Miao Jiaxin opens her eyes and finds herself back in 1987, on the day she and her father are leaving for New Zealand.
In her previous life, her father gave up their family’s Cantonese cuisine and bought a fish-and-chip shop to make money.
He never made much, and when Grandma was on her deathbed, he knelt beside her bed and held her hand as she spoke of her regret: “Your cooking never got passed down, and the Miao family name has been ruined…”
This time, Miao Jiaxin stops her father.
“Dad, let’s open a Cantonese restaurant.”
They pour their entire fortune into buying a Cantonese restaurant on the verge of bankruptcy.
Little Miao Jiaxin stands on a footstool in the kitchen, wielding her knife to expertly break down live seafood. Beside her, her father fires up the wok, turning fresh ingredients into delicious Cantonese dishes.
Arm-length lobsters, face-sized black gold abalone, plump king salmon, creamy Bluff oysters, sweet Antarctic krill… Surrounded by the sea on all sides, the island nation offers an endless supply of top-quality seafood, giving their Cantonese restaurant a huge advantage.
They work hard to make a name for themselves in Auckland. Chinese people drive all the way from far away to enjoy a taste of home, and the locals fall in love with Cantonese dim sum, too.
Miao Jiaxin smiles as she looks over the restaurant full of diners.
She plans to earn enough money, bring foreign currency back to China, and reopen the Miao family’s grand seafood restaurant back home…
*
Next door to the Cantonese restaurant is a French pastry shop.
The French pastry chef has three children. His youngest son is the same age as Miao Jiaxin and goes to her school.
Every morning, the buttery, malty aroma of freshly baked croissants drifts from the pastry shop into the restaurant, drawing the sweet-toothed Miao Jiaxin over again and again.
Watching his daughter disappear into the pastry shop, Miao Guangsheng shakes his head and sighs:
“Once a girl grows up, she’s gone.”
But later, Miao Jiaxin stops visiting the pastry shop, and the quiet, blond boy Louis comes to the restaurant instead.
With his ears red, Louis stammers out in Chinese to Miao Guangsheng:
“Uncle… Can I marry into your family?”
Theme: Appetite is human nature
