Category Archives: Events

Hakka demo at Menlo Park Library

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Hakka Cookbook at Menlo Park LibraryThanks to the Menlo Park Library for inviting me to do a Hakka demo. The staff provided a great support system and venue. To my great surprise, I found that the room’s walls were decorated with Sunset posters–just like my old work home not far away.

The audience was the best ever! I appreciated their questions, attention, Anusasananan at Menlo Park Libraryand interest. Also many thanks to my friends who came out to support me. After putting in so much time and effort in preparing a cooking demo and talk, it is so rewarding when a sizeable audience shows up to hear what you have to say. Hakka Cookbook at Menlo Park Library I cooked four dishes: Steeped Chicken Breasts, Noodles and Chicken with Fresh Ginger-Onion Sauce, Stir-fried Long Beans and Food at Hakka demoPork, and Stir-fried Pork and Tofu Hash. They ate it all.

Check out your local public library. They host an amazing array of free activities and events such as jazz concerts, craft workshops, dance performance, author’s talks, and movies. It’s the best deal for educational and entertaining events.

Come to Hakka cooking demo and talk

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Join me for at the Menlo Park Library Monday, August 13 at 6:30 pm for a slide show and cooking demo on Hakka Soul Food. Learn about the Hakka Chinese and how their unique history of migration influenced their food. Afterwards, I will demo 3 or 4 recipes. Tasting will follow. The event is free. Hope to see you there!

Cooking Demo: Hakka Chinese Soul Food

August 13, Monday, 6:30 pm

Menlo Park Library, 800 Alma Street, Menlo Park, CA 94025

Contact: 650. 330. 2501

Email: John Weaver  jnweaver@menlopark.org

 

Register for New York Hakka Conference

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Opening night at the first New York Hakka Conference in 2015

Want to meet other Hakka? Learn about famed Hakka author Han Suyin who wrote about her Hakka ancestors. Listen to new Hakka voices such as Tao Leigh and Henry Chang who will share how to tell your Hakka story. Interested in visiting the Hakka roundhouses in Fujian province that have been declared UNESCO world heritage site? Record your own Hakka story narrative?

These are just a few of the workshops offered at the second New York Hakka Conference held from August 4 to 6, 2017 in New York’s Chinatown. More workshops will be added in the coming weeks. Register now for “Reclaiming our Hakka Heritage.” Discount conference hotel prices ends July 6. Advance registration price for 2 day conference is discounted. On-site registration, day passes, and student tickets also available.

 

A Literary Feast

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A literary feastThanks to all who came to our Les Dames d’Escoffier’s “A Literary Feast” last Sunday afternoon. In the light-filled mezzanine of the San Francisco Ferry Building, about 35 cookbook authors shared food samples from their books, autographed copies, and met with interested followers.

Guests sampled Pickled Mustard Greens (page 147) from The Hakka Cookbook. They loved the crunchy texture and sweet-sour taste of these easy refrigerator pickles. Best of all it is one of the easiest recipes in the book.

Our visitors were enthusiastic and interested. Loved meeting so many book fans. Thanks for coming and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

 

A Literary Feast

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Join me and other cookbook authors at “A Literary Feast” at San Francisco’s Ferry Building on November 13, Sunday afternoon, 3 to 6 pm. Come to meet your favorite cookbook author, taste samples of theirlde_cookbookstack-web recipes, and buy signed copies of their books. It’s a great opportunity to shop for holiday gifts. Meet authors such as Paula Wolfert, Leslie Sbrocco, Diana Kennedy, Georgeanne Brennan, and Dorie Greenspan. This mass-cookbook signing event is hosted by the San Francisco Chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier, an international culinary organization.

Buy advance tickets ($10) at www.cellarpass.com or at the door for $12. Funds raised benefit the Culinary Scholarship Fund of Les Dames d’Escoffier San Francisco and www.gardenproject.org (empowers at-risk young adults with job training and life skills.)

Visit www.lesdamessf.org for more information about our group. See you there!

 

 

 

Hakka soul food cooking class

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IMG_1363I have been busy giving cooking classes and slide presentations at four branches of the San Mateo County Library the past two weeks. This Saturday, February 20, marks my last event in East Palo Alto. Come to learn about the Chinese migrants known as the Hakka and Chinese New Year foods and traditions. I will cook three Hakka soul food dishes and tastings follow. If you have a copy of The Hakka Cookbook, bring it and I will be happy to personally autograph it. There will also be copies for sale.

IMG_3853I love meeting people at these presentations. In Foster City, I met a young couple who told me they had cooked three recipes from The Hakka Cookbook for their Chinese New Year’s dinner. These were some of the more labor-intensive Hakka classics such as Salt-baked Chicken, Stuffed Tofu, and Pork Belly with Preserved Mustard Greens. I am so proud of them!

One member of the Millbrae audience said her father was Hakka from Jamaica. She was thrilled to buy a book with her Hakka history. Another attendee told me she had read the book from cover to cover and appreciated the research and stories. She admitted she was not much of a cook so she focused on the simpler recipes. She was so happy that the results were successful.

