Yellow rice wine chicken
Yellow rice wine chicken is a popular dish in the Hakka culinary tradition. One might be familiar with red and white wine, but what about yellow rice wine? Historically, villagers in the New Territories used to produce their own wine using glutinous rice for personal consumption. Made from simple ingredients like glutinous rice, water and […]
Stone-ground rice flour: the everyday life of farmers
Stick rice flour (粘米粉) and glutinous rice flour (糯米粉) are essential ingredients of traditional Hakka pastries. In bygone days before the establishment of supermarkets, pre-packaged rice flour was not available in rural areas. To make Ban-kwo (Hakka rice cake,茶粿和糕粄), farmers had to crush rice grains into powder by manually grinding the ingredients with a stone […]
Hakka Rice Cracker (Micang): a back-breaking Lunar New Year treat
Besides Hakka Year Cake (圓籠粄), the Hakka community celebrates Lunar New Year with a special delicacy called ‘Micang’ (Hakka Rice Cracker, also known as ‘Miceng’ and ‘Mitong’). Similar to chaguo (glutinous rice cake, 茶粿), the Hakka rice cracker is a rice-based product. Its main ingredients include sticky rice flour (粘米), glutinous rice flour (糯米), peanuts, […]
Hakka Year Cake: Family steamed rice cakes in bamboo steamers
Known as ‘gou’ (糕) in Cantonese and ‘ban’ in Hakka, this traditional delicacy is a form of cake created using ground rice. During the Lunar New Year, the Hakka people place great importance on making Hakka Year Cake (‘circular steamer cake’, 圓籠粄), serving both as gifts and for household consumption. A prevalent theory circulating online […]
Tools | Ethnobotanical Study of Plants in Villages
Dwarf Mountain PineBaeckea frutescens The branches of the plant can be tied together to make brooms. They grow on hillsides facing the sun. The crushed leaves of the plant smell of White Flower oil. They can be used to produce aromatic oil and tannin extracts. Sandpaper vineTetracera asiatica Both the top and the bottom surfaces […]
Stone Tablets of New Territories Villages
如果對香港鄉村歷史有興趣的話，你會怎麼開始？先以鄉間最常見的文字資料 – 石碑作頭炮：眾籌修建公共設施（道路，橋，船，學校，廟宇）＝〉反映地區社群關係
宗族內籌款修建祠堂 ＝〉反映宗族內部關係
糾紛仲裁的結果 ＝〉反映村民如何處理糾紛及當時的社會環境/法律
標示地界，指明道路方向 等等
Multipurpose temples: A Map of Deities in Sha Tau Kok (Part II)
In addition to worshiping, temples serve three additional purposes: 1. As a regular meeting place for village and village alliance discussions, negotiations and arbitrations, and as a symbol of unity. Some temples were only worshipped by one village originally, yet they evolved to become the core temple of the whole village alliance after the formation […]
A Map of Deities in Sha Tau Kok (Part I)
It is easy to encounter temples of different sizes in Hong Kong. This ranges from large-scale Tin Hau temples that occupy the space of a few shops on ground floors to shrines in shops. If you look closely, you see deities everywhere in the city. Part 1 – Religions Believers are free to worship different […]
Clothing | Ethnobotanical Study of Plants in Villages
RamieBoehmeria nivea The ubiquitous plant grows everywhere but it is also very functional. The leaves can be used as pig feed or made into hakka rice cakes named ‘coarse-leaf tart’. Its stems can be made into rope, clothing, and shoes after being soaked and torn. Dioscorea cirrhosa Lour. The ball-shaped rhizome of cirrhosa reveals its […]
Food | Ethnobotanical Study of Plants in Villages
Chinese MugwortArtemisia argyi The Hakka people believe that Chinese mugwort has the properties of removing dirt and filth, and the plant grows exceptionally well near Ching Ming Festival, thus Chinese mugwort leaves are added into Hakka rice cake as an ingredient near Ching Ming times. The Chinese mugwort Hakka rice cake, also referred as ‘Ching […]
Utensils | Ethnobotanical Study of Plants in Villages
Phrynium capitatum The leaves of the plant are large, glabrous, and structured. They are suitable for wrapping glutinous rice dumplings and steaming rice cakes. When rice cakes are steamed, clean, fresh leaves are used to line the base and sides of bamboo steaming baskets. Slurry is poured into the basket after lining. The stiff leaves […]
Rituals | Ethnobotanical Study of Plants in Villages
Pomelo Citrus maxima People bathe in fragrant water made by boiling pomelo leaves in hot water on Chinese New Year’s Eve. The practice can ward off negative energy and improve one’s luck. The leaf has an invigorating aroma. The correlation between pomelo leaf and luck might be related to how the plant’s name sounds like the […]