CIP4 Family Dishes with family history –
“Salted and Smoked ma yau fish” (臘馬友魚)
– By Siu Law
I can name myself as a Cheung Chau person (長洲人) because early in 1907, few years after HK was rented to British government for 99 years in 1898 as colony, my great great grandfather together with my young great grandfather moved to HK from Gwangdong Zhongshan. The reason for why they choose to stay in Cheung Chau was anonymous, but for sure some of their friends or business partners were there. Anyway, soon after they move to HK, my great grand mother also followed them and clearly marked my family’s migrating point. Since then, my great grand father get married in HK, my grandfather’s generation as well as my father’s generation was born in Cheung Chau. They rarely go back to Zhongshan and had no direct liaison with relatives there. Although my generation was not born and lives in Cheung Chau, I treat Cheung Chau as my “hometown” and share an obvious Cheung Chau person identity as my father does, simply because my “ancestor house” is there and I need to go to Cheung Chau for tomb sweeping, all my ancestors since my great great grandparents’ generations buried there.
Cheung Chau is a small island. It is a fishing village and not much farmland can be found. According to historical information, Cheung Chau became a gathering point for fishermen since Ming Dynasty and the land market (市集) was developed in Ching Dynasty. When my ancestor came to Cheung chau, there were just around 3000 fisherman and 5000 people living in the land. Although we are not fishermen, our family dishes relate closely with fish products. The reason is simply because fish products are so common and easily access in fishing village like Cheung Chau. Until now, you can still see many seafood / fish related products stores everywhere, like shop selling dried shrimp, salty fish, maw, dried shrimp paste, special kind of fishball…
As a Cheung Chau people, I like eating seafood related products, e.g. dried shrimp paste with steam pork and fishball. When I ask my father about our family dishes, most of them related to seafood products like maw that would only eat in celebration time, “salted and fresh” fish (鹹鮮魚) in daily meals. But what surprised me is to know about “salted and smoked ma yau fish” (臘馬友魚), which I had never tried before, is also an important family dish and could even reflect the development and changing of HK society.
Most of us know what is salty fish (鹹魚), coz we could easily found them in the market. But “salted and smoked fish” (臘魚) may not be so common, as we could only found “salted and smoked” duck or sausage but not fish in the market. As for “salted and fresh” fish (鹹鮮魚), it maybe a common method for us to keep fish for more days, similar method could be use to store meat as well. Anyway, all of the mentioned stuff is for preservation needs and reflects a different duration of preservation period. Salty fish could keep for the longest time among the three method, follow by “salted and smoked fish” and lastly the “salted and fresh” fish (鹹鮮魚).
It is not common for normal family to make salty fish (鹹魚) cause we need a very sunny places and takes very long time to dry it. On contrary, it is very easy to make “salted and fresh fish” (鹹鮮魚), you can simply paste some salt on the meat and keep it in the fridge, and can enable the meat to keep for 1 – 2 days. The freshness would still be there together with the salty taste when you steam it. Then how about “salted and smoked fish” (臘魚)? The making method is similar with the “salted and fresh fish” (鹹鮮魚), but what makes it difference related to the drying part. After putting the salt in the fish, you need to put it in a cool place and let the wind to dry it for few days. As there is a spacious roof in my Cheung Chau home, it could enable the drying process go smoothly. But why I have never tried this important family dish before? I think maybe because fridge is so common nowadays, so we no need to use the “salted and smoked” method to store fish anymore. But for my father’s generation during his study age, it is obviously not the case.
As mentioned, Cheung Chau is only a small island. There was no English teaching medium school in my father’s study period. In order to seek a better education, my grandmother managed to send my father and all his six siblings to city area to further their secondary studies. My father is the third child, by the time he went to Wan Chai to study secondary school, my big Uncle and big aunt was already studying in Shau Kei Wan and Tsim Sha Tsui respectively. Unlike nowadays’ convenient and efficient travel, people need to take very slow ferry to Central, and it would be too tire for students to go outside and come back to Cheung Chau daily. To settle this problem, they need to stay in relatives’ home as “visitor”, in my father’s term it calls “搭食搭住”. It is also uneasy to find a big house to cater all the siblings, that’s why my father and siblings were scattered into different relatives’ home in different location. While my father lives with his uncle in North Point, my big aunt lives with her aunt in Hung Hum. My father commented my generation are very lucky because we can live together and take care by our parents in study period.
We all know 50 years ago’s Hong Kong is not a rich society, people are comparatively poor and many people are living in the same flat. People’s bonding and human relationship is also stronger than nowadays. It’s lucky but also common for people to live with relatives when they are in needed. In my father’s case, living with relatives could also save some money for rent. In order to compensate his uncle, my father recalled whenever he and his siblings went back to Cheung Chau for weekend holiday, they would gives some “salted and smoked Ma Yau fish” for their relatives as “rent”, because Ma Yau is a cheap and common food sauce in Cheung Chau. City people have comparatively less chance to access to fish.
To conclude, we are lucky in nowadays as we could easily access to so many things and foods. However, something is also missing under the fast development. Human bonding is not as strong as previous generations. When I heard about my father’s story, it also reminds me about the Ethnic Minorities in nowadays HK. When one new family migrate from their home country to HK, they must found to live near their relatives, that’s why, we can see a Little Nepal in Jordan area, a little Thailand in Kowloon city, as well as a little Pakistan in Yuen Long. Human bounding is still strong for the EM, but how about the local Chinese in our generation?
