It’s Christmas, and when I’m not celebrating the birth of the baby Jesus, or the pagan rituals of winter solstice by going to a hockey game in Minnesota (versus the former Frenchies of Quebec City, now known as the Colorado Avalanche), I’m enjoying a bowl of poon choi, a traditional type of food originated from Hakka cuisine.

According to Wikipedia, which can make someone sound knowledgeable in a Coles Notes sorta way, Poon Choi was invented during the late Song Dynasty of China. When Mongol troops invaded Song China, the young Emperor fled to the area around Guangdong Province and Hong Kong. To serve the Emperor as well as his army, the locals collected all their best food available, cooked it, and put it in wooden washing basins. By doing so Poon Choi was invented

Hong Kong’s Centre for Food Safety (CFS) today released the test results of a seasonal food surveillance project for "poon choi" which is popular at festive gatherings. A CFS spokesman said the centre recently collected 15 samples of "poon choi" from food factories, restaurants and cooked food stalls for microbiological tests, including those for pathogens Bacillus cereus, Clostridium perfringens, Salmonella, Staphylococcus aureus and Vibrio parahaemolyticus.

All the poon choi samples passed the tests.