Summer: A Malaysian girl running a Sushi store in Kunming

Summer is a Malaysian girl who now owns the Sushi Kitchen -- a vegetarian restaurant-- in Kunming, the “spring city” in southwest China’s Yunnan Province.

She worked in a multinational enterprise for over three years. Having considered changing to another field for a while, she quitted the job and hunted a new one at a vegetarian restaurant called Sushi Kitchen in Malaysia. She began her new job as a dish washer and then gradually became a manager in the restaurant. 

Two years later on Oct. 1, 2017, she opened the Sushi Kitchen in Kunming’s Wenhua Alley. It is the sixth branch of the Malaysian restaurant. She said that her story with Yunnan can be summed up as “something written in the stars”.

Summer first got to know Kunming when she was volunteering in Yunnan’s Lijiang City. That day, she had to spend a night in Kunming because of flight transfer. And the spring city impressed her a lot. 

Therefore, when Summer was deciding the location of the sixth restaurant, a thought flashed—why not open one in China? She then searched for the stores available in Kunming and finally found one at Wenhua Alley in the downtown. 

The Wenhua alley is the “foreigners’ street” in Kunming as restaurants of various exotic flavors gather there. Due to the location, shops in the alley are sought-after. Summer was lucky because the house owner agreed to wait her for half a month to raise the rent.

Farooq and Dickson, two gentlemen from England, are frequent diners at Summer’s restaurant. They got to know the place by searching on Happy Cow, a vegetarian website. Farooq thinks that the food here is “really good”, while Dickson said the restaurant is somewhere "like heaven”. 

“Some food materials are transported by air from Malaysia and we’ve already made perfect food pairings for guest,” said Summer. All food varieties are sound. Some customers spent one hour by bus to get here for a meal, and others even brought her a guitar and an old piano as presents. A Zen master from nearby Yuantong Temple would sometimes stay here for a while and give her some tea.

The guests indulged themselves in Summer’s delicious sushi and enjoy watching her sweet smile showing eight teeth. Summer said that every dish in the menu is a specialty. “The time of cleaning the kitchen is the most fulfilling time in my life. I also believe I make delicious sushi,” she added, grinning. 

Reporting and translating by Li Hengqiang; Editor: Wang Shixue