Hakka cooking and cuisine

Hakka cuisine emphasizes "fat, salty and ripe", which is closely related to the living standards and habits of Hakka people in the past. First of all, the Hakka people used to farm and live in the mountains, with high labor intensity but eating less meat, and a little greasy food can effectively satisfy hunger; Secondly, due to the long-term food shortage of Hakka people, water in the porridge is more than rice. Salty food is not only suitable for eating with porridge, but also increase the salt which the body needs; Again, lots of grass and trees in the mountain, the Hakka people formed into the habit of cooking food with wood, they feel that the more food cooked by the wood, the more delicious the food taste . Of course, the society constantly changes, Hakka cuisine constantly changes as well , traditional Dongjiang cuisine also appears in modern Heyuan Hakka pot, gradually formed its own local characteristics, earned the reputation of "origin, deliciousness and satisfaction " .

The cooking methods of Hakka cuisine are mainly water cooking, boiling, steaming and stewing. This cooking method will not destroy the nutrition and fiber of food, and it rarely adds or even does not add heavy seasonings, and generally uses raw Onions and cooked garlic for flavors. Many Hakka foods have the functions of nourishing Yin and reducing pathogenic fire in our body, removing liver fire and improving the eyesight, strengthening waist and tonifying kidney, nourishing skin and tonifying qi, etc. At present, in addition to the traditional salted chicken, stuffed bean curd and red braised pork belly , some more distinctive foods in Heyuan urban area are :

The water steamed chicken

Choose the chicken raised with cordyceps and grain at home or in the mountains, put the whole chicken in the pot, steamed with water, torn by hand or cut into six pieces to eat when it is still hot, it tastes very sweet and smooth. In addition, according to the data, this kind of chicken raised with native method its amino-acid is more than 10 times higher than those raised with fodder concentrate, it shows the high nutritional value.

The whole pig set meal

It mainly consists of the eight parts of the most "essence" of the pig to  cook into the soup , steamed pork blood curd , pork offal, braised pork, etc., eating together with some green vegetables and homemade pickled cabbage. This way of eating is similar to the old Hakka people who slaughtered pigs during Spring Festival .

The whole cattle set meal

It is mainly eaten with beef tripe intestines, beef omasum, beef heart top and him meat (the meat linked between the hip and the thigh) . Unlike other places, the omasum are not covered with black film, which is said mainly for stomach strengthening.  

Radix Fici Hirtae Soup  

It is a soup made from wild tree root in the mountain which similar to five fingers and pork ribs. It has the attractive fragrance of coconut milk, and has the effect of nourishing the liver and improving eyesight , nourishing Yin and reducing body fire.

Bean curd set meal

Hakka brewed bean curt originated from the habit of making dumplings in the Central China. When they moved to Lingnan without wheat to make dumplings, they came up with the method of brewed bean curd . Hakka people can cook bean curd in a variety of ways. The so-called bean curd set includes the bean curd jelly eaten before the meal, fried fermented bean curd as the main course, bean curd in pot, bean curd balls, fermented bean curd made by glutinous rice, fried bean curd skin etc , and fermented bean curd as snacks.

New Port Lake fishes

The wild  fishes, eels and stone catfish from Wanlu Lake taste the fish meat hard and smooth, sweet without muddy odor. They are delicious when steamed, stewed or fried.

确定