The Second Stop - Dongguan

We initially made plans to spend about a day in Dongguan then make our way to Guangzhou for some sightseeing. Plans.. being plans.. disappeared the moment we met our brood of relatives on my grandmother's side. There were so many of them, till now, I still can't identify some of them in my photos.

We went for some of my craziest dinners ever. Presenting the photographic evidence, I now know how the saying about how the Chinese eat everything that fly, swim, crawl or move.


We had the 'Hundred Bird Back to Nest' Hotpot,

The wok was located in the middle of a table, with its contents stir-fried while we ate claypot rice with the contents. The contents ... were... whatever birds that you could think of. I knew something was up when my Dad picked up the tiniest fried sparrow from the wok. Then the waitress told us that the wok had peacock, sparrow, dove, pheasant, wild duck... I stopped listening after peacock ....


I was introduced to 天地一号, a fruit vinegar drink to aid digestion, which was manufactured in Guangzhou. I personally quite liked it alot, especially after the exotic feast.

Next stop, the beef feast ...


I am a maneater now. Officially. This blurry photo is actually the remnants of double-ox penis soup. The penises were removed from the soup, chopped into pieces and eaten after being dipped in soy sauce. Yes, I had some. With beef lung, kidney, marrow. Penis was good. Like eating a giant chunk of tendon. *demonic laughter*

One of my best and most memorable dinners was at the farm that my relative owned.

And who says that a person owning a farm is poor? Please shake that thought out of your mind. That building and the hill in the distance? Belongs to my granduncle as well, not to mention the farm that I was taking the photo in. He owns a pig farm that supplies Guangzhou and the surrounding regions, owns 300 mu of land, fish farm, duck & chicken farm and the 3 star hotel that we were staying in Dongguan. Coming from a farming background, he went into construction as a bricklayer and worked his way up.

My granduncles caught 3 ducks from the lake for soup. Skinned 2 chickens from the farm, fished from the fish pond. Everything was caught from around us and prepared freshly in front of our eyes.

I was really touched at the effort everyone made for us. The farm was seriously out of the way, that day happened to be the day that Guangzhou started raining after a dry spell for close to 3 1/2 months, the roads were all muddy and almost impossible to drive into. They carried huge boxes of sauces and vegetables on foot. We left feeling terribly touched and guilty that we burdened these kind relatives for so many days as they went out of their ways to drive us around, feed us with the best that they can find.

I tried to make do as much appreciation as I could show with my meager Cantonese, but my only regret was that I couldn't understand as much as I could due to their accent. Chicken speaking with the Duck.

Panyu - The Village

As we slowly headed to the village in Panyu where my grandfather and his siblings had lived. My granduncle? (grandfather's sister's husband.. you tell me..) showed us around the village, telling us who owned what and how they are doing still.

To put it simply, there was once a GIGANTIC piece of land, then there was 8 siblings that split it equally. Since noone in the family sold anything, my whole extended family owns about 2 lanes in a village somewhere in Panyu right now. I'm a landowner!


One of the plots + house where the sole remaining family is staying.

In the land and house where our family still owns and is part of my father's (being the oldest son of the oldest son), hung the picture of our grandparents. It was the only association that I can make with that place. Without that picture, it could have been anywhere, anyplace. Only much later in the day, that i discovered that it was really a 'anywhere, anyplace'. Our family came from Anhui !!! Only the last few (maybe 10?) generations settled in Panyu.


The day we visited the ancestral village, was also my Dad's birthday. He was 63 and his first visit home.

Panyu.. .the first stop of the ancestral trail

On the 1st of March, I met up with my Dad in Guangzhou to start on our search for our roots. It is not much of a search honestly, my Dad was the last of his 6 siblings to head back to the ancestral village and we had relatives that flew in from Hongkong to guide us along on our trip.

On this one week trip, we headed to Panyu - a place where many people believed that Guangzhou originated and grew from and Dongguan, famous for being the 'factory' of China. Panyu was easily accessible from a 2hr bus ride from the Guangzhou airport. A 2nd-3rd tier city, it was your typical run of the mill town littered with malls and shops.


We had streetside Beef Tripe ..


Spotted some unusual looking smelly doufu that we passed on. Luckily, we were told later that many of the street vendors felt that their 'smelly' doufu was not smelly enough so they used sewage water to make it smellier. Buyer Beware !



Found the best ... BEST sesame paste that we ever had. It was thick, slightly sweetened. It did not have the taste or consistency of the starch powder that people normally add to the sesame paste. We deliberately stayed an extra morning in Panyu to have it again. Tried all four, sesame, almond, walnut and peanut. But honestly, the sesame was the best, even though the rest ain't that bad.

Somehow the dessert in Panyu was good or even somewhat legendary, even for the ginger egg custard (姜汁撞奶) that our relatives brought us to, we spotted on the walls of Hongkong celebrities, cooking chefs (肥妈) and food critics trying it out.

Don't take my word for it, even the critics on Dianping are praising it endlessly.

聚隆甜品
地址: 近郊番禺区市桥镇清河东路13号
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I can't really remember the shop name for the ginger egg custard. But here is the friendly Dianping to guide you along if you're ever in the area. Link to Old, Famous Desserts in Panyu