Yangzhou cook brings taste of home to Brazil

Salted goose made by Lu Yuejun [Photo/yznews.cn]

Salted goose, a typical Yangzhou dish popular with locals, has crossed continents after being added to the menu of a Chinese restaurant in downtown Sao Paulo, Brazil in August.

Lu Yuejun, the owner of this restaurant, is a cook from Yangzhou. Lu is an expert at cooking Huaiyang cuisine and has been running the restaurant for 18 years.

In 2016, Lu's friend drove six hours for a salted goose and spent 500 yuan ($73.1) for it. "It's almost impossible to serve the dish in the restaurant at that cost and it's very difficult to find live goose because Brazilians don't eat goose," said Lu.

"Eventually I found a local farm that can offer live geese but it can only supply four to six geese a week. The farm owner offers home delivery service every Saturday which lowers the cost for me," added Lu Yuejun.

"The majority of our restaurant's customers are Chinese. Fellows from Yangzhou were excited. I'm happy to see the dish being highly praised and to bring original Huaiyang cuisine to Brazil," said Lu.

The restaurant has served 10 salted geese in the last two weeks and each one was made strictly according to the original recipe, taking at least three hours to cook one.

"It's very meaningful for me to serve dishes from my hometown in Brazil. It's not about making money, it's a way for me to express my emotion for Yangzhou," Lu said.

"Huaiyang cuisine can satisfy the appetite of people from all across China, and as we've seen here, from other countries too. I do hope that my peers in China spread the wonders of Huaiyang cuisine around the world," said Lu.