Bowen Yang Shares His Mom’s Mapo Tofu Recipe

Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers are comedians, actors, longtime friends and hosts of the comedy podcast, “Las Culturistas,” and “Las Culturistas Culture Awards,” a variety show that celebrates the year’s biggest pop culture moments. This year is the fifth awards, airing on Wednesday, with more than 100 award categories, including “Hilary Duff Award for Millennial Excellence,” “Best Beverage — Human” and “Best Beverage — Vampire,” along with musical performances.

Below (or on YouTube), watch Mr. Yang share his mom’s recipe for mapo tofu. Read ahead for excerpts from the interview and the outtakes, which have been edited and condensed.

Bowen, this is your mom’s recipe for mapo tofu. Can you tell us more about it?

BOWEN YANG I came here for college, to this den of sin, New York City. Anytime I would go back home, this is what she makes for me. To this day does it. When I’m in the car on the way home, she goes, “I’m making the mapo tofu for you.” She’s from the north, and mapo tofu is from Sichuan Province, from the south. She makes it in a way that is not your typical mapo tofu, where it’s super stewy and saucy, a little too bathed in it.

MATT ROGERS She brings some of the north.

YANG She brings some of the north in. Typically, you do it with a really soft silken tofu. Mom does it with firm. For some ballast. And that’s what we’re doing today.

ROGERS If this was a few years ago, we could be like “Queen of the North,” and it would be a good “Game of Thrones” joke.

YANG Huge, fun, “Game of Thrones” timely joke.

Does your mom know you’re sharing this recipe with us?

YANG She doesn’t know.

ROGERS She doesn’t know he even moved to New York.

YANG She doesn’t know I’m here.

ROGERS She doesn’t know where he’s been.

YANG I don’t overwhelm my mom with my life.

ROGERS What all moms want.

YANG I think she would feel very vulnerable if I shared her recipe. I think she’s going to come to learn that people will enjoy this a great deal, hopefully.

Matt, have you tried this recipe before?

ROGERS I have never tried this recipe before.

YANG Matt has a thing where he does not want a home-cooked meal.

ROGERS It’s not that I don’t want a home-cooked meal, it’s that I’d rather go to a restaurant. Because that’s where I know they got it down.

YANG I’ve made many things for Matt.

ROGERS Always good.

YANG What do you mean “always good”? You never try it.

ROGERS Always good! Every time I have it, it’s always good.

YANG Such as?

ROGERS Such as … [laughs]

So you really never cook, Matt?

ROGERS I don’t do it. Onetime, I was like, “I’m going to cook,” and I made myself a blue cheese-encrusted filet mignon. That was the one thing I’ve ever cooked.

YANG Gorgeous. And didn’t that inspire you to do more?

ROGERS Kind of. First of all, can I say? I’m way ahead of you in the comments. I get it. It’s this idea of like, I’m gonna spend a lot of time on something, and I’m gonna eat it in two seconds, and it’s gonna be gone. Like, I don’t have a lot of patience for that. I’m that girl.

YANG No, I’m just saying, like, isn’t it beautiful that it’s a thing that you had a manual experience with? And then you get to enjoy it on a sensory level in another way?

ROGERS It is beautiful, it’s just not —

YANG Like, what’s the difference between that and a cocktail that you make?

ROGERS I don’t make myself cocktails either. [laughs]

Have either of you ever worked in the food service industry?

ROGERS I waited tables for 10 years. Nicky’s on the Bay, which was a seafood restaurant on Long Island, in the Fire Island ferry terminal. The next place I worked was called Ulysses’ in the financial district, and then I worked at a place called Brooklyn Crab. All of them had raw bars, so I became like a raw bar expert. I know all about those suckers. Meaning oysters.

YANG Does this explain the aversion to cooking, is that you love raw food?

ROGERS You know what it was, my mother was never like “get in the kitchen, we’re learning how to cook.” She wasn’t a culinary queen. It was just like, we’re making food that’s good and easy, and that’s kind of it.

YANG I worked at an ice cream shop called Maggie Moo’s. The girly alternative to Cold Stone. She is really a sort of high femme cow. People always asked us if we could sing. We were told explicitly by management “do not sing.” I was silenced at a young age.

ROGERS And this is supposed to be the high femme girly pop ice cream, and they wouldn’t let you sing when you’re happy?

YANG Exactly.

If you were a food dish, what would you be? And can you answer for each other?

ROGERS You know what I’d be.

YANG A bloody Mary?

ROGERS That’s not what I was thinking.

YANG Buffalo wings.

[Rogers nods yes]

YANG Buffalo dip.

[Rogers nods no]

ROGERS Wind it back a little bit.

YANG Buffalo …

ROGERS Tender.

YANG Why tender? Why not dip? Break it down.

ROGERS I’m boneless. If I could guilt-free eat one thing for the rest of my life, it would be Buffalo chicken tenders drenched in Buffalo sauce. I will eat anything if you put Buffalo on it. I mean, it’s not that we are our favorite foods, but I do think that you are a deeply comforting beef stew.

YANG I was going to say beef stew or like a beef noodle soup.

ROGERS But that’s also your favorite food.

YANG Exactly.

ROGERS But we are our favorite foods. We are who we are!

If New York Times Cooking won a Las Culturistas Culture Award, what category would it be?

YANG Most pleasant comment section.

ROGERS I would say hottest staff. And not just ’cause you’re standing around the burners all day.

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