On a cold winter night, the pot is bubbling and bubbling, and a pot of tender tofu stuffed with meat filling, fried golden on both sides, slightly expanded and gradually fullened in a rhythmic breath and inhalation, wrapping the fragrant soup into the pores little by little. Scoop up a spoonful and feed the rice into your mouth, the fresh aroma of gravy and the rich bean aroma blending between the lips and teeth, it is really a fairy taste.
Stuffed tofu may be just an ordinary dish for many people, but for the Hakka people, it is an unconscious inheritance from generation to generation. According to legend, after the Hakka ancestors moved from the Central Plains to various places south of the Yangtze River due to war, they missed the dumplings in their hometown in the north but had no flour in the south, so they had to replace the dumpling skin with local specialty tofu, filled the meat filling, and made stuffed tofu.
Hundreds of years later, the Hakka are now scattered in Guangdong, Guizhou, Fujian, Taiwan, Gan, Xiang, Sichuan and other regions, especially in eastern Guangdong, central Guangdong, western Fujian, and southern Gan. The Hakka dialects and festival customs in different regions have long been different, but the dish of stuffed tofu has been preserved. It can be said that as long as it is in the Hakka area, stuffed tofu is still the protagonist on the table.
Stuffed tofu is not only a representative of Hakka cuisine, but also a business card of Hakka. © Kiki's gourmet factory
However, when the Hakka people leave the Hakka area and settle in other cities (non-Hakka areas), will the stuffed tofu that exists like the collective identity of the Hakka gradually disappear from their tables? Curious, I interviewed four Hakka friends (post-90s) and their parents (post-60s) who were born and raised in Guangzhou, and recalled the story between them and stuffed tofu.
(The names in the text are pseudonyms)
Ah Qi's parents, both Hakka from Meizhou, went to Guangzhou to study when they were young, and later stayed behind to settle down. Since birth, Ah Qi, who has lived in Guangzhou, is a Native of Guangzhou, but is also happy to mention his Hakka blood when others ask about his ancestral origins.
In the memory of Ah Qi's parents, when he was a child, his family was not rich, and he could only eat stuffed tofu with a fragrant meat flavor during the New Year's Festival. In the New Year's Pass, several neighbors who can make tofu often get together a piece of "spelling list" - there are beans out of beans, money is paid, and everyone makes a big pot of stuffed tofu to share. Chinese New Year's Eve evening, stuffed tofu is usually the first dish to be served, and the diffuse aroma of meat and beans marks the beginning of the Chinese New Year's Eve meal, and neighbors will exchange auspicious words to open their expectations for the New Year.
Nowadays, the conditions have become better, and people no longer need to "spell" a pot of stuffed tofu, but the custom of gathering together to eat New Year meals to pray for the New Year is still preserved. © WELL
After moving to Guangzhou, the Aqi family often made stuffed tofu to eat, but it was difficult to experience the intimacy of the villagers taking care of each other in the past, and only in the familiar taste would occasionally recall the big pot of "spelling" stuffed tofu that was full of hometown human feelings.
On the table of Hui Hui's family, it is also common to brew tofu nowadays. Huihui's mother, a Hakka family from Heyuan, Guangdong, moved to Guangzhou with her parents with her sister when she was young. Later, the sisters started their own families and lived close to each other.
Since I remembered, Hui Hui had been walking around her aunt's house very diligently. The two families gathered to eat together every three to five minutes, and stuffed tofu was also a regular customer at the family table. In Hui Hui's home, cooking is a group cooperation project: the elders' chefs, Hui Hui and cousins such as the youngsters are on the side, perhaps because of the large number of people, other people's two or three hours to do a pot of stuffed tofu, Hui Hui family only needs half an hour to complete.
When frying and brewing tofu, the heat is the key, and it is best to have a golden double sided and a slightly wrinkled skin without scorching black. © Kiki's DIY cuisine
Brewing tofu is also exquisite, and "stuffing" is particularly laborious. First use a knife to make a small hole in the center of the tofu, then carefully stuff the meat filling with chopsticks until it is just filled with holes and the meat filling does not protrude from the surface of the tofu. The filling should be moderate, too little is not enough to brew into the tofu, and too much will break the tofu. After the preparation is completed, it is necessary to go through two cooking processes: frying and simmering. First, fry the tofu on both sides in an iron pot until golden brown, sprinkle a little salt flower carefully to let the tofu taste. Then cook another casserole dish, add the stuffed tofu and simmer in the broth until the meat is cooked through and the hot pot is served.
