A lot of the recipes that I've came up with
they were really just crazy experiments. I just cook what I like to eat
A lot of fried chicken, a lot of barbecue. I wasn't trying to start a business just off Instagram
It was an accidental, I guess, success. My family members are like
why are you frying this big, giant salt and pepper chicken? They're supposed to be in pieces
I want to help evolve Chinese American food. My name is Henry Kai
I'm the owner of Three Little Pigs Chi. Based in Chicago, a humble park
My restaurant, it has a lot of different categories. It's barbecue, Chinese restaurant mainly
and fried chicken. So this is all it is. I know it's not much, but this is where the magic happens
This space is about 200 square feet. It is technically just a kitchen
but it is what it is right now. It's a challenge, but we made it work
The main top sellers are the salt and pepper chicken sandwich, the 3LP fried rice, and the barbecue pork
So we're gonna be smoking the pork now, then marinate it with a lot of different spices
How I do it is I try to hit it like maybe a couple inches before the end
and then you just hang it like this. I know this doesn't look much, but people come here for this magic
Cha Siu is barbecue pork. There's different types of cuts that a lot of people use
Some people use shoulder, some people use butt. I use butt just because it's bad here
and I just think it's a better cut personally. I want to say humble, but a lot of people
have compared it to Cha Siu in Hong Kong and that probably my biggest compliment I speechless when people say stuff like that That like hitting a Michelin type The space that Three Little Pigs Shy is in is in a shared kitchen called Humble Park Eatery
For Three Little Pigs Shy, like, it's mainly pickup only. There's no dine-in and you can order through my website or you could just direct message me on Instagram
That's the old school way. I still welcome that, you know, like, I want people to chat with me
Like five, ten years from now, I still hope to maintain that relationship with old customers and new customers
There's a lot of, you know, going back and forth. But you have to do that now just to keep that, you know, relationship with your customer
And, you know, I don't want anything to change for that. Thank you, my man
You got work today? Yeah, I'm off to work. Okay. What's your Celtics stuff
Well, Red Sox right now. Celtics tomorrow. I trust my customers, and they do find it weird sometimes when they come pick up the food
and I'll tell them, like, I'll send you my Zelle later. That's the kind of style I want, that whole mom-and-pop thing
Like, if you don't have the money today, you know, just pay me next week. You're going into a place with no signs, nothing, and then just a random guy comes out and brings your food
I think that that mysteriousness does lure people in. Outside of this building, it's just a long warehouse
It's just an industrial area. There's not a lot of foot traffic as you can see
If people are coming here, they know that they wanna be here. So it's kinda like, I don't wanna say hidden gem
but like a secret place to order food. That's what a lot of people perceive it as
I think the craze is really from just a lot of food blogs ranking my food
I've had people take a bus for an hour from the suburbs
just to try a chicken sandwich. I've had people from different states
that have flown to try the food. This guy likes to ride his bike
It has a TV or a tablet and he put my logo in there because he just such a big fan Social media was probably the number one thing that got me to where I am today I didn have a restaurant at the time
so I didn't have foot traffic coming in, so everything was word of mouth. To be honest
it was all word of mouth from the beginning. That's how it got to the food bloggers
I've been doing this for a while, just making sure that the customers have that personal
customization, you know, like people just like having their name written down. Usually people
just, you know, just put it through it. But I mean, since the bags are where the orders are
that's just how it is. I personally don't have any culinary experience. I've never worked at a
restaurant, but I just cooked at home and cooked for my friends. And then they started telling
their friends and then they'll keep some and then they'll share it with their friends and then
they'll tell their friends. It led to people worrying through Instagram. So untraditionally
I think my slogan for Three Little Pigs Shy, it represents me and just all children of immigrants
the struggle to fit in with American culture and staying true to our ancestors, our roots
This food represents us, you know, because we eat American food. We eat Chinese food. We eat
Mexican food. You know, we eat all types of food, and then I just want to put it all together
So I was born here in Chicago, grew up in Chinatown. But, you know, during my summers
I would spend my time in Hong Kong. So I grew up in a Chinese-Cantonese-speaking household
Both my parents, they don't speak any English at all. So my father, he was a chef, and my mom worked at a bakery
Food was just, you know, all around. Chinese chefs, they don't get home till, like, midnight
because they have to clean, they have to finish everything. So I would stay up and wait for my dad to bring his dinner
So I take a couple bites. Made me fall in love with the whole industry My dad like he just like master of everything Like he could do Chinese barbecue He knows how to do dim sum I feel like with Chinese parents they you know they bring
you a lot of food. They cut your food and they buy you a lot of snacks and food. And that's how
they show they care. So I learned how to cook from my dad. Always told me that, you know, you should
always pick up a craft, so I pick food. I love to eat, obviously
I learned to love to cook, too. This marinade recipe is passed down
by different generations. So I learned this recipe from my father, and he learned it from other people before him
It's tough immigrating to a whole foreign country. You don't speak the language
So you have to work your ass off. You have to do anything possible to survive
And I just don't want his legacy to go to waste. I'm just carrying this on, so when he's gone
You know, this, he could live through this. For the future of Three Little Pigs, I do want to have a brick and mortar
I don't want to say I'm successful, but I want to say that I'm proud of what I've done
I've created relationships and I've had great feedback from people that I've served food to
That to me is already a success. I think in this two-year journey, there's a surprise every day
The amount of support I've gotten, the media coverage I've gotten, I don't even know how to explain it
But I'm pretty proud of what we've gotten to today