When Deng Liqun (left) participates in the recording of a TV program, he introduces the production process of small roll powder. (Courtesy of the interviewee)
Take a bite of the crispy fried spring rolls on the outside, sandwich a piece of fresh and vigorous white chopped chicken, drink a bowl of sour, spicy and sweet Tom Yin Gong soup... In Binchuan County, Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, "overseas Chinese cuisine" that blends Southeast Asian cuisine is a delicacy that locals are familiar with.
From the 1950s to the 1970s, returned overseas Chinese from eight countries, including Indonesia, India, Myanmar, and Vietnam, were successively resettled in a number of overseas Chinese farms in Binchuan County. With the passage of time, the original overseas Chinese farms have been reformed into today's overseas Chinese communities, and returned overseas Chinese and their descendants have added more "overseas Chinese flavor" to this overseas Chinese village while integrating into local life.
"Overseas Chinese cuisine" is one of the most attractive flavors. Recently, this reporter came to the Liujiawan Overseas Chinese Community in Jinniu Town, Binchuan County, and listened to the returned overseas Chinese relatives here to talk about the inheritance of "overseas Chinese cuisine" and the changes in overseas Chinese.
Preserve the taste of childhood
Walking in the overseas Chinese community in Liujiawan, asking about the "SaiJie Overseas Chinese Taste Garden", everyone knows. In the green open-air courtyard, around the small low table, chewing refreshing sweet and spicy raw spring rolls, coupled with a delicious and warm three fresh soup - diners who have come to the "Sai Jie Qiao Wei Garden" can't help but marvel at the comfort and deliciousness here.
When she met "Sai Jie", she had just finished greeting a table of guests. Over the age of flower armor, she wears an apron and speaks a Cantonese accent, full of energy. "'Sister Sai' is my nickname, my father is from Cantonese, I was born in Vietnam." It turned out that the real name of "Sai Jie" was Xian Jinyu. In 1978, at the age of 20, she came to Bin Trang from Vietnam with her parents to live. A few years later, she met her husband, an Indonesian returnee.
"In the past, we mainly lived by farming." Xian Jinyu broke his finger and calculated, and the "SaiJie Qiao Wei Garden" in front of him had been open for 6 years. The original intention of the old couple to open this restaurant is very simple: whether it is Vietnamese cuisine or Indonesian cuisine, the couple has eaten and made it since they were young, and the sour and spicy taste is just in line with the preferences of the local people in Binchuan. Xian Jinyu and his wife have a total, life is better, it is better to clean up their own courtyard and open a "overseas Chinese cuisine" restaurant!
An inquiry, in the Liujiawan overseas Chinese community, "SaiJie Overseas Chinese Flavor Garden" is not the earliest "overseas Chinese cuisine" restaurant. On the main road where the community meets the county seat, a restaurant called "Kokoshinan" has been open for nearly 10 years. The boss, Deng Liqun, is a "post-85" overseas Chinese dependent.
"Listening to my mother, before my grandmother returned to China, she used her craft of making rice cold noodles and sugar water in Vietnam to pull the eldest 6 children. My father was Vietnamese and also had a good cook, and raw spring rolls and small rolls of flour were my childhood flavors. Deng Liqun laughed at reporters and said that he was a "foodie", loved to eat, and also loved to ponder food. "Our overseas Chinese community lives in 8 countries of returned overseas Chinese, there are too many delicious foods, why not reflect the characteristics of our overseas Chinese hometown in the diet?" In 2011, 21-year-old Deng Liqun, with the cooking skills taught by her family, decided to try it out.
The original "Kokoshi nan" was a small restaurant with only one façade and only four or five tables. But Deng Liqun did it extra hard. From purchasing, to preparing dishes, to cooking, she is almost all-inclusive. "I think food has a special meaning, and we must keep the best 'overseas Chinese taste'."
In order to let customers taste the best food, Teresa Teng took advantage of the expansion of the store in 2018 to close for more than half a year, and traveled to almost all Southeast Asian countries to learn to make national cuisines. Straw hat pot in Vietnam, Tom Yin Gong soup in Thailand, curry shrimp in Singapore... When she tasted delicious food, she studied the method and combined it with the taste of the Binchuan people to improve it. Gradually, Deng Liqun found that "overseas Chinese cuisine" not only caught fire in the overseas Chinese community, but also became the first choice for more and more Binchuan people to gather.
Preserve memories of the past
In the expanded "Xiaoyue Nan" restaurant, Deng Liqun specially designed a photo wall. On the wall, a series of yellowed old photos silently record the life of Deng Liqun's family in the early days of moving to Laichuan: the first Vietnamese snack store opened by her parents on the streets of Binchuan, the busy scene of the neighbors busy with Zhang Luo's banquet, and the noisy picture of relatives and friends eating around the table...
