Hakka cuisine, as old as Hakka, is an important part of Chinese food culture, which is mainly popular in Huizhou, Heyuan, Meizhou, Shenzhen and Shaoguan in Guangdong. Ganzhou, Jiangxi; Longyan and Tingzhou in Fujian; Hezhou and Yulin in Guangxi; Taiwan Province Hsinchu County, Miaoli County and other places.
The traditional Hakka specialties are salted chicken, Hakka stuffed tofu, Hakka potted vegetables, pork belly chicken, stuffed bitter gourd, braised pork with plum, three cups of duck, chopped river river, doutang, soaked pork loin in Tingzhou, fairy frozen, Kirin bodiless, potted vegetables, four-star full moon, taro buns, taro dumplings, etc. Compared with Chaozhou cuisine, Hakka dishes are more delicious.
Hakka cuisine is divided into Meizhou school, Dongjiang school (Huizhou, Heyuan and Zijin), Minxi school (Changting and Longyan) and Gannan school (Ganzhou) [1].
Among them, Changting (Tingzhou) (November 25) and Meizhou (January 26) are the hometown of Hakka cuisine in China announced by China Cuisine Association.
Hakka cuisine occupies an important position in Chinese cuisine with its unique flavor. Among the three major schools of Guangdong cuisine, Hakka cuisine is the most primitive Guangdong "local" cuisine. As far as geographical conditions and products are concerned, the non-staple foods used for cooking are domestic livestock and mountain game, and there are few seafood.
Hakka cuisine has a saying that "there is no chicken, no meat, no duck, no smell, no elbow, and no thick". Therefore, the long-established characteristics of Hakka cuisine have been preserved and continued. In addition, it is also related to the closed traffic environment of Dongjiang. As eastern Guangdong is a mountainous area, the traffic is inconvenient and less affected by the outside world, so Hakka cuisine has formed itself and evolved into its own home in a long time.
In addition to the traditional "old three articles" of salted chicken, Meizhou fermented tofu and braised pork, Hakka dishes are characterized by:
Hakka salted chicken
"Salted chicken" is a famous dish in Guangdong. It was first created in Meizhou and Dongjiang, Guangdong. More than 3 years ago, in some salt fields along the coast of Dongjiang, some people wrapped cooked chicken in gauze paper and put it in salt piles for salting and storage. This kind of chicken is delicious and has a unique flavor. Later, the salt industry in Dongjiang, the capital of Dongjiang, was developed, and local restaurants competed for the best dishes to entertain guests, so they created a method of baking fresh chicken with hot salt. Therefore, the dishes began in Dongjiang Yu, and Dongjiang was the Hakka place, so they called this kind of chicken "Hakka Meizhou Salt Baked Chicken".
Steamed chicken
Choose chickens raised at home or in the mountains with Cordyceps grains. Put the whole chicken in a pot and steam it with water. Tear it by hand or cut it into six pieces with a knife and eat it while it is hot. It is very fresh, sweet and tender. According to the data, the amino acid content of this kind of chicken raised by indigenous method is more than 1 times higher than that raised by concentrated feed, which shows that its nutritional value is extremely high.
Tofu Package
The legend of Hakka bean curd brewing originated from the habit of wrapping jiaozi in the Central Plains. Because there was no Michael to wrap jiaozi in Lingnan, they came up with a way to make tofu. There are various cooking methods for Hakkas to eat tofu. The so-called tofu package includes tofu flowers for pre-meal, fried tofu, tofu pot, tofu balls, glutinous rice tofu, fried tofu skin, and tofu milk for snacks.
Fresh in Xingang Lake
The wild osmanthus fish, eel and catfish larvae in Wanlv Lake are hard and smooth, sweet in taste, without fishy smell, and delicious when steamed, stewed or fried.
Potted dishes
A "big pot dish", also known as a "big pot banquet", which has been circulating in the villages around Guangdong and Hong Kong for nearly a thousand years, is mainly Huang's. It is said that when Emperor Qianlong visited the south of the Yangtze River, he was unforgettable after tasting it, so he became famous for his imitation trip to a thousand banquets.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, villagers in Xiasha, Shenzhen called the pot dish "Xin 'an". Later, people in Xiasha prospered, their lives became richer and richer, and more and more people made lantern festivals, so they were renamed as "big pots of vegetables". They call the village's potted vegetables authentic with well-preserved workmanship, ingredients and cooking methods.
