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georginechikchi

Calamansi plant in the neighbourhood. In In Canton

Calamansi plant in the neighbourhood. In In Cantonese this belongs to the category of small citrus: 「桔仔」🍊
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Planning to get some of these for Chinese New Year, as my grandmother did, two potted citrus plants that guarded her house. More importantly these would be salted as a preserve for all of us. I still keep a jar from her a few years ago before she passed.
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#calamansi#citrus#桔仔#金桔#winterfruit#citrusfruit#seasonalfruit#chinesenewyearfruitplants#hkfruit#pottedplants

May I introduce tofu, doufu or beancurd. This ‘c

May I introduce tofu, doufu or beancurd. This ‘clean’ ‘superfood’ which is really nothing out of the ordinary in Chinese culinary culture. Rice cooker steamed and finished with soy sauce, spring onions and hot oil.
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I get tofu weekly at the #wetmarket as part of my food shop, fresh tablets which are hard to miss. There are a handful of tofu stalls at a typical market, selling a selection of soy-based products, usually next to the diverse vegetable section that takes up most of the space.
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Always a gratifying shop if I brought along my own containers like today, especially for ‘wet’ items like tofu. Also debut use of the @ecobags_us from @teresapesek 🧺
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#wetmarketwednesdays#wetmarkets#hkwetmarket#tofu#beancurd#doufu#豆腐#cantonesefood#ricecookerrecipe#tofudish#simplesteamed#梯碟#familyfood#foodwriting#cityfood#writingfood#foodwriter#nutrition##vegetarian#culinaryculture#foodculture#plantfoods#plantpower#家常便飯

Home roasted chestnuts 🌰 had huge hopes for the

Home roasted chestnuts 🌰 had huge hopes for these, fresh from the ‘wet market’ but simply not as good (way off in fact) than the ones from these street roasters, pre-CoVid.
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As a child I am used to eating street food. After school, plenty of hawkers would line outside our school walls, egg waffles, sugar and peanut crisps, rice puddings and roasted chestnuts too. But street food has always been depicted as dirty food - public health adverts and health education at school both tell us that. To this day, I remember how consumers are shown with swallowing cartoon images of germs altogether.
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There seem to be fewer hawkers in Hong Kong these days. Certainly the pandemic has wiped them off city streets, probably altogether as licences are no longer renewed or issued. With ‘street food’ being an ‘exotic’ new category of food in the anglophone world, what does it really mean to places where it came from, thrived, but is now no longer relevant...?
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#roastedchestnuts#chestnuts#roastchestnuts#streetfood#foodwriting#wetmarket#wetmarketwednesdays#nutrition#foodnathropology#anthropologyoffood#foodhistory#wintryfood#hawkerfood#cityfood#hkfood#hongkongfood#writingfood#foodforthought#ilovrfood#foodfeed#foodblog#foodnostalgia#nostalgicfoods#cityscape#栗子#飲食文化#街邊小食

It’s taken me this long to realise these are goj

It’s taken me this long to realise these are goji leaves, from the same plant as its fruit, goji berries 「杞子」but also 「枸杞」.「枸杞葉」from the “wet market” - lady vendor talked so enthusiastically about the quick broth she would make with pork liver.
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She took me to the butcher next door and ordered a portion right away, for herself and me too. You might consider this pushy, but I needed exactly that to cook liver. The last time I bought liver was at my local Tesco for around a pound... might have chucked it into a tomato stew to obscure those strong flavours. This small portion too costed me the same ($10), with some precut pork ribs, fresh tablet of tofu and these goji leaves towards the end.
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Long considered a tonic soup especially for ladies in Chinese culinary practices, we now know this is probably due to its iron content? There are actually so many more similarities than differences in the ideas of nutrition across “TCM” and “science”. But the arguments about food and health show us how much more complicated this can be...
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#wetmarketwednesdays#wetmarket#porkliver#liversoup#gojileaves#ironfoods#tonicsoup#chinesesoup#cantonesesoup#枸杞#枸杞葉#豬潤#豬肝#nutrition#nourishment#womenshealth#香港街市#街市#菜市場#飲食文化#食療#foodwriting#foodculture#湯水

Tumeric chickpea ‘burgers’, vegetarian option

Tumeric chickpea ‘burgers’, vegetarian option at our New Year barbecue. Can of chickpeas drained, bunch of parsley 🌿 garlic, an egg, pinches of cumin (ziran) and tumeric more for its characteristic yellow colour 💛
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This yielded a very wet batter which I panicked and drove those little hands out of my sight. Thanks to panko breadcrumbs which saved the day. Three tablespoonfuls to the batch and absorbed the moisture, worked well on the grill and yielded great chickpea patties.
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No need for the impossible, or trumpeting for beyond.... simply no ‘meat replacers’ - brainchild of heavy industry.
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#chickpeaburger#foodfeed#photorecipe#healthyrecipe#vegetarianburger#tumericfood#newyearfood#plantfood#newyearfood#healthyeating#nutrition#healthfirst#foodfirst#foodwriting#homecooking#familyfood