______________________________________________________________
Ingredients (To be modify)
“Salted and Smoked ma yau fish” (臘馬友魚)
– By Siu Law
I can name myself as a Cheung Chau person (長洲人) because early in 1907, few years after HK was rented to British government for 99 years in 1898 as colony, my great great grandfather together with my young great grandfather moved to HK from Gwangdong Zhongshan. The reason for why they choose to stay in Cheung Chau was anonymous, but for sure some of their friends or business partners were there. Anyway, soon after they move to HK, my great grand mother also followed them and clearly marked my family’s migrating point. Since then, my great grand father get married in HK, my grandfather’s generation as well as my father’s generation was born in Cheung Chau. They rarely go back to Zhongshan and had no direct liaison with relatives there. Although my generation was not born and lives in Cheung Chau, I treat Cheung Chau as my “hometown” and share an obvious Cheung Chau person identity as my father does, simply because my “ancestor house” is there and I need to go to Cheung Chau for tomb sweeping, all my ancestors since my great great grandparents’ generations buried there.
Cheung Chau is a small island. It is a fishing village and not much farmland can be found. According to historical information, Cheung Chau became a gathering point for fishermen since Ming Dynasty and the land market (市集) was developed in Ching Dynasty. When my ancestor came to Cheung chau, there were just around 3000 fisherman and 5000 people living in the land. Although we are not fishermen, our family dishes relate closely with fish products. The reason is simply because fish products are so common and easily access in fishing village like Cheung Chau. Until now, you can still see many seafood / fish related products stores everywhere, like shop selling dried shrimp, salty fish, maw, dried shrimp paste, special kind of fishball…
As a Cheung Chau people, I like eating seafood related products, e.g. dried shrimp paste with steam pork and fishball. When I ask my father about our family dishes, most of them related to seafood products like maw that would only eat in celebration time, “salted and fresh” fish (鹹鮮魚) in daily meals. But what surprised me is to know about “salted and smoked ma yau fish” (臘馬友魚), which I had never tried before, is also an important family dish and could even reflect the development and changing of HK society.
Most of us know what is salty fish (鹹魚), coz we could easily found them in the market. But “salted and smoked fish” (臘魚) may not be so common, as we could only found “salted and smoked” duck or sausage but not fish in the market. As for “salted and fresh” fish (鹹鮮魚), it maybe a common method for us to keep fish for more days, similar method could be use to store meat as well. Anyway, all of the mentioned stuff is for preservation needs and reflects a different duration of preservation period. Salty fish could keep for the longest time among the three method, follow by “salted and smoked fish” and lastly the “salted and fresh” fish (鹹鮮魚).
It is not common for normal family to make salty fish (鹹魚) cause we need a very sunny places and takes very long time to dry it. On contrary, it is very easy to make “salted and fresh fish” (鹹鮮魚), you can simply paste some salt on the meat and keep it in the fridge, and can enable the meat to keep for 1 – 2 days. The freshness would still be there together with the salty taste when you steam it. Then how about “salted and smoked fish” (臘魚)? The making method is similar with the “salted and fresh fish” (鹹鮮魚), but what makes it difference related to the drying part. After putting the salt in the fish, you need to put it in a cool place and let the wind to dry it for few days. As there is a spacious roof in my Cheung Chau home, it could enable the drying process go smoothly. But why I have never tried this important family dish before? I think maybe because fridge is so common nowadays, so we no need to use the “salted and smoked” method to store fish anymore. But for my father’s generation during his study age, it is obviously not the case.
As mentioned, Cheung Chau is only a small island. There was no English teaching medium school in my father’s study period. In order to seek a better education, my grandmother managed to send my father and all his six siblings to city area to further their secondary studies. My father is the third child, by the time he went to Wan Chai to study secondary school, my big Uncle and big aunt was already studying in Shau Kei Wan and Tsim Sha Tsui respectively. Unlike nowadays’ convenient and efficient travel, people need to take very slow ferry to Central, and it would be too tire for students to go outside and come back to Cheung Chau daily. To settle this problem, they need to stay in relatives’ home as “visitor”, in my father’s term it calls “搭食搭住”. It is also uneasy to find a big house to cater all the siblings, that’s why my father and siblings were scattered into different relatives’ home in different location. While my father lives with his uncle in North Point, my big aunt lives with her aunt in Hung Hum. My father commented my generation are very lucky because we can live together and take care by our parents in study period.
We all know 50 years ago’s Hong Kong is not a rich society, people are comparatively poor and many people are living in the same flat. People’s bonding and human relationship is also stronger than nowadays. It’s lucky but also common for people to live with relatives when they are in needed. In my father’s case, living with relatives could also save some money for rent. In order to compensate his uncle, my father recalled whenever he and his siblings went back to Cheung Chau for weekend holiday, they would gives some “salted and smoked Ma Yau fish” for their relatives as “rent”, because Ma Yau is a cheap and common food sauce in Cheung Chau. City people have comparatively less chance to access to fish.
To conclude, we are lucky in nowadays as we could easily access to so many things and foods. However, something is also missing under the fast development. Human bonding is not as strong as previous generations. When I heard about my father’s story, it also reminds me about the Ethnic Minorities in nowadays HK. When one new family migrate from their home country to HK, they must found to live near their relatives, that’s why, we can see a Little Nepal in Jordan area, a little Thailand in Kowloon city, as well as a little Pakistan in Yuen Long. Human bounding is still strong for the EM, but how about the local Chinese in our generation?
______________________________________________________________
Ingredients (To be modify)
- Ma Yau Fish x 1 pcs
- Salt
Methods
- Wash and clean the Ma Yau Fish
- Put some salt on the fish
- Put it in a cool place and dry it properly with wind
- Steam the dry fish when you need to eat
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