Wednesday March 07, 2012

Heirloom Meals Radio:
Michael Wang

Michael Wang despite growing up in the restaurant business, confessed that he didn’t have any interest, actually, until he sampled other careers and found himself drawn to it.   With an MBA and a business plan in hand, he launched his popular chinese sandwich shop in the financial district of Boston - Foumami.  Michael tells a great story about how he came up with the name. It is actually the combination of 2 words. Fo means Buddha and Umami means delicious and tasty. Michael shares the tale of the Buddha that jumps over the wall and breaks his vows just to find the delicious food he smelled.  And, one can deduce that Foumami would have that effect on a practicing monk!

What I found most intriguing about Michael’s restaurant is that it is a sandwich shop.  I confess that I don’t think of “chinese” and “sandwich” in the same sentence.  Michael suggested that most Americans have only experienced a small fraction of Chinese foods and that the Shandong Province is famous for their dumplings, noodles and breads.   Enjoy the interview here!

Although it's not a recipe for one of Foumami's famous sandwiches, Michael shared with us a recipe for his Soba Noodle Soup!