Rainy day in Tai O
Today was a rainy day, I visited
to Tai O and spent 5 hours to walk around there, but the rain hasn’t stop
during the whole day. It was fewer tourists visited the fishing village and I
try to capture the resident daily routine during in the rainy day. Unfortunately,
there was not many store opening in today, therefore I visited a few stores
which sells dried food and homemade steamed tea bun store and have a chat with
the owner. Majority of the stores opened in Tai O are actually family
businesses.
An owner from Soon Lee Hou (順利號) shared her thoughts about the techniques to preserve the harvest of fish, she explained that there is a difference between machine-made and homemade. For example the flavor, as the machine-made adopts the same time, heat and ingredients of seasoning in order to remain in control of the quality. It can help reduce the cost and mass production in the market however in return it lacks flavor in the fish. On the other hand if it is homemade, they make use of the heat of the sunlight, wind and environment of this place to dry the fish. Aside from using the natural resources for drying the fish, because not all fish are the same therefore for each different shape, size and weight of fish requires different components of salt in order to capture the essence of food. Additionally, the climate and environment of Tai O is suitable for preserving the harvested fish. As the elder community were born and raised in Tai O, it has become part of their life, like a religious culture to them in which they will pass on their techniques to the next generation. However because today isn’t like before, majority of those born in Tai O would much rather come to Hong Kong in order to find a job with more salary than what they can already receive in Tai O, therefore the elder’s would only pass on the technique if their younger generations would like to continue this technique to preserve fish.
An owner from Soon Lee Hou (順利號) shared her thoughts about the techniques to preserve the harvest of fish, she explained that there is a difference between machine-made and homemade. For example the flavor, as the machine-made adopts the same time, heat and ingredients of seasoning in order to remain in control of the quality. It can help reduce the cost and mass production in the market however in return it lacks flavor in the fish. On the other hand if it is homemade, they make use of the heat of the sunlight, wind and environment of this place to dry the fish. Aside from using the natural resources for drying the fish, because not all fish are the same therefore for each different shape, size and weight of fish requires different components of salt in order to capture the essence of food. Additionally, the climate and environment of Tai O is suitable for preserving the harvested fish. As the elder community were born and raised in Tai O, it has become part of their life, like a religious culture to them in which they will pass on their techniques to the next generation. However because today isn’t like before, majority of those born in Tai O would much rather come to Hong Kong in order to find a job with more salary than what they can already receive in Tai O, therefore the elder’s would only pass on the technique if their younger generations would like to continue this technique to preserve fish.
(1) Rainy day of Tai O stilt house
(2) Soon Lee Hou (順利號), a store which sells dried food
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