China 2026: Hoi Ping (Taishan) Thread

Google_Gourmet · February 8, 2026, 8:44pm

Visited my ancestral Hoi Ping village, to pay homage to my forebears. My Great grandfather had made his fortune in the United States at the turn of the 20th century, and returned to the village as a “Man of Means” over 100 years ago.

Secondly, I relished a meal with true appreciation for the products of this land. Rice harvested from surrounding paddies, fish raised in a nearby pond, vegetables cultivated in neighboring plots.

Our actual village is a tiny hamlet without any restaurants. We lunched in nearby Kaiping (Hoi Ping), about a 30 minute DIDI away. Even this larger burg did not qualify as a one stoplight town, as it did not yet have a stoplight.

My wife had pinned a restaurant on Baidu Maps that makes an exceptional BO JAI FAN (Claypot Rice), a Cantonese specialty.

The Master working his magic in the Heart of the Restaurant, tending the glowing wood burning stove with the stacks of firewood and unglazed clay pots.

We ordered a simple country lunch. The most memorable meal, perhaps the BEST of the trip.

Bo Jai Fan with LAP MEI and MARINATED CHICKEN

Bo Jai Fan with YELLOW EEL and BEEF. A traditional Toishanese comfort food.

The ingredients were all so gratifying. The JASMINE RICE was some of the best rice I’d EVER eaten. Fragrant, fluffy with distinct individual grains. The perfect rice.

The Gnung (Socarrat) highlighted the chef’s expertise. Precise heat control and timing, all elements in sync for the perfect crispy, yet light Fan Jiu. The grease and flavors coaxed from the cured meats, marinated chicken and the rich fatty eel melding together with the master’s touch for the perfect pot of rice.

Any good toishanese meal must have a soup. We both loved the GOJI LEAVES with PORK and LIVER SOUP.

One slup, and I was back at my Mom’s kitchen table. REAL, pure clean flavors of the ingredients barely seasoned, Toishanese home cooking.

Some pics from my actual village. The terroir of these soils and waters were still on our tongues from our village lunch.

The Taishanese Diaspora was the major migration to North America, S.E. Asia and Australia in the 19th and 20th century. Most of the Chinatowns abroad in those days spoke Hoisan-wa.

Interestingly, Taishan food and culture is pretty much ignored, let alone celebrated away from Taishan. I was somewhat surprised to see an actual Taishanese restaurant in Jiangmen. There, we ate a very interesting specialty that I will post about next.

GretchenS · February 8, 2026, 9:37pm

This is fascinating!!

sck · February 9, 2026, 5:31am

That is good history there. Interested in resettling there one day?

Was that a papaya tree?

How was the quality of the vegetables? I bet it was great- like farm-to-table great.

klyeoh · February 9, 2026, 1:18pm

And the UK, too! That was what I realised the first time I stepped into London Chinatown many decades ago - the locals spoke Toishanese-accented Cantonese. To make things even more interesting, British-born Chinese add a unique “English” lilt to their Toishanese-Cantonese dialect! I remembered being seated at a table next to these 3 middle-aged Chinese ladies having dim sum on Gerrard Street, London Chinatown, back in the 1980s. I overheard their conversation and asked my cousin, a Singaporean but who’d lived in London for 15 years then, “Where are those women from?! They spoke such a unique dialect.” My cousin laughed and said, “That’s the London-Chinese accent. I use that, too, if I’m speaking to a local British-Chinese person.”

malcolmgin · February 13, 2026, 4:03pm

Thank you for posting this. I’m 2nd generation born in California, but Toisan is my ancestral homeland too.

My Dad had a little of Taishanese language but my cousins and I were raised with English and highly assimilated so unfortunately I can’t visit except functionally as a stranger. (for those who don’t know, Taishanese villages often possess a village specific dialect and visiting without knowing the dialect paints you as a stranger, and Cantonese is not close enough, Mandarin not at all)

My father claimed that there were a LOT of immigrants to America from Taishan in Oakland Chinatown (where he grew up) and San Francisco Chinatown (the downtown one) but I don’t know that for sure.

