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The Hakka Cookbook: Chinese Soul Food from around the World
Veteran food writer Linda Lau Anusasananan opens the world of Hakka cooking to Western audiences in this fascinating chronicle that traces the rustic cuisine to its roots in a history of multiple migrations. Beginning in her grandmother’s kitchen in California, Anusasananan travels to her family’s home in China, and from there fans out to embrace Hakka cooking across the globe—including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, Peru, and beyond. More than thirty home cooks and chefs share their experiences of the Hakka diaspora as they contribute over 140 recipes for everyday Chinese comfort food as well as more elaborate festive specialties.
This book likens Hakka cooking to a nomadic type of “soul food,” or a hearty cooking tradition that responds to a shared history of hardship and oppression. Earthy, honest, and robust, it reflects the diversity of the estimated 75 million Hakka living in China and greater Asia, and in scattered communities around the world—yet still retains a core flavor and technique. Anusasananan’s deep personal connection to the tradition, together with her extensive experience testing and developing recipes, make this book both an intimate journey of discovery and an exciting introduction to a vibrant cuisine.
This book likens Hakka cooking to a nomadic type of “soul food,” or a hearty cooking tradition that responds to a shared history of hardship and oppression. Earthy, honest, and robust, it reflects the diversity of the estimated 75 million Hakka living in China and greater Asia, and in scattered communities around the world—yet still retains a core flavor and technique. Anusasananan’s deep personal connection to the tradition, together with her extensive experience testing and developing recipes, make this book both an intimate journey of discovery and an exciting introduction to a vibrant cuisine.
312 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2012
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166 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 24, 2013
Yes, this is my mom's book, but that's not why I'm giving it 5 stars. Mom's book is way more than a cookbook, although her recipes are the tightest you'll ever find. I watched her slave in her kitchen over and over until each was perfected. So yes, the recipes work and the food is good! But this is my family's history. It's my mom searching for her Hakka history through the food of her Popo, grandmother. There are vignettes of my great-grandmother coming through Angel Island, divorcing her husband, moving to all-white Paradise California and teaching my mom and uncle Chinese over Chinese pork hash. My mom addresses what it means to be Hakka not only through her own history, but by traveling to where the Hakka diaspora spread including India, Jamaica and Peru. She follows the food and the stories that brought it there. It's a great book. And I'm not the only one who thinks so. Martha Stewart, The Wall Street Journal among others and most recently the Gourmande World Cookbook Competition placed her first in the Chinese cuisine category. Give it a try! You'll love it.
October 25, 2020
Linda Anusasananan has written a remarkable cookbook, weaving together a poignant memoir and an in-depth exploration of Hakka cuisine. This work is an essential for any Asian cookbook library.
Grace Young
We are fortunate to finally have a long-overdue Hakka cookbook. This lovely, well-researched book is loaded with flavorful, homespun foods from Hakka families around the world. It is the essential guide to Hakka culture and cuisine...
Jacqueline M. Newman, editor-in-chief of Flavor and Fortune
A delicious food memoir balanced with personal anecdotes, history, and easy-to follow recipes, The Hakka Cookbook will delight any palate, from the connoisseur to the novice cook who wants to explore the unique cuisine of the Hakka people. Make room on the shelf for this must-have, well researched tome and let expert food writer Linda Lau Anusasananan guide you though her lifelong love affair with the cuisine she grew up with.
Corinne Trang
Grace Young
We are fortunate to finally have a long-overdue Hakka cookbook. This lovely, well-researched book is loaded with flavorful, homespun foods from Hakka families around the world. It is the essential guide to Hakka culture and cuisine...
Jacqueline M. Newman, editor-in-chief of Flavor and Fortune
A delicious food memoir balanced with personal anecdotes, history, and easy-to follow recipes, The Hakka Cookbook will delight any palate, from the connoisseur to the novice cook who wants to explore the unique cuisine of the Hakka people. Make room on the shelf for this must-have, well researched tome and let expert food writer Linda Lau Anusasananan guide you though her lifelong love affair with the cuisine she grew up with.
Corinne Trang
February 3, 2013
Just started going through this book as I'd ordered it recently because Alan Lau, whom I know, and is the sister of the author, has illustrated this book. It's an innovative and interesting cook book to read because it contains not just recipes (although the recipes are explained well reflecting
Anusasanan's years of experience being the food editor for Sunset magazine)but some great stories and history on the Hakka people, culture, and food.
Anusasanan's years of experience being the food editor for Sunset magazine)but some great stories and history on the Hakka people, culture, and food.
October 21, 2025
Great ingredients list in glossary, a number of interesting strategies to create the requisite flavours.
February 4, 2013
This is an interesting book on many levels. Firstly one explaining and sharing much of the Hakka ("guest people") cuisine from China and secondly for being inspired by cuisine from Hakka-families around the world, sharing cultural infusion and styles along the way.
Beginning with a very detailed, yet easy-to-read, explanation about the who, what and why behind Hakka, which helps shine light on a relatively unknown element of Chinese culture and life, the book then gives a detailed look at the cuisine that defines Hakka. Mixing in fact, the author's own journey and, of course, experiences and dishes from around the world, the author mixes information together with the textual dexterity equivalent of a master chef, adding fine flavourings, textures and colour to make an incredibly powerful dish (book).
