Hong Kong blogger in Britain cooks recipes from home

For Hongkongers who live abroad, nothing is as tasty as cheesy baked pork chop rice or a fresh pineapple bun. But going home to enjoy these dishes is not easy if you live on the other side of the world. 

Karen Law, a food blogger from Hong Kong, now lives in London. She knows the feeling of homesickness. In 2020, she started an Instagram account called Dai Ga Sik Faan, a phrase meaning "let's eat, everyone". 

Karen is known for her simple cooking videos featuring easy recipes for Hong Kong-style dishes, such as mushroom gravy rice, dan dan noodles, Hakka-style meatballs (in the photo) and black sesame dessert soup. She now has more than 66,000 followers. 

"A lot of Hong Kong people who live abroad would message me saying, 'I haven't seen that dish in a long time'," she says. 

When Karen started living in Britain to study, she realised it was too expensive to eat out all the time. "So that is when I decided to start cooking more seriously," she explains.

She started her food blog to share her cooking with friends and family. But after realising the internet did not have many good recipes in English for her favourite Hong Kong dishes, she wanted to reach more people. 

"I enjoy creating recipe videos, especially Cantonese cuisine, because the food I grew up eating has a special place in my heart," she says.

Most of her followers are living in Western countries. "It's harder for them to find Asian food easily, so they want to learn how to make these dishes at home." 

Karen remembers being fascinated by the cooking skills of her grandmothers, who were both confident in making delicious meals without needing to follow recipes. 

"I've always looked up to both my grandmas as a source of inspiration when cooking. Whenever I crave comfort food, I think of them cooking because it gives me a feeling of nostalgia and warmth, and reminds me of the times I grew up eating their food," says Karen.

Five things to know about

1. A recipe is a list of instructions that shows you how to prepare a dish.

2. A recipe should tell you: the name of the food being made; how much time it will take; the ingredients needed; the equipment needed; and a list of steps that must be followed.

3. It should also tell you the number of people that the recipe will feed. Otherwise, you could make too much or too little. 

4. Sometimes, cooks must experiment. Karen is proud of her Hakka-style meatballs, a dish her grandma made. Karen created the recipe from her memory. "It was hard to get the taste right. But after five trials and errors, I finally succeeded," she says.