In Linda Lau Anusasananan’s cookbook, The Hakka Cookbook: Chinese Soul Food from Around the World (2012), she pays homage to the rich cultural history of the Hakka, stemming from her own personal heritage and culture. If the orange cover is not enough, Alan Lau’s hand-painted art throughout the book will be sure to capture one’s attention, while highlighting the beauty of the dishes and ingredients featured throughout.
Anusasananan begins the cookbook with the words of her grandmother, Popo, stating “You should be proud to be Hakka” (21). Growing up in Northern California, the dichotomy between the American culture that was raised in and her Hakka heritage meant that the sentiments shared by Popo had little to no significance to her and her brother. In fact, The Hakka Cookbook, proves to be Linda’s way of overcoming her lack of ethnic pride from childhood, thus reestablishing a connection with her heritage. She also spreads awareness about the preservation of Hakka culture through a close examination of what it truly means to be Hakka Chinese. Additionally, this cookbook captures the true essence of how we can learn about the history of the Hakka and experience a glimpse of their life almost seventeen hundred years ago, while living in our modern society, through storytelling and the spread of recipes from various sources.
The history of the Hakka, as depicted in the cookbook, proves to be a fragmented story of resilience and adaptation. We must first examine the early history of the Hakka that Linda Lau Anusasananan shares in the cookbook, in order to have a foundational knowledge of what shaped the cuisine, and more broadly, the lives of the Hakka. She explains that during the 4th century, “invaders forced the ancestors of the Hakka from their home in the plains of the Yellow River near Henan in north-central China” (23). As a result of these invaders, the Hakka moved south to flee the miseries of war, drought, and famine in a series of five mass migrations. However, the Hakka migrants were soon dispersed among Chinese groups who had already claimed lands throughout the southern provinces. Existing as a dispersed minority within southeast China, anthropologist G. William Skinner describes the Hakka as the only Chinese group who “had no drainage basin of their own”, meaning that the Hakka had no definite place to recongregate their civilization and culture. This detail provided by Linda Lau proves to be important in explaining the Hakka diaspora that exists globally today.
“invaders forced the ancestors of the Hakka from their home in the plains of the Yellow River near Henan in north-central China”
Throughout this cookbook, Anusasananan shares details from second and third generation Hakka who live in various places abroad. It is interesting to see that since the Hakka were so dispersed, Anusasananan uses cuisine as a means of reconnecting with her culture. With this common ground that everyone, Hakka or not, can relate to. Calling her recipes soul food, Anusasananan is able to evoke a sense of nostalgia and home throughout the book. In addition, Anusasananan further proves that the food and recipes delineated in this cookbook are a manifestation of the struggles and hardships that the Hakka faced throughout the entirety of their history.
Hakka dishes are not the most technique-driven or complex. Since both men and women worked to ensure survival, the meals that they cooked had to be practical, quick, and nourishing to prepare for a day’s work ahead. In close-knit communities, the Hakka depended on each other for survival, and quickly developed group identities and protected their own. The Hakka gained a reputation as pioneers, settling on hilly land that was deemed infertile or unsuitable for civilization. Interestingly, the book notes how that the Hakka had generally “untraditional egalitarian gender roles [that] strengthened their survival skills”. Focused solely on survival, the Hakka women did not participate in the Chinese ritual of foot binding, as this would impede their ever-important farm work. Men, on the other hand, worked outside jobs in teaching, mining, and trade to supplement low incomes. Anusasananan acknowledges that with “a shared history of hardship, many Hakkas have come to see themselves as highly independent, adaptable, and tenacious” and that “this Hakka spirit ad collective identity helped them survive as they moved across the world” (26).
“dark soy sauce, Chinese rice wine, fresh ginger, garlic, various cuts of pork, tofu, bean sauce, fresh vegetables and long-grain rice"
After Linda Lau Anusasananan discusses the history of the Hakka, her focus shifts to how the food and dishes prepared indicate how the Hakka lived. Because of their overall lack of money and pressing focus on survival, the Hakka used only a few basic ingredients: “dark soy sauce, Chinese rice wine, fresh ginger, garlic, various cuts of pork, tofu, bean sauce, fresh vegetables and long-grain rice”. Additionally, Anusasananan recommends ingredients like Chinese sausage, Chinese bacon, salted mustard greens, preserved radish, and fermented bean curd to draw more Hakka flavor into your cooking (255). These simple, yet flavorful, ingredients allow for relatively cheap meals that can be prepared quickly. Hakka cuisine utilizes a significant of fats, protein, and hearty vegetables to supply energy for long hours in a field or mine. Compared to the northern areas of China, Hakka cuisine does not feature food including dumplings or noodles. Nevertheless, Hakka cuisine is eclectic and features dishes such as soups and stews, steamed fish and meat, stir fry, and meat or eggs with preserved vegetables. Many recipes also feature tofu whether the dish if vegetarian or not. Thus, through Anu’s exploration of Hakka history, we can get a glimpse of the life and the cuisine that the Hakka once ate, and continue to eat today.
One recipe in particular that captures the true spirit of Hakka cuisine is Popo’s Stir-fried Long Beans and Pork. Linda Lau Anusasananan explains that “Popo’s dishes were humble, savory, satisfying Chinese comfort food” (34). This recipe exemplifies these characteristics due to its humble yet delicious ingredients that, when once put together, are evocative of home and the Hakka culture that Popo is so proud of. Before describing the recipe, we learn about Popo’s love of gardening and that one of Anusasananan’s favorite vegetables were the modest Chinese long beans that dangled from the vines in her garden. Similar to how the Hakka would have eaten it seventeen-hundred years ago, the recipe is as followed: 8 ounces of long beans, 4 to 8 ounces of boneless pork, 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, ½ cup of chopped onion, 1 tablespoon of minced garlic, 1 tablespoon of ground bean sauce, and 1/3 cup of water. While the dish is clearly not complex or high-end, the comfort that it brings to Linda Lau Anusasananan speaks to its significance. This dish seems to create a lasting connection between Anusasananan, Popo, and Hakka culture through the preparation of the dish. And by sharing this cookbook with us, Linda is successfully able to create a lasting legacy of Popo, while preserving the Hakka culture that she once hid from. Throughout this cookbook, Anusasananan is inspired by Popo and the other individuals she learned recipes from. Since throughout the course of the history of the Hakka it was hard to establish some sense of home, family was, and still is, ever important in creating a bond. This proves that cuisine is a powerful vehicle that can reconnect ones with their culture, poignantly seen through Linda Lau Anusasananan’s shared stories, recipes, and experiences contained in this cookbook.
Credits:
Created with images by Leon Liu - "untitled image" • alien0417 - "lantern hakka peony" • cegoh - "braise pork soy sauce fat" • MetsikGarden - "healthy food vegetable" • marker_photography - "ginger vegetables food" • sharonang - "food dinner lunch" • Mike Kenneally - "untitled image" • ariasmelissa - "fish dinner chinese"