- [Beryl] If there was one meal that really shows the diversity of foods in the world, to me that would be breakfast.

- I'm going to be brave.

- [Beryl] Whether it's sweet or savory, fried or steamed, it's known as the most important meal of the day, but it looks incredibly different depending on where you are.

- I've never had queso fresco.

It's like if feta and paneer made a baby.

- My name is Beryl, and this show explores how our foods can bring our different cultures together.

Dang.

And this is our breakfast episode.

Today I paired up Silvia and Pooja to swap their favorite breakfasts from their cultures.

Pooja will make red chilaquiles, a Mexican staple, while Silvia will cook Indian Sevai Upma.

Rise and shine everyone, it's breakfast time.

- Dear Pooja, I'm Silvia, and today you'll be making one of my favorite breakfast, Red Chilaquiles.

- Awesome.

- I am from Mexico.

I was born and raised in the state of Guanajuato, and I moved to the United States in 2001 after I married my Californian husband.

The food of Mexico, its colorful, tasty, simple, and sometimes spicy.

So when I eat chilaquiles for breakfast, I feel that I'm starting the day right.

- [Beryl] Have you ever made your own salsa?

- This is the first time and I'm really excited.

I hope I don't have to buy it ever again.

- I learned to make red chilaquiles from my mom and my grandma.

The hardest part is being patient when we roast the salsa, because the tomatoes need time to cook long and slow.

- I'm afraid I might burn them.

- [Silvia] But the kitchen, it smells amazing.

- [Beryl] Oh wait, that's looking good!

- [Pooja] Yeah, right?

- [Beryl] Yeah.

- Okay, so I'm gonna leave them alone.

- [Beryl] She says as she goes back.

(Beryl laughing) - I'm gonna try to leave them alone.

- Oh, this one's looking pretty good!

- It looks so beautiful.

It looks nice and brown.

Okay, I don't wanna drop it.

(blender whizzing) - [Silvia There are two main components, tortillas and the salsa.

And the tortillas, we usually fry them.

- [Beryl] Do you often fry foods?

- I don't fry very often, it's very rare.

I'm a little bit scared of frying.

- So you need to be just looking at them the whole time, because they can go from fried to burnt in seconds.

But the way to eat red chilaquiles is you just put them in a plate.

It's this mountain of food, and then it's just so easy to eat.

But also, I love to make it, because now I feel that it's gonna be part of my kids' heritage.

There are certain dishes that I think they're gonna take with them.

It's a connection.

- I had my first avocado when I came to the US in 2015.

I love avocados.

- So when you try this, I hope you get to experience a little bit of my Mexican heritage, and I can't wait to learn all about your recipe.

Love, Silvia.

- Yay!

It smells so good, I'm ready to dig in.

Everything is fresh.

Like, the first word that comes to my mind is fresh.

(tortillas crunching) I am gonna get a little bit of queso.

Oh, I love it.

(hopeful music) I've lived here for several years, and when I think breakfast, I think like an American diner, like pancakes and waffles.

And I go to Mexican restaurants usually for lunch or dinner.

I've never thought about what a Mexican breakfast dish would be like.

If I had this for breakfast, it would wake me up so quickly.

The heat from the chilies.

Hot, hot, hot!

And just the freshness from the tomatoes.

I love it.

I actually enjoyed the process, and I found it a lot closer to home than I thought it would be.

Surprisingly, onion, tomatoes looks a lot like I'm gonna make an Indian meal.

An Indian breakfast, it's not sweet, which is similar to this.

These are the kind of dishes that you make with leftovers from the previous night and just turn it into something new.

I think deep frying things, it just puts me in an uncomfortable situation with hot oil, but I don't think it was that hard.

The frying is going pretty well.

I think I've got this under control.

Thinking back about what Sylvia said in her letter, it definitely helps me feel a lot more like she would be feeling on the mornings that she has this breakfast.

I'm trying it so that I can feel the Mexican culture and what she grew up with, so it definitely makes me feel closer to her.

