Hefei's 'game for anything' food culture leaves chef open-mouthed

EDITOR's Note: "Home & Away" is a section about the life experiences of expats living outside of the major metropolises such as Beijing and Shanghai. If you are such an expat and have an interesting story to share, please send an e-mail to expat@chinadaily.com.cn.

Alan Smith, who was born in Ireland and became an Australian citizen in 2002, has taken his culinary skills to five countries on three continents, but it is in Hefei, Anhui province, that he feels a sense of rootedness.

"I'd never heard of the city before arriving here," Smith says, recalling his first visit to the provincial capital in 2008, after having worked in international hotels, such as the Hilton in Sydney, Australia, Dublin, Ireland, Kuwait City, Kuwait and Petalying Jaya, Malaysia.