elephant seal die-offs, the incursions into dairy cattle. But there are some encouraging signs that have emerged recently. We’re starting to see some early evidence that some of the bird populations that survived early brushes with this virus might be developing some immunity. So that’s something that maybe could help slow the spread of this virus in animal populations.

We just don’t entirely know how this is going to play out. Flu is a very difficult, wily foe. And so that’s one reason scientists are trying to keep such a close, attentive eye on what’s happening.

Emily, thank you.

Thanks for having me.

Here’s what else you should know today.

On this vote, the yeas are 366 and the nays are 58. The bill is passed.

On Saturday, in four back-to-back votes, the House voted resoundingly to approve a long-stalled package of aid to Ukraine, Israel and other American allies, delivering a major victory to President Biden, who made aid to Ukraine one of his top priorities.

On this vote, the yeas are 385, and the no’s are 34 with one answering present. The bill is passed without objection.

The House passed the component parts of the $95 billion package, which included a bill that could result in a nationwide ban of TikTok.

On this vote, the yeas are 311 and the nays are 112. The bill is passed.

Oh, one voting present. I missed it, but thank you.

In a remarkable breach of custom, Democrats stepped in to supply the crucial votes to push the legislation past hard-line Republican opposition and bring it to the floor.

The House will be in order.

The Senate is expected to pass the legislation as early as Tuesday.

Today’s episode was produced by Rikki Novetsky, Nina Feldman, Eric Krupke, and Alex Stern. It was edited by Lisa Chow and Patricia Willens; contains original music by Marion Lozano, Dan Powell, Rowan Niemisto, and Sophia Lanman; and was engineered by Chris Wood. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Andrew Jacobs.

That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m Sabrina Tavernise. See you tomorrow.

• April 24, 2024   •   32:18 Is $60 Billion Enough to Save Ukraine?
• April 23, 2024   •   30:30 A Salacious Conspiracy or Just 34 Pieces of Paper?
• April 22, 2024   •   24:30 The Evolving Danger of the New Bird Flu
• April 19, 2024   •   30:42 The Supreme Court Takes Up Homelessness
• April 18, 2024   •   30:07 The Opening Days of Trump’s First Criminal Trial
• April 17, 2024   •   24:52 Are ‘Forever Chemicals’ a Forever Problem?
• April 16, 2024   •   29:29 A.I.’s Original Sin
• April 15, 2024   •   24:07 Iran’s Unprecedented Attack on Israel
• April 14, 2024   •   46:17 The Sunday Read: ‘What I Saw Working at The National Enquirer During Donald Trump’s Rise’
• April 12, 2024   •   34:23 How One Family Lost $900,000 in a Timeshare Scam
• April 11, 2024   •   28:39 The Staggering Success of Trump’s Trial Delay Tactics
• April 10, 2024   •   22:49 Trump’s Abortion Dilemma

Hosted by Sabrina Tavernise

Produced by Rikki Novetsky ,  Nina Feldman ,  Eric Krupke and Alex Stern

Edited by Lisa Chow and Patricia Willens

Original music by Marion Lozano ,  Dan Powell ,  Rowan Niemisto and Sophia Lanman

Engineered by Chris Wood

Listen and follow The Daily Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music

The outbreak of bird flu currently tearing through the nation’s poultry is the worst in U.S. history. Scientists say it is now spreading beyond farms into places and species it has never been before.

Emily Anthes, a science reporter for The Times, explains.

On today’s episode

Emily Anthes , a science reporter for The New York Times.

Background reading

Scientists have faulted the federal response to bird flu outbreaks on dairy farms .

Here’s what to know about the outbreak.

There are a lot of ways to listen to The Daily. Here’s how.

We aim to make transcripts available the next workday after an episode’s publication. You can find them at the top of the page.

Special thanks to Andrew Jacobs .

The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Dan Farrell, Sophia Lanman, Shannon Lin, Diane Wong, Devon Taylor, Alyssa Moxley, Summer Thomad, Olivia Natt, Daniel Ramirez and Brendan Klinkenberg.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Paula Szuchman, Lisa Tobin, Larissa Anderson, Julia Simon, Sofia Milan, Mahima Chablani, Elizabeth Davis-Moorer, Jeffrey Miranda, Renan Borelli, Maddy Masiello, Isabella Anderson and Nina Lassam.

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