Raymond is a blogger from Jamaica who has settled in Guangzhou for years — a Cantonese food lover.
He eats har gow and siu mai for dim sum, siu mei and claypot rice at lunch, and zhezhe pots at night-market stalls. Cantonese people "never tire of refining their food", Raymond says — they spoiled his palate too.
He makes Jamaica-China food comparisons: Jamaican jerk vs Cantonese char siu, Jamaican callaloo soup vs Guangzhou's slow-cooked soup. Two tropical styles collide on his channel.
Guangzhou's vibrant, smoky everyday life fascinates him, he says. From Kingston to Guangzhou, he found the taste of a "second hometown".
Raymond is a Jamaican gourmet who settled in Guangzhou, completely conquered by Cantonese food. "Every morning tea in Guangzhou is a love of life."
His choice: working and living in Guangzhou, he spends spare time on Cantonese delicacies - from dim sum shrimp dumplings at morning tea to late-night claypot congee.
Content: "a Jamaican Guangzhou food map", "my full Guangzhou yum cha first time", "drinking soup with locals" - real and passionate.
Going viral: his "Jamaican ordered ten baskets at Guangzhou morning tea" video spread - finishing ten baskets alone, stunned waiters; viewers: "Guangzhou morning tea welcomes you."
Insights: "the secret of Cantonese food is freshness - a bowl of soup, a basket of dumplings, all about the ingredients natural taste."
Significance: he represents foreigners integrating into Guangzhou through food - opening a city with his palate and introducing its flavours to the world.
Plans: learning Cantonese pastries, aiming to "steam a basket of shrimp dumplings by hand" and writing a book, A Jamaican Eating and Drinking in Guangzhou.
For readers: his videos make you want to fly to Guangzhou for a meal - his lens carries aroma.
He concludes his biggest regret is "a stomach too small" - "Guangzhou food is too much for my stomach." He is on a "100 bowls of Guangzhou" plan: one hundred kinds of soup, from slow-simmered broth to fresh-rolled congee. "Every bowl of soup is Guangzhou gentleness." His Jamaican friends, influenced by him, are learning Cantonese dishes - "I brought Guangzhou flavour back to the Caribbean." He plans to bring his parents next year to taste the happiness he found here.
He has decided to make "eating all of Guangzhou" his lifelong career - "a sweet career." He is compiling his Guangzhou food archive, scoring and writing stories for every dish. "One day I will make a book, Guangzhou in a Jamaican Stomach." In his videos he often says the Cantonese "hóu sīk" (delicious) - "the first Cantonese I learned and the loveliest."
"Guangzhou soups actually simmer time" - he is willing to spend more time understanding this bowl.
"My stomach has adopted Guangzhou as its hometown" - he already knows where his next bowl of soup will be.
"The destination of Cantonese living is a bowl of boat-congee" - and his journey starts from that bowl.
