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georginechikchi

Exquisite meal at this Hokkienese restaurant, with

Exquisite meal at this Hokkienese restaurant, with dishes that my mum grew up with, five spice meat rolls, prawn knots and popiah and so on, one of the more regional cuisines that ‘loses out’ to Cantonese food. So interesting they sent a bowl of (longevity) noodles and a hard boiled egg in lieu of something sweet. Turn of a decade and unexpectedly became teetotal with a renewed appreciation for tea recently.
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#birthdaymeal#birthdaynoodles#hokkienesefood#mingpavillion

Been nearly twenty years since I did this elective

Been nearly twenty years since I did this elective course “Globalisation and Culture” by Professor Gordon Mathews and recently found myself seated in the same lecture room again @thechineseuniversityofhongkong after reconnecting with him lately. I was simply desperate for some final graduating credits at the time but the lectures were so engaging and topical which planted a little seed of interest only to be nurtured more than a decade later @soasuni and it’s hard to believe now my PhD @ioelondon has eventually found its place at the Social Research Institute where anthropology plays a huge role.
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Finally, I am happy to report that writing has officially commenced my first 4000 words in “Reflexive Methodology” I never realised how much the ‘me’ in my research process takes such a prominent role, but my shifting positionality as both an insider-outsider affects how the study is conceptualised, and how the findings are analysed and written. I have two more years to write but I really do hope I could get another 40k words in before the end of this year. I have found writing to be a painful process and there is no other short cut but to keep putting my head down, although it is always rewarding in the end.
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Working from home is also much of a luxury these days, I used to be really efficient, but now I get quite easily distracted. When I can leave the clingy toddler behind, I try the public library or indeed mostly at the nearest Starbucks - however in this day an age can you believe that consistently strong WiFi is still hard to find?
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#springthoughts#cuhkalumni#phdlife#hotdesker#maturestudent#writersblock#phdblock#phdwriting#mumwriter#timesqueezer

A little lax with cooking after the holidays and r

A little lax with cooking after the holidays and recovering from a bad cold, but the lack of soup must be evident when the oldest asks when I am making soup, specifically the one with fish, tomatoes and potatoes. I thought it was funny how she was so specific about it, but also my desire to compensate right away, I’ll make it for you tomorrow! Am I being an intensive parent?
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2023 was the year I felt being in the ‘sandwich generation’ - caring for young children but also seeing signs of aging from my mum and dad. A lot of the care work is physical and I think the emotional side of it is what tolls most. Feeding, specifically making soup, offers me some time to reflect, the specific ingredients and their functions (and how to manage time and space in the kitchen).
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(I also got to unexpectedly spend a bit more time around my alma mater CUHK)
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#soup#cantonesesoup#湯#sandwichgeneration

When relatives from Hawaii come to visit… we hav

When relatives from Hawaii come to visit… we have all macadamia nuts chocos! Mini pre-thanksgiving lunch hosting my dad’s cousins (their mums were sisters and very close) from all across the Pacific. Roasted poussins, baby asparagus roasted veg, and a cucumber, woodear mushrooms and chestnut ‘salad’.
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Growing up we would see our grand-auntie every couple of years and she’d bring us these Hawaiian treats (also red packets of US dollars). She had this unstoppable energy radiating from her sun-kissed skin (also in yasaki sneakers 😆) and even thousands of miles apart, would write regularly to her sister, my grandmother, and grandfather, and we’d get to read her letters too as she’d always ask about her nieces, nephews and their children. A fervent Christian, she’d always preach about the love of God, and this is clearly influential in her children’s work. Uncle John specifically does missionary work alongside serving in the US army - always super fascinating talking to him (last photo was back in 2016 when he took us to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific). Also he speaks my grandmother’s Cantonese shiqi dialect which brings back fond memories.
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#hawaiianhost#chocolategift#thanksgiving#familymeal

Recent eats from our table… I’ve started clock

Recent eats from our table… I’ve started clocking in the time I start and finish cooking our evening meals, on average between 30 to 45 minutes. Then adding the eating time (which the children often seem to take forever these days), and washing up, adds another one hour. But the process starts with buying everything which goes into these meals - I’m also thinking the mental work which goes into thinking and planning. A background in nutrition makes me think a lot about balance and variety but none of this is possible without a vibrant food culture that already embodies food diversity.