Pot dishes are more rustic than the original "Yipin Pot". The cooking method of the seemingly rough pot dishes is very elegant, which is made by frying, frying, burning, boiling, stewing and marinating, and then layered into pots. There is even dried Kun inside, which is composed of more than a dozen raw materials such as chicken, duck, fish, oyster, yuba, radish, mushrooms and pork. The way of eating potted vegetables is also in line with the traditional patriarchal clan system of China people. Diners at a table only eat one potted vegetable, which means reunion and auspicious weather. Everyone holding chopsticks, rummaging in the basin, is bound to present an interesting scene, and the deeper the dish in the basin, the more delicious it tastes. Traditional potted vegetables are loaded in wooden pots. At present, most of them are stainless steel pots, and some restaurants use casseroles, which can be heated at any time and have the characteristics of hot pot.
Hakka snacks
Hakka snacks are another part of the Hakka diet, and they are "good things" for Hakka people to eat during holidays and weddings and funerals. Almost every snack is related to the farming season, or it reflects a Hakka custom.
On the Lantern Festival in the first month, Hakkas always eat soup balls and hang lanterns. There are two kinds of soup pills, salty and sweet, which bodes well for "reunion". It is the custom of Hakkas to send their relatives home for the New Year to travel far away after the Lantern Festival and eating soup pills, expressing their wish that their relatives will be safe outside for one year and come back for reunion at the end of the year. On the Lantern Festival or three days earlier, the family who "added Ding" in the previous year would hang big lanterns on the beams in the central hall of their ancestral home and invite friends and relatives to come to eat and congratulate them. The head of the household brought the baby boy born last year to pay homage to the ancestral shrine first, and then to the elders, who expressed their wishes for "Li". After that, everyone drank heartily and drank wine, and even if the baby boy officially joined the family, his name would be injected into the genealogy. Generally speaking, a son hangs a lantern, and the more lanterns hung in any enclosure, the brighter it will be, indicating that people are prosperous.
Take down the lanterns on February 2nd, burn the couplets and "Li" posted in the New Year, clean up and finish the food left over during the New Year, such as rice cakes and spices, and get ready to do farm work in the spring.
During the Qingming period in March, the wild wormwood was tender, so the Hakkas picked it and made it into cakes to eat. Transplanting began after the Qingming Festival, so there is a saying: "Eating wild wormwood will wear your shoulders." In Wanlv Lake Winehouse in Guangzhou, there is also a dish called "wild wormwood fried eggs". According to its boss Zhu, wild wormwood also has the effect of cooling and nourishing.
April 8th is also called the Water Festival, long summer Festival, because when the surface is yellow, the food eaten during the festival is poor, and most of them eat cakes made by mixing Jiemi flour and wheat bran.
On the Dragon Boat Festival on May 5th, we eat zongzi to commemorate Qu Yuan, and we also eat bitter gourd and Hakka tofu made from freshly harvested soybeans.
The harvest of crops in the first half of July 14th and the cultivation in the second half of July 14th have basically ended, and there is an atmosphere of festive harvest and holiday rest. On this day, every household in grinding bean curd eats ducks and fresh peanuts in various ways.
Eat moon cakes, stir-fried snails, chestnuts, grapefruit, yamanashi and other fruits and vegetables in the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15th. Moon cakes and snails all represent reunion, and people who go out to work on this day have to go home for the holidays. In the past, there was a tradition of playing Kongming lanterns for entertainment.
The Double Ninth Festival on September is also called Ghost Festival, and the second burial of Hakka ancestors is held on this day. The snack I ate this day was nine layers of skin.
There is a saying in the Hakka area from the winter solstice in November called "Winter (Winter Solstice) is a big New Year (Spring Festival)", which means it is even more grand than the Spring Festival, because the autumn harvest is in winter, the farming has been finished, and the crops have been cultivated for one year, which is rich and gratifying. The snack to eat this day is radish paste. Because the weather is cold and dry at this time, Hakka people prepare for the Spring Festival with preserved pork and pickled vegetables at this time. The preserved pork on this day can be kept for a long time.
The Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) begins on December 25th, and I'm busy preparing food for the Spring Festival and welcoming my relatives who are far away. Eat glutinous rice-made oily fruits and large cages during the New Year, as well as Hakka dishes such as braised pork and stuffed tofu. Especially on New Year's Eve, no matter how far away it is, Hakkas have to go home to have a "reunion dinner" and reunite with their relatives.