Nevertheless it’s good to be able to enjoy vicariously. Thank you.

ricepad · February 13, 2026, 6:19pm

So cool! I, too, have roots in Taishan. Mom was born there. My grandfather (paper son) brought his wife and eldest daughter to the US, made a relative fortune, then went back to China, presumably to live in retired comfort. While in the US, he and my grandmother had another five kids. Mom was born after they returned to China. Then in 1938, a teacher in the local school strongly advised my eldest two aunts that they should get out while they could, so the whole family packed up and moved back to the US (Phoenix AZ). I think my grandfather was expecting the Japanese occupation to blow over and they’d return, but that didn’t happen. To this day, Mom owns a house in the city and in the country, occupied by relatives. Title is pretty screwed up, and I don’t think she wants to risk the $$ it’d take to clear it, so I think she’s just going to do the Chinese equivalent of a quit claim deed to her cousins.

What caught my eye: My mom’s Chinese name is Hoi Ping!

kobuta · February 13, 2026, 7:57pm

Awesome! I wish I had made a trip like this when my parents were still around. My dad is from Taishan, but now I have very little connection. We have closer ties and family friends in HK, but my dad certainly still had family and connections in Taishan that I remember from an old trip in the 80s. I didn’t appreciate any of that as a kid, especially since Mainland China was still rather undeveloped at that time.

Google_Gourmet · February 13, 2026, 9:40pm

Feels good to hear the personal history from fellow Toishan Rooted Onions.

@malcolmgin
@ricepad
@kobuta

It was a very fulfilling experience finally walking through my ancestral village, at long last. A jumble of feelings and emotions, almost overwhelming.

The road leading to our village.

A very quiet and serene rural community. Many of the houses were vacant (like ours), owners and progeny long emigrated overseas decades ago. Many dutifully sent money back to the village to build nice houses, and for the folks back home.

I’ve always wanted to own and live in a house on a large lake with plenty of fish to catch for dinner. Also some land with fruit trees and a vegetable garden.

I found my house (still in my family’s name), thanks to help from our Shatin family friends and their network of family and contacts in our village.

Life very different from what I grew up with. Tennis shoes hanging from the telephone wires??

No, loofa.

An elderly lady leisurely tending her plants in the near distance. Coulda been my grandma.

Our house is now definitely a Fixer Upper. Our newly introduced guide/friend asked if I had the key for the house. Ahh… no.

I didn’t know what to expect when we set out from Jiangmin that morning for this journey. Was not sure if I would even find the village, let alone our house. I hope to visit again in the near future, and maybe even spend the night in the nearby town of Kaiping. If I can convince my citified wife.

Google_Gourmet · February 13, 2026, 9:58pm

We only tried one vegetable.

Most of us are familiar with Goji Berries. I’ve never ever tasted Goji Leaves. The Goji Leaves with Pork Liver and Lean Pork Soup was excellent. Tasted like Amaranth, with a grassy, nutty, peppery taste.

Boiled in a simple thin soup, more like a broth. I want more.

“Interested in resettling there one day?”

The scene a bit quiet for me.

I had dinner in Shatin a few nights later, my friends had talked to my guides after my visit. The guides told my friends that they didn’t understand a word I said !!! And here I was thinking I was doing pretty good, finally able to speak Hoisanwa again. Oh well…

“Was that a papaya tree?”

That was a papaya tree, and it was LOADED with fruit!!!

klyeoh · February 14, 2026, 1:24pm

Your father’s right! I worked for American President Lines and spent 6 months in a year in its US regional office in Oakland (the other half back in Singapore) from 2006-2011. Toishan-accented Cantonese predominates in both Oakland and SF Chinatowns.

