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georginechikchi

Goji Berry and Osmanthus Flower pudding (jelly), b

Goji Berry and Osmanthus Flower pudding (jelly), been thinking about this for the subtly cooler weather, as we surpassed #重陽節 or #DoubleNinth
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One pack of gelatine in one pint of water with handful of goji berries, reconstituted, and a spoonful of Osmanthus flowers 🌼 Glad it jiggles!
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A soothing sweet flavour that marks the change of seasons.
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#gojiberry#osmanthus#chinesefood#chinesepudding#糕點#杞子#桂花#杞子桂花糕#photorecipe#魚膠粉#jelly#gelatinous#jiggly

Breakfast pizzas, from the overnight dough, and eg

Breakfast pizzas, from the overnight dough, and eggs of two kinds on a rainy day. By the one who has truly developed his dough work over the past year.
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#pizzaspread#minipizzas#sundaybreakfast#familyfood#homecooking#foodblog#tablespread#choppingboardfood

Ginger 「薑」at the market, amidst other tubers

Ginger 「薑」at the market, amidst other tubers of sorts. A root rhizome that grows just below the soil surface. Its Chinese character demonstrates exactly these characteristics.
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I’ve been learning about postpartum foods, pages of theory and practical on this ‘recovery dish’, aged ginger slowly cooked in a vinegar cocktail. What I realised about nutrition in the broadest cultural sense, is how we meaningfully prepare the local produce. There has always been a strong sense of ecology embedded within these food principles, traditions and rituals. As my instructor told us 「廣東有三寶：陳皮老薑禾稈草」There are three Cantonese treasures, preserved peel, ginger and the rice grain.
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I’ve found this fascinating, but she also told us most of the ginger is no longer grown in the region, but further afield in the NW of China. I wonder how many more generations we could sustain the idea of local…?
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#wetmarketwednesdays#ginger#薑醋#羗#老薑#老羗#街市#香港街市#wetmarket#foodwriting#everydayfoods#familyfood#cantonesefood#thinkingaboutfood#foodblog#foodstory#foodstories

Postcard from Hong Kong, fishing boats returning a

Postcard from Hong Kong, fishing boats returning at twilight, but there isn’t much of a village left these days. Zooming out is this carpark earmarked for rezoning, to be developed into multi-storey apartments. These days, probably a project that is all about aspirations of sustainability, eco- friendliness and community building. If only these could be measured.
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#hongkong#fishingvillage#coastline#lantauisland#lantau#tungchung#大嶼山#東涌#香港#twilight#fishingboats#漁船

Our compilation from the night of the full moon 🌕 assortment of fruit and tubers, lanterns and candles.
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Mid-autumn always reminds me of my grandmother, how she’d always set up a spread of pomelo, citrus fruits, roast offerings and rice wine in the patio under the moonbeam. After the family meal with her nine children and their own, we’d come up to make a wish, as she narrates more blessings, before we start on the mooncakes and run about with lanterns. Melting wax was a dangerous game, but gave us huge instant gratification.
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The moon is feminine and powerful, as it turns tides. Humanity has followed the moon’s patterns in farming and feeding people as I wrote for @e_ting about eating with the moon earlier this year (not for detox, of course 😪)
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As I set this up for the family, there’s not as much of a religious element as with the emotional connection with the moon on mid-autumn, as we stop and think about our relationship with nature and its bounty, but also what I want them to remember on this festive day.
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#midautumn#中秋節#中秋#moonappreciation#賞月#foodculture#chineseculture#芋頭#taro#lantern#兔燈籠#沙田柚#starfruit#楊桃#familyfood#foodmemory

