Chef Peter Kwong – Have You Eaten? A Memoir of Growing Up Around Food in Hong Kong. Join in person or virtual on the library Facebook and YouTube. Thursday, September 28 at 6:00pm. “Have You Eaten” was a phrase that in the old days in Hong Kong, the locals would use to greet each other instead of saying, “How are you?” Food was scarce in the ’50s when Kwong was born. First, the Japanese invasion has just ended in 1945, and then the communists took over. Chinese folks would escape to Hong Kong to avoid being persecuted. Almost overnight, the tiny island which normally housed 20,000 villagers became crammed with 2 million or more refugees, all fighting for the same necessities – food, shelter, clothes, and medical supplies. The first half of Kwong’s book is filled with stories and pictures of the old Hong Kong – rickshaws, temples, marketplace, roadside hawkers, and ‘Dai Pai Dong’ (food stalls). They have all disappeared, replaced by high-rise condos instead. Also, there are pictures of different festivals with feasts that feature all kinds of foods. The second part of his book features recipes that Kwong has gathered from his cooking classes, dishes from Eastern China (Shanghai), Northern China (Pekingese), Western China (Szechuan), and Southern China (Canton). The recipes are all easy and simple to make (and simply delicious), acclaimed by all his students; as they can all be produced in one’s own kitchen.
Copies of Kwong’s books will be available for purchase.
Chef Peter Kwong – Have You Eaten?
