Simmer Slowly and Carefully

Hidden in the smoke of fireworks on Chengdu's Shuijing Street are the obsessions of three generations of the Lin family - grandfather Lin Dehou guarding a butter hot pot, the base of which is conscience, and the heat is sincerity; father Lin Changan kneads the dough in silence, kneading all the unspeakable love into the bowl of dandan noodles. And Lin Zhiwei, who was born with a sensitive tongue, chose to go away to a foreign country when he was young, chewing the pungent nostalgia in the wind and snow in a foreign place. Many years later, when he returned to Chengdu, the water of Jinjiang River was still as slow as before, and the Gaiwan tea from Heming Tea House was still as mellow, but the old streets were disappearing and the old taste was changing. He met architect Su Nianqing, a woman who wanted to preserve the memory of the city with steel and concrete, and also met the bowl of sweet water that had never changed in the hands of Fa Xiao Chen Qiaoqiao. Love, family affection, perseverance and compromise are rolling and blending in this city that is soaked in a tea bowl and boiled in a hot pot. Some people say that Chengdu is too slow, but Lin Zhiwei finally understands that it is slow not because of laziness, but because some things cannot be rushed. Good soup needs to be boiled, good people need to be raised, and a good life needs to be cooked slowly and carefully. This is a love letter to Chengdu, and a bowl of twice-cooked pork dedicated to all those who have left home - spicy and fragrant, with a long aftertaste.