Happy Mid-autumn Festival 🌝 . Fifteenth day of

Happy Mid-autumn Festival 🌝
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Fifteenth day of the eighth month, gone a little excited with our lanterns this year. 「人月兩圓」 takes after the cultural and literary importance of roundness, that the family is happy, and complete just like the full moon.
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Lanterns from the market, two classic ones which take after the shape of the yangtao (starfruit), and mini flower baskets for these plain pastries called 「豬仔」. More for me than the children, that reminds me of the time when I celebrated it as a child.
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Day post, another one to follow from the evening. Have a great day wherever you are, and do check out the full moon tonight 🌝
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#midautumnfestival#midautumn#中秋#中秋節#燈籠#lanterns#wetmarketwednesdays#chineseculture#foodmemory#childhoodmemory#人月兩圓#中秋佳節

I love mid-autumn, market vendor tells me, there’s so much fruit to have! Blushing guavas and ripe and sweet starfruit, which just appeared the last two weeks. So much about this time of the year is mooncakes and folklores but the countless selection of fruit, like persimmons, pomelos and these delightful physalis, that we refer to as dragon pearls.
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Thinking a little more about the name ‘starfruit’ a penta-angular 「五棱果」fruit that has no reference to any celestial body in its Chinese name: Yang Tao, or Yeung To「楊(洋)桃」. This made me wonder how a five-pronged star 🌟 is conceptualised, and how language shapes the way we name and see the world around us.
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Also why we cut the fruit like ‘chips’ instead cross-sectionally as ‘stars’ to avoid otherwise eating with the seeds that are right at the centre.
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#WetMarketWednesdays#Starfruit#楊桃#街市#菜市場#時令水果#midautumn#中秋節 #hkmarket#wetmarket#foodwriting#foodmatters#writingaboutfood#foodanthropology#anthropologyoffood#nutrition#fruit#seasonalfruit#grocer

Beef stew, freshly butchered cuts and root veg of

Beef stew, freshly butchered cuts and root veg of carrots and mooli 🥘
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Been thinking about the idea of fresh, or 「新鮮」 characters for ‘new’ and ‘fresh’ (further split into characters of fish 「魚」and lamb 「羊」) A race against time and spoilage ⏰ that sets off as soon as an animal is killed, or vegetables picked from their soil.
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The irony of what’s meant to be a more ‘efficient’ food chain (saves time, more choices!) driving us further away from fresh food, that feeds us, and their sight, smell and touch. In a cityscape with food and goods available from all around the world, so much of what good food means goes beyond the idea of freshness, but where it is from. The politics of provenance is fascinating to explore.
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#WetMarketWednesdays#beefstew#marketfood#freshfood#familyfood#globalfood#balancedfdish#foodwriting#foodwriter#everydaynutrition#wetmarket#hkwetmarket#photorecipe#familyrecioe#nutrition#whaticooked#foodstudies#foodanthropology

No sight of a single strawberry at the shops but t

No sight of a single strawberry at the shops but these pink Oreos came to the rescue. Nigella’s chocolate cake base, yielded a lot more batter which ended up with two tiers and some muffins too. Icing and sprinkles by the birthday girl for an extra magical ✨ touch 🪄
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Turning eight, to the budding Harry Potter aficionado, knowing also there are plenty more possibilities to a standard recipe.
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#turningeight#birthdaycake#pinkoreos#oreocake#chocolatecake#homemadecake#birthdaychild#birthdayparty#harrypottercake#harrypotterdecoration

Rise and shine ✨ First of September, start of s

Rise and shine ✨
First of September, start of school, also day of my induction many years ago. Always feels like a time of change, and new beginnings.
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#breakfast#1september#1stSeptember#backtoschool#familyfood#familybreakfast#blinis#hardboiledeggs#healthybreakfast#riseandshine#早餐#早上好#早晨#feedingfamily#feedmyfamily

T’is the season of (more) pastries… a selectio

T’is the season of (more) pastries… a selection of pineapple, sesame and ham with nuts. A few years ago following a Mid-Autumn gala hosted by the HKETO we bumped into a friend as we got off the District line and shared with him the mooncake we had in our goody bag. A few days later after mass he told us he wasn’t a fan. He told us he waffled the whole cake down. I realised then to call it a ‘cake’ is really quite misleading. A size so small yet to be sectioned and shared. This perhaps is portion control and savouring to a t.
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#mooncakes#earlybirdmooncake#chinesepastries#月餅#pastries#foodwriting#foodculture#portionsize#chinesefood#asianfood

