Hakka Lei-Cha 擂茶, Kelapa Sawit, Kulai 古来沙威

Hakka Lei-Cha 擂茶 is one of my favorite traditional food for all time, it requires complicated steps  and numerous of different ingredients to process. Lei-Cha also called Hum-Cha 咸茶, it's because it tasted salty, mild and make you feel comfortable and delightful. It has a unique fragrant and layers of enjoyable tastes, and most importantly, it deeply represents the profound spirit of Hakka, that friendly, hardworking, simple and less-demanding of life. Lei-Cha was very popular and likable for most people, and due to the long process requirement, you can't easily find Lei-Cha from any place else.

The traditional ingredient for Lei-Cha including peanut, sesame, tea leaf, mint's leaf , herb's leaf and etc to mix and stir in a big bowl with a big chunky stick into paste, and pouring hot water to mix with the paste to become the soup. The mixing and stirring with the chunky stick gesture is called "Lei" in Hakka, and that's how it called "Lei Cha".
Worth to mention is the herb leaf, they called it 苦丽心, just like the way it called, it taste bitter; but it help to digest and cool down body temperature.



For the main food itself, it's mixed with different vegetables such as deep fried chopped bean curd with green garlic 豆干炒大蒜, 树籽菜or马尼菜, stirred fried long bean 菜豆 and dried radish 菜脯 (my favorite). Each one of the dish already tasted very tasty and fragrant, the key ingredient which can found among every dish is dried shrimp 虾米. The fragrant of dried shrimp can push the taste of each bowl of Lei-Cha to another level. Combining all the tasty dishes together, the taste is powerful and definitely beyond the imagination.

Mixing with stream rice, (some may use Garlic rice or Deep fried dehydrated rice 锅巴or蓬米) and peanut (they should provide on side); and of course pouring with the soup, mixing together and start digging up; it shall overwhelm your appetite.

In Kelapa Sawit, Kulai. a Hakka town filling with human kindness and friendliness. Not only their warm-heartiness is worth mentioned, their good food also makes them proud. The most representative dish among their good is definitely Lei-cha. It's not easy to find a good Lei-Cha in other places, the taste of Lei-cha in Kelapa Sawit makes you think of childhood, the taste of warmness and comfy.

The feel of tasting Lei-Cha to me, the first taste is comfortable, the sweet and salty combination is perfectly matched. you will keep dig your bowl until it finishes without your awareness.

This is always be the taste that I miss the most after all the years that I spent at outside for studying and working. I'm proud to be part of this sweet hometown; and I will be definitely introduce this heavenly food for any outsider.