Generally speaking, the meat filling should be selected with fatty fresh meat, and moderate fat provides a moist taste. However, the Hui Hui family usually uses leaner meat to chop the filling, and the tofu is fried more tenderly; before moving to the clay pot to stew, the bottom of the pot will be covered with a layer of carrots to increase the sweetness of the soup. Such a pot of more "healthy" stuffed tofu has less of an extensive feeling, but it has a "taste of home" that cannot be reproduced in the restaurant, and the moisturizer silently connects the affection between mother and daughter, grandchildren and sisters.
The Hakka people have an ancient saying: "It is better to sell the ancestral fields than to forget the ancestral words", which shows the importance attached to the Hakka dialect. But in fact, because of the long-term dispersion, Hakka dialect has evolved into a variety of accents, not to mention different provinces, even Hakka people in different counties in the same city will be forced to communicate in Mandarin because of "ten different sounds", not to mention the second generation of immigrants who have left the Hakka area.
Xiao Zhu's mother, a Hakka from Meizhou, traveled to Guangzhou alone when she was young, met Zhu's father from Yunfu and settled down. Since other relatives still live in Meizhou Hakka hometown, Mother Zhu will return to her hometown every year to visit her relatives and often make Hakka cuisine, which can be said to have always maintained a close relationship with her hometown. For the Xiao Zhu family, stuffed tofu is a veritable "home cooking" and a very popular hard dish during the New Year's Festival, often being served quickly when it is served.
If a person is out of the dialect environment for too long, he may gradually forget the local pronunciation, but it is difficult to erase the taste of the hometown that he has tasted from memory. © Black pollution
But even after growing up in a family with such a strong Hakka cultural atmosphere, Xiao Zhu only spoke Cantonese at home from childhood to adulthood, and his mastery of Hakka has always stayed at the stage of "understanding most of the daily language, but not speaking". When he was a teenager, Xiao Zhu returned to his grandmother's house in Meizhou to attend school for several years. In retrospect, the biggest discomfort at that time was the "language barrier". Hakka friends seem to be not good at dealing with people who can't speak Hakka, and will always inadvertently ignore Xiao Zhu who "will listen or not speak" on various occasions.
When meeting Hakka compatriots outside, Xiao Zhu usually takes the initiative to say that his mother is Hakka, but when the other party asks him if he can speak Hakka, he can only smile with embarrassment, and the dialogue ends.
The same situation occurred in the families of tens of millions of Hakka immigrants. Hui Hui's mother has a good language talent, and she has mastered Cantonese in her teens, while Hui Hui's father is from Shanxi, so Hui Hui's family usually communicates in Pu Cantonese bilingual language and does not use Hakka. In the Aqi family, although the parents are Both Meizhou Hakka, the township sounds of different townships cannot be communicated, so daily communication is Mandarin, and Ah Qi's environment for learning Hakka dialect is completely absent.
To a large extent, language affects people's self-identity. Ah Qi, Hui Hui and Xiao Zhu, who are related to Hakka but cannot speak Hakka, are invariably more emotionally familiar with and recognize the city of Guangzhou, where they grew up. However, when the steaming pot of stuffed tofu at home is served to the table, they will still recall their relationship with the Hakka group in the familiar aroma; the next time they meet other Hakkas, they will still feel more kind and slightly embarrassed to come forward to talk.
Traditional Hakka dishes are usually heavy in oil and salt, and stuffed tofu is no exception. However, in Guangzhou, the stuffed tofu that was originally "heavy and good to eat" seems to have generally become lighter. The aforementioned HuiHui family's stuffed tofu method is obviously more healthy, in her words, "this is healthy". Ah Qi, too, said that home-made stuffed tofu was much lighter than what he ate at a Hakka relative's house in Meizhou. If you think about it, whether this is an active pursuit of healthy eating choices, or unconsciously assimilated by Cantonese cuisine and losing the personality of some Hakka cuisine, it may be difficult to determine. But what is certain is that the stuffed tofu that leaves the Hakka area is more or less going through a process of "de-Hakkaization", especially for the Hakka people who have taken root in a foreign country.
Even in the Hakka area, the taste of stuffed tofu will vary depending on the preferences of different people. © Civilization password
Xiao Yao's ancestors were Hakka families in Huizhou. Although Xiao Yao's grandparents moved to Guangzhou when they were young, the family still retains a grand ancestral hall in Huizhou. Xiao's father was born and raised in Guangzhou. Unlike the "second generation of immigrants" after the 90s, the descendants of the post-60s Hakka immigrants will listen to and speak Hakka dialect, thinking that they are both Guangzhouese and Hakka. When he was a child, he often ate stuffed tofu, and he also learned the method of this dish with his family, but later the taste gradually became more and more extensive, and the stuffed tofu became less and less eaten.
