Food Hometown…Hainan Island 美食寻根
Deep down within, i knew one day i would visit Hainan Island..where my ancestors came from..
When I was young, i heard my parents spoke so much of the island, when they took their virgin trip back there, to discover the birthplace of their parents..
they spoke and spoke..and made me promise that i will one day return there with them..to trace my roots..
I always thought that one day, i will step on the soil that my ancestors had toiled on long ago, with my parents..hand in hand…
this thought…did not materialise…because my father passed away..before we could do this trip..together.
And so..going back to Hainan…well..became a dream lost..
Till now.
I am to be involved in this programme “Food Hometown” to trace the roots of Hainan beef noodles..
a dish that is close to my heart..for my father made it for us many years before..
And so the search began..
For the programme, it is the search for the origin of this dish ..
But,
For me,
this is my quest to recapture the taste of my father’s Hainan beef noodles..
a quest for the memory that’s fading fast
even though i am holding on to..with all my might..
I…i am going home…
And the journey began..without my family..without anyone from the production team, for they are already in China and will meet up with me at Haikou..
I started this journey all by myself..checking in alone..walking across the tarmac to the plane alone..staring at my lonesome forlorn shadow that was cast by the noon sun..
On board the plane, .the two seats next to me devoid of any passengers…
Alone i sat..drank..ate…slept…
In actual fact, i am comfortable just being alone..i crave not the company..but, never in my wildest dreams that i am to go back to Hainan Isle …all by myself..
the hour hand moved and the min hand followed, without the slightest pause..three hours went by
The pilot spoke, in somewhat halting mandarin, that if we were to look to the left..we would see the prosperous Haikou..
I gasped..my eyes widenened as i took in the vast expanse of land that spread out for miles..my eyes lingered on the endless stretch of beaches..my pupils took in the skyscrappers that reached out into the sky..tears flooded my eyes as i took all these in..At that moment, i wanted to turn around to the person next to me, just to tell him that this is my hometown! and my goodness, this is not just a small isle..its huge..its modern..how come its like this..its not what i imagined..its.. its…
i could tell no one..there was nobody there to share my joy..my euphoria…and there and then it hit me..how much i wanted my family to be there with me..how much i longed for my father to be there right next to me..and that..HOW MUCH I MISSED HIM.
As the plane decended..and came to a standstill..
i whispered softly… ..”爸爸，我终于回来海南岛了。。。”
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After a hearty welcome from the crew at the meilan airport ,we went right into the heart of Haikou, which was, as how you see it, very much a bustling city..
This was the very spot that i alighted from the van, my first official landing site in this city..
needless to say, have to take a picture here to commemorate my first time back in Hainan Isle:)
I was told many a times that Hainan Isle is the Hawaii of China and true enough, besides the endless stretch of beaches, Coconut trees lined the streets and coconut sweets, a specialty of this region..
But back here, in Singapore, we Hainanese are famous for one particular deli, and that, but of course, is the famous Hainanese chicken rice, which was to be my very first meal here!
Unlike the chicken rice here, the ones in Hainan actually uses hens, of a more matured age, where the meat is more chewy and the chicken rice, in particular, is unlike those back here..it is simply white rice with just a tiny dash of chicken taste..not oily at all..and the chilli comes in two different pattern..totally unlike those back here..
It tastes actually just like the way my mum makes it …and the gratification of my first bite is simply…beyond words..
The meal went on and on..and before we know it, the sun has set….
The very first day of me in Hainan ended..me with a full stomach..and a sleep that went on uneventfully for the next seven hours…..
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Reality Check…
A foreign room…not like mine…but..not too bad at all.
Looked at the clock: 0700hrs…checked
Stood up and went to the window… Checked.
My eyes swept across the far horizon…this was where my ancestors came from… and i am really here..Double Checked.
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Met up with the crew at the breakfast area..everyone well rested and fresh..and i was told not to have too much of breakfast as i have to sample at least three different types of Hainanese beef noodles!
Went to the local market to investigate if they have got the same beef noodles like that of singapore’s and these were the ones i found:)
This one is called 海南牛肉粉。。Unlike the beef noodles back here, this particular beef noodles hasn’t got the starchy gooey sauce that drips over the dish..also, they don’t use fresh beef slices..instead, they uses dried beef..very tiny portions of it..and this is relatively a dry dish..tasted nice though..
And this is another form and is called 泞水粉..again no fresh beef slices and it tastes like Mee Suah..
And this one, lagi not like the beef noodles here..its more like kuay teow soup:)
And this one..oh dear, its more like laksa in clear soup wor…
And then it dawned on us, that the so called beef noodles in Hainan ,which comes in a variety of different name, hardly ever uses any fresh beef slices..and that the main focus of this dish is actually the noodles..there is still one more place to go to, which is 抱镙 镇, in the region of 文昌, where my ancestors are from..perhaps there, we will find the origin of Hainan Beef noodles…and i will finally,once again,reunited with the taste i knew of some twenty years ago…
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it was twelve midnight..local time.. when the rest of the city goes to sleep, the five of us got out of bed..having been to bed at seven in the evening, as we were to take a two hour journey into the region of 文昌，抱锣镇..
why so early, one may ask..so did i, was because as we now realised, the most important part of this dish is actually the white noodles…and at this little town, there is this shop where they make their own noodles and the work starts at two in the morning….and so, in order to show on tv the whole process, we simply have to be there when they start…
After a somewhat two hours of bumpy ride , we finally got into the town and into the back yard of this shop, where the hardworking aunty is already burning the wood and preparing her daily chore..
In this somewhat run down back room, i felt as though i am back to my kampong days..algae stained walls..red coloured wash basins…a manual pump at the corner for water..it was a picture of rustic living..
The rice have been soaked for quite a while..and transported to this grinder where it is reduced to this whitish goo…
The whitegoo is then put into the sack where it is hand pressed to reduce the water..
in the meantime, she adds more wood to the stove to keep the fire burning..
After the mixture has been set, it became this bean curd like state whereby it is then grinded again into like a liquid state..
and sifted in a container right into the boiling water and became the noodles below..
by the time the noodles are done, dawn arrived..
and that’s the crew..minus the soundman..
and this is the end product..
At the end, the conclusion is… i’d think i better let you guys watch the show to know the answer of my quest..
However, i did manage to take back with me the delicious chicken that my mother wanted to eat..its amazing, how these chickens are packed into this air tight bags that allows us to bring it back…
It was a wonderful trip for me.. a trip that meant ever so much…
i have finally set foot in Hainan Island..
where once upon a time,
my ancestors toiled the land…
