HONG KONG FOOD FOOD CULTURE & 2ND EDITION HONG KONG FOOD FOOD & CULTURE 2nd Edition Hong Kong Food & Culture: 2nd Edition Author: Adele Wong Translator : Chan Sin Yan Editor: Sean Hebert (1st Edition) Creative Directors: Jenna Li, Edmund Ip (1st Edition) Proofreaders: Edwin Liem, Diane Dang (1st Edition) Photographer: Alan Pang Recipes Creator: Blackie Hui Copyright © 2020 Man Mo Media Limited. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher at [email protected]. 2nd Edition: 2020 Printed in China, Published in Hong Kong 1st Edition: 2016 ISBN 978-988-77560-3-3 www.manmomedia.com PING YUM PRONUNCIATION NASAL SOUNDS GUIDE Mm - hmmm We have developed our own Cantonese pronunciation guide that VOWELS / FINALS doesn’t follow Jyutping, Yale or any other official romanization system. Ah - papa Eet - neat with U - close to lewd Our goal is to spell out the Cantonese silent t Ahm - arm Uck - yuck with words in the simplest, most intuitive (British pronunciation) Eh - ever silent k way possible via the English alphabet. Ahn - Cannes Em - Emulate Uht - close to put It’s not exactly foolproof or scientific, Ahng - Angkor Eng - sang Un - sun but we hope it’ll make your Cantonese Ahp - cap Ep - leprosy with Ui - fengshui (or oeil silent p in French) learning journey easier. We’re Aht - at with silent t Une - close to unoffically calling it the Ping Yum Ahk - black with immune silent k Ick - sick with (拼音 ping3 yum1) system. silent k Urk - lurk with Ai - bite, bike silent k Ing - sing Ao - cow Ute - close to mute Iu - pew Au - ouch, out with silent t Aw - saw Uhn - duh, with an n O / Oh - so, toe ending Awn - lawn, dawn Ohng - don’t with Um - sum, lum Awng - Hong Kong CONSONANTS silent g ending Un - sun, run Awk - hawk with Oo - boo, woo silent k Ung - sung Oon - spoon B - but, boy Gw - gwen Awt - hot with silent t Up - pup with silent p Ook - cook with P - pat, pig Kw - quick Ay - hay Ur - fur silent k M - mom, man W - wait Utt - but with a silent t Oot - boot F - fan, fun Eck - beck with silent k with silent t J - close to jay Ee - key Ooi - phooey Ye - bye, rye (between dz and zh) (said quickly) D - dog Eem - seem, team Ch - church Oy - toy, soy T - tomorrow Een - seen Urng - Church with N - no, nanny Eep - peep with silent g ending L - luck, lot S - sand, so silent p Y - you, yawn G - go Cantonese is a very tonal language. In fact, every word in Cantonese can K - cat be attributed to a note/note blend on the western classical major scale. H - how TONE 1 2 3 4 5 6 (same as mi do-re do so ti-do ti Jyutping) A lthough I was born in Hong Kong, my Fast forward to today. These pages in front of you are family emigrated to Toronto in the my attempt at rediscovering a heritage that I hadn’t early 90s. I was still a child then, and really lost, but at the same time never had a chance effectively spent my formative years to fully grasp while growing up abroad. And what in a completely different environment than that of better way to learn about Hong Kong, than through my native city. its rich culinary offerings? Children absorb culture and languages like sponges. The story of Hong Kong can be found in humble My English soon became better than my Cantonese, cha chaan teng restaurants, old-school dim sum and my favorite foods changed from deep-fried houses, colorful wet markets, classic herbal tea fish balls from a hawker cart in Rennie’s Mill village shops. It’s told by local butchers, street food hawkers, (present-day Tiu Keng Leng), to baked potatoes third-generation noodle-makers continuing their with butter and chives. grandparents’ legacy. To make sure we didn’t completely lose our roots, Hong Kong’s Cantonese connection and its colonial my parents sent my sister and I to Chinese classes past can be glimpsed from a simple bowl of macaroni every Friday night, and made fried rice for our school noodle soup. Hongkongers’ holistic approach to lunches. But over time, my Cantonese just got health is embodied in a glass of cooling five-flower worse, and I began to appreciate a slice of pizza tea. The city’s coastal advantage can be easily gleaned more than a bowl of double-boiled pork bone soup. via its citizens’ love of seafood, both dried and fresh. And on and on and on. When I relocated back to Hong Kong for a work opportunity, I experienced a huge dose of reverse This second edition of the book is essentially the same culture shock. The city where I was born had become as the first, but with minor corrections and updates. something foreign. The towering skyscrapers, the Some establishments we had interviewed have since bustling alleyways, the crowded tables at the dai pai sadly closed — but their stories remain as powerful dong stalls all felt overwhelming. and poignant as ever. Adele Wong Author Overview 8 Classic Dishes and Essential Ingredients 14 Sauces, Oils, Pastes and Condiments 34 Rice, Noodles, Dumplings 64 Local Restaurants 100 Wet Market Culture 140 Street Food Culture 164 Dim Sum and Tea Culture 188 Traditional Chinese Medicine 212 Herbs, Spices, Preserved Goods 232 Food for Every Occasion 266 Dining Etiquette 288 Cooking Techniques 298 Tableware, Utensils and Cooking Equipment 316 REFERENCES 336 OOvveerrvviieeww of HONG KONG CUISINE 9 H ong Kong (香港 hurng1 gawng2) Cantonese (廣東話 gwawng2 dohng1 wah2), in (“fragrant harbor”) is a collection of contrast to China’s official language of Putonghua beautiful islands and mountainous (普通話 po2 tohng1 wah2) (“common tongue”). terrains in southeast China. The city In fact, many Chinese food terms that have been once belonged to Guangdong province translated into English originate from Cantonese. (廣東省 gwawng2 dohng1 sahng2), a coastal Words like wok (鑊 wawk6), wonton (雲吞 wun4 landmass that faces the South China Sea and borders tun1) and dim sum (點心 deem2 sum1) are just a Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan and Guangxi to the north, east few examples. and west. Currently, Hong Kong is an autonomously governed region with its own set of laws. To really Cantonese cuisine (粤菜 yute6 choy3) refers to the cuisine that comes out of Guangdong province, and understand its unique position in the Greater China is considered one of eight major Chinese culinary narrative, it is necessary to take a step back and look styles — alongside the cuisines of Sichuan, Anhui, at the city’s historical and geographical influences. Zhejiang, Shandong, Hunan, Fujian and Jiangsu. Hong Kong started out as a humble fishing village In short: China is a country with a rich and diverse blessed with a few rice paddies — a big contrast culinary history that dates back thousands of years, to the skyscrapers and concrete jungle that we and Cantonese cuisine is one prominent piece of see today. the whole. Cantonese cuisine in general is known for its seafood- To its north is Guangzhou (廣州 gwawng2 jau1) based dishes (both fresh and dried), its reliance on (formerly Canton), the capital city of Guangdong. sauces, its roast meats, and its dim sum. Broadly Guangzhou was a trading port for foreign merchants speaking, Cantonese cuisine also emcompasses in the late-17th to the mid-19th century, and at a few distinct regional styles — like the intense one point, it was the only official port of entry for European traders, under a setup known as the flavors of Chaozhou (潮州 chiu4 jau1) city, and the Canton System (一口通商 yutt1 hau2 tohng1 surng1). simple homey dishes of the Hakka people (客家 hahk3 gah1) who inhabited different parts of China, A significant portion of the population in Guangdong including Guangdong. While Cantonese cuisine is province speaks a Chinese language known as the undisputed backbone of Hong Kong cuisine, and 11