Ringing in the New Year with a multitude of vegeta

Ringing in the New Year with a multitude of vegetable dishes. Got these beetroots from the #wetmarket they are called “red vegetable heads” in Cantonese: 「紅菜頭」- tossed with oil, thyme and a little salt, roast for 40mins.
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Cooked their leaves with spinach but they are just a little are too fibrous...
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#beetroot#紅菜頭#roastbeetroot#thyme#vegetabledish#homecookedveg#vegfirst#vegrrcipe#easyveg#rootvegetables#purpleveg#redveg#healthyeating#nutrition#vegetablerecipe

It didn’t feel that long ago when this was taken

It didn’t feel that long ago when this was taken, at the end of 2018. Visiting the wet market with this girl, who might have found the sight of live chickens a little strange having come across them in plastic containers sealed in modified atmospheric packaging most of her life.
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Food is about nutrition, but how we eat, and how we shop for food says a lot about us too.
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#WetMarketWednesdays is a series of microblogs I began in 2020 about a key feature of this cityscape which means so much to its local people. The idea that it’s ‘dirty’ in the age of a pandemic has been fascinating to explore. Supermarkets and online food shopping might be slowly replacing these aspects of the market that has fed us for generations.
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For the time being, wet markets don’t seem to be going anywhere, but who gets to determine who they are and in what form they might reappear in an ever changing world are some questions that remain.
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Goodbye 2020!
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#2020
#yearendthoughts
#wetmarket
#foodwriting
#香港街市#街市
#newtown#urbandevelopment
#newyear2021

Beef tendon, mooli and cabbage from the #wetmarket

Beef tendon, mooli and cabbage from the #wetmarket in bone broth made with the rib we saved from our barbecue last week from @feathernbonehk
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Cooking broths with bones and scraps of meats have always been a feature of traditional diets, making use of every part of the animal on its last possible leg, so to speak.
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The bone broth diet which became rife a couple of years ago was probably pinnacle of how the diet world always get it so wrong with food....? 🤨 And then another diet debate ensues, whether there is evidence in supporting the bone broth diet. Entirely misses the point because, bone broths have never been considered a diet food, but just another way to think and cook from our world’s meagre resources.......
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#bonebroth#bonesoup#beefsoup#牛肉湯#mooli#chinesecabbage#cabbage#beeftendon#chinesefood#asianfood#wintereats#warmingsoups#featherandbone#historyoffood#foodhistory#foodknowledge#everydateats#familyeats#foodwriting#writingaboutfood#wetmarketwednesdays#foodforthought

Not proud, #foodfail what’s meant to a Yuletide

Not proud, #foodfail what’s meant to a Yuletide log without the right cream so it all became one blurb of brown as I filled it with chocolate icing... what happens when winging it doesn’t work.
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Thought it’s good to share anyway, and having a thought on what makes picture-perfect food? Does it actually exist...? What does it say about... us?
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#christmas2020#kitchenmishap#pictureimperfect#yuletidelog#nocreambake#bakefail#uglycake

These twinned #mooli put a smile on my face today.

These twinned #mooli put a smile on my face today. Maybe we need rethink the term ‘ugly vegetables’ - just like how we come in all shapes and sizes?
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Sending love to all affected by new tier/ social distancing restrictions on the eve of this holiday season 🤍
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#uglyveg#wonkyveg#mooli#turnips

Winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. Wri

Winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. Written as 「冬至」being one of the key solar terms in Chinese culture. Marking this day with a bowl of “tong yuen” (「湯圓」sweet rice dumplings) and a couple of dishes with ingredients inspired by the offering at the wet market.
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My mum has always reminded me of the importance of this day, even more so than the New Year, as the common saying goes 「冬大過年」A time for eating together, as a family.
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Eating together has its own contentions but rituals aside, I think about the issue of seasonality on this day. Eating ‘warming foods’ being a way to think about those foods that are available during winter times and cooking in ways as I remember my Cantonese grandmother’s tiny figure behind the stove.
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Seasonality is also hugely lacking in the discourse in nutrition science. For example, it’s generally accepted that frozen fruit and veg would make useful contributions to some of our nutrition intakes. I love how easy they are, and how we are so connected through the food supply chain, but what are we missing if we remove the ‘season’ from the food which nourish us?
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#wetmarketwednesdays#wetmarketfoods#tongyuen#tangyuan#ricedumplings#湯圓#foodwriting#foodanthropology#foodculture#chinesefood#foodblog#foodfeed#hkfoods#2020foods#wintersolstice#冬至#過冬#solarterm#culturalheritage#二十四節氣#festivefoods#eatseasonal#seasonality#foodpost#longpost#nourishment#foodmemories