Comments like these are my reward.  When a person understands and uses the book, it makes all those years of research and testing worthwhile.

Catch the last event: February 20, Saturday, 2 pm. East Palo Alto Library, 2415 University Ave., East Palo Alto, CA 94303. 650. 321. 7712, ext. 225.

 

Chinese New Year cooking class

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LNY Double Cooking ProgramHappy Year of the Monkey! Visit the Millbrae Library Tuesday night, February 9 for a special double-header Chinese New Year event.

Come at 6 pm to see Jimmy Zhang, founder of Art Chef, Inc., carve fruit and vegetables into intricate shapes.

At 6:30 pm I will be showing slides on Hakka soul food and history and Chinese New Year. Watch me cook three dishes adapted from The Hakka Cookbook, Chinese Soul Food from around the World. Stay for a taste of the Ginger-Garlic Noodles, Snow Peas and Tofu Stir-fry, and Chinese Lettuce with Garlic and Black Beans. Bring your copy of The Hakka Cookbook and I will be happy to sign it. I will also have a few copies of The Hakka Cookbook for sale. Advance sign-up needed. Click here to sign up for the event.

The library is located at 1 Library Avenue in Millbrae, California. I hope to see you there. If you can’t make it, come to my cooking class at Foster City Library on 2/11/16 at 6:30 pm or East Palo Alto Library on 2/20/16 at 2 pm. Click here for more details.

 

 

Chinese New Year

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IMG_7650Khiung Hee Fat Choy! Wishing you a prosperous new year! Welcome to the Chinese year 4714 on the lunar calendar which begins on February 8, 2016. This is the year of the monkey.

Last night, I gave the first of four presentations for the San Mateo County Libraries on Chinese New Year and Hakka Soul Food (click here for event schedule). In my talk, I showed slides of many foods eaten during the two-week celebration.

Many dishes served for the Chinese New Year dinner have ingredients with auspicious meanings or symbolism. The Chinese word for fish sounds like abundance. Spring rolls look like gold bars and kumquats resemble gold coins. Green vegetables suggest growth in business. Noodles symbolize long life.

taro abacus beadsI also included photos of Hakka new year specialties such as Taro Abacus Beads (? ? ? ? ? Hakka: wu tiuh sun pan jue) that I tasted in Malaysia and Singapore. These chewy disks made from mashed taro and tapioca flour are shaped to resemble the counting beads on a Chinese abacus. Boiled and stir-fried they likely represent wealth. In Hong Kong, the popular multi-course banquet layered in a wash basin known as Basin Feast (? ? Hakka: puhn choi) represents unity.

Last year I conducted an informal survey in Facebook Hakka groups and found many people serve humble family favorites such as Steamed Minced Pork with Egg or steamed fish. Others opt for more labor intensive Hakka specialties such as Pork Belly with Preserved Mustard Green (? ? ? ? Hakka: kiu ngiuk moi choi).

I am still planning my menu.  What are you cooking for Chinese New Year Dinner?

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New York Hakka Conference

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IMG_0728When I attended my first Hakka conference in Toronto in 2008, a feeling of belonging overwhelmed me. It was the first time I was in the company of so many Hakka, guest people like me. All my life I lived mostly in a Western world, feeling different than most Chinese who spoke Cantonese or Mandarin. I knew few Hakka.

The feeling of finding family came again when I attended the first New York Hakka Conference last weekend. Reclaiming our Hakka heritage was the theme. Co-chairs Dr. Keith Lowe and Paula Madison Williams succeeded in bringing Hakkas together to learn about their shared roots and history. From the evening of October 16 to October 18, attendees immersed themselves in Hakka culture, often with a Jamaican vibe since many of the attendees had Jamaican roots.

We listened to speakers discuss how to find our Hakka roots through Chinese names and cemetery records. We learned about the Chinese success as shopkeepers, bakers, and businessmen in the Caribbean. We saw photos of Hakka earth buildings and Hakka food. Revealing films took us into the lives of Hakka searching for their long lost families in China, growing up in China, and living in India.

The Hakka are one people with a shared history. Find your Hakka heritage at next year’s Fifth Toronto Hakka Conference, July 1 to 3, 2016.

New York Hakka Conference

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12038109_10206866982065686_8953866209858775553_nIt’s almost time for the first New York Hakka Conference. The event starts Friday, October 16 with a  reception at Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) featuring The Nation Music of Jamaica’s Byron Lee. A weekend of films, panel discussions, and talks–all focused on the Hakka follows at the Cantor Film Center at NYU. Come and learn about the “guest people”, their history, identity, diaspora, and food.

Click here to register. Special $50 rate for students. Day passes available for $88. Check the schedule of events.

On Saturday, October 17, I will talk about Hakka cuisine and show some slides of food and people I encountered on my global trip. If you have a copy of The Hakka Cookbook and would like me to sign it, please bring it. I am not bringing a suitcase full of books to sell.

You can order or buy The Hakka Cookbook at a couple of local stores: NYU Bookstore, 726 Broadway, NY, NY,  212. 998. 4678 or Kitchen Arts and Letters, 1435 Lexington Ave., NY, NY, 212. 876. 5550.

Hope to see you soon.