Attempting to Cook a Hakka Classic

Hakka dish of braised pork belly and preserved mustard greens

In November we made a trip to Meizhou, a county in southern Guangdong province where the vast majority of the population are Hakka. It's where my mother's family is from and we visited their ancestral home on the outskirts of the city centre in a rural area.

During our visit we sampled a classic Hakka dish, braised pork belly with preserved mustard greens and we were shocked at how bad it was! The first restaurant we ate it, the chunks of pork were so dry; the second day we tried it again and while it was more moist, the flavours weren't melded together. In both cases they weren't cooked long enough and in enough liquid.

Stir-frying pork belly and garlic together

Before the trip I listened to a talk on Hakka food given by cookbook author Linda Lau Anusansananan. I bought a copy of her book, The Hakka Cookbook: Chinese Soul Food from around the World and today attempted her recipe for braised pork belly with preserved mustard greens.

I had been warned it was not an easy dish to execute, but looking at the recipe this version looked pretty straight forward.

First I soaked the preserved mustard greens to get rid of the dirt and then chopped them into smaller pieces and squeezed the water out.

Then I heated up the wok, added oil and stir-fried a lot of minced garlic for a few seconds before adding the pork belly chopped into one-inch chunks and stir-frying them until they were light brown.

Mustard greens, soy sauce and wine added

Next I added a lot of Shaoxing wine, the preserved mustard greens, sweet soy sauce and more dark soy sauce and sugar and let it boil and then simmer for one and a half to two hours.

I periodically checked the taste of the sauce and added sugar to tone down the saltiness, and the mustard greens weren't tender enough so I added more water and let it boil and then simmer.

By the end of it the chunks of pork belly were very tender and I scooped them out along with the preserved greens before reducing the sauce a bit.

I took the dish to a family dinner tonight and got a lot of positive reviews! I will attempt it again soon!

Making Hakka Style Stuffed Tofu

Hakka style stuffed tofu we ate in Mui Yuen last month

Last month my mom and her siblings went to Mui Yuen, or Meixian county in Guangdong province, where her side of the family is from.

They last visited in 2008, where they went from Hong Kong to Shenzhen, and from there arranged a van to take them to Mui Yuen, which took about five hours on the road.

Tofu with seasoned ground pork stuffed in them

Seventeen years later we took the high-speed rail from West Kowloon station in Hong Kong to Meixian county in just over two hours, including three stops in between.

For my mom and her siblings it was a great way for them to get together, reminisce and speak Hakka, which I didn't understand...

While we were in their hometown for a few days we of course had to have some Hakka food, but to be honest, what we tried overall was meh.

We had asked our tour guide to take us to the best restaurants, but either she didn't know the best places, or they were and weren't that good.

It's hard to comprehend since over 90 percent of the population there is Hakka, so it's not like a non-Hakka person cooking dishes they didn't grow up eating.

Napa cabbage in the Dutch oven and stir-fried

Nevertheless, one of the better dishes we ate was stuffed tofu, which was stuffed with seasoned ground pork and then pan-fried before it was braised. The tofu was also silky smooth, which required skills to be able to panfry and braise without breaking them.

I hope to eventually be able to make something similar, but in the meantime I was inspired to make another version from A Very Chinese Cookbook by Kevin Pang and his father Jeffrey Pang.

In it Jeffrey explains he is Hakka, and gives his relatively easy recipe of stuffed tofu which I followed and doubled for a big family dinner.

First step is mashing some fresh ginger and spring onion in some water for about 20 minutes until the water turns green.

With chicken stock added, tofu is placed upright

Then the water is strained and added to ground pork, along with soy sauce, oyster sauce, Shaoxing wine, white pepper, and sesame oil. Once that is mixed thoroughly that should be left to marinate for at least an hour (though I didn't do it for that long!).

