What I learned from Michelle Yeoh, 'The Brothers Sun' stars while eating our way through an LA night market

Michelle Yeoh is a foodie, this she tells me while handling a hot bowl of dumpling soup minutes after eager servers at a food booth gifted her the savory dish. Waiting for the contents to cool down, the Oscar-winning icon says she enjoys the soup with chili oil.

This is one of many food items she will receive while we, along with her “The Brothers Sun” co-stars and on-screen sons Justin Chien and Sam Song Li, walk the 626 Night Market mini pop up in Arcadia, California — better known as San Gabriel Valley, the setting of her new Netflix series.

It’s a crisp, mid-50 degree night that makes you tug your coat tightly. But if the lower temperatures bother Yeoh, you can’t tell. Outside, exploring the market inspired by the famous open-air nighttime bazaars of Asia, people of all ages are clamoring to take a selfie with Yeoh and greet “The Brothers Sun” stars.

“I love it,” she tells me about being at the 626 market. “Because in Ipoh (Malaysia), where I’m from, we used to have a lot of food market centers.”

Yeoh says she isn’t able to go out to open markets like she used to — amidst security, the actors’ teams and photographers gathered around the stars — and it’s easy to see why.

“Can I get a photo?” one person asks Yeoh, who without missing a beat replies, “Of course!”

Yeoh’s calm demeanor and welcoming attitude are just one of many reasons her fans love her — they also love seeing her command attention on their screens in films such as “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Magnificent Warriors” “Yes, Madam!” and her Oscar-winning role in “Everything Everywhere All At Once.”

Her latest show, “The Brothers Sun,” is an action-packed, eight-episode dark comedy that includes blood, brotherhood, plenty of food and, of course, Yeoh kicking butt.

Released on Jan. 4, the show follows Charles “Chairleg” Sun (Chien) as he goes to Los Angeles to protect his mother, Eileen (Yeoh), and younger brother Bruce (Li) after his father, Johnny Kou (Big Sun), the head of a powerful Taiwanese triad, is shot by a mysterious assassin.

Once arriving in the City of Angels, Charles, who also happens to be a lethal assassin himself, discovers that Bruce is clueless and completely unaware of the Sun family’s power. Instead of reuniting with a trained fighter like himself, Charles discovers that Bruce is a “soft” and kind college kid with a love for improv and dreams of becoming an actor.

Bruce, however, gets a reality check when the family begins to get targeted by Taipei’s deadliest societies and a new rising group.

What attracted Yeoh to “The Brothers Sun,” she says, was how original the story was. “It’s something that I’ve not done before, that has not been seen.”

“This is the time when doors have opened up to more Asian stories, so we have to get it right because otherwise we lose that momentum that we’ve worked so very, very hard,” she says, adding that showrunner and co-creator Brad Falchuk’s (“American Horror Story,” “Glee,” “9-1-1”) involvement also attracted her to the project, as well as co-creator Byron Wu. “When I read the script ... it’s authentic, but at the same time we’re not afraid to be over the top about it because it’s violent.”

Yeoh says that the show perfectly blends violence with humor and “takes that edge off the horrors and the terrors of that real world.” And while “The Brothers Sun” opens people to a certain part of their culture, she makes it clear that it’s not necessarily a “representation of who we are.”

“I think it’s very important that you are able to laugh at yourself and laugh with others,” she adds.

Laughter comes at the most intense moments in “The Brothers Sun,” whether it’s a group of inflatable dinosaur costume-wearing assassins or dismembering a body in the Sun family’s kitchen.

Violence aside, the series has memorable moments that center around a meal, showcasing delicious food, restaurants in the 626, and Charles’ love for baking. The series’ opening sequence is an epic choreographed fight scene which begins with Charles baking a cake while watching “The Great British Bake Off.”

“The reason why Charles loves baking so much is because it’s one of the few things in his life where you can look at a recipe, know the details down to the milligram, the temperature of the oven, the humidity of the dough, and have it come out and be something beautiful and sweet and pure,” Chien explains, adding that it’s one of the few moments in Charles’ life “where he has peace, whereas the rest of his life is very chaotic.”

