Cooking of the Nomads

The Hakka are perhaps the most romantic of Chinese people. They are China’s historic wanderers who traveled south from the area known as Mongolia, settling finally in the area around Canton and in Hong Kong’s New Territories. Often persecuted, the Hakka became insular, and even to this day they keep to themselves a good deal. If you visit Hong Kong or southern China you may recognize them by their distinctive dress—shiny black cotton pajamas and wide-brimmed hats with cloth fringes hanging down. Though they are insular, as I have said, they are not reclusive. They are keen business people; their capacity for work is prodigious. They were the Chinese who settled Hawaii. Their cooking is quite distinctive.