Taiwan is already home to national fried rice, beef noodle soup, and braised pork over rice cooking contests. Now Taiwan’s Hakka has launched yet another cook-off featuring one of its signature dishes.
Perhaps the most representative dish in Taiwan’s Hakka cuisine is Hakka stir fry. The dish consists of pork strips, dry squid strips, Chinese celery, and green onions seasoned with soy sauce stir fried together on high heat. The key to getting the dish right is cooking with the grease coming from the fatty pork strips. The dish was originally prepared by Hakka people during the Lunar New Year to thank the gods for a year filled with blessings.
Now, for the first time, the Hakka Affairs Council will be hosting a nationwide Hakka stir fry contest. Only restaurants that offer the dish on their menus are eligible to take part. The dish is popular in Taiwan, but cooking it to perfection is far from easy. Through this contest, the council hopes to single out the chef who does this classic Hakka dish the best.