In Xiao Yao's generation, there was basically no trace of Hakka culture in the family. Because her parents were very busy, the cooking was directly handed over to the housekeeping aunt from abroad, and in Xiao Yao's memory, she had never eaten stuffed tofu at home, and she did not feel that this dish had any special significance. As for Hakka, it is even more difficult to speak, and when listening to grandparents communicate in Hakka, they can only understand a few words. The concept of "Hakka" was just a distant blood symbol for her.
In fact, the Cantonization of stuffed tofu flavor may not be a bad thing, but this is only the beginning of the "de-Hakkaization" of stuffed tofu. Furthermore, the craft of making stuffed tofu is gradually "lost". In the four families interviewed, the practice of brewing tofu was basically only passed on to the parents of the post-60s generation, and even if the post-90s had the heart to participate, they only stayed at the level of laying the groundwork. The most thorough thing is that the dish of stuffed tofu "disappears" from the table of the Hakka family represented by Xiao Yaojia.
To some extent, the fading of stuffed tofu from the life of the Hakka people and the "de-Hakkaization" of the Hakka people are carried out simultaneously. So, when stuffed tofu disappears from the Hakka table, does the family also go to complete De-Hakkaization?
Ah Qi's attitude toward this was calm and pessimistic: "Yes, especially if my partner is not a Hakka."
It turns out that within three generations, "stuffed tofu disappears from the Hakka table" may become a reality, and the demise of culture can be so rapid, I can't help but feel sorry when I think about it.
But is reality really so sad?
The many migrations over thousands of years have made the Hakka people develop the habit of being a home for guests all the time and quickly adapting to the new environment, and the brewed tofu itself is a product of local conditions.
In order to avoid chasing soldiers and avoiding too many contradictions between natives and tourists, most of the early Hakka people chose sparsely populated and remote mountainous areas. Although the farmland is scarce and there is not enough grain, the mountain spring water between the mountains is pure and sweet, which is just used to make tofu; the grass and trees in the mountains and forests are lush, so they collect firewood and cook food in a fried and stewed way to replenish calories.
Nowadays, some street food stalls in Hakka towns can also see the figure of stuffed tofu, but the practice is less exquisite, and the overall style is more extensive. © Black pollution
Because everything was difficult at the beginning of the move, it was necessary to provide energy and maintain physical strength with high salt and high fat foods. Nowadays, the times have changed, the quality of life has improved, and the brewed tofu that has become light and delicious is probably also the active choice of the Hakka people to adapt to the changes of the times and the environment, which is not the helplessness of being assimilated by other cultures.
When asked, "How would you feel if the dish of stuffed tofu disappeared?" At that time, several post-90s generations have said that there will be "regret" and "loss".
As Xiao Zhu said, he actually does not like to brew tofu, but from childhood to adulthood, he has been accustomed to eating, and now he has lived independently from home for many years, if he does not eat the stuffed tofu made by his mother when he comes home, even if his tongue does not want to miss it, his heart will be a little lost.
After the interview, Ah Qi, who had a heavy sense of crisis, sighed that he should quickly learn to learn to make stuffed tofu and practice More Hakka dialect when he had the opportunity. She wants to consciously pass on the Hakka culture and avoid the demise of the family Hakka cultural genes.
In contrast, the post-60s generation seems more confident and calm. Hui Hui's mother just replied with a categorical sentence of "it is impossible to disappear" and ended the discussion of the topic. Xiao's father said, "Even if you don't do it at home, you can still eat it in the restaurant." The implication is probably that it is impossible to imagine the possibility of the dish "disappearing". In the face of the post-95 daughter's strangeness about stuffed tofu and Hakka culture, Xiao's father is also very open, "Today's rich dishes are a good thing, and eating or not eating stuffed tofu is purely a personal taste habit." And the Internet makes the acquisition of knowledge more convenient, any customs and customs, as long as you have the heart to go online to understand, when Xiao Yao is interested in his family's culture, he naturally has the opportunity to learn."
Perhaps, "stuffed tofu disappears from the Hakka table" is originally a false proposition.
After all, people will always be aroused by three meals in a day, and in countless evoking times, as long as they still retain a little bit of memory about stuffed tofu, it is difficult to completely give up this dish. And this dish full of the wisdom of Hakka life will also occupy a central position on the table in the Hakka area as usual, involving the Hakka people scattered everywhere.