As a group of avid readers in the LRP team we are very happy to have recently expanded our book offering online and in the showroom. We knew you would be interested in finding out more about some of the wonderful authors and illustrators who have created the ones we've selected. All books have a Hong Kong theme whether it be written or illustrated by someone who lives here or is about the city, the stories and the history of the place so many of us call home.
About you
I'm Evelyna Liang, author of Grandma, Grandpa Cook and Grandma, Grandpa Cook 2, and I came to Hong Kong as an infant …always love to daydream and be silly …
Loved to listen to my grandma’s mumbling while sitting with her during lunch …
As a toddler, loved to be in the kitchen and helped peel off stem of peas … see the curled up string and imagine they all can fly out to the sky…
Loved to hike up the hill to go to school instead of the paved walkway and hunt for treasured hidden in the woods..
Love to DREam!
Since childhood I am a trouble maker, will standup for people being bullied and push around … whenever I saw unfairness, will fight …. Sometime a bit naive!
Love to watch people sitting together and do nothing and happy with each other … to connect …
From youth to silvered age, I've been a curious soul,
Ever eager to explore, to play and to behold.
When novelty drifts by, I never let it go,
Each touch opens up a realm of beauty to know.
This latest project, cherishing food with care,
Lets me steam, stew, stir-fry, chop, grind and pare.
And as I roam and gossip, I find reasons to preserve,
The oft-neglected stems, roots, peels, and curves.
I gain a deeper sense of generations past,
And connect with peers, no matter their age or cast.
To the fruit stand, the farm, the sea, and the hill,
I journey with joy, my senses to thrill.
At home with my Indonesian helper, I learn
To wrap rice and meat in corn husks - a skill to discern.
And seven-coloured rice, with hues so bright,
Adds to my culinary repertoire, a delight.
With Indian asylum seeker, I swap recipes and lore,
And my hybrid orange sauce, a new creation to explore.
Guided by a farmer grandmother's wise decree,
I make pickled carrots, skin and flesh, all worthy.
So from youth to silvered age, my heart still beats with wonder,
A lifelong student of life, learning to savour and ponder.
Your Inspiration
During the pandemic and quarantine, many people have been cooking more while working from home. Over the past few years, how have we been creative at our daily dining tables? In the last three years, we have visited different households and communities to collect stories of "appreciating" food from children as young as 7 to seniors as old as 103. We have compiled these stories and related recipes into a new book.
What used to be just adding sugar to bread crusts for dessert or using a single soybean to flavour a bowl of rice is now being recognised as ways to appreciate the value of food. Even if using banana peels for curry or cooking radish into "abalone" may not be considered uncommon nowadays, these daily creative ideas are still not easy to come up with. "Useful" and "useless" are not just relative terms; the taste of life can be reimagined.
Favourite thing to do or see in Hong Kong
Be silly and make people smile!
About Grandma Grandpa Cooks - Evelyna's first book
About 15 years ago,
Good friend in social work pleaded:
He spoke of a group of deeply saddened elders,
Forced to leave the homes they had lived in their whole lives,
Abandoned and overcome with sorrow, they were depressed and fell ill...
He asked: What can be done to help them find peace of mind?
Memories became the remedy,
Their life stories became the script for our stage play,
In the process, we played and danced together, like a catalyst.
We cooked and ate together, embracing moments of craziness!
With the help of friends, we captured precious glimpses of their lives,
Rediscovering recipes, history, and memories.
In the end, they found their self worth and dignity !
"Grandma Grandpa Cook” was published!
And I, too, gradually learned to cook and enjoy meals,
Rediscovering the lost flavours of my family's elders!
