'Taste The Nation' returns for second season with three Asian American episodes

Just what is American cuisine? The answer is complicated. At least, that's what Padma Lakshmi is trying to say in her Hulu series that is part travelogue, part food show, part political commentary.

"We throw around a lot of platitudes like, ‘nothing’s as American as apple pie,’" says the Top Chef host. "Well, apple pie is not American. Not one ingredient in apple pie is indigenous to North America. Not even the apple! So what are we talking about here?”

In a new season of Taste The Nation, Lakshmi travels the United States to discover more of the American food experience via the various communities that have been built by immigrants over the country’s history adding to the potpouri we call America.

Three of the ten episodes of Taste the Nation's second season focuses on the Asian cuisines of Afghanistan, Cambodia and the Philippines.

"Taste The Nation is a show about what connects us as Americans and as human beings.⁣ It’s about the undeniable spirit, adaptability and resilience of the immigrants and indigenous communities who shaped this country and what we now know as 'American' food," says Lakshmi, who came to the US when she was 4-years old. ⁣⁣

Lakshmi, an Indian American, is proving to be an more than able host. The series' style is more in the vein of Anthony Bourdain's food/travelogue series, using food as a door to dive deeper into the people and culture.

For example, in Episode 6, the Filipino episode, "Ube in the Bay," she shows that she does her homework. She explores how colonialism has affected how Filipinos view their own cuisine and how they view themselves; why Filipino nurses are so plentiful in the US; and how a new generation of Filipino Americans are breaking away from "colonial mentality."

Lakshmi won't come out and say the underlying message of Taste the Nation: the United States, like its food, is a melange of cuisines drawn from around the world. In her unassuming and comfortable way, she would like the viewers come to that conclusion on their own without hitting them over the head with a sledgehammer.

That's "the whole point of the show," says Lakshmi. "We create more understanding between types of Americans, and hopefully, we do it in an entertaining and delicious way with lots of history and culture thrown in there."

FYI: 'Taste the Nation,' can be streamed on Hulu.

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