In the impression of Deng Liqun, in the old days, the elders were always very attentive to food, even the most ordinary meal, but also full of ritual and happiness. She wanted to use this photo wall to preserve the fireworks that belonged to a returned overseas Chinese family, and she also wanted to tell more people the exclusive story of belonging to an overseas Chinese community.
Walking up and down the "Xiaoyue Nan" restaurant, it is not difficult to find that there are many old objects full of overseas Chinese flavor in the three-storey small building. A bucket hat hanging on the partition of the booth is an indispensable accessory for Teresa Teng Liqun's Vietnamese relatives and friends to shade the sun and rain; an old green wooden cabinet standing in the corner of the second floor is a "meeting gift" given to every household by the local government when welcoming overseas Chinese returning to China more than 40 years ago; the neatly arranged suitcases, bamboo baskets, phonographs, sewing machines, and wooden dessert molds around the wooden cabinets are collected by Teresa Teng from the homes of uncles and aunts in the overseas Chinese community, and they are all "guys and children" who are inseparable from ordinary days in the past. These old objects are like a time and space tunnel, drawing visitors closer to the unique stories of overseas Chinese.
"The wooden windows in the private room are handmade by the old carpenter, using a traditional tenon and tenon structure. The pictures of spring ploughing of farmers on the wall were specially bought by me from Vietnam. Bamboo curtains, thatched stilted houses, banana and coconut palms visible through the windows are the most familiar environments for my elders when they lived in Vietnam. Deng Liqun said that when renovating the restaurant, even if the cost is increased, she still tries to "copy" the life scene of overseas Chinese when they are overseas. For her, inheriting "overseas Chinese cuisine" should not only retain the authentic taste on the tip of the tongue, but also protect the warm memories in her mind.
In Xian Jinyu's "Sai Jie Overseas Chinese Flavor Garden", from the dishes to the courtyard, there is also a strong "overseas Chinese flavor" everywhere. There is a laurel tree in the middle of the courtyard, planted by the family when they first moved to The River, after more than 40 years of growth, and now it is full of greenery. After a busy day, Xian Jinyu would sit around a round table under the tree, eating sour and spicy food, chatting about the parents, talking and laughing, just like in the past.
Witness the changes in overseas Chinese
Nowadays, Binchuan's "overseas Chinese cuisine" is becoming more and more famous, not only the locals love to eat, but even other counties in Dali, and even diners in Kunming.
In the small courtyard of the "Sai Jie Qiao Wei Garden", various accents are often fluttering. "There are customers in the county and in other places, and there are often people who come to pack the seats and wrap more than 20 tables in the courtyard in one go." Listening to Xian Jinyu, in addition to her son and daughter helping her cook the restaurant, she also hired several elder sisters next door to help. "The business is getting better and better, and we can't rely on our family alone to keep the guests waiting for a long time."
Speaking of why "overseas Chinese cuisine" can become popular in Binchuan and attract endless foreign diners, Deng Liqun and Xian Jinyu invariably mentioned one reason - the road is open.
"In the past six or seven years, in our overseas Chinese community, not only have the main roads been built wide and flat, but also the cement roads have led directly to the courtyard entrances of every household. It is because of the road that we have more confidence in opening the restaurant. Otherwise, no matter how delicious the dish is cooked, people will not be able to come in. Xian Jinyu sighed that he could have a good life without worries about food and clothing at present, and thanked the good policies of the state.
Deng Liqun felt that the other way was also indispensable. In 2018, the Dali Binchuan section of the Dayong Expressway was opened to traffic, and Binchuan's external access capacity was greatly improved.
"In the past, it took more than two hours to drive from downtown Dali to Binchuan. Now take the highway, almost 30 minutes to get there, from Dali city to our place to have a meal is much more convenient. Deng Liqun laughed and said that after the completion of the highway, there were more and more foreign "iron fans" in the restaurant. "In the past two years, every weekend, even if it rains, a customer in Dali city will bring family and friends to dinner. He said, just this 'taste of overseas Chinese'. ”
Now, the newly decorated "Little Yue Nan" is always popular. Inside the house, the overseas Chinese style is original; outside the house, the city streets are flat and spacious. On both sides of the road, lush loquat trees welcome a steady stream of diners every day.
"Over the years, binchuan has changed too much, the people's lives have improved, the consumption capacity has increased significantly, and the local 'overseas Chinese cuisine' restaurants have also increased!" In the past 10 years of making "overseas Chinese cuisine", Deng Liqun has witnessed the development of Binchuan, a hometown of overseas Chinese, and has also found more development opportunities from here. Recently, she has begun to brew a "big move": "I plan to open chain restaurants in other cities so that more people can taste our 'overseas Chinese cuisine'." At present, both trademarks have been successfully registered, and someone has come to inquire about joining!"