Thinking of an elderly relation in her 90s who enj

Thinking of an elderly relation in her 90s who enjoyed these layers of rice spongecake I bought previously on #WetMarketWednesdays as she has been losing her already weak appetite following a gastric issue.
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Someone who seems to know so much about food, yet became nervous about eating for being told off by her children because of her raised blood sugar levels on her regular checks. She takes a cocktail of drugs which seemed to have dampened her appetite in recent months.
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Of course medical conditions need to be properly managed, but what happens when food becomes a source of anxiety, fear and agony even?
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#WhiteSugarCake#白糖糕#香港街市#糕點#黃糖糕#蒸糕#恆發糕點 #steamedcake#Brownsugarcake#WritingaboutFood#FoodWriting#EverydayNutrition#FoodCulture#HongKongFood#CantoneseFood#ThinkingaboutFood#AnthropologyofFood#FoodStudies#foodanthropology

Pick-me-ups from the local bakery @walnut_hk showc

Pick-me-ups from the local bakery @walnut_hk showcasing these little hands the game of #mahjong
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Growing up it was a simple pastime for the elders of the family. The clattering of tiles were always there, every weekend happening at both my grandparents’ houses. A game but also very much a social activity, with it came ups and downs as fortunes rise and fall.
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I learnt it simply filling it as the missing leg, and we’d always stop for a quick bite of pastry and have tea between rounds, and culminate before or after dinner. I can’t help but to think how much more effort it is to recreate these spaces to pass on the appreciation for this game and it’s art form. Maybe one day if it becomes a STEM or STEAM subject. Just like how it’s been appropriated in fashion and other aspects of pop culture.
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#familytime#chinesepastries#blacksesame#pastry#teatime#afternoonetea#chineseculture#foodculture#foodmomenta#foodmemory#foodwriting#writingaboutfood#下午茶#打牌#打麻雀#鯉魚門紹香園

Unleashing the Shanghai connection on #wetmarketwe

Unleashing the Shanghai connection on #wetmarketwednesdays A quick dish of soy beans, curded sheets and pickled mustard greens 雪菜毛豆百葉
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Not intended but I stop at this bowl of freshly podded edamame beans, when the vendor tells me these are immature soy beans which are also known as 毛豆 in Chinese, due the pod’s hairy texture, whilst in Japanese they are called 枝豆 that describes the stem that is attached to the plant.
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Markets are alive with food knowledge but there is a huge pecking order when it comes to expertise and authority in food. But when we dismiss the importance of lay knowledge we are also overlooking how everyday food practices contribute to our food culture, that keeps it thriving for all.
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#雪菜毛豆百葉#百葉#毛豆#枝豆#百葉#chinesefood#shanghaifood#shanghainese#vegan#soybean#photorecipe#foodwriting#nutrition#everydaynutrition#familyfood#hkmarket#香港街市#菜市場#asianfood#homecooked#homecookedchinese#wetmarkets#foodknowledge#foodstudies#foodanthropology

Got a conversation going on #WetMarketWednesdays t

Got a conversation going on #WetMarketWednesdays thank you @kiukiu82 for sharing with me this #FoodChain podcast on @bbcworldservice about what fresh markets mean for communities, providing an accessible and healthy, varied diet, for the many not the few. For reference, these trays of veg are 3 for <£2
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What’s interesting about markets however, are also the people who buy from them, the concept of dirty that arises from mingling with certain classes, races, and indeed, touching of raw food, that sometimes seems unmatched by the expectations of fresh and healthy foods prepared and cooked for them.
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I’m back on #wetmarketwednesdays 🧺
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#wetmarkets#hkmarkets#foodmarkets#healthydiet#marketmatters#foodwriting#foodwriter#nutritionwriter#crossdisciplinary#香港街市#街市#菜市場#健康飲食#nutrition#foodanthropology#foodstudies

