Rice Cracker: A Challenging New Year Snack

Besides Round Basket Rice Cakes (圓籠粄), Hakka New Year treats also include rice crackers. Like Cha Kwo, rice crackers are rice-based products. Their main ingredients include white rice, glutinous rice, peanuts, sesame seeds, and sugar (which can be brown sugar, rock sugar, or maltose). In the past, Hakka people who grew rice would harvest it to make rice crackers, stir-frying glutinous and white rice—still in its husks—in an iron wok. Over time, as populations moved away and rice fields fell into disuse, modern rice crackers are often made using rice flour or pre-made puffed rice cereal instead.

Making rice crackers is a laborious and intricate process that requires both patience and concentration. Even a momentary lapse can cause the mixture to fail, preventing it from forming properly. The Village Representative of So Lo Pun once mentioned a traditional taboo surrounding this craft: before the Chinese New Year, Hakka women would make rice crackers behind closed doors — to stay undisturbed and to keep imperfect batches unseen by others. The art of creating Hakka rice crackers demands exceptional skills and expertise. Hakka women usually carried out the process with help from family members. Today, however, very few Hakka people still possess this knowledge, and the large stoves once used for stir-frying rice grains have nearly disappeared. Consequently, this age-old tradition now faces the risk of being lost.