I Love the Food Because it is Already a Part of Me

Following my Dad to his birthplace was a sweet experience

I love the food because it reminds me of my parents, my origin, and sweet moments with my family. The food and the taste have become my identity, and that is why I love them.

A few years ago, my Dad decided to visit his birthplace near Chaozhou City in the eastern Guangdong province in China. He left home when he was around ten years old, taking one of the last flights out of China in the 1940s to come to Hong Kong. He was sick and needed to receive treatment in Hong Kong. He left for 70 years.

I happened to visit Hong Kong and gladly raised my hands and feet to join him.

If you haven’t come to Chaozhou, you haven’t really come to Guangdong.~An old Chinese saying

We took the modern high-speed railway and reached our destination Chaoshan Railway station from Hong Kong within a couple of hours, a distance of 240 miles. Then we took the bumpiest ride (at least for me) on a bus to tour around and finally reached Chaozhou City.

My Dad’s village was nearby, and I could not wait to see the place and also greet the West Lake which he raved so much about (this is different from China’s famous West Lake in Hangzhou.)

However, the most important thing to do when we landed in Chaozhou was to taste the local cuisine.

The Chiuchow Cuisine

The Chiuchow (Chaozhou) cuisine is a subset of Cantonese cuisine in Southern China. Little do people in the West know that it is the best of the 8 great provincial cuisines of China.

This is the cuisine I grew up with my family on my father’s side and the food I crave the most when I left home for overseas studies and later work.

Chiuchow is famous for braising, steaming, poaching, and marinating their meat and seafood. They have a distinct taste from regular Cantonese cuisine, a taste that has quietly become a part of me.

So imagine my excitement when I could taste the actual local cuisine where my Dad was born.

Well, his village was long gone. All we could see were rows of tall buildings.

We went inside the most casual restaurant we saw, and the food still tasted marvelous.

In my view, the most famous dish is the marinated and braised soy goose. You can read how a Michelin judge thought about the goose dish and the process of making it.

When the night fell, we were lucky to stay right above West Lake. The light breeze and soothing environment put us into a deep slumber.

The next day, we walked around West Lake, hiked up the nearby mountains, and ate more local food.

Chiuchow people are pretty slim and fit — and now I understand why. Many people, young and old, hike up and down the mountains every day for their morning or evening exercises. Sometimes, they walk backward, which is good for balance and back pain. The parks in China are often transformed into casual fitness fetes where people practice all sorts of exercises from Qigong, walking, and dancing, to rubbing their faces and tapping their skulls for great blood circulation!

After our hike, we tasted another favourite local cuisine, the beef rice noodle soup, cooked with beef balls, tribes, and cilantro in a deliciously rich broth.

After exercise and great food, nothing beat a cup of nice Gongfu tea. Originally, gongfu tea requires great skills and delicacy by the tea masters. They originate from the Chaoshan and Fijian areas. Almost every store we passed by had a gongfu tea table where the owner and his colleagues drank tea while waiting for customers.

Can you hear my Dad say cheers?

Closing Thoughts

I am glad you have joined me for a little tour of Chaozhou and my favourite cuisine.

I love the food because it reminds me of my parents, my origin, and sweet moments with my family. The food and the taste have become my identity, and that is why I love them.

This post is prompted by Jillian Amatt - Artistic Voyages’s September Monthly Challenge in Globetrotters — the Harvest and the Food.

Great thanks to Jillian for this prompt for me to relive my memories of this trip with my Dad!

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