Steve · February 14, 2026, 1:52pm

Really nice looking rural village with interesting features and architecture. I am sure the connection you felt was stirring. That soup looks wonderful, and thanks for the description.

ricepad · February 14, 2026, 6:52pm

Small world. My cousin was an executive at APL in Oakland and spend a good amount of time in China!

Google_Gourmet · February 14, 2026, 9:35pm

Toishan may be a fair sized geographical area, and its native sons and daughters have settled in countries throughout the world. Yet, Toisanese food and cooking is rarely (never) noticed or mentioned.

Back in Jiangmen, we set out early one morning to experience one of the more unique famous Toisan ingredients. A restaurant proudly presenting Toisan Worm Congee.

Toisan Sand Worm (Sa Sung)
A local marine delicacy. Sweet, yet savory with a slightly crunchy texture. The Main Ingredient pefectly complemented a savory bowl of congee. Not an ingredient one sees often outside of the Canton area.

Toisan Joong (Zongzi)
My grandma made the best Joong (I may be a little biased). This joong was very good. Very humble, not overstuffed. A bit of Salted Egg Yolk, Fatty Pork and Peanuts. Wife and I both agree, very very plain, but very very good. Wanted to order a second… and a third.

House Toisan Chow Mein
Rice Noodle with Pork, Cilantro, Scallion, Carrots and Bean Sprouts. Again, may be considered plain. The Wok Hei brought all the ingredients together for a lively brilliant plate.

We only ate three dishes that morning, as we had plans to explore a Walking Eating Street right after. We could easily have eaten our way through the menu. The cooking was on point, and the ingredients were all very fresh and well prepped.

klyeoh · February 15, 2026, 7:02am

Very cool. Did your cousin make that big move to Scottsdale, AZ? I wished APL had stayed on in Oakland. Love that town.

Steve · February 15, 2026, 2:12pm

What I really like about the photo of the rice noodles is that I can practically feel the texture. As where the rice noodles I get in the US are mostly mush. Am I right about that?

I am fond of saying that noodles are the first thing to suffer outside of Asia.

ricepad · February 15, 2026, 7:56pm

No, he must have retired before then. We have family (yet more cousins - big family!) in the metro Phoenix area, and I’m sure if he’d been required to relocate to Scottsdale he would have, but he’s still in the bay area.

Google_Gourmet · February 16, 2026, 6:07am

A few Taishan restaurants have popped up in San Francisco, within the last couple of years.

TAISHAN CUISINE on Broadway.

TAISHAN RESTAURANT on Jackson. The former Hunan Home’s location.

TAISHAN SPECIALTY on Stockton. This location has seen a few restaurant turnovers over recent years, hoping Taishan food works here.

Menu on the GOOGLE Map links above.

Some pictures on the Taishan Specialty window prominently shows Claypot Rice and Taishan Chicken. I hope someone gives these Taishan restaurants a go and report back. I’ll try, after the CNY madness blows over in a couple of weeks.

kobuta · February 17, 2026, 2:42pm

These are really cool to see. Your ancestral home reminds me of the one I remember visiting as a child, though ours was on a much smaller scale. But I remember coming back from dinner one night, and the family friends took as back to the house and village on the back of their bikes. It was a littler scary for me riding in the dark with just a flashlight at the time, weaving in between the fields.

We have a fair amount of Taishan/Toisan in the Boston and NYC Chinatowns too - at least amongst the older, original immigrants. If I recall the history, the earliest Chinese immigrants who came thinking they might strike gold during the 1800s were mainly “recruited” from Taishan/Toisan, and hence the prevalence of Taishan/Toisan in the earlier Chinatowns. My dad - the one with Toisan origins - came here because family and friends were already settled here (first in San Francisco, but moving to Boston where we also had family friends). There’s a fun documentary about how 9man volley ball has flourished in US North American Chinatown, and 9man has its roots in Taishan/Toisan. [https://www.9-man.com/]