Original subtitles

In the old city of Beijing,

within a short distance,

you can have a taste of authentic Turkish food,

genuine Spanish seafood paella,

or prime French cuisine.

People come across food from around the globe,

and their taste has assimilated with that of the whole world.

However, there always exists food that has not been discovered,

hiding in the hills and valleys,

rivers and seas

and deserts and grasslands in China.

These are the realms of secrets

that we want to explore.

During early winter in Dalai Nur, Inner Mongolia,

the temperature has dropped to minus 30 degrees Celsius.

Bring the tools here.

Today’s operation is crucial,

and it starts with breaking the ice in the center of the lake.

Dalai Nur’ in Mongolian

means 'a lake that is like the sea'.

Come on!

This is the first time of fishing this year.

'Dig 13 holes in the ice.'

The 800-meter-long fishing nets

will float on the water beneath the ice for 6 hours.

This semi-alkaline soda lake

has bred a species of fish

which can hardly survive in any other environment.

Amur ide,

also called 'Huazi fish' by local people.

Huazi fish grow extremely slowly.

They can only weigh up to 200g

after 4 years of growth.

Those more than 500g heavy

are already treasures in the lake.

Nearly 30,000 kg of fish are caught with the first attempt.

To maintain the fish population in the lake,

the fishermen agreed that

no more than 300,000 kg of fish should be caught every winter.

Steaming

is the best way of cooking fresh Huazi fish

to retain its delicious original flavor to the fullest extent.

Hot and sour flavor

is appetizing and refreshing

during the frigid winter in grassland areas.

Frying is also not a complex method.

With just a little salt,

after being cooked over slow fire for several minutes,

the fish will have a pleasant burnt smell.

The local farmers use an even simpler way.

They stew the fish over wood fire.

The fish cooked in this way is of rich flavor and pleasant odor.

The fishermen are enjoying their harvest,

which is a reward

for their hard work half a year ago.

Here come the fishes.

Dalai Nur has started to become lively in May.

Once the temperature of the freshwater river reaches 8 degrees Celsius,

Huazi fish will set off from the lake outlet of Dalai Nur

and swim upstream.

The fishermen have also become busy.

This year the temperature is low.

It’s already May.

But the ice in the lake still hasn’t melted.

Feng Junjie and his fellows

have plunged bamboo stakes at the upstream of the river channel

and laid bundles of cotton grass there.

Cotton grass is the first kind of plant

to perceive the arrival of spring at Dalai Nur every year.

Dangers lurk everywhere

along the water route of dozens of kilometers.

The gulls have waited long

to enjoy a feast.

Huazi fish can refill their energy

to complete the migration

to Siberia.

In the week of breeding migration,

over 400,000 fishes

will become food for the birds.

Not having eaten anything for the whole winter,

their future

is unpredictable upstream.

Along the 4 river channels leading to Dalai Nur,

Feng Junjie and his fellows have to lay grass bundles spanning 2000 meters.

The adverse current makes the way ahead tougher for Huazi fish,

but can stimulate the maturity of their sexual gland

and accelerate the incubation of fish roes.

This is a competition in which only the fittest can survive.

Only the strongest fish

can make their way to the spawning ground.

Huazi fish are within easy reach,

but the fishermen will not catch them in this season.

In the night when predators are gone,

Huazi fish are speeding up.

They must find proper spawning grounds.

In this ecologically degraded river channel

with few aquatic plants,

it is not easy.

Cotton grass bundles can serve as warm spawning grounds.

Without them,

fish roes will lose the chance of survival

due to lack of attachment.

Huazi fish have completed their reproduction and returned to the lake.

After 10 days,

the newly hatched little fish

will also swim back to Dalai Nur following their parents.

In the realm of secrets on grasslands,

people and fish work hard together

to find a sustainable and balanced way of living.

4000 kilometers to the south,

Beihai,

the southernmost point of the coastline of mainland China.

People are not aware that

at the seaside within the distance of 100 kilometers,

a kind of tiny creatures that are as old as dinosaurs

are gathering.

Ghost crabs have started enjoying their dinner.

At the beach after the ebb tide,

they are building their own realm of secrets.