Celebrating 🔟🎉 Lighting up Colin and Connie

Celebrating 🔟🎉
Lighting up Colin and Connie the caterpillars with 10 candles each, we marked this special occasion with our friends @nctcharity earlier - when we met we were all newly expectant parents and (how we and the babies, now tweens) bonded over numerous coffees, pub lunches and of course Pizza Express Piccolos which we have witnessed the impact of inflation over the years………………. and here we were with our giant Sunday roasts at the Great Britannia no less!
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#colincaterpillar#chocolatecake#turning10#bringyourowncake#nctfriends

Ears of corn @brookhavenmkt bundles of three for a

Ears of corn @brookhavenmkt bundles of three for a dollar that reminds us of the extent of this crop is grown in the region and throughout the country.
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Wrapping up the time which started with cooking for the children at 2am that slowly moved towards more social hours. Soupy pasta, meat dishes and stir-try veg, fruit crumble which were all fun and satisfying to prepare.
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Grateful to mother-in-law for sharing her kitchen space where we had lengthy conversations about women liberation and family life. And her stash of crockery which she built up in the past five decades - impressive collection!
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#chicago#illinois#corn#earsofcorn#homecooking#foodwriting#foodforthought#darien#suburbanillinois#midwest

Day out in Chinatown, where we had a dim sum lunch

Day out in Chinatown, where we had a dim sum lunch at Phoenix restaurant, of giant siumais and assorted mango desserts.
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A walk towards the River, where the children played at the park under the bridge where my mother-in-law told me about the history of the area as we talked about the idiom of 「上善若水」which is the aspiration of being like water.
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Stopped by the road which is dedicated to her friend who had made massive contributions to developing the area but passed away recently. And the public library which has a sizeable ‘Chinese heritage’ collection where we also chatted with some other parents and grandparents as the children mingled in the kiddies area.
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#chicago#chinatown#midwest#chicagochinatown#華埠#唐人街#芝加哥#dimsum#phoenixdimsum#dimsumljnch#mangomango#foodwriter#foodwriting#chicagopubliclibrary#上善若水

Suburban eats of beef noodles, dumplings, sesame c

Suburban eats of beef noodles, dumplings, sesame chicken, pork and preserved veg with rice, scallion cakes and tofu ‘brain’ dessert served on polystyrene bowls and plates at this establishment which seemed to have preserved in time.
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My husband said it has not changed since the 80’s when it was built, with bullet style lift (elevator) and ‘old school’ typefonts. Apparently most businesses closed down during Covid and the only buzz is likely to be the weekend queues for ‘takeout’ lunches.
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Also when in the mid-west… recently at a family get-together of deep dish pizzas, roast duck and BBQ pork from Chinatown, and Costco salads.
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#chinesefood#chineseamericanfood#beefnoodles#diho#dumplings#scallioncakes#polystyreneplates#ileats#westmontillinois#chicagoeats#suburbaneats#takeouts#eatins#foodwriting#foodwriter

A suitcase of lychees, 110kg of this what the rest

A suitcase of lychees, 110kg of this what the rest of the world would consider an exotic fruit, oh so sweet, delicious and dangerous. Eating it always comes with a health warning, 「一粒荔枝三把火」one fruit yields three degrees of heat for the body.
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Caught the act of bagging these freshly picked lychees as gifts for stakeholders, old school business dealings I was told, where gifting comes in all shapes and forms, in keeping the relations going.
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Price in the market sells at similar rates, but the idea of freshness, and buying from someone you know, always seems a little more trustworthy.
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#lychees#荔枝#cantonesefruit#summerfruit#一粒荔枝三把火#🔥🔥🔥

Larder of cooking sauces and condiments, canned an

Larder of cooking sauces and condiments, canned and dried goods, at my auntie’s as she welcomed us into her kitchen and made us a ‘casual dinner’ of 10 plates (!)
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Start of the long weekend marking the Buddha’s birthday, a culmination of activities celebrating dieties in the area, where I hold precious fragments of my childhood memories.
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Reminiscing seems cliche, but talking about family pastimes has enabled me to learn more about how it all somehow made me the person I am today.
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Thank you all for a wonderful day!
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#sauces#larder#pantry#chinesekitchen#familykitchen

To the one who birthed me, thank you 🫶🏼 . .

