My Hong Kong “Borscht” 羅宋湯 recipe

I am back from my hiatus with some new content (it was a bit hard to do a blog mostly reliant on restaurant reviews when neither dining in was allowed nor was I comfortable doing such).

Before I dive into my recipe for Hong Kong style borscht, I do want to note that my heart is heavy after a year plus of dramatic increases of anti-Asian hate crimes, including the death of six Asian American women in and around Atlanta this week. To say it’s been traumatic for many of us in the Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) community is an understatement. There are undoubtedly many organizations to give to right now, but if you can I would give money and/or time to NAPAWF Georgia and AAAJ-Atlanta, in addition to local Asian American organizing orgs in your area. Feel free to reach out to me if you would like to know more about AAPI organizations in your community.

With that said, the reason for my blog post today is that I just got vaccinated with my second COVID-19 vaccine. In preparation for the side effects that are likely to come (at least a sore arm and possibly other symptoms like fatigue, chills, etc), I decided to make one of my family’s ultimate comfort soups: Hong Kong style borscht.

A brief history before going to the recipe itself, Hong Kong style borscht came to Hong Kong via Russians who immigrated initially to Chinese port cities like Shanghai before fleeing to Hong Kong in/around the Chinese Civil War. Goldthread has a good explainer video on its path to Hong Kong. As Hong Kong developed into an industrial hub in the 1960s and 1970s, a uniquely Hong Kong fusion cuisine was born adapting “western” cuisine like pork chops and fries to suit the palates of the growing Hong Kong middle class. One of the many offerings at these Hong Kong style cafes (more like US diners to be honest) that became popular was Hong Kong style borscht, or 羅宋湯 (Russian soup) as it is known in Chinese.

This soup was a favorite for my mom’s family, who dined at early vanguards for Hong Kong style western foods like Goldfinch (made famous in the movie In The Mood For Love). My grandmother and then my mother brought their take on the dish when they immigrated to the United States in the late 1970s and cooked it regularly for me and the rest of my family when I was young. Unfortunately the loose concept that could be considered our family recipe was lost forever when my mom suffered a debilitating stroke in 2011 and passed away a year later. A number of our family members have valiantly tried to recreate the dish in the decade sense, borrowing from others and adapting flavors to suit their own tastes and memories.

So to be clear, this is not necessarily a family recipe, but this is my recipe based on my tastes and nostalgia. I should also shoutout my cousin, who’s recipe I adapted this from. This is certainly quicker than my mom’s recipe which would have involved making beef stock overnight and then adding additional ingredients in the morning for an almost 24 hour process. I am far too impatient to make such a labor of love, but I think this recipe is *almost* as good.

If you do make this recipe, let me know how it goes! Without further ado…

Kitchen Utensils You’ll Need:

• Stock pot or 6+ quart pot/dutch oven
• Ladle
• Tablespoons to taste as you go
• Knife
• Large cutting board
• Couple large prep bowls (don’t need to divide ingredients)
• Baking sheet (if using potatoes)

Ingredients:

• 1 quart beef broth or beef stock
• 3-5 bay leaves
• 2-3 tablespoons of paprika
• 2 yellow or white onions
• 4-5 medium sized carrots
• 3-4 stalks of celery (optional)
• 1 small head of cabbage
• 5-6 medium sized tomatoes (can substitute with 1 can of crushed tomatoes or tomato paste. Perhaps an ideal is a combo of fresh tomatoes and tomato paste)
• 3-4 small to medium yellow potatoes (optional)
• 1 pound of oxtail (if unavailable, double the stew meat)
• 1 pound of beef stew meat
• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• salt
• fresh ground pepper
• water

Prep:

Prepping Ingredients

• Season beef with salt and pepper. Ideally have it seasoned, sealed, and refridgerated for at least a few hours, if not overnight, but in a pinch it will be fine to do it right before making the soup
• Wash, pat dry, and rough chop the vegetables. (ex. tomatoes can be quartered, carrots into 1-1.5 inch pieces, onions in 1/8 or 1/16 chunks). If using potatoes, set aside on baking sheet from rest of vegetables

Directions:

