'Crazy Rich Asians' serves up some great food along with the laughter and tears

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After work, the cast of 'Crazy Rich Asians,' often went out together to sample Singapore's food offerings.

FOOD is a central part of Asian culture so it is not surprising to see the important role it plays in the hit movie Crazy Rich Asians, which was mostly filmed in Singapore.

Director Jon M. Chu practically grew up in his parent's Chinese restaurant, Chef Chu’s located in Los Altos, smack dab in the middle of California's Silicon Valley.

Two weeks before the movie opened, the director held a special lunch at Chef Chu's to promote the pending premiere of Crazy Rich Asians, and stars Henry Golding and Constance Wu were both in attendance. “I, literally, in this space had my fifth birthday, my eighth birthday, my 12th birthday,” Chu said told the media in attendance. “I got engaged here.”

One of the key early scenes was set in the famous Newton Food Centre, , collecting satays and bowls of laksa curry from the various hawker stalls. We see Nick Young, played by Henry Golding, completely at ease as we get to see the Singaporean side of the main character.

Warner Bros. just released this behind-the-scenes video about the filming of that scene that includes insights from Chu and the cast. 

“The thing that we think about, when we think about Asia, is street food,”  Chu tells USA Today. “You have all walks of life, all cultures, eating with each other.” The night market dinner shows two worlds colliding in an exciting, seemingly harmonious way. Food scenes are spread throughout the film: When Rachel Wu, Nick's girlfriend, first meets his mother Eleanor, played by Michelle Yeoh, she is overseeing a banquet being prepared in a kitchen; later in the film, another big food scene — the dumpling standoff — uses food to highlight the tension between Rachel and Nick’s family.

Even during the shoot, the movie's cast, made up of Asians from the U.S., Great Britain, Austalia, Japan. the Philippines and Singapore, a love of food was something they all shared. They bonded with each other after work by sampling Singapore's melange of Asian cuisines from India, Malaysia, China and the local Hokkien dishes.

Some of the cast members recall making dumplings with their grandparents, to find out how your day has been. "You engage the younger generation," says Michelle Yeoh. "or just get them together to make love biscuits and tell old stories."

Asian families don't always always express their feelings but they show their love "through acts of devotion like making food for your loved ones, or making food to show how much you care for someone," says Gemma Chan, who plays Nick's cousin Astrid.

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