In the meantime take firm tofu, cut them lengthwise and then into four small squares. Taking a spoon, make a small round scoop in the middle, and then carefully add the pork mixture, leaving a small mound. 

Chop a Napa cabbage in half and then half again lengthwise, and then chop into two-inch pieces and wash. Then heat up a Dutch oven, add oil and the Napa cabbage and stir-fry it for several minutes. Add chicken broth, and then using chopsticks, arrange the cabbage to create a nest before placing the tofu with pork upright.

After 15 minutes the pork and tofu are cooked

Cover it and let it simmer for 15-20 minutes and the dish is done. The sweetness of the cabbage along with the pork adds flavour to the tofu. I added a pinch of salt in the end.

I've also made an Indonesian version using fish sauce in the seasoning and cutting the tofu into triangles and stuffing the meat in a slit in the middle. 

Storm Danas in Hong Kong

Heavy rainfall in Mui Wo, Lantau

A friend in Hong Kong told me about the "crazy thunder and lightning" where she was in Mui Wo, on Lantau Island, and the incessant rain has resulted in the authorities announcing there would be no day school tomorrow, Friday.

That's a first -- usually local officials don't decide until the morning of, leaving parents bleary-eyed watching the storm updates until late at night in a bid to anticipate if there's school the next day or not.

Storm Danas is moving across Guangdong, causing heavy rains and thunderstorms. This morning there was an amber rainstorm warning posted at 8.35am, which turned red, then back to amber at 10.40am, then back to red again two hours later.

"The active southwest monsoon to its south will generally affect the vicinity of the Pearl River Delta [on Thursday and Friday]. There will be torrential rain and squally thunderstorms over the area," The Observatory said.

It warned residents outside to seek safe shelter as soon as possible.

Hopefully there won't be too much flooding or severe damage in the next 24 hours, but it does sound like rain coming down in Biblical proportions...

Aquarium's Shark is Robotic

Would you pay to see a robotic whale shark in an aquarium?

At Xiaomeisha Sea World in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, visitors pay 240 yuan (US$32) admission to see real marine life, but instead were treated to a robotic whale shark.

Some were in awe of the innovative way to present wildlife, while others felt deceived paying so much to get in and see a fake shark.

"I cannot believe the whale shark is fake. It's outrageous to charge over 200 yuan for a ticket," said one online commenter.

Two aquarium staff with the robotic shark

While another on Xiaohongshu, the online guidebook wrote: "It's a wonderful alternative to showcase large marine creatures without imprisoning them in a tank. Rather than obscuring the whale shark's true identity from visitors, the aquarium should embrace this opportunity to educate the public on the importance of animal protection."

Although the robotic whale shark costs millions of yuan to produce, it can cost over 100 million yuan (US$14 million) to care for a real one.

It's also worth noting sharks can live between 80 to 130 years in the wild, but only about five years in aquariums, according to Li Jianping, dean of the Academy of Future Ocean at the Ocean University of China.

The aquarium can ensure optimal water quality and temperature control, but there just isn't enough space for the sharks to roam.

Some visitors suggested perhaps the aquarium should inform people in advance that there is a robotic shark on display so that they can decide if they want to pay the admission or not...

Walz's Passionate, Nuanced Stance on China

Hope, Gus, Tim and Gwen Walz at the DNC in Chicago tonight

Tonight US vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz took to the stage of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and explained to the audience who he was, and what he stood for. 

He is a former soldier, high school teacher, and football coach who was the brains behind labelling Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance as "weird".

During his 20-minute speech, Walz talked about growing up in Minnesota in a small town of 400 people, how there were only 24 students in his graduating class and how he and his wife spent years trying to conceive a baby and now have a son and a daughter.

Walz addressed Democrat delegates

He mentioned how they, Hope and Gus and his wife Gwen, "you are my entire world, and I love you", to which Gus, Walz's 17-year-old who has ADHD and a non-verbal learning disorder, jumped to his feet crying and pointed to his father and said, "I love you dad."