Thank you for the love for grass jelly, 「涼粉

Thank you for the love for grass jelly, 「涼粉」(Cantonese/ “leung fun”) or 「仙草」(Mandarin/ “xian cao”)) This did not entice me as a child but has become one of those foods that I now appreciate. The beauty of age 😯
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I only came across it randomly at the market, which they section from a tub, locally made every day the vendor told me. Barely £1 for a large brick of it. Grass jelly is made from the likes of the mint plant and has a very mild herbal flavour, so it’s easy to pair with anything really. Two nights in a row we had it with half a squirt of condensed milk.
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Plenty of canned ones available these days too, but I do appreciate it more when I can see and feel (through the bag) its jiggly texture.
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#grassjelly#涼粉#仙草#summerfood#coolingfood#chinesefood#chineedessert#夏日甜品#甜品#wetmarketwednesdays#wetmarkets#wetmarket#hkmarkets#香港街市#cantonesefood#taiwanesefood

On ‘everyday medicine’ . Fascinating simply to

On ‘everyday medicine’
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Fascinating simply to think why this remains controversial, maybe how medicine has evolved in a way that is associated with pills and all. But the idea of food and health, has perhaps been the main project for humanity since the beginning of time…?
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Concoction of these fresh chunks of foraged tubers from the local land, sold loose hawker-style: 鑽地老鼠、牛大力、土伏苓, advised to boil and infuse with tangerine peel and sugared melon for a summer drink.
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When it comes to knowledge about food, there is clearly a lot of it which is beyond the scope of textbooks.
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#learningaboutnature#tcm#foodismedicine#祛濕茶#土伏苓#牛大力#鑽地老鼠#好飲#好喝#traditionalfoodknowledge#foodculture#connectionwithnature#飲食文化#foodknowledge#foodwriting#foodwriter#nutritionwriting#everydaymedicine#foodstudies#foodanthropology

Getting peachy 🍑 . These market peaches remind

Getting peachy 🍑
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These market peaches reminded me of a time when I first tasted a real peach, not canned ones, and their succulence and unique ‘fragrance’ one summer in Beijing, as farmers were selling them by the roadside. Eating seasonal means we now have a rather large supply at the market, £2 for 4 to 6-7 of them depending on their sizes.
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Then the hype came about eating imported peaches from further afield, in their very expensive looking packaging, close to 10x the price. Even so, they remain in high demand, as of course choosing foods from particular terrain is a reflection of who we are, as informed consumers or markers of our social identity…?
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#fruitfriday#seasonalfruit#peaches#seasonal#peach#🍑#桃#foodculture#foodanthropology#foodwriting#writingsboutfood#thinkingaboutfood#foodthoughts#foodwriter#wetmarketwednesdays#hkfood#hkfruit#時令水果

Trespassing on somebody’s front cement ‘lawn’ and a floor of peanuts 🥜 because sun rays ☀️ are a great preservative agent.
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#sunroast#peanuts#villagelife#sunpreservation#花生#🥜

The last of these yellow specks of Wong pei 「黃

The last of these yellow specks of Wong pei 「黃皮」or transliterated as ‘yellow skin’ as they are simply referred to in Cantonese.
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I’m a little obsessed with the sight of them, by the roadside the other day. My grandmother had a tree (or two) at her home. Most local of local, very hardy yet never got quite commercially cultivated to the same scale as other summer fruit. You’d still see it at the market, albeit very briefly.
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Wong pei has a sour flavour, a tad citrusy but it’s not from the same family. The way to eat it is to chew it whole, then spit out the skin and green seeds… maybe that’s why it hasn’t made that far…?
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#wongpei#yellowskin#seasonalfruit#fruittrees#黃皮#foodwriting#fruitwriting#writingaboutfruit#localfruit#chinesefruit#hkfruit#southernfruit#wildlygrown#wetmarketwednesdays

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