Tasting Chinese (and Hakka) Food Around the World

Kwan traveled the world seeking out Chinese restaurants 

This evening I went to a talk called "Food and the Chinese Diaspora" at the Vancouver Public Library, featuring two guests: Cheuk Kwan, who is a Hong Kong-born, Canadian filmmaker who in 2005 did a 15-part series, going around the world documenting Chinese restaurants, and Linda Lau Anusasananan, who wrote The Hakka Cookbook: Chinese Soul Food from Around the World.

Kwan and Anusasananan were moderated by author Kevin Chong, who wanted to keep the discussion more contemporary by mentioning Uncle Roger several times, which might have been a generation or culture gap for many in the audience!

What's interesting about Kwan is that he seems to have two separate lives: the documentarian and author of Have You Eaten Yet? And also a passionate political activist with the Toronto Association for Democracy in China.

Kwan, Anusananan and Chong in discussion

A summary of Kwan's documentary was shown, with scenes of him traveling to far-flung places like Peru, India, Madagascar, Israel, and Brazil, and meeting the Chinese people there, and seeing what they eat.

When Chong asked him which place impressed him the most, Kwan immediately said Madagascar. He discovered a lot of Malagasy-Chinese immigrated to Montreal, so there is a big community there, and in Madagascar, even an eighth-generation Chinese-Malagasy child could write better Chinese than him! 

In the video they proudly say that soupe Chinoise is the national dish. What is it? Wonton soup. "They have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner, so it really is a national dish," explains Kwan.

Meanwhile Anusasananan explained what Hakka food is -- it has bolder, richer flavours than Cantonese cuisine, though they do borrow from each other, and uses a lot of preserved and pickled vegetables, and salted fish. Some well-known Hakka dishes are braised pork belly with preserved vegetables, stuffed tofu, and salt-baked chicken. 

She didn't know much about her Hakka heritage, and decided to learn more by going around the world and asking other Hakka how they cook their food, and compiled her cookbook.

When Anusasananan traveled to different places, they gave her different variations of dishes, or new ones, like one featuring tea leaves that are pounded with seeds and nuts and then mixed with water and poured over rice!

Anusananan talked about Hakka cuisine

In one of the final questions, Chong asked both what their final meal would be, and Kwan immediately replied he had been asked this many times. The answer? Steamed grouper with ginger and scallions. Anusausanan agreed.

An audience member asked Chong what his meal would be and he said his mom's oxtail soup. Anusananan agreed too which was funny.

There was discussion about how to elevate Chinese food from being one served in white boxes and for cheap, and how younger chefs did more "fusion", and was there concern that they were moving away from tradition. There were mentions of people I had interviewed, like Craig Wong of Patois who does Chinese-Jamaican cuisine, and Brandon Jew of Mister Jiu's in San Francisco, how they have elevated the cuisine.

But back at the beginning of the discussion, Kwan talked about authenticity. He said authentic was whatever your mother or grandmother made for you to eat. That to you is the original flavour. How to replicate it? Anusananan suggested making videos of your mother or father cooking and tasting them at each step so that you would have a better chance of replicating it. Good pro-tip!