This does feel like a book you should not rush. In some ways it does not matter if you never will cook a single recipe from it, yet it would be a shame. As you read through the book you can begin to understand that not all "foreign" food is, in fact, that foreign what you look at it. Sure, localised spices, ingredients and influences prevail, but not to the extent of being totally alien and unrecognisable. Just taking one dish at random from the book "five-spice potatoes and Chinese bacon", said to be a Hakka version of meat and potatoes. Arrowhead (a crunchier, slightly bitter potato equivalent) can be used when available or, of course potatoes). A thicker sauce, a smokey-sweet-spicy bacon and a few spices. A different dish but then again not a radically different dish.
There is so much more to this book than just the 140-odd recipes. Personal stories, cultural references and fusional changes are all mixed in and around the recipes. Blink and you might miss a nugget or two of great information. The recipes themselves are very well written, detailed, explanatory and draw you in just by their descriptions alone. It would have been wonderful to have had colour photographs of the dishes - the omission of this is probably the only criticism here. Minor grumbles such as the lack of metric measures alongside their imperial counterparts (sticking a conversion table at the back is not the same) and a typical preparation/cooking time estimation are valid but the book's overall "wow!" factor manages to hide these things in the shadows. Just the lack of photographs take away a few exclamation marks from wow! One can just imagine how this would be with some scene-setting photographs of Chinese culture and each and every dish. It would easily be worth adding a few dollars to the price.
A detailed bibliography (for further reading) and a very comprehensive index round off this book. As it is, this book just squeezes in to get a five YUM (star) rating. With the aforementioned photography it would have been a slam dunk five YUM (and can we add a gold star?) rating, no doubt about it.
The Hakka Cookbook: Chinese Soul Food from around the World, written by Linda Lau Anusasananan and published by University of California Press. ISBN 9780520273283, 312 pages. Typical price: USD40. YYYY.
// This review appeared in YUM.fi and is reproduced here in full with permission of YUM.fi. YUM.fi celebrates the worldwide diversity of food and drink, as presented through the humble book. Whether you call it a cookery book, cook book, recipe book or something else (in the language of your choice) YUM will provide you with news and reviews of the latest books on the marketplace. //
Beginning with a very detailed, yet easy-to-read, explanation about the who, what and why behind Hakka, which helps shine light on a relatively unknown element of Chinese culture and life, the book then gives a detailed look at the cuisine that defines Hakka. Mixing in fact, the author's own journey and, of course, experiences and dishes from around the world, the author mixes information together with the textual dexterity equivalent of a master chef, adding fine flavourings, textures and colour to make an incredibly powerful dish (book).
This does feel like a book you should not rush. In some ways it does not matter if you never will cook a single recipe from it, yet it would be a shame. As you read through the book you can begin to understand that not all "foreign" food is, in fact, that foreign what you look at it. Sure, localised spices, ingredients and influences prevail, but not to the extent of being totally alien and unrecognisable. Just taking one dish at random from the book "five-spice potatoes and Chinese bacon", said to be a Hakka version of meat and potatoes. Arrowhead (a crunchier, slightly bitter potato equivalent) can be used when available or, of course potatoes). A thicker sauce, a smokey-sweet-spicy bacon and a few spices. A different dish but then again not a radically different dish.
There is so much more to this book than just the 140-odd recipes. Personal stories, cultural references and fusional changes are all mixed in and around the recipes. Blink and you might miss a nugget or two of great information. The recipes themselves are very well written, detailed, explanatory and draw you in just by their descriptions alone. It would have been wonderful to have had colour photographs of the dishes - the omission of this is probably the only criticism here. Minor grumbles such as the lack of metric measures alongside their imperial counterparts (sticking a conversion table at the back is not the same) and a typical preparation/cooking time estimation are valid but the book's overall "wow!" factor manages to hide these things in the shadows. Just the lack of photographs take away a few exclamation marks from wow! One can just imagine how this would be with some scene-setting photographs of Chinese culture and each and every dish. It would easily be worth adding a few dollars to the price.
A detailed bibliography (for further reading) and a very comprehensive index round off this book. As it is, this book just squeezes in to get a five YUM (star) rating. With the aforementioned photography it would have been a slam dunk five YUM (and can we add a gold star?) rating, no doubt about it.
The Hakka Cookbook: Chinese Soul Food from around the World, written by Linda Lau Anusasananan and published by University of California Press. ISBN 9780520273283, 312 pages. Typical price: USD40. YYYY.
// This review appeared in YUM.fi and is reproduced here in full with permission of YUM.fi. YUM.fi celebrates the worldwide diversity of food and drink, as presented through the humble book. Whether you call it a cookery book, cook book, recipe book or something else (in the language of your choice) YUM will provide you with news and reviews of the latest books on the marketplace. //
December 22, 2012
well-written, recipes that are easy to follow and interesting and yummy!
March 30, 2013
Not just a cookbook, interesting stories along with many recipes.
April 9, 2013
Would have been a great book if it is also accompanied by pictures of the food. I am Hakka myself and still need the visuals. Can't imagine how non-Hakka interpret the finished products
July 18, 2013
I'm going to post a blog review on this book for a variety of reasons. Borrowed it from the library and going to take it out again when I get some time later this summer. It is more than a cookbook.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews