Ming-Na Wen’s easy restaurant-style beef and broccoli recipe

FORK & FOLIO

This beef and broccoli, made with a recipe from Ming-Na Wen’s “Have You Eaten Yet?” tastes like it was made in a Chinese American restaurant. And with good reason, it’s based on her family restaurant’s recipe.
JENNIFER HUBERDEAU — THE BERKSHIRE

Ming-Na Wen’s ‘Have You Eaten Yet?’ blends family memories, Chinese American traditions and heartfelt storytelling with recipes, including an easy, restaurant-style beef and broccoli.

Has a cookbook ever made you tear up?

It sounds silly, but while scanning the introduction to Ming-Na Wen’s “Have You Eaten Yet?: Family Recipes from a Restaurant Daughter,” my eyes welled up and a few tears slid down my face as I read: “Food is family. It’s how we survive, how we connect, and how we love.”

Ming-Ne Wen
Jennifer Chong

“Have You Eaten Yet?” isn’t just a cookbook; it’s also a memoir and an homage to Wen’s parents, who owned Chinatown Inn in Pittsburgh’s Chinatown. The line that made me tear up comes after a very beautiful section about Wen’s time on “The Joy Luck Club” — how appreciative she was to be able to be part of the groundbreaking Asian American film and how the movie, based on Amy Tan’s book of the same name, got the Asian relationship with food just right, allowing it to be an additional character in the film (and book). 

COOKBOOK REVIEW

“Have You Eaten Yet?: Family Recipes from a Restaurant Daughter” by Ming-Na Wen

Published by Simon Element, an imprint of Simon & Schuster

256 pages

$35

Wen, who played June in “The Joy Luck Club,” spent many years working in her family’s restaurant (now owned by her brother and sister-in-law), before getting her acting break on “As the World Turns,” as Lien Hughes, becoming the first contracted Asian American on the soap opera. I remember watching her as a child, as this was one of my mother’s “soaps.” It was a great place to start for many actors, including Julianne Moore, Marisa Tomei, Meg Ryan and Parker Posey. She’s also the voice of Mulan, and played Melinda May in “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” and Fennec Shand in “The Book of Boba Fett.” 

But what I really love about this book is how she connects food and family. For example, wontons are special because she associates them with spending time with her ever-busy mother, sitting at a table filling wonton wrappers with meat. In fact, the very name of the book, “Have You Eaten Yet?” is an homage to the connection between food and family in Chinese culture, where asking “Are You Hungry?” is more than a question — it’s a way of showing you care. 

I chose to make beef and broccoli because I loved how Wen describes this quintessential Chinese American dish in the headnote: “I think this dish represents rather well the whole journey of this cookbook. Beef and broccoli is truly Chinese American, blending the two cultures into a delicious and popular dish.” 

I made this dish at 8 a.m., waking my husband (who had several wisdom teeth pulled the day before) with the fire alarm when I forgot to turn on the overhead fan when I started putting oil and vegetables in the wok. Thankfully, he’s forgiven me for both waking him up and for making this dish at a time when he cannot enjoy the spoils of my column. It’s so simple to make that I’ll be happy to whip it up for him when he’s fully recovered from the surgery. In the meantime, I’ll be enjoying this dish — which tastes like authentic restaurant-style beef and broccoli — for lunch for the next few days. 

“Have You Eaten Yet?”
SIMON ELEMENT

BEEF AND BROCCOLI

(Excerpted from “Have You Eaten Yet?” Copyright © 2026, Ming-Na Wen. Reproduced by permission of Simon Element, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. All rights reserved.)

Such a classic restaurant recipe, beef and broccoli is a dish that you must add to your repertoire — it’s simple, easy and quick. Think of it as a more Americanized version of our beef and bok choy. Broccoli became an easy-access staple for Chinese restaurants to source, which is why it became so ubiquitous across the country. It played an important role in American food culture because it introduced vegetables as a significant part of the main entree, rather than just as side dishes. This is so much better than the sad, soft steamed broccoli of the past, don’t you think?

I think this dish represents rather well the whole journey of this cookbook. Beef and broccoli is truly Chinese American, blending the two cultures into a delicious and popular dish. Now, I’m not calling myself a delicious dish, but I think that’s why we chose it for the cover.

PREP TIME: 15 minutes

COOK TIME: 15 minutes

SERVES: 4

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons vegetable oil, divided

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon light soy sauce

½ teaspoon dark mushroom soy sauce

8 ounces flank steak, thinly sliced

2 (¼-inch) slices peeled ginger (about the diameter of a quarter)

1 scallion, white and green parts, chopped

One 16-ounce broccoli crown, separated into bite-size florets

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons water or chicken broth, divided

1 tablespoon black bean and garlic sauce

½ tablespoon oyster sauce

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon water

DIRECTIONS

In a medium nonreactive bowl, combine 2 teaspoons of the vegetable oil, the cornstarch, light soy sauce, and mushroom soy sauce. Add the steak, coating well with the seasoning.

Add 1 tablespoon of the oil to a wok over high heat. Add the steak, ginger, and scallion, leaving the steak slices on one side to sear for about 30 seconds. Then flip them and sear other sides. Cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute, then remove steak slices from the heat and set aside.

Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil to the wok and add the broccoli. Add 2 tablespoons of the water and cook, stirring constantly, until the broccoli turns bright green, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the black bean and garlic sauce, oyster sauce, and salt, and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.

Add the steak back in and stir to combine. Add the remaining water while pushing the veggies and meat to the sides of the wok. When the liquid comes to a boil, add the cornstarch slurry, stirring to create a gravy, then turn off the heat. Mix the gravy together with the meat and broccoli and transfer to a plate.

COOK’S NOTES: Feel free to add more water or broth if, like my kids, you prefer more gravy. And, if you prefer more meat, ensure that it will sear properly by cooking it in two batches, wiping the wok clean in between and adding more oil.

Ginger shouldn’t be refrigerated. A lot of people make that mistake. The moisture gets into the root and causes mold. Weird that you can find it in the refrigerated section of supermarkets. Even if you see the mold on the outside and cut it off it might not be fine; it may have already traveled through the ginger and you just don’t see it. You can just grow your own, too—it’s kinda fun. Just buy it from the supermarket, stick it in some dirt with a bit of sand on top, and watch it root and grow!