Toisan Pride (Southern Cantonese, Taishanese, Hoisanese): Cake Noodle Anyone?

Welcome to Toisan Pride

Toisanese (Hoisanese is the REAL pronunciation; and Mandarin speakers call it "Taishan" or Taishanese") were among the first Chinese-Cantonese immigrants to hail to the United States from the Guangdong/Guangzhou Province of Southern China in the Pearl River Delta, west of Hong Kong.

Many Hoisanese immigrants came to the U.S. starting in the 19th century to help build railroads, and eventually stayed to establish laundromats, restaurants, etc. and worked hard to build a better future for their families. Some famous Hoisan folks include: U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Chef Martin Yan (Yan Can Cook); Hawaii Senator Hiram Fong, Hong Kong Martial Artist Donnie Yen (star of IP MAN), Actor James Hong, Former California Treasurer Matt Fong; Actress Anna May Wong. For more Toisan/Taishan background history, click on Wikipedia.

Thanks for visiting my blog. Some day, I plan on updating it but Blogger isn't the greatest with blog templates so I appreciate your patience! I welcome comments, stories, photos, Toisanese/Say-Yip history, anything about our wonderful people to toisangirl@yahoo.com.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Cake Noodle Anyone?

Have you heard of "Cake Noodle"? It's purely a Hawaii-Chinese/Jongshanese influenced dish in which the noodles are fried and sliced into square-like portions (like how you'd slice a rectangular cake) only available on Oahu, as far as I know. When I met my future husband in California, he asked me to order "cake noodle" at a Chinese restaurant for him but I had NO clue what he was talking about. So I asked my mom, and she had never heard of it either. Now that we live on Oahu, cake noodle is a must whenever we go out to a local Chinese eatery. But I still like the traditional Hong Kong Style egg noodles pan fried and uncut too - yummmy.

Oahu's Famous Minute Chicken Cake Noodle

Naked Cake Noodles! Without Minute Chicken and sauce.... to make it, check out this recipe from Joanne Sugimoto at: http://www.justapinch.com/recipes/main-course/asian/basic-chinese-cake-noodle-recipe.html

I'll have to conduct more research but from what I've learned - most of Oahu's Chinese are "Jongshanese," peeps who hail from the southern Canton (Guangdong) region of China, which is located south/south-east from Canton and are a region separate from Toisan.

Toisan and the other 4 counties (Hocksan, Sanweh, Hoiping, and Yanping) are located on the West/Southwest side of Canton, which is the commerce city center of the region. All this time I thought my Toisanese family was from southern Guangdong/Canton but in truth, we're Southwestern Chinese folks. Can anyone else help confirm? I need to make a trip to Toisan soon - namely to Nam Cheung, Wang Woo, or Leung Toon (where all my parents/grandparents hailed from) so I can offer accurate information. Ai-yah.

3 comments:

Stephen15.2.12
Hoiping is not a village. It is a county, one of the Four (or Five) Counties. It is called Kaiping in Mandarin. You probably should be Hoiping Girl.
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台山妹 Toisan Girl15.2.12
My maternal grandma is from Hoiping. My father's side is from Nam Cheung and Wang Woo Villages - but I'm not sure if these are in Kaiping, or where. I've always been told that we're from "Hoisan," so I assumed my paternal side was from "Hoisan." I've never heard of the other 4 counties/yups until recently. I'm positive I should be a Toisan Girl. But i only have 1 uncle left to consult on the Mainland and once he gets talking... it'll never stop. lol.
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Stephen16.2.12
Based on the spellings, you are likely from either Nanchong Village(南冲村), (Nam Cheung village), or Henghu village (横湖村), (Wang Woo Village), both are in Toisan. Here is the likely village addresses in Chinese:

台山水步镇南冲村
台山台城镇横湖村

However, these are two different villages. They are approximately 20 km apart. Check them out with your uncle!
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Why I'm a TOISAN GIRL

My beloved mother passed away in 2003 followed by my father's passing in 2005, just a few days before he would've met his new grand daughter (my first child). My parents were 1st generation immigrants from the Hoisan Yup (County) just south/southwest of Guangdong (Canton) who ended up in Los Angeles, California in the 1960s. My older brothers were born in Hong Kong and I was born in the City of Angels, so I'm a 2nd generation Toisanese girl.

Hoisan-wah was my 1st language and I retained it because both sets of grandparents only spoke Hoisan-wah and broken English or "Chinglish." I always wondered why we were the only ones who spoke "hilbilly Cantonese" when everyone else in L.A. was speaking Hong Kong Cantonese. I was taught to be ashamed of my dialect because it people said my family hailed from the "countryside" of China.

But I discovered that back in the 1800s when the first Chinese immigrated to the U.S. to build railroads - many were from Toisan. That in itself was a noble act on behalf of ALL Chinese people . Toisanese and the Say Yip people paved the way for ALL CHINESE (Mandarin, Taiwanese, Hong Kongers, etc.) to gain citizenship and access to the U.S.

So I'm proud to be a Toisan Girl, proud that my people were brave enough to withstand discrimination and poor working conditions to carve a new life for them and their families. So instead of looking down on Toisanese, all other Chinese should be grateful to the Toisanese/Say Yip ancestors who had the wherewithal to be the FIRST to arrive in the United States.

I started this blog as a voice for myself and other Toisanese folks. I don't know how many people I'll reach but when I get an email or a comment, I'm tickled and thrilled to hear about other Toisanese out in the world whether in New Zealand, Peru, Malaysia, Queens, NYC, Alabama, Vancouver or Alhambra, California. Here's to Hoisan people everywhere - be proud!