Thunder Tea Rice

The Ho Po Hakka have a very traditional dish that goes by the strange name, Thunder Tea Rice (Lui Char Fan in Hakka).Lui is a Hakka word for the grinding of ingredients, but it also means "thunder". So herein is room for a "comedy of error." Thunder tea (or soup, if you like) is poured on a mould of plain rice and served with a host of side-accompaniments. Traditionally, the womenfolk use a wooden pestle made from the guava tree to grind her ingredients until powdery in a humongous bowl. The inside of the bowl has a coarse surface to facilitate the grinding. "Hot water is poured into the bowl to steep the ground ingredients of groundnuts, sesame seeds, peppercorns, Chinese tea leaves, mint leaves, sweet potato leaves and koo let sim leaves. The stock is then brought to a boil," said Wong Sui Lan, a Ho Po Hakka in her 50s. The soup for this dish is greenish because of the various leaves. "Sweet potato leaves are cooling while mint leaves and the bitter, liquorice-tasting koo let sim leaves help the body to get rid of flatulence, " said Wong. Koo let sim leaves are also used for medicinal purposes.

Hakka Yong Tau Fu

Hakka Yong Tau Fu is my favourite food among the hakka food.

Turnip Cake

"Caitougui" (turnip cake) is another popular Hakka fare. It differs from the Guangdong "luobogao" (turnip cake) in that it is made from nothing but "zailaimi" rice (a species of rice) and turnips. It is generally dipped first in soy sauce with scallions or kumquat sauce when being eaten.

Zong Zi

Bangui is a type of "zongzi" (filled glutinous steamed rice dumpling wrapped in bamboo leaves) particular to the Hakka. It is made of glutonous rice and "zailaimi" rice. They make both regular and sweet versions. The regular, or "salty" in Chinese, version is filled with shredded turnips, ground meat, oil, scallions, and shortening. The most common filling for the sweetened zongzi is sweet bean paste. Both types of zongzi are delicious.

Fu Cai

Fried "fucai", a kind of grass, is also characteristic of Hakka cuisine. In the past, Hakka let their ducks feed on weeds, including fucai, as well as tadpoles. Today, people from Meinong quick fry fucai like any other vegetable and mix it with thick broad bean sauce. It has become a unique Hakka dish.