When I was a kid I would weave fishing nets with my grandpa,

and go to the sea with my grandma,

carrying a little bucket or bag.'

I would pick ghost crabs

while she was digging for peanut worms.

Zhou Junmeng studies at a university in Sichuan.

In every summer vacation,

she comes back to her grandparents.

Now my grandma is aged

and seldom goes to the sea any more.

It is always my mom who makes the ghost crab sauce

and bring it to her.

Ghost crabs are agile.

Despite their tiny size of around 2 cm,

they can move up to 1.6 meters every second.

Ghost crabs run away fast,

but mother’s hands are even faster.

Beihai

was one of the ports of departure of the Maritime Silk Road.

The integration of diverse cultures here

can be reflected by the local food, which miraculously incorporates

the styles of Guangdong and Guangxi provinces and Southeast Asia.

But ghost crab sauce

makes it distinctive from any other place.

After the beginning of autumn,

the nights of low ebb

are the best times to catch ghost crabs.

Ghost crabs obtain nutrients

by absorbing the seawater and algae in the sands.

Their simple and handy diet allows them

to have survived for billions of years on this planet.

Food chains are always linked with one another.

On the beach,

the competition between people and ghost crabs never ends.

Wow, there are a lot here.

Wow, so many.

Very pretty.

Ghost crab sauce is not complicated to make.

Wash the crabs thoroughly,

gut them carefully,

crash them in a clay mortar,

and add in salt and a little Chinese spirit.

Ghost crabs that have little amount of meat

are transformed into a unique kind of seasoning by imagination.

In fact to us,

it is as essential

as salt and soy sauce.

The newly made ghost crab sauce smells fairly fishy

due to the oxidation of fish oil.

Fermentation is the key step

to the perfect flavor.

The protease secreted by microorganisms

hydrolyzes the protein in the crab meat

into tiny molecules of polypeptide

and free amino acid.

1 month later,

the sauce will have a rich flavor and fragrant smell

and tastes the best.

Cowpea is the most common match with ghost crab sauce.

Stew them over medium heat for 10 minutes.

A little wildness comes out of the fresh and sweet taste of cowpea,

stimulating your appetite.

The symbolic plain boiled chicken in Cantonese cuisine

is made by soaking the chicken in boiling water over slow fire

until it is medium well.

Usually the chicken is accompanied by scallion oil.

But in the eyes of Beihai people,

it is ghost crab sauce

that makes the perfect match with plain boiled chicken.

As I remember,

I always learn other food

through ghost crab sauce.

By that I mean'

By that I mean I always taste food with ghost crab sauce

to see if it is delicious.

A dish of ghost crab sauce

has added some spices to the fishing family.

This is a miracle brewed in the realm of secrets through billions of years.

Our ancestors

were clever at seeking flavors from Mother Nature

to decorate their delicacies.

The Mergel Gol River has become a world of water in flood season,

where as a kind of flowers are in full blossom.

Xijile’s family owns a meadow of 9000 mu

and 4000 sheep.

Today she has to drive the sheep homewards early.

She is waiting for a reunion.

Her cousin Qiburi

rushed here from 100 kilometers away.

Grasslands are sparsely populated.

People hardly meet each other.

Wild leek flowers

create a chance of gathering for them every year.

Wild leek flowers grow the best

on damp and gentle slopes facing the sun.

Every year,

the flowering season of wild leek flowers only last one week.

But the herdsmen have a traditional method

to preserve their fragrance

for a year.

The flower contains many sulfur compounds,

which are the source of pungency.

Grind the flowers and break their cells

to gradually release the sulfur compounds.

The monotonous natural environment

has produced the most richly flavored condiment

on the prairie:

Wild leek flower sauce.

The herdsmen start to store the forage grass for winter.

'People here start mowing grass in August, '

'so my dad will be extremely busy this month.'

'He has to work hard'

'to earn a better life for us.'

'There, the small one.'

The summer grazing is coming to an end.

Before transition to another meadow, the herdsmen will have a gathering as usual.

Meat plays a key role in the diet of people who live on grasslands.

The tradition of nomadism bred a rough way of cooking.

