That Hakka Ngiong-Tofu And Lui-Cha

Now, this post is not much of an informative one compared to the architecture or that of the Hakka origin. This one is just some personal experience while I was surfing through flickr.

See, being brought up the Hakka way, I sort of gotten used to many of the dishes I thought all along that it was just something my Mum cooked. It wasn't until I google-d and wiki-ed for the traditional Hakka dishes that I came to know some of the dishes are actually typically Hakka. But then again, it's not like I'm chauvinistic about it or anything. Maybe it's just because of me gotten used to how a particular dish is cooked, I thought it's more delicious compared to the other clans' method. [I just don't like Cantonese fried! The noodles or rice noodle are so... not to my liking.] But then again.. I'm brought up eating Hakka food, the taste buds' gotten used to it, so it's not fair anyways. *sniggering*

So I was browsing through flickr and I saw some of the familiar dishes. "Niang Tofu". We call it "Ngiong Taufu" at home. Not sure which is the correct pronunciation, but it's the same dish anyway. It's pretty much stuffed tofu. It never occured to me that it was actually Hakka's stuff, but Mum did tell me once before that it was, and I was skeptical about it until now. *sniggering* Mum seldom do this dish at home unless when both me and sister are back home for holidays or when there's festive season. It's not easy to prepare the ingredients alright. No doubt we could just get the ready-made ones, but the dish is getting more and more commercialized, and we all know what that means. So the home-made ones are normally filled to the brim with no stinginess in the stuffings. Just for the satisfaction of our taste buds.


Then there's the "Lui-cha", literally translated as pounded tea.

Mum and sis loves to eat this. It's typically Hakka. This one I know. Because all the stalls in the coffee shops selling it has the signs of "Hakka Lui Cha". And you will never see "Teochew Lui Cha" or "Hokkien Lui Cha" for that matter. So yeaps, it is uniquely Hakka. But sadly, I don't really fancy this dish. I thought it's bitter. How could it not? It's literally punded tea! And I quote from Wiki: A consortment of tea leaves (usually green tea), peanuts, mint leaves, sesame seeds, mung beans and other herbs, which are pounded or ground into a fine powder which is mixed as a drink, or as a dietary brew to be taken with rice and other vegetarian side dishes such as greens, tofu, and pickled radish.

I'm not particularly sure what's the vegetables used, but it's all vegetables to me. See, how you consume the dish is, you just pour the 'dietary brew' from the pounded tea leaves and ingredients bla bla into a bowl of rice with the vegetarian side dishes. Pretty much like rice in soup. And mum was saying, to tell whether or not the Lui Cha was of a high quality, is through the brew of the pounded ingredients. She kept on telling us paternal grandma's was the most original. How would it be not? Grandma came from China. *sniggering*

Mum doesn't do the dish, because none of the males in the house like to eat it. We just thought it's bitter. So that resorted to mum tasting all the available stalls in town. Thus far mum only frequented to this one particular shop back in hometown whereby the owner is quite an old lady. Still, mum said it's not as good as paternal grandma's. Grandma's was REALLY bitter. It's too bad that grandma isn't fit enough to cook nowadays. And I don't suppose any of the aunties make anything as original as grandma's.

So yeaps... There goes the sad story of the lost of a traditional dish... I suppose we could only have the commercialized ones in the coffee shops if we ever wanted to have a bite on those pounded teas.




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Hakka dishes by marc bibo
Ngiong Tofu by Food Trails
Lui Cha #1 by jazmyn
Lui Cha collage by JackyPeng
Lui Cha #2 by jazmyn