The latest season of China’s beloved food documentary Once Upon a Bite reveals spices as the unsung heroes of culinary history — silent witnesses to centuries of cultural exchange. This fifth installment, produced by Tencent Video and DOClabs Beijing, goes beyond television screens to launch A Taste of Flavor — Once Upon a Bite | Discovering Xiamen, Encountering Southeast Asia, an immersive offline experience that lets participants taste the documentary’s stories firsthand.
Xiamen’s historic Eighth Market served as the perfect stage for this April debut, where fifteen local vendors became living exhibits of Fujian’s spice-laden heritage. Visitors gathered around steaming bowls of satay noodles, their complex broth whispering tales of Maritime Silk Road exchanges — ground peanuts and coconut meeting dried shrimp and garlic in a symphony of Minnan-Southeast Asian fusion. Nearby, the delicate aromas of turtle-shaped peanut cakes from Cheuk Yuet Queen restaurant mingled with the fiery promise of newly launched sambal chili sauces featuring five regional Chinese chilies.
“These spices are Xiamen’s edible DNA,” explains tourism scholar Peng Jun, watching as guests leaned in to catch every word of vendors’ stories between bites. “Since Tang Dynasty times, this port city has welcomed newcomers who all found comfort in its spice cabinet.” The experience came alive through cultural interludes — the precise movements of glove puppetry, the haunting melodies of Nanyin music — each performance adding another layer to the narrative.
Producer Zhu Lexian sees this as just the beginning: “We’re transforming our documentary IP into lived experiences.” With new tropical-style curry sauces now available online and more locations planned, Once Upon a Bite is redefining what food media can be — not just stories to watch, but flavors to taste, places to explore, and histories to savor.
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