Authentic hand-grasping mutton

is free of any seasoning when being cooked.

It is prepared by boiling large bulks of mutton

over flaming fire

for 40 minutes.

Without the sauce of wild leek flowers,

even the best hand-grasping mutton will only taste bland.

The sodium ions in the sauce

can activate the salt-free mutton.

The sulfur compounds

will cause slight neural burning sensation in the mouth,

making the meat taste even better.

Meanwhile, the sauce also produces natural vitamins

that can aid the digestion of meat.

The traditional combination

of mutton and wild leek flower sauce on the grasslands

remains its essence

even in the hot pot in Beijing.

Despite the availability of more than 10 condiments,

leek flower sauce

is always in a dominant position.

Perhaps it is the rich and fine protein

contained in the diet of nomads that make them stronger.

Although they already settled down from nomadism,

they can retrieve their wild nature from Nadam Fair.

The Great Wall extends 5000 kilometers, which used to be

the line of demarcation between nomads and agricultural people.

The tradition of eating mutton

has a long history

in the areas to the north and west of the Great Wall.

This is the desert that is the farthest to the ocean on Earth,

the driest place in China,

the Taklamakan Desert.

Let’s go home, boy.

Yamanbaike village,

the village closest to the desert.

Wubuli Kasimu

is preparing a feast of the desert.

Lamb tripe is a natural cooking ware.

Lamb saturated with seasonings

can be contained in lamp tripe without leakage

due to its elasticity.

It is not rarely seen

to cook food with animal stomach as container.

But the method here is the most unique.

Charcoal fire is the key factor to cooking in the desert.

The temperature of sands beneath the charcoal

is over 180 degrees Celsius.

This is the most natural oven

which can evenly heat the food inside.

The alteration of the lamb when being cooked cannot be measured by eyes

but only by experience.

4 hours later,

the charcoal fire has unleashed the delicious taste of mutton

with an overwhelming aroma of scorch.

The greasy fat has been grilled crispy

while the lean meat has turned chewy.

The lamb tastes tender and juicy with a perfect balance of fat and lean.

It was around 2 million years ago

that human beings learned how to grill meat with fire.

Scientists believe that

it was cooked food that made us who we are.

The Yellow River floods out from Helan Mountain

and shaped Ningxia Plain.

Almost all the gastronomes in China agree that

the mutton here is of the best quality.

It is crucial not to add any salt when stewing the mutton.

Salt as a strong electrolyte

will destroy the cell membrane of mutton

and cause the water to exude from it,

resulting in the toughness

and lack of flexibility of the meat.

Nearly 2 hours of stewing over slow fire

has soften the fibers in the meat

and filled them with broth.

The mutton is neither greasy nor smelly

but plump and delicious.

Salt is not needed

until the mutton is to be dished up.

The seasoning of salt adds to the flavors of the meat

å

The Chinese characters of ‘鱼’(fish) and ‘羊’(sheep)

form the character of ‘鲜’(delicious).

It is a supreme evaluation of taste for Chinese people.

Most parts of China

have the tradition of cooking lamb.

The different natural environments in different regions

have resulted in the diverse styles and flavors of mutton.

The simplest style is from the North China.

The perfect presentation

of the wonderful taste of mutton

implies their confidence in the food material.

The enjoyment of delicious food is dependent on the environment.

Due to the demand of mutton,

the number of sheep in the mountains of Ningxia

once far exceeded the regeneration power of vegetation.

The rapid desertification caused the ground to become extremely fragile.

The approaching desert

forces people strike a balance

between delicacies and environment.

The bleat of sheep is as punctual as a clock.

A busy day begins with preparing the forage.

Maashe and her husband rear more than 2000 sheep.

They have to work for 12 hours every day.

We have to feed the sheep every day

throughout the year

without missing a single meal,

otherwise

the sheep will starve.

Here

silage is the staple food for sheep.

Corn stalks and alfalfa are crushed

and fermented

into silage

whose nutrition

is very close to natural forage.

Ningxia is located by desert line of China.

In order to protect the ecology,

large-scale grazing has been prohibited.

