When my friend Josephine approached me about contributing to The Weekend Chef, I immediately knew what I would be cooking. My favourite traditional Hakka dish, lui cha. My family is steeped in tradition, so my choice of dish was pretty much a given! I also thought it would be interesting to give the meal arrangement concept a twist, since all the other chefs used more than one dish to create a meal.

I associate lui cha with the gathering of family and friends at the dinner table. In short, it’s a dish that brings people together, which explains my soft spot for it. Since it’s purely vegetarian (if cooked without dried shrimps) and soup-based, it’s also packed with nutrition and light on the stomach. Best of all it’s wonderfully simple to prepare, so much so that I cook it fortnightly. In fact my karaoke group warms up their vocal chords with lui cha in my house before heading over to Josephine’s house for their crooning session!

The only ‘drawback’ about lui cha is that the soup is an acquired taste. The ingredients aren’t what you’d normally include in your diet and the initial taste could be a little coarse. Ideally the rice and vegetable should be ’swimming’ in soup, but novices are recommended to gradually add on the soup instead of immediately flooding their bowl.

Lui cha is the perfect meal on days when cooking is a headache. Just chop up whatever vegetables you have in your fridge, make the garlic rice and soup and settle down to enjoy the inner warmth.