What it is
Hakka stir-fry (客家小炒) is a salty, oily wok dish of pork belly strips, dried squid and spring onion, cooked with soy sauce and rice wine. Many versions add dried tofu, celery, garlic shoots or chilli. It is one of the four stir-fries in the group of classic Hakka dishes known as four braises and four stir-fries (四炆四炒).
Where it came from
The dish is usually traced to Hakka ancestral rites. Pork belly, dried squid and chicken were the standard offerings, and since families seldom killed a pig or a chicken, nothing could go to waste. The pork was boiled before it went on the altar, which left it bland. Cut into strips and fried hard with spring onion, soy sauce and squid, the leftovers became a strongly seasoned dish that went well with rice and kept longer in the days before refrigeration.
Hakka speakers call it simply 炒肉, "fried meat". The name 客家小炒 was given by Hoklo and other neighbours. Where it began is disputed. Chinese Wikipedia places its roots among the Hakka of Fujian and Guangdong. Supertaste quotes the Malaysian Hakka food writer Lin Jincheng (林金城) as saying the dish exists only in Taiwan, and reports that the Hakka Affairs Council, asked to check, found it began in Taiwan.
The dried tofu in many restaurant versions is often explained as a saving. Tofu was cheaper than pork, so mixing it in let one portion of meat fill two plates.
How it is made
Dried squid is cut against the grain into thin strips and soaked, sometimes with rice wine to soften its fishy smell. Pork belly and dried tofu are cut into matching strips, and celery, garlic shoots and spring onion into short lengths. Each ingredient is seared in the wok in turn. Everything is then tossed together over high heat and finished with rice wine, soy sauce and a splash of the squid soaking water.
How to eat it
It is a shared plate, found in Hakka restaurants and in stir-fry shops (快炒店) around Taiwan. The heavy seasoning is meant to go with plain rice, and the dish is also a common snack with drinks. Order it as 客家小炒 (kejia xiaochao).
Around Taiwan
- Hakka
- Traditional cooks keep it to three ingredients, spring onion, salted pork and squid, with no chilli or sugar. Versions with chilli bean paste, sweet chilli sauce, fermented black beans, dried shrimp or pork skin are later variations. Each Hakka household has its own way of making it.