To the one who birthed me, thank you 🫶🏼
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@bellaciaolantau #birthdaydinner #mumdaughter

Cream corn chicken, growing up I used to have this

Cream corn chicken, growing up I used to have this for lunch a few times a week, I have recently started cooking more of as it seem to go down well and rather easy to make with canned cream corn, chicken pieces and some garlic/shallot.
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My mum always referred to cooking as ‘domestic science’ which was the name of the subject for home economics in her time. In our quest for health and nutrition, the factors into organising our domestic space are often so under-discussed, and it’s always down to time and labour.
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#homecooking#domesticscience#creamcorn#cornchicken#everydaycooking#homekitchen

Street or hawker food of chestnuts, quail eggs and

Street or hawker food of chestnuts, quail eggs and massive sweet potatoes cooked in the ashes -「煨蕃薯」such a widely cultivated crop, so easily grown that it’s considered food of the poor in some places, yet it’s the long cooking time it takes to turn its flesh into silky texture with hues of honey .
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Picked this up for a late afternoon snack that I also shared with the baby who just started solids @chineseweaning also QR code has become a pretty standard form of payment these days.
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#hongkong#streetfood#sweetpotato#煨蕃薯#蕃薯#街頭小食#美食

Start of spring, lamb meatballs at this farewell b

Start of spring, lamb meatballs at this farewell barbecue for our neighbours, first time hosting for a while. Everything prepped overnight, plus fresh market salad leaves, cucumber slices and purple kale leaves that were just microwaved.
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Just in a blink of an eye two ‘new years’ came and went, catching my breath to find time to do some proper reading and writing which has been a little tricky as I finish another study interruption. March always feels like a beginning and I remind myself of this mantra at the first yoga studio I practised, it always feel impossible until it’s done.
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#lunchspread#bbqlunch#springlunch

Wrapping up bits from the fridge this week for a w

Wrapping up bits from the fridge this week for a winter chop suey - and pretty much sums up 2022 - many different things which make up a year of transitions. The year which zero covid finally ended, and going through postpartum once more. As I set off at the beginning of this year delivering guest lectures on food and society/ ethnography to students @ioelondon I never thought I would transfer my PhD project from global health to the Institute of Education and Society. It now all makes complete sense because so much about our actions in health is about the meanings behind it. Somehow it all goes back to ‘women and domestic labour’ which also just about summarises our changing ideas of food and nutrition too.
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#winterbowl#chinesefood#asianfood#veganbowl#chinesecabbage#foodwriting#foodwriters#phdlife#ioestudent#globalhealth#chinesehealth#postpartumfood#mumwrites#nutrition#nutritionist#georgineleung#nutritionhealth#healthsociologist

A very self-indulgent post, my face-to-face interv

A very self-indulgent post, my face-to-face interview with Ursula Arens @nhd_dietetics over pastry and coffee in Vauxhall on a bright sunny spring morning, thank you 🙏🏼
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#nutrition#nutritionist#foodanthropologist#foodrearcher#bnf#foodwriter#afn#soasfood

Tinola in tagalog, this is malunggay moringa and c

Tinola in tagalog, this is malunggay moringa and chicken soup with green papaya soup my neighbour just cooked and shared with me for mother’s milk. So many cultures have foods for breastfeeding - not promising miracles - but just making sure mums have good nutritional intake.
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Nutritional recommendations for breastfeeding talk about increments of up to 400kcal daily but that remain a largely abstract concept. There is so much to learn about healthy eating from our food cultures that help us to eat well, aside from numbers and figures.
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#tinola#malunggay#moringa#chickensoup#breastfeeding#nursing#fourthtrimester#postpartum#辣木#foodwriting#nutrition#foodwriter#nutritionwriting#foodblog

Carefully selected, cleaned and peeled by a friend

Carefully selected, cleaned and peeled by a friend of mine, these root ginger were prepared with sweet vinegar to make a concoction of vinegar drink. For over two months she brought it to a low boil every day until it resembles aged vinegar. Adding pork knuckles and hard boiled eggs and nursing it during this period of #postpartum #fourthtrimester
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#ginger #vinegarginger #薑醋#月子#驅風散寒 #chinesefood #foodculture #cantonesefood #薑

What a month! From welcoming a this summer baby ma

What a month! From welcoming a this summer baby making myself congee at the hospital to this full month celebration. It was difficult to completely put my feet up but rest comes with not having to go out. I had a course of nutritious foods, drinks and soups by the other half who takes charge of the kitchen. The weeks have somehow whisked past, feeding this little baby tiger, and to be fed.
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#滿月#fullmonth#moonyuet#坐月子#sittingthemonth#zyz#zueyuezi

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