From screen to grill

Sun Yang, the investor and owner behind the Shanghai eatery, was just one of the viewers who was enthralled by what he saw.

The 29-year-old restaurateur, who runs several bars and cafes in the city, says he stumbled upon the show while browsing through the site that his son often visits. After just one episode, Sun was hooked-finishing the entire series that same night.

"For me, the part I can identify with the most is not the food, but the people around the food-the patrons, the cooks and the owners," says Sun, who worked in the television industry for several years before making the switch to the food and beverage sector.

Sun, who has always enjoyed skewered food since he was a child, then decided to expand his business portfolio with a restaurant that sold his favorite foods, with the main selling point being that his establishment would offer most of the items featured in the documentary.

"Although the people in the northern and southern parts of China have very different cuisines and eating habits, everyone has skewers for a late-night supper in China. It is so embedded in our culture that everyone has at least one or two stories related to skewered food," he says.

To prepare for the opening of the new restaurant, Sun spent the past year traveling with a chef to each of the 27 places featured in the documentary. All the skewers sold in his restaurant are created based on the dishes shown in the series. They include grilled lamb on red willow branch from Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, chicken's feet, and even pig's eyeballs and nasal muscles.