While at the night market, Yeoh, Li and Chien take a break from the chaos to taste and share some desserts with their fans. The trio position themselves at a tanghulu booth, handing out the traditional Chinese skewered fruit coated in a hard candy glaze.

We then make our way to another booth where more tasty bites are waiting.

“We can share,” Li tells Yeoh about the pork belly bao buns they are handed in the next booth. “Who said anything about sharing?” jokes Yeoh.

Food is always at the center of family, Yeoh says, explaining how food plays a character in the show. “It’s very interesting how Asian moms show love to their kids, by giving the best food, always feeding them ... the best part of the chicken would go to their kids.”

Li also notes that the style and type of food changes as the show progresses. An opening shot shows a yet-unaware-of-his-family's-immense-wealth-Bruce eating a microwavable bao bun with Taco Bell sauce that he grabs from a drawer full of condiment packets. “It’s so real from an Asian household because we’re used to wanting to recycle or not waste,” Li says, before pointing out other comical cultural moments that all felt was relatable.

Later on, as secrets unfold, the family Sun consumes big dinners full of duck, noodles and dumplings. There's scenes at restaurants that include lobster and hot pots. Towards the end of the show, gourmet dishes are served at a clandestine meeting to elect a new dragon head, a supreme leader for the triad families. Viewers also see how Charles discovers his new favorite dessert, the churro, and attempts to make them for himself.

On and off the screen, the three stars say they shared meals while filming to bring them together. Exploring the night market is one of those moments. As they are handed boxes filled with a variety of shrimp and pork dumplings, spicy wontons and more, I apologize to Li for making them eat so much. “I’m not complaining,” he replies.

Yeoh, on her end, is unapologetic about having them eat, and gets excited when she sees giant baby and bear-shaped water bottles that are filled with fruit juice. Her eyes light up as she orders more than three. The people behind the booth happily hand over taste testers before she decides on a couple flavors.

“They’re for her grandbaby,” I hear someone say about the bottles.

If there's one thing I learned about Yeoh it is that if she sees a baby, she will pause what she is doing and make her way to the little one.

And it’s not because the actor recently became a grandmother herself — she tells me she’s going to be known as “Popo, it means grandma” in Chinese — she genuinely enjoys taking the time to say hi to her fans.

“As you can see, she’s super down to earth and humble, and I emulate my interactions the way she does,” Chien says, as Yeoh takes photos with fans holding babies. “I’ve learned a lot from her.”

“The Brothers Sun,” at its core, also centers on the theme of “self” versus “service to one’s family,” with Charles and Bruce’s inner battles of wanting to be their own person but also adhering to their family’s expectations.

“For Bruce, it’s all about making your own choices and being stubborn and rebellious to his family traditions,” Li, who happens to be a San Gabriel Valley native, says. “It can come off selfish in many ways, but I think, for me, I really resonate with the fact that you only have one life and this is your life.”

For Chien, Charles’ journey somewhat mirrors his own in that he also grew up in Asia and made life choices with his family in mind. “Making sacrifices for the people that you care about is the biggest expression of love that you can give,” he says.

Where the family Sun will go after that dynamic and open-ended ending is something that the trio hopes to find out in a second season. Without sharing spoilers from the whirlwind events in Season One, Chien hopes Charles “can learn to forgive himself, start to find some joy in his life” and also, he adds, “I hope he finds love. I hope he finds a partner.”

Li says that he had major FOMO (fear of missing out) seeing Chien and Yeoh kick butt. “So that’s my answer, or at least metaphorically kick some ass,” he says, with Chien reassuring him that it would “probably be some comedy-related” ass kicking. “Accidental fighting,” I tease.

Yeoh, taking her time to think the answer through, says, “There’s so much to do in Taipei.”

“I want to see Mama Sun have a real, loving relationship,” Yeoh says, as her on-screen sons yell, “Ohhh!”

To-go boxes filled with dumplings, Yeoh’s soup tried and tasted, each of them carrying baby and bear-shaped water bottles filled with sweet juice (Yeoh with multiple around her neck and carrying them on her arms), we make our way back to where we started.

But not before other vendors attempt to give the stars more food to take home — and Yeoh gets distracted by even more babies.

“The Brothers Sun” is now streaming on Netflix.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com