Zhuhai Adventures

Rob’s Head of Department, Charles and his wife Qing ( pronounced Tching) have kindly invited us out to lunch, they know a very nice vegetarian restaurant in the Huafa Tech area of Zhuhai, a 40 minute taxi ride away from Tangjia. Huafa and Gree are two of the biggest Companies in this area of China. Gree, largely make air conditioning units and other white goods, whereas Huafa does a little bit of everything both financial and businesses; but both are responsible for financing the building of all the huge housing and business developments around Zhuhai which are ubiquitous and unending.
The SuHe restaurant is in a very modern Huafa condominium of housing apartments, shopping malls and businesses. It is beside a small canal leading to the main Xi Jiang river which divides Macau from China on the west side.

SuHe is a proper 100% dedicated vegetarian Chinese restaurant, no pizza, no houmous, no veggie burgers!
Although the restaurant building is located amongst the modern complex, it is made to look like a traditional space and is very beautiful. Along a tree-shaded path beside the water, we enter through the garden, dwarf trees and many artfully arranged pots of exotic plants surround a series of chairs and table (although at this time of the year they are not used…too hot). The whole side of the restaurant is open with ceiling to floor sliding glass doors, which means that you can enjoy the ambiance of the garden and still benefit from the air-conditioned interior. Qing draws our attention to the table decorations, the owner is an expert in floral artistry and sometimes runs workshops, the flowers and plants are stunning.
Charles and Qing are both lovely, warm and welcoming and very easy company. We are all soon sharing family anecdotes and they are giving us some sound advice about living in China. Although Qing is Chinese born, she has lived and worked all over the world and is originally from the Shanghai region which is a very, very long way from Zhuhai. Charles is American and has worked in Zhuhai for many years now. They have a daughter the same age as our eldest who is living and working in Boston.
Qing asks what we would like to eat, we are not sure about the etiquette, how many dishes, do we all share, rice or/and noodles? Since the menu is totally veggie we suggest that she orders for us, we are in her capable hands. Qing chats with the staff about the side dishes, she is a connoisseur and explains to us that many of her choices are vegetables currently in season.
We are sitting on low bench seats, there are two sets of chopsticks, and the food starts to come out one dish at a time. Tea is served in tiny cups which are refilled constantly by the attentive waiters who are all very relaxed and professional. The food is all to be shared and is eaten as it arrives- once one dish is finished, it makes room for another. The custom is to use the larger chopsticks to serve yourself the food and then the smaller pair to eat. We are also given a packet of plastic gloves. Qing has ordered summer rolls, the rice pancake arrives in a bamboo steamer and must be peeled apart from a layer of paper (hence the gloves) and then your roll can be assembled with items from the dishes. Luckily Qing and Charles know what they are doing and we follow suit!
There are many dishes. Rice cooked in spinach, sticky, green and delicious. Mushrooms that look like little cuts of meat. Stuffed bamboo shoots. Chinese greens which taste like samphire. It is all so attractively displayed that it seems a shame to eat it.
To finish we are persuaded to have a dessert, which is pressed sweet bean curd – very pretty. There is much food left over, it is a Chinese practice to serve food so generously that guests (and customers) cannot finish it. Qing asks for doggy bags and Rob and I are able to dine again on these delicious dishes the next evening.
We both feel very welcomed to China by this generous couple and it has been a great opportunity for Rob and Charles to develop some ideas about Rob’s contribution to the department, they have really hit it off. We all swap WeChat details and Qing offers to join me up with some local groups, particularly a local organic farm cooperative that sells veg and we make plans to meet again soon.
Then after a short walk by the river, we are heading back in our separate Didi taxis to Tangjia to sleep off this massive lunch!