Spring Festival is an important holiday for Chinese people. The food during Spring Festival emphasizes "the taste of home." During this trip, we are not going to a restaurant. Our destinations are different families.
From Beijing, after a four-hour flight and three-hour drive, I finally arrived at Puding County located in the west of Guizhou Province. Passing here, I have to mention one of the local specialties, yellow chives.
Due to geographical environment and special climate conditions, Puding yellow chive has less crude fiber. It is fresh, fragrant, crisp, and tender.
Yellow chive dishes are an essential part of local cuisine during Spring Festival. Compared with ordinary chives, yellow chives are more difficult to grow. They need to grow in dark conditions. During my stay there, I visited a farmer, Wu Haihe, who used a black shade to cover his yellow chives. "The black shade helps them grow because it absorbs sunlight and heat better," he explains.
CGTN reporter talks to Wu Haihe (R). /CGTN Photo
Here, every family grows yellow chives. With the development of e-commerce and transportation, the village is gradually getting rich thanks to its yellow chive industry.
According to Wu, before 2014, the transportation and communication in the county were not well developed, so it wasn't very easy for people working out of the county to contact home or to greet the families. But since the Puding yellow chives industry developed, people's lives have gradually improved. The delicious taste and good quality of Puding yellow chives have won favor of urban residents.
Yellow chives scrambled eggs. /CGTN Photo
The simple homemade dish is what Wu Haihe missed the most when he was away from home. Most kids growing up in the village are familiar with this flavor.
The flavor – hard to find elsewhere, is what Wu called "a taste of home." Like him, for every wanderer, the "taste of home" is forever different. That's why people are long for the Spring Festival reunion.
Reporter: Li Yimei
Scriptwriters: Ye Qing, Li Yimei
Editor: Ye Qing
Cover image designer: Li Yueyun
Executive producers: Zhang Xiaohe, Ai Yan
Producer: Si Nan
Supervisor: Pang Xinhua