To maintain the delicious taste of mutton,

people have devoted intelligence and labor

to creating

a feeding environment most similar to nature.

Maashe, a Hui ethnic minority girl,

used to be a top student in an Arabic school.

She met her husband Yang Guowei 6 years ago.

She got married and moved to the dry and barren land of Haiyuan.

I had a good plan before I got married.

I wanted to become a senior teacher after coming back from studying abroad.

But for woman,

it is also a blessing

to marry a good husband

and live a normal and practical live.

Now she is already a mother of two children.

To earn a dream life for the family,

4 months ago,

the couple came to the farm.

Despite the tough labor here,

the job guarantees at least 40,000 yuan of income every year.

They work diligently every day

to bring tasty lamb for other people

while leading a simple life of their own.

'Yang Yu Ca Ca'(shredded potatoes) is the favorite food of her children.

It is a delicacy invented by people who lived in the mountains

that transforms the simplest ingredient

into a dish with charming color and pleasant fragrance.

Chinese people are good at inventing delicious food

out of a simple life.

Good food is also a relief for people

that go beyond the hardships in life,

especially in extreme conditions.

Boy, Abdul Waris,

Abdul Waris,

where are we heading?

To the wheat field.

What can be made with wheat?

Naan.

The annual precipitation

at the south boarder of Taklamakan Desert

is only 15.6mm,

which makes a typical continental desert climate.

Wheat is more adaptive to the natural environment

than any other grains

just like the people living in the desert

who can always survive

in such extreme conditions.

Although quicksand

never stops eroding the villages and lands,

they have held to living in this place for many generations.

Dough needs to be fermented

before being kneaded into a thin piece.

Make some holes in it

to prevent overexpansion when it is baked.

Diced onion and sesame will make it more fragrant.

Naan

has existed in the diet of human beings

for over 2,000 years.

The temperature of the side of the tandoor is already 180 degrees Celsius.

The carbohydrate in the flour

is dehydrated and degraded,

giving the naan a color of caramel

and a strong fragrance of wheat.

There is a history of thousands of years

behind the 10 minutes of baking.

Naan is resistant to corrosion and dryness

and thus can be preserved for months in the desert

without going bad.

It is a typical example of how people battle against extreme environments with food.

Whatever the place,

arid lands or deep oceans,

people can always turn it into a secret realm of delicacies

with their intelligence.

4000 kilometers away from the desert,

typhoon is approaching

the estuary of the Pearl River.

Zhang Beigen and his wife do not want to go back

as the fish they expected still has not appeared.

Groupers usually hide in the cracks of reefs

10 meters below the surface of the sea.

Through only a fishing line,

their sensitive fingers can detect

even the slightest movements under water.

But only some small fish rise to the bait.

The weather this year is abnormal.

Two typhoons came in a row.

and disturbed the seasonality.

That’s why I haven’t caught any grouper so far.

It is much easier to catch groupers with fishing lines

than nets.

The meat of grouper is tender and compact,

and thus grouper is regarded as one of the tastiest sea fishes.

There are more than 5,000 sea islands in China,

on which there lie

many unknown realms of secrets.

Wanshan Island covers an area of 8 square kilometers

with only a hundred or so households.

Close to the mouth of the Pearl River,

the island is rich in seafood

thanks to the confluence of seawater and freshwater here.

Zhang Beigen and his wife have lived here since childhood

and know the secrets of seafood very well.

Fresh fish and shrimps

will release inosinate when being dried under sunlight.

They are also rich in glutamate.

After fish and shrimps are dried and dehydrated,

the two substance will magically synergize

to generate a strong umami.

This umami

is the inspiration for the creation of MSG and chicken essence.

No complex cooking method is needed.

10 minutes of steaming

can bring back their concentrated freshness and sweetness.

Typhoon has just stopped.

Zhang Beigen and his wife

are sailing farther to try their luck.

They estimate where the groupers hide

from the structure of the rocks.

On Wanshan Island,

nobody knows this secret

better than him.

Groupers will leave the cave they hide in for food

on the mornings when the waves are small.

With this hook,

Zhang once caught

a 30kg grouper.

Wind and wave start to rise.

