The Food In The Brothers Sun Is Where The Heart Is

Spoilers ahead. “Have you eaten?” asks Eileen “Mama” Sun (Michelle Yeoh) in The Brothers Sun. Never mind that it’s the first time Eileen, who also happens to be the matriarch of a powerful Taiwanese Triad family, has seen her elder son Charles (Justin Chien) in 15 years. Or that there’s a bloodied assassin he just killed leaning against her dining table. Before they dive into any real conversation about why Charles, who has been living in Taipei as the right hand man to his father, has suddenly appeared in Los Angeles, it’s time to make beef noodle soup. 

Talk to any Asian American, and “Have you eaten?” is usually the first question they’re asked by their parents when they return home. A cooked meal is how Asians show their love, an intergenerational language that acknowledges both our care for one another and desire to preserve our culture no matter how wide our diaspora. And Asian food is everywhere in The Brothers Sun. 

The eight-episode series, which premiered on Netflix on January 4, opens in Taipei with Charles, the elder son of the Sun family, decorating cakes in his kitchen when he’s interrupted by three would-be assassins — which he fends off with a rolling pin while The Great British Baking Show plays on the TV. After his father is shot and it’s clear there’s a coordinated attack unfolding, Charles heads to Los Angeles to “protect the family,” which in this case is his mother Eileen, who is more important than she appears, and his younger brother Bruce (Sam Song Li), who is exactly as he appears: completely clueless to the family business.

Throughout the show, there are elements that we’ve often seen of Asians portrayed in American media — shadowy criminal organisations, mantras about family and honour, highly choreographed martial arts scenes, and a tiger mom pushing her son to study — but it’s the food that sets this dark humor family drama apart and continues the movement of strong Asian American stories told through a talented Asian cast, like Ali Wong and Steven Yeun’s Beef and the Oscar-winning, also Michelle Yeoh-led Everything Everywhere All At Once.

There are the more obvious things like Alexis (Highdee Kuan), Charles’ childhood friend-turned-ambitious LA prosecutor who’s hoping to break a career-making case, and her addiction to uncooked Buldak spicy ramen. But there are also the subtle touches that Asian Americans will recognise and appreciate. When a disoriented Charles is hiding out at Alexis’ home after barely escaping an ambush at a Korean spa, she hands over a bag of everyone’s childhood fave Shrimp chips — you know, the one you could literally eat in one sitting. You catch a quick glimpse of a half-empty, purple-labelled bottle of hoisin sauce in the Sun family’s fridge before Bruce decides to heat up a bao. The best place to buy groceries, specifically produce, is 99 Ranch, as vouched by the Asian chain’s shopping bags on every kitchen counter. Jim’s Bakery in Monterey Park gets a shoutout for having the best egg tarts in Southern California and being “conveniently located next to an LA Fitness.” Even the decades-long debate over the wrongly villainised MSG gets a quick nod — “The MSG doesn't give him headaches?”; “That is not a real thing!” — vindication for the food component that is so core to Asian cuisine (and so delicious!).

The food in the series isn’t just an easter egg hunt of dish cameos though. Asian food plays a key role in bringing people to the table, no matter how strained the relationship. When she’s not making moves to protect the family and solidify her place in power, Eileen is cooking for others, chopping green onions and bok choy in the kitchen or boiling eggs in a motel coffeemaker. It’s over Eileen’s homemade mapo tofu and scallion pancakes where tattoo artist June (Alice Hewkin) is not only accepted into the Sun family — and forgiven for kidnapping Bruce and his best friend TK (Joon Lee), threatening to tattoo a penis on one’s face, and putting the other’s thumbs in a vicegrip to find the truth about her sister’s death — but becomes part of it. When the leaders of Taipei’s leading criminal organisations converge in LA for a once-in-a-generation meeting, they eat Peking duck, congee, and shumai (Chinese fine dining has never looked so good!) before getting into the nitty gritty of choosing their new leader. 

Food is where the heart is, and the hearts that need the most healing are the ones belonging to Charles and Bruce. 

It’s been a decade and a half since the brothers were last together, and when Charles arrives in LA only to discover that Bruce has been blissfully ignorant to the truth about the family, it’s a stark reminder of how dramatically different their upbringings have been. Charles has been trained to become the ruthless killer “Chairleg Sun,” while Bruce is secretly siphoning his college tuition to pay for improv classes. “You are a soft, kind boy. Not like your brother,” Eileen tells Bruce after he is exposed to the truth. 

It’s as if the brothers have never shared a meal. But through food, and the events that unfold, we see this relationship marinate into something more. 

When Charles tries a churro for the first time on Bruce’s college campus, he becomes obsessed with the dish. “It’s like a cinnamon sugar youtiao,” Bruce tells him, referencing the popular Chinese breakfast pastry. Throughout the series, we get glimpses of Charles working through a recipe — understandable because churros and youtiaos are both ah-mazing — but we soon learn that there’s more to this quest of making the perfect churro.

After Bruce discovers the truth about his own family, and struggles to connect with his brother, like so many Asian American families, he shares that his last memory of Charles is stealing their parents’ car to get shaved ice. Charles later tells him that they actually went to get a youtiao — and that it was Bruce’s favourite growing up.

The churro is the means through which Charles can remember, understand, and connect with his younger brother. And as Charles returns to Taipei to support Mama Sun as she steps into the role of Dragon Head to lead the Triads, he hands a box of his perfected fried sugared dough delights to Bruce as a going away present. Bruce takes a bite and gives a thumbs up before Charles boards the jet. It’s this final moment that solidifies that together they are the Sun brothers, that they are now more alike and more connected than ever. 

And nothing is sweeter than that.