What is Hakka Cuisine?

Traditionally, Hakka people stay in hilly area, therefore the food culture is also deeply influenced by its geographical and environmental factors. Hakka people way of life, eating habits and culinary also reflected through their rugged living environment which emphasized on practicality, hard work and humble.

As Hakka people mostly stay in the hills, the main source of food came from hunting of wild boar, rabbit and  deer or chicken, duck, fresh water fish and vegetables from their own farm. Wild vegetables, fungus, mushrooms ,yam, sweet potatoes, tapioca, bamboo shoots and different varieties of rice are also the main source of food.

Hakka that lived in the rugged land need to work extra hard for survivor, therefore they need plenty of salt and oil to replenished their energy. To make food easy to carry while out to work, it must also made to be preserved for longer time. Therefore Hakka is also expert in preserving vegetables like mei cai 梅菜, xian cai 咸菜, suan cai 酸菜 and lobuo gan 萝卜干. Making Tofu is also anther expertise of the Hakka people, as we know the Hakka Niang Tofu 酿豆腐, Tofu wan 豆腐丸Tofu Bao 豆腐煲are all popular Hakka dish.

Since Hakka were Han people moving southward from the northern part of China and eventually settled down in Hong Kong, Taiwan, South East Asia and other part of the world, through hundred of years of assimilation with local people, Hakka cuisine and culinary culture has developed and transformed into a new version with local flavor added but it main characteristic remains. Typically you will find the Hakka deserts very similar to the Teochew 潮州 and the flour vermicelli 面线 taste quite the same as the Fu Zhou 福州.

Making their own rice wine is also an important household event for the Hakka. A successful brew of red or yellow rice wine means a good year ahead. This is specially important if there are women in the family give birth to new born and rice wine cooked with ginger and chicken is believed to be a very nutritious food.

The Hakka is keeping their tradition very much alive even up to today. The pen cai 盆菜which was once a convenient way of cooking during war time is still a significant delicacy for Hakka festive celebration. even the way to prepare it.

More Hakka Recipes