It seems to be another day in vain.

There is a fish,

come on,

hurry up.

This is the first grouper caught this year.

Although it weighs less than 5kg,

it indicates a good start.

Fishing has become from a livelihood

to a lifestyle for the couple.

Their children have all settled down in cities

and always invite them to live together.

Zhang beigen does not want to burden his children,

but more importantly, he does not want

to part with this realm of secrets in the sea.

This little creature

which appeared 2,500 million years ago

have also been living in their realm of secrets.

Termites

will never know that their hard work

has created a unique delicacy to human beings.

Awa Mountain lies across the border between China and Burma.

The Tropic of Cancer extends across the primitive monsoon forest here.

To Li Xiaoqi and her ant Ah Xiu,

July is the busiest time.

They make a living by working in the tea garden.

Underneath the rotten wood

there lies a prehistoric world.

These are a species of termite.

The leaves and grass swallowed by the worker-termites

are excreted

into semi-digested forage.

In the forage,

they leave the spores of a kind of fungus

The fungus will ferment the forage

and make it fluffy and crispy.

Termites learned the technique of fermentation

32 million years

prior to the existence of human being.

Spores gradually form hypha

whose diameter is only a few millimeters.

Appropriate temperature and humidity

enables it to grow a thick sporocarp.

Termite mushroom is a superb delicacy produced by termites.

Some gastronome believe that

apart from the fresh and sweet taste

and the tender and smooth texture,

termite mushroom also has a meat-like rich taste

that differentiates it

from other mushrooms.

It also contains aspartic acid and glutamic acid

which can be turned into the most natural MSG

when fried together with salt.

This is where its umami comes from.

Behind the tea garden there lies a dense primitive forest.

Ah Xiu remember clearly

the over 300 spots where termite mushrooms grow.

The mushrooms only grow once

at each termites’ nest every year,

and she is among the earliest to see them.

Ant, where are you?

This is supposed to be the time when termite mushrooms flourish,

but there is no trace of them in the forest.

Xiao Qi feels frustrated,

but her ant remains optimistic.

As the person who knows termite mushrooms the best in the village,

she knows there is still hope.

Xiao Qi,

I have found termite mushrooms here.

Termite mushroom tastes the best

when it just came out of the ground

with its cap still closed.

Come here ant.

There are a lot here.

1,2,3,4,

5,6.

You can’t dig too deep,

otherwise

the termites’ nest will be destroyed

and no mushroom will grow the next year.

People carefully observe

the rules of nature in the realms of secrets.

They cover the nests carefully

not only to prevent others from discovering them

but also to protect them.

In the rainforest across the border of China and Burma,

it seems as if nothing had happened.

Boarding 14 countries,

China has a long borderline.

A large number of people wander along the borders

to find delicacies in the realms of secrets.

Jiang Zhenshu and her husband Shen Fanji

are trekking in Changbai Mountains,

which lie on the border of China and North Korea.

They are picking an ancient kind of plant.

It is quite a challenge

for people in their 70s

to walk for 15 kilometers in the mountains.

What they are looking for

are these ferns which have just sprouted.

65 million years ago,

ferns used to be the staple food of dinosaurs.

Ferns can be found in many places in China.

But no matter how ferns are cooked,

there still more or less remains

a little bitterness.

The conception of ‘清新爽å

in Chinese food culture

usually refers to the refreshing enjoyment

brought by this kind of bitterness.

4000 kilometers away in Jianshui, Yunnan,

ferns are simply boiled in water

and seasoned with a special kind of chili sauce before being served.

For half a year,

fern is the major vegetable for people who live in the mountains there.

In Changbai Mountains,

the suitable time for picking ferns

last no more than 30 days.

Ferns like this can be eaten.

When she was young, Jiang Zhenshu could bring back 20kg of ferns alone

every time she went into the mountains.

A substance called ptaquiloside contained in ferns

is harmful to people’s health.

Boiling can help remove part of it.

Knead the ferns to squeeze out the water

and break the crude fibers.

This can make the ferns crispy and chewy.

The complex processing method of ferns

is a contribution to our recipes made by Chaoxian people

who live in the realm of secrets.