While Walz has shown himself to be a family man, he is also well versed in geopolitics, in particular China. He has had on-the-ground experience being there, having taught English and American history in Foshan, Guandong province in 1989. 

At the time Walz was 25 years old, fresh out of college and signed up for Harvard University's WorldTeach program, where he was one of the "first government sanctioned groups of American educators" to arrive in China after reform and opening up.

And yes 1989 was the year of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations.

"It was my belief at that time that diplomacy was going to happen on many levels, certainly people to people," Walz recalled during a 2014 congressional hearing commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown. "The opportunity to be in a Chinese high school at that critical time seemed to me to be really important."

He has met HK activist Joshua Wong

He did go up to Beijing see Tiananmen Square after the massacre was over.

That one year teaching in China made an impression on Walz, so much that he and his wife not only married on June 4, 1994, but also honeymooned there. Subsequently he made some 30 trips there promoting student cultural exchanges.

While Republicans are trying to label Walz as a panda hugger, he is not. Walz has shown his support for Tibet and Hong Kong, having met the Dalai Lama and activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung. 

It is Walz's personal experiences in China that help shape his nuanced view of the country and its politics, which will serve him well should he and Kamala Harris get voted into the White House.

Remembering the Abalone King

Chef Yeung slicing the abalone with a knife

Chef Yeung Koon-yat, known as "the abalone king" has died at the age of 90.

I had the opportunity to interview him twice, the second time was in November 2017 for an interview. It took him a while to show up, perhaps he had forgotten or was not up to it, but eventually he came and put on his showman face.

When the camera started recording and I asked questions about his youth and how he became known as the abalone king, it was apparent that he had signs of dementia. I tried to gently ask questions in a different way or ask him to remember dates, but it was difficult for him to answer.

Massive dried Japanese abalone

But what he could not remember he made up in his cooking demonstrations, making his famous fried rice which was still so delicious, each grain of rice evenly flavoured in the claypot with egg, Chinese sausages, conpoy and spring onions.

As making abalone takes a long time, they were prepared ahead of time so he posed for the camera spooning the thick, shiny, flavourful abalone sauce over this prized seafood delicacy.

He was born in 1932 in Zhongshan, Guangdong province to a poor family. When the Sino-Japanese War broke out, his family was destitute and his parents sent he and his younger sisters to his grandmother to raise. When she died, the three children were put in an orphanage where his two siblings starved to death. 

Determined to find a better life for himself, Yeung came to Hong Kong in 1949 at around the age of 18.

Like many migrants he found work in the restaurant industry, where he could get three meals a day and a place to sleep (on the dining tables, using table cloth as sheets).

Yeung worked his way up, learning to cook and together with some friends opened Forum Restaurant in 1974 with HK$600,000. The restaurant didn't do well at first, serving home-cooked dishes, so he had to find a way to differentiate it from competitors and decided to focus on abalone, a very expensive ingredient.

Not only did Yeung perfect how to cook abalone, but he also taught a generation of diners to eat it with a fork and knife, cutting it lengthwise in relatively thin slices to best appreciate the dish.

Yeung was the ultimate showman

Soon after he was known as the abalone king for over six decades, well known in Hong Kong and was probably the first Chinese chef to travel to various countries to cook for foreign leaders, showing them what Cantonese delicacies were, particularly abalone.

The first time I met him was in the late 1990s with a good friend who is also a food writer. He handed out his business card to us which was extra large to fit in all his titles including the Club des Chefs des Chefs. 

He showed off how he heated up the already braised abalone in front of us table side and we enjoyed every bite. But then we were even more impressed by his fried rice that he also made before us. 

It smelled so good even before we had a bite, that we knew it would taste delicious.

Before we left the restaurant he insisted on giving us each a bottle of wine -- Chateau Lafite Rothschild 1982.

I carefully brought the bottle home, and years later my parents and their friends drank it -- without my knowledge!

