My son's Lei cha

Lei char is a favourite Hakka dish. It is vegetarian to start with and is definitely very healthy food.

Lei cha has a long history in the world of culinary arts, as old as the Hakkas themselves.

"Lei cha (Chinese: 擂茶; pinyin: léi chá; literally: 'Thunder tea'; pronounced [lěi ʈʂʰǎ]) or ground tea is a traditional Southern Chinese tea-based beverage or gruel. The custom of Lei cha began in the Three Kingdoms period or even Han Dynasty. It is very prevalent among Hakka people in Hakka regions of Taiwan."  Wikipedia.

Green tea leaves form the soup base, to which an assortment of blended (ground) peanuts, mint leaves, sesame seeds, basil leaves, perilla leaves and mung beans are added, boiled for quite a while.

Several vegetables are then cut up finely and stir fried individually like changkok manis, curly mustard greens, tofu, pickled radish, long beans, etc. They are then put together over rice, or served separately with a bowl of the lei cha soup.

We used to frequent a Hakka stall in Miri and would have this special dish at least once a week. Now that we are older, we do not "go to town" so often. If you do, we don't hang out for long hours.







However recently my son made his own lei char in Perth with almost all the  proper ingredients. He even had perilla leaves.