Translated From : Hello Hakka

Hakka food is rich in variety and profound in heritage. Various unimpressive mountain food materials can be changed into countless patterns of hakka delicious food in the hands of the thrifty and hardworking of Hakka people.

Some people say if you want to find out how the life people in the central plain thousands years ago , you can find it from the Hakka people nowadays , because after the Qin dynasty, there were a lot of upheavals happened in the central plain, hakka people fled from the war and immigrated to the south of Jiangxi, Guangdong, and border region of Fujian province. They intermarried with local residents, which formed into huge Hakka group today.

Hakka food can be traced from the food in the Central Plain culture of Han and Tang Dynasties, they were originated from the same source . With diligence , Hakka people have created countless delicacies based on local materials.

(Brewing)

Hakka cuisine is keen on brewing

In Hakka cuisine, it is very important to know how to brew. Hakka people can make all kinds of food using the method of brewing, transform them into countless patterns of delicacies . Hakka brewed bean curd , One of the most famous food worldwide loved by the Hakka people.

Why do Hakka people like to brew ? There is a legend: The Hakka people migrated from the Central Plain and they loved eating dumplings, but they couldn’t find the flour in the mountainous area at that time. Therefore, the smart and handy Hakka people invented "brewed" food. They used other materials to replace the wrappers and stuffed meat of dumplings which helped to ease the pain of lovesickness in dumplings.

Hakka brewed bean curd

But many people don't know is besides the familiar fermented bean curd, fermented bitter gourd, fermented pepper, etc. Hakka fermented food has developed into countless variety, reached to a level which ordinary people cannot achieve. 

 Braising

Meat and vegetable combined together , Hakka flavor

"Braising" is another traditional method of making Hakka cuisine. The combination of meat and vegetable, it sounds simple, but very strict with material selection, curing and time of cooking.

There are two ingredients, which are not related to each other, can be infiltrated with each other through the effect of firewood. The collocation of different meat dishes and the collocation of different seasonings, which produced thousands of delicacies.

One of the most famous food is the Hakka braised pork with preserved vegetable : the dried and tough preserved vegetables absorb the grease of pork, making it fat without being greasy. While the preserved vegetables, with its succulence and sweetness, has become the signature dish of Hakka cuisine. The seemingly insignificant preserved vegetables served as a side dish becomes the pride of the Hakka people.

Hakka Braised pork with preserved vegetable

Why are the persevered vegetables called Meicai (梅菜) ? Hakka people in different regions have their own story.

People in Mei County will proudly say: Meicai ( Preserved vegetables ) are the food of Meizhou people, that is where the name comes from!

The Hakka people in Huizhou will say that Meicai (preserved vegetable) originated from a romantic fairy love story: Long time ago , one day, ah Niu met a fairy by the name of Ah Mei. What happened next is so called “ The hero saved a distressed damsel”, two of them fell in love. Finally, when Ah Mei was going to be back to the heaven, she gave him a bag of rapeseed and taught ah Niu how to make dried vegetable. In order to show their gratitude, people in Huizhou named this kind of dried vegetables as Mei Cai.

Braised pork with taro

Although there are different stories , we can deeply feel the Hakka people's love and pride for Meicai food. In addition to Meicai, smart Hakka people also combined them with a variety of mountain vegetable, such as sweet taro, pachyrhizua angulatus, dried beans, grapefruit peel, etc., to create a variety of braised dishes.

Meat  Ball

uncountable "Ball" in Hakka dishes

What is a Ball ? Hakka people habitually call ball shaped food as "yuan" (means round), and meat wan (肉丸) is also called "meatball", which is meat made into the shape of ball.

When it comes to meatball, "Yuan (meaning round)" is also the most common dish in Hakka cuisine and served as an essential dish at banquets.

In addition, some people call Hakka meatball as "Chui Yuan", which also has an allusion: two thousand years ago, the Book of Rites recorded a dish called "tamping Jane" (搗珍) , it is to beat the meat repeatedly, so that it will become tasty and tough .

The Hakka people who brought the culture of the Central Plain to the South have inherited this ancient eating custom, Hakka meat balls are also called Chui Yuan.

Hakka Meatball

There's one more secret to Hakka meatball: tapioca flour ! It is an essential companion to Hakka meatball. The Hakka people know how to make good use of mountainous food materials, they add the right amount of tapioca flour to the meat balls to ensure their elasticity.

Radish round

There are many kinds of Hakka meatball. The common meatballs are pork balls, beef balls, fish balls, shrimp balls, chicken balls... Especially the Ma Ma duck balls (鴨嬤丸) from Jiaoling, minced duck meat served with tapioca flour, a local speciality.

Radish Ball

There are some vegetable balls made of various vegetables, such as taro balls; A radish ball made from radish; Chard ball made from chard.

Pickling
Pickled Hakka flavor

The Hakka people, who live near the mountain, love to make pickled vegetable. Whether it's meat or vegetable, Hakka people can marinade them for special flavor.

The most important ingredient for pickling is salt. In ancient days, Hakka people lived near the mountain and found the food from the mountain. They needed to go out to do the farming daily. The labor work demanded a large labor force and the body needed to have enough replenish salt, so they had a special favor over the Pickled food. In addition to good preservation of food, they also generally believe that absorbing enough salt is necessary for the strength of body .

Pickled “salted vegetable”

Hakka pickled “Salted Vegetables” are familiar with salted vegetables, dried radish, etc., they can be eaten raw, fried or made of soup, no matter what the way of cooking is , they do have a special flavor.

Bun (粄)

They cling to the Bun Food the whole year

Bun Food is an important food in Hakka life and can be found in various festivals throughout the whole year.

It's a mixture of all kinds of grains, and there are so many varieties that even the local Hakka can't claim they have tasted them all.

It is through the creativity and cleverness of Hakka people so the food of Bun was created.

In old days, Hakka people living near the mountain were short of food supplies. Hakka ladies had to work in the fields to ensure their family members were well fed. They thought of many creative methods to make various kinds of food from the roughages. Bun Food was born because of this !

Now, Bun Food is no longer a staple food, but it has become a special Hakka snack and sacrificial food, both tasted delicious and good-looking in shape, very popular nowadays.

There are steamed sponge food, red bun, yellow bun , white bun, chicken neck bun, mouse bun, bamboo bun, ai bun, radish bun etc .