Nevertheless as my friend says, Yeung was the ultimate showman who was passionate about cooking and you could taste it in his food.

A culinary gem has left this world, though we will not forget these words of wisdom: "Be even more outstanding when others are outstanding," another way of saying work harder for your success.

He is proof of that. Thank you chef.

Where Did Mainland Visitors Go?

Around 11K mainland visitors come daily to Hong Kong

It is day eight of the Lunar New Year and the windfall of Chinese tourists flooding Hong Kong did not happen.

There had been reports before the Year of the Rabbit began that some 1 million people applied for visas to travel to Hong Kong and Macau.

Shops did not see flood of tourists as expected

Perhaps the majority of them decided to stay closer to home instead?

So far 64,000 people visited Macau on average everyday during the Lunar New Year, of which 37,800 were from China. In contrast, during the same period, only 23,000 people visited Hong Kong daily, and only 11,000 of them were from the mainland.

Newspaper editorials like the one in the Hong Kong Standard are complaining that it took Hong Kong much longer than Macau to settle a deal with Guangdong to drop PCR tests, and the daily cap of visitors coming in either increased or scrapped entirely.

Hong Kong's outgoing deputy at the National People's Congress Standing Committee, Tam Yiu-chung, says he expects Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu to announce the removal of the PCR test mandate for those traveling between Hong Kong and the mainland tomorrow.

Macau seeing way more mainlanders than HK

If that happens, that could help salvage the last few days of the Lunar New Year, or looking long-term,  hopefully entice more people to come back to the city.

Plans Push Ahead to Reopen HK-China Border

Border between HK and China plans to open in mid-January

On Christmas Eve in Hong Kong, the city recorded over 20,000 cases of Covid-19, the highest level since March, and yet the government is actively working towards re-opening the border with China by mid-January -- only weeks away.

The border has effectively been shut for almost three years due to the pandemic, making it very hard for people to go to work or school across the border at specific border control points and of course the dreaded hotel quarantine.

But after Beijing abruptly pulled a U-turn from its "zero-Covid" policy recently, there are plans to re-open the border very soon.

Lee met with Xi to discuss border reopening

"The central government has agreed to the full reopening of the border in a gradual and orderly manner," Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu told the media.

Local authorities on both sides of the border will present a proposal for Beijing's approval, "intending to be implemented before mid-January," he added, and that there will probably be a daily quota of mainlanders coming into Hong Kong.

While many businesses will be eager for these tourists to come back, flooding the streets, buses and MTR trains, others will miss having Hong Kong to themselves. That almost three-year privilege will come to an end soon.

Government officials like Chief Secretary Eric Chan Kwok-ki who is leading the Coordination Group on Resumption of Normal Travel, is feeling the time crunch.

"We must race against time to prepare for resumption of normal travel, with a two-pronged approach adopted. We need to formulate a sound proposal on such resumption as soon as practical," he said.

Chan needs to come up with plan with Guangdong

"At the same time, we need to maintain close liaison with the relevant authorities at the Central level, as well as from the Guangdong province and Shenzhen municipality, and submit the proposal to the Central Government for approval after reaching a consensus with them. The target is to resume normal travel by mid-January next year, such that various types of cross-boundary activities between Hong Kong and the mainland can regain momentum in a progressive and orderly manner."

Interesting he made no mention of the current situation of the rapidly rising number of Covid-19 infections in both Hong Kong and China, or that both visitors and residents should get fully vaccinated to protect themselves when the onslaught returns.

While Hong Kong residents in general might fare better than their mainland counterparts health-wise when it comes to having exposure to the virus and its variants, isn't it not good timing to reopen soon? Or is it all about gaining political points for Lunar New Year... but then these family reunions will lead to an even greater spike in infections?

Doesn't seem like anyone is thinking this out clearly and is just racing towards the goal of opening up without realising the possible outcomes...