Hey Silvia, thank you so much for sharing this dish with me.

I had a lot of fun cooking it, and I had even more fun eating it.

- Oh, dang!

- And I hope you enjoy eating sevai upma.

We have a lot more in common than you might think at a first glance.

(upbeat music) Hi Silvia, my name is Pooja and today-- - Hi Pooja.

- We're making my favorite breakfast dish called sevai upma.

I'm from India.

I grew up in a city called Mumbai, which is like a melting pot of different subcultures of the country.

So upma is a very popular South Indian breakfast dish, I rediscovered the sevai variant of it, and I've been making it a lot more.

The vermicelli, which is the sevai, is the main ingredient of this dish, and then the urad dal brings that very specific South Indian aroma and nuttiness to the dish.

And then you have the green chilies, the curry leaves, and ginger.

So it has everything, it is Indianness on a plate.

- Okay Pooja, let's make this.

- I think it can be intimidating working with new ingredients.

- Curry leaves, I have never used this ingredient before.

- [Pooja] But you can experiment, and once you use them two or three times, you are golden.

- I am ready.

So pretty!

(Silvia giggling) - Since I've moved to the US, I've discovered so many other cuisines.

So what helps me stay connected to my own country and my own home is food.

- Never tried these chilies, so I'm a little afraid about how spicy it's gonna be.

I'm going to be brave.

(Silvia giggling) - [Pooja] This particular dish, it fills the house with that aroma.

- It smells so good.

(Silvia cheering) - [Pooja] It just brings you out of your sleep.

It just reminds me of the fresh flavors from India.

- Kind of strong and really fresh.

- [Pooja] And it sets me up for a very happy day.

- This is my first time tempering.

- [Pooja] You have to temper the spices in oil, which is a cooking method that enhances their flavor.

- It smells a little bit like popcorn at the beginning.

Oh my!

They're jumping, they're jumping.

And then it's like, whoa.

So aromatic and so good.

- [Pooja] The hardest part is actually how quickly it all goes.

Make sure you don't burn any of the tempering ingredients.

And then when you add the sevai, it also cooks very quickly.

- The start of the dish.

So it's simmering nicely and now we just need to wait.

- So Silvia, when you have this breakfast for the first time, I hope you taste a lot of different flavors and aromas.

- Wow.

- [Pooja] And you are hit with everything all at once, 'cause that's what Indian cooking is all about.

- It looks ready.

It looks perfect.

(Silvia giggling) - I loved cooking your breakfast.

I love trying out new flavors and a new dish.

I hope you feel the same way about mine.

Love, Pooja.

(cheerful music) - And I'm so excited to try it, it smells wonderful.

Hmm.

The lemon, it's very aromatic, and it has a lot of textures.

I can taste the peanuts.

The carrots are still a little al dente, which I like.

I think you can learn a lot about a person, a family of a culture through food.

And this, it was very surprising to me, because I have another idea of Indian food, I mean, the curries and the vegetable dishes with a lot of sauces.

I never think about breakfast.

I have tried Indian food before, have always liked it, but this is my first time making an Indian dish, and I'm glad it's this one, because even though it requires a few ingredients, I think it's fairly easy.

I learned a lot with this dish, starting with ingredients, because there were two or three ingredients that I have never cooked with.

Add the green chili, ginger and curry leaves.

Oh, that's gonna smell amazing.

And also the technique.

I wanted to do the tempering correctly.

Trying something that it was so different from what I'm used to, I wanted to give the respect.

I was listening to that video from Pooja telling me that I needed to be a little careful about doing the tempering so I didn't burn the seeds.

The mustard seeds were surprising to me.

Hmm.

It's really good.

I mean, you think mustard, and that's not what this tastes.

It's nutty and soft.

I think I can have this any day of the week, early in the morning, especially, because it's ready in like, I dunno, 10 minutes!

I'm gonna say thank you, Pooja, because you give me a lot of flavors, and colors, and techniques from India, and I really appreciate that.

I do feel that I succeeded.

(Silvia giggling)