Roasted pumpkins, 「南瓜」or ‘southern gourd

Roasted pumpkins, 「南瓜」or ‘southern gourd’, in rosemary and sage, sprinkle of salt and pepper. Thinking of this lovely lady as I was prepping this tray, my veg supplier from #WetMarketWednesdays
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I call her the equivalent of ‘big sister’ every time 「阿姐」- common courtesy when it comes to greeting a vendor. Also a reflection of the family at the heart of all social relations. But frankly I have no idea what her name is!
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‘Big sister’ always has the best recommendations on seasonal veg, and gives me a large bunch of spring onions - complimentary with most purchases anyway as it’s considered weed, so you don’t necessarily pay for it at
#wetmarkets but how much you get is usually a reflection of how much you buy as well 🌱
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Posting 📸 with her permission. Herbs and porcetta from @feathernbonehk
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Wet markets have been disproportionately vilified in the press over the past few months so I am taking the advantage of being on this side of the world where ‘wet markets’ are a huge part of the local and shape our foodways - also nutrition. Continuing this in my series of #wetmarketwednesdays
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#wetmarketwednesday#pumpkin#cantonesefood#marketfood#nutrition#seasonalveg#rootvegetable#hkfoods#hkwetmarket#traditionalfood#foodfeed#foodwriting#foodwriter#nutritionwriting#nutritionwriter#chinesefood#南瓜#番瓜

Selection of dried goods at the #WetMarket for the

Selection of dried goods at the #WetMarket for the kitchen cupboard. On #WetMarketWednesdays timely to make barley water for the seven-year-old who just had an eczema flare-up…
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‘Food as medicine’ - an innocuous notion which has become rather controversial for some. The idea of food’s healing power is now bundled with magic (!) superstition (!) unless rigorously verified by scientific claims.
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When A’s skin flared up, almost right away I thought about pearl barley water - what my mum would do - to nourish and hydrate. I won’t even attempt to translate its underpinning rationale, as it wouldn’t make sense in the anglophone worldview. At the same time, shouldn’t ‘medicine’ be reimagined in the broadest sense - and not just drugs alone?
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🔎 Wet markets have been disproportionately vilified in the press over the past few months so I am taking the advantage of being on this side of the world where ‘wet markets’ are a huge part of the local and shape our foodways - also nutrition. Continuing this in my series of #wetmarketwednesdays
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#wetmarketwednesday#driedfoods#cantonesefood#marketfood#nutrition#foodismedicine#pearlbarley#barleywater#hkwetmarket#traditionalfood#foodfeed#foodwriting#foodwriter#nutritionwriting#nutritionwriter#chinesefood#街市#香港街市#薏米#薏米水

Some goji berries stir-fried with Choi sum and cho

Some goji berries stir-fried with Choi sum and chopped kale, the steam of the veg plumps up and cooks the berries which add just the right level of sweetness to this quick veg dish.
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This reminded me of the Christmas bake-off first year working in London. Each team had to bring in some festive bakes and for some reason I made goji berries muffins! Accompanied with a story of ‘east meets west’... (yes a little awkward)
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Fast forward so many years. The popularity of goji berries seems to have already come and gone. There was a time when goji berries were hailed as the next superfood, influencers adding goji berries to their porridge bowls, and goji berry... juice?!
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I was recently shellshocked to see my mum adding goji berries to her breakfast cereal. She’s surprised why I’m surprised, “don’t they sell these at that health shop?” (she thinks Holland & Barrett) Naturally as a nutritionist these should be just up my street.
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It’s certainly very important to contextualise the use of traditional foods and understand its culinary uses, but eating should also be about creativity. Even so the rise of goji berries as the new ‘food fad’ was very interesting as they are simply the most ordinary of ingredients in Chinese food culture.
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#gojiberries#goji#stirfru#greenbeg#choisum#kale#gojiberry#superfood#foodwriting#nutritionwriting#foodwriter#杞子#清炒小菜#家常小菜#家常便飯#foodculture#culinaryculture#chinesefood#asianfood#simplestirfry#chinesehomecooking#familyfood#foodstagram#mondayfood#vegmonday

