My first impression of Chiu Chow stemmed from the dining experiences with my family at a Chiu Chownese restaurant that we used to visit very often when I was young, the crispy Chiu Chow noddle served with sugar and vinegar dip is definitely my favorite dish at all times.
I still remembered how my grandparents who could only speak Cantonese were very eager to show us some of the Chiu Chownese phrases they learnt from a TV advertisement such as “ jia bung” which literally refers to “ Let’s start eating” ; I found it interesting and I always repeated the phrases after them. I am always grateful that my family love trying different types of cuisine and this is how I started to get to know a variety of food and eating habits from different cultures.
I have never thought of the far-reaching impact that the culinary culture and discourse could serve in promoting the sustainability of certain dialect as well as the awareness of ethnic minorities in our community until I started to work with my groupmates on this issues. It was great getting to meet the Wu’s family, they have been very welcoming and willing to share some thoughts with us. Given the fact that Hong Kong does not provide a favourable environment for family- run businesses, I truly appreciate how the three generations have been working closely together in their restaurant, insisting on serving some of the traditional Chiu Chow dishes that are not commonly found elsewhere. Even if they are not aware of ,they are indeed making tremendous efforts in showing the unique Chiu Chow culture to the community and I am convinced that this would be one of the most vivid and powerful means in reaching the younger generations.
