回到家乡以后，我很努力的练华文，进展还不错吧？哈哈。。。
Continuing on to Day 3, 我们回到我的公公，婆婆的家乡，在潮州的小乡村。We visited my grandparents' old village - the place where their romance begins. They lived in neighboring village, which sounds close but the car ride was about 10 minutes. I cannot imagine them having to walk that few miles to each other's house. Yikes!
First stop, to my grandfather's old village.
I don't know why but all their houses have these four letter words on their ceiling.
The older generation still live in the villages, leading really simple life. They used to grow different variety of vegetables and rear animals, but today, they focus on carrots. According to them, carrots are easy to take care of and are very profitable. Duh! Look at their carrots! Their carrots are as big as the two ladies' faces. We munch on them on the spot and it was so juicy. Why I love China #5 - (this might be bias, since I live in little island Singapore with not much agricultural opportunities) Their vegetables are fresh, sweet, juicy, definitely change the minds of all green haters. Quoting my brother, 绿油油的青菜，原来不是书上才有，终于被我尝到了。He thought green leafy vegetables are described in books, but he has finally tasted them in China. Heavenly.
Moving on to my grandmother's village, we were taken aback by all the changes. They used to be dilapidated, dirty and full of flies. Today, everything has changed. My grandmother's family (whoever they are) are living in huge houses, with office space and a huge garden to keep their pets - the chickens. They have about 20 over chickens running around. It was crazy.
This is remnants of her old house. Dad said we used to have feasts at this supposedly huge "front porch".
For lunch that day, my uncle treated us to another feast at 新梅园. Gawd! Almost all of us were raising our white flags to our fatten-up regime. We don't just do three meals, in between, there were always desserts shoved into our mouths. But every food that came our way were irresistibly delicious. You just can't stop!But this is highly recommended although prices can be quite steep according to the standard in China. I love it because they serve fantabulous almond milk! I drank almost 5 glasses throughout the 15 course meal. 15 course, WTFISH. My apologies for the lack of photos though, we were busy eating that I forgot. =X However, these are a few sumptuous pictures to entice you.
This is crab sashimi. Doubt anyone of you have had this before but Erik will love this. To remove the smell and lower the risk, it is a must to eat it with a little chili sauce and vinegar.
Since shopping was expensive in Shantou, we decided to pamper our bodies instead. We went for leg massage, hair cut and manicure/pedicure services. This is the result of our hair for SGD 30 bucks each. My vain brother got a hair treatment, cut and wash. Mom did hair treatment with blowing service while cousin and I dyed our hair.
The hairstylists gave us a 70s blowing style, claiming it was trendy in the city. I do like it but its hilarious when the three of us sat together. As for our manicure and pedicure, whoaaaa, it was superb. My first time having acrylic nails and also a male manicurist attending to me. He is voted the best manicurist in the shop and yes, quick, meticulous...great service!
Day 4
One of my uncle took us to explore the neighborhood. We went to the famous river in Guangdong province. - Han River 韩江. Honestly, it wasn't much of a good sight see but we unraveled a fact. My uncle (the one that looked like a gangster) actually owned part of it together with a few friends. They cordoned part of the river sides to built a personal clubhouse with bathing facilities and tea house. Speechless.
We all know Asia is a food haven and they all come from the small hawker stalls by the streets. So, we were brought to this famous chao mien (fried noodle) hawker stand. They had the city's best pig trotters also. Everything tasted awesome despite the rundown look. We were eating in the small brick house in the middle of nowhere. I wonder why they don't want to renovate their stall since they should be rich because we met Caucasians even.
This is one other lunch we had - Shantou's famous beef steamboat 牛肉火锅. This originates from their unique beef balls, even better than Dodo meat balls. I can't describe, but you can imagine that I have them for lunch every time I am home alone in Singapore. We shipped three bags full of beef balls about 50 of them back home. I read up on this cuisine and found that the beef here actually went through manual beating process to build its bounciness. Loads of oil were also added for the flavor.
This is the private parts of the cow. Hohoho! Erik's favorite. It was believed it could increase the male's libido?!
Coming to the end of our holidays, short yet rewarding, we celebrated on our last night with a huge family gathering. (But we do have that every night, haha!) This was different, these Chinese never fail to make us miss them so much. They will end our last night on a high note. I really love their closely-knitted family, something many Singaporeans do not have.
We tried toasting the Singaporean way.
Gosh, this handsome boy... At 2 years old, he has learn to flirt with all the aunties around. Soooo cute! His mom and dad had a beautiful love story, that inspired me quite a bit.
Final photo of the day: My brother suffered from eye irritation and he was given Chinese treatment... Hahaha!