Visited a different #wetmarket this week and found

Visited a different #wetmarket this week and found a massive bunch of eucalyptus for £3 (!!) Their smell remind me of winters in London.
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Just about getting into the festive spirit on this side of the world with cooler days. Cobbled some papaya tree twigs to build a tripod round a wooden stool, bent these round with a few nylon strings in between. Group effort to kick start this season.
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Sometimes I get asked whether we celebrate Christmas. Growing up in a society with colonial history means Christianity becomes part of society - bundled with local characteristics. From bank holidays, to gifts and decorations... but when it comes to food, there isn’t a standard Christmas dinner per se, depending where you are dining at (it’s usually the busiest couple of days in the hospitality sector in Hong Kong).
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Obviously a different context, but I am also thinking about the recent controversy on the Sainsburys Christmas advert.... whose faces should represent Christmas and the families celebrating it...?
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#wetmarketwednesdays#christmas#advent#eucalyptus#homemadechristmas#craftchristmas#hkchristmas#christmasthoughts#muiwo#hkmarkets#街市#尤加利葉

This layered veg from #WetMarketWednesday - I thou

This layered veg from #WetMarketWednesday - I thought it could be translated to ‘pagoda’ or ‘tower’ veg 「塔菜」(‘Tap’ Tsoi) as the lady vendor tells me, but it’s actually 「塌菜」- same tone, entirely different meanings, which suggests it’s collapsing demeanour . Also chrysanthemum 「菊花菜」in the north.
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I do love Chinese food nomenclature (naming of foods) as there is simply no hiding of the food’s characteristics. The imaginations we have for food often go beyond the physical description too.
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I treated it as baby bak chois and added to this stir-fry rice vermicelli. Some lovely peeled garlic bulbs and heritage tomatoes @thenewgrocer also with shimeiji mushrooms and cut carrots, which took the longest to cut. Maybe I should get a mandolin...
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Thank you you @sillyalizz and @kiukiu82 for reminding my they are Tatsoi in English!
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#tatchoi#brassica#chineseveg#asianveg#stirfryveg#greenveg#wetmarket#塌菜#菊花菜#街市#素菜炒米#炒米粉#nomenclature#foodnames#chinesefood#asianfood

The bird which keeps on giving 🦃 making this 3k

The bird which keeps on giving 🦃 making this 3kg bird go further, meats and bones into this #congee that is a ‘rice porridge’ with a separate pot of turkey broth. Continuing this family tradition from my husband’s side who celebrates this festival. Turkey and stuffing were also good as pasta toppings.
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#postthanksgiving#chinesethanksgiving#turkey#congee#tyrkeytrimmings#familyeats#foodculture#chinesefood#asianfood#culinaryculture#粥#火雞粥#感恩節

In time for our #friendsgiving meal yesterday was

In time for our #friendsgiving meal yesterday was also a delivery from @thenewgrocer
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Absolutely delighted to serve these cheeses and smoked sardines, along with some cut heritage tomatoes 🍅 mixed with the ones from the #WetMarket
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Frozen fruit purée was self-served alongside this easy pumpkin pie from purée and readymade crust 🥧 - you still have to prepare the mix and cobble it together 😉
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#aboutyesterday#novemberthanksgiving#thanksgiving#thanksgivingmeal#overseasthanksgiving#hongkongthanksgiving#hkthanksgiving#cheeseplate#antipasti#thenewgrocer#pumpkinpie#fruitpuree#flatlay#tablespread

One purple sweet potato 🍠 from the #WetMarket w

One purple sweet potato 🍠 from the #WetMarket with Haribo fried egg gummies 🍳
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We completely forgot about the marshmallows to top this side mash but found these from a quick rummage through the sweets tin. It has the acidity from the “yolk” but overall a ok - you’d never know until you try!
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Cooked with coconut milk, brown sugar and finished in the oven💜
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A couple of posts from yesterday’s #friendsgiving
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#aboutyesterday#novemberthanksgiving#thanksgiving#thanksgivingmeal#overseasthanksgiving#hongkongthanksgiving#purplemash#purplessweetpotato#cookingwithharibo#haribo#childrencook#familyfood#familydining

The bird that keeps on giving 🦃 early #friendsg

The bird that keeps on giving 🦃 early #friendsgiving yesterday 🍽
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I suppose it’s hard to miss Thanksgiving now with so many emails about Black Friday and Cyber Monday. I knew nothing about this all-American festival until I met husband, who did the absolute lion’s share.
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Stuffing was chopped carrots, celery, garlic and croutons, with sage, thyme, oregano and rosemary 🌿 all into this 3kg turkey bird @feathernbonehk
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Sides of Brussels sprouts 🌳and brown mushrooms 🍄 from the #wetmarket and a purple sweet potato mash, with gravy and a cranberry sauce and the roselle jam last week.
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A couple more posts to come...
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#aboutyesterday#novemberthanksgiving#thanksgiving#turkeypost#featherandbone#3kgbird#stuffing#brusselsprouts#thanksgivingmeal#overseasthanksgiving#hongkongthanksgiving#whatwecooked#whatweate#火雞#火雞節#gobblegobble#earlythanksgiving

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