Ferns can be preserved for a long time after dehydration.

Humans have always been looking for the best way

to preserve the fantastic taste of food.

Living in the realm of secrets,

Washan people have found a good way to keep the umami of termite mushrooms.

Ah Xiu is making termite mushroom oil when they are still fresh.

Heat the mushrooms to release the water inside,

and then dehydrate them over slow fire.

Vegetable oil is the key to keeping the delicious taste.

As the temperature of oil keeps rising, the umami and fragrance

of termite mushrooms are gradually transferred into the boiling oil.

3 hours later,

termite mushroom has a strong taste and bright color.

It can be stored for 2 years

after cooling down naturally.

The severe natural environments have preserved the realms of secrets.

The realms of secrets have preserved many remarkable delicacies.

Jiang Shuzhen has many children,

but none of them stays alongside with her.

Every year,

they send dried ferns

to their children living far away.

Food is like a faithful messenger

that delivers the message of home the affection between family members.

Not all the realms of secrets

hide deep in the mountains.

In big cities

there also exist unknown realms of secrets.

With boiling oil and flaming fire,

with deep stove and iron pans,

extremely fragrant street food is made in the open.

This is a canteen at midnight

for people who return home late.

Under the fancy skyscrapers in Central,

there hides the food stalks which are on the margin of disappearing.

Now people in Hong Kong are under great pressure.

After a busy day,

they can eat here at the food stall

and also share

the things that

they cannot talk about

at work.

Ah Chang’s family established their food stall

at Sham Shui Po 20 years ago.

The rapid development of the city

has been threatening the survival of food stalls.

They moved into a place on the sidewalk.

My siblings and I have been living in our restaurant

since we were kids.

We grew up in the restaurant

and we grew with it together

Since his father’s generation,

Ah Chang’s restaurant

has been specializing in wonton noodles

for 60 years.

Many customers

have come regularly for decades.

Shrimp wontons,

hand-made Jook-sing noodles (bamboo-pressed noodles),

soft and glutinous beef sinews,

fresh and delicious shrimp roes.

These strong tastes

have been deeply involved in the history of this community.

The strong memory of taste

invites people to follow it all the way through.

Xian,

how about a bowl of shrimp roe noodles today?

There you go.

His father Liu Tingsen is already 80 years old.

He sits in front of the restaurant for a while every night,

which is the most enjoyable time for him.

My father used to have a food cart

at this street corner

before he opened the food stall.

before he opened the food stall.

The food stall was prohibited in 1993

and then we moved into this restaurant.

So we have never left this street corner.

The dough is kneaded with fresh duck eggs

without a single drop of water

to ensure the smoothness and elasticity of the noodles.

Press the dough with bamboo

to make the noodles tough and chewy, neither too hard nor too soft.

Some customers travel a long way to come here.

I have been cooking this noodles for them since I was young

when we were still running our food stall.

They just want to have the taste in their memories

because we have never changed.

It is already 2 a.m.

when the last few customers left.

The closure of their restaurant

marks the end of a busy day of the city.

60 years ago,

there were more than 800 food stalks across Hong Kong.

Today there are only 28 left.

The disappearing food stalks

have witnessed the transition of the city

and have also become Hong Kong people’s collective memory

of the realm of secrets.

About 3 months,

almost 4 months.

In Wuzhong, Ningxia,

Ma Ashe and her husband

are counting down the time to go back home every day.

However, the life here has just began.

At Hetian, Xinjiang,

Wubuli Kasimu

is going to store the wheat harvested this year into the barn.

On Hulunbuir Grasslands,

the leek flower sauce made by Qiburi

is enough for the whole family until spring next year.

Globalization is speeding up

and nobody can stop it.

However,

as long as there exist affection and expectation

for a certain taste,

every irreplaceable tribe

and every fascinating realm of secret

will definitely be protected

by such taste

and the faith of living bound with it.

Three meals a day

is a universal diet of human beings.

But in China,

the same food can lead to different paces

and diverse understandings of life.

Today,

the unprecedented richness of food

and lack of resources exist simultaneously.

What will the Chinese do?

What will the Chinese do?

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