Ingredients Simmering

• Heat up pot with oil
  • Heat oven to 400 (if using potatoes)
• Sear and brown the beef. A couple minutes on each side will be fine
• Add beef stock/broth, prepped vegetables (aside from potatoes), paprika, bay leaves (I like more bay leaves but I leave the amount up to you), and a generous helping of salt and pepper. (I do at least 30-40 grinds per salt or pepper grinder. Yes, use a liberal amount of pepper!)
• Top off the pot with additional water (will be around 4-5 cups)
• Bring up to a boil and then simmer for 30 minutes
  • If using potatoes, season with oil, salt, and pepper and roast for 20-30 minutes
• After 30 minutes of simmer, spoon away the fat that bubbles to the surface, do a taste and add more salt and pepper to taste (I typically then add another 28 grinds of each with my salt and pepper grinders)
  • If using potatoes add potatoes around the 30-45 min mark of simmering
• Simmer for another 2 hours. By then the soup will start to get ready. Use ladle to help mix the ingredients together more and do another taste, add more salt and pepper as needed
• I generally simmer for another 3 hours before I consider it ready (and yes, I might even add MORE pepper) but at this point it’s up to you.

Finished Soup

In general, the longer the soup simmers the richer it will be. I generally help myself to one bowl once it simmers for about 4-5 hours but continue to simmer for another 1-2 hours before calling it done and saving for the next day. This recipe is flexible and adaptable to suit your tastes. After all, each Hong Kong style cafe and family will have their own spin and recipe. Regardless, though, every bowl is a comforting sense of home, which is especially important as I rest up for my second vaccine shot.

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Social Place (Silvercord TST), Hong Kong

Social Place
303, 30 Canton Rd
Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Over the course of the last few years I’ve visited both posh Michelin-starred and hole in the wall dim sum places during my visits to Hong Kong. So when I visited Hong Kong a few weeks ago on my latest trip, I decided to give my Michelin Guide some rest and venture to other dim sum restaurants that caught my eye (admittedly, mostly from Instagram and eye-catching Facebook posts).

One of those place was Social Place, which has very Instagram friendly dishes that are also fairly unique. My friend and I decided to swing by for dinner one of our first nights in Hong Kong to see what the fuss was about. Like many casual places in Hong Kong malls, we grabbed a number from the table waiting touchscreen. While we waited the 20 minutes it took for a table to open up, we looked at the menu to see what to order (crossing off those dishes that the restaurant had indicated were sold out for the day). After some pensive deliberation, we ordered the following:

• Social Platter (Pickled black fungus, iced okra, Sichuan spicy sausage) – The social platter is an appetizer course where you can choose 3 small plates of different items. Since one of the vegetarian items we wanted were out, we substituted with spicy Chinese sausage instead which had nicely flavored meat and a good snap, but perhaps a little too oily with the chili oil. The ice okra was amazing, however, and I loved the perfectly cooked texture of the okra which gave it a nice snap and chew without any sliminess. The fungus to me was okay, but I think it’s because I generally don’t like pickled black fungus to begin with.

Dragon Beard Kale at Social Place

• Dragon Beard Kale – Despite the misleading “kale” name, this dish contains Chinese Broccoli cut into the shape of “dragon beards”, blanched perfectly and stir fried with gogi berries. This was one of the best dishes on the menu and my friend and I couldn’t get enough.
• Truffle Shitaake Bun – The buns were cute and shaped like mushrooms, but I found the filling a little off-putting. While I appreciated that I got my “money’s worth” of truffle, so to speak, it was VERY truffle forward. If you like truffles, this is the bun for you, but as a person that only likes a hint of truffles, this was a bit much.
• Noodle with Scallion Oil – The noodles were well stir fried, if a little bit oily. I liked the flavor overall but sadly this normally vegetarian dish got tainted with dried baby shrimp. Normally I wouldn’t mind it so much but the dried shrimp was a lot and completely unexpected, marring this dish somewhat.

Pig-Shaped Taro Bun at Social Place

• Pig-Shaped Taro Bun – These buns are priced at 1 in each basket, so they are a little pricey. However, I would say they are worth it because not only are they incredibly cute, but they have this lightly sweet taro filling that is equally as pleasing to the palate. If they weren’t nearly $4USD each, I would have definitely order another one.

Charcoal Custard Bun at Social Place

• Charcoal Custard Bun – These “lava” custard buns look stunning, like many other items on the menu of course, but were just as good tasting. The custard was runny but not super messy and the bun was slightly chocolatey giving a very nice texture for dessert.

Overall, most of the dishes here taste good and look awesome. Like most every place, there are hits and misses and obviously many dishes are more Instagram focused than focusing on flavor. Ironically, I do think the more beautiful dishes are the better tasting dishes, although many of them have a higher price to match. I would definitely recommend others taking a visit in Hong Kong to take a little detour out of the safe and ordinary dim sum dishes at other place.

 

Crazy Rich Food + Reflections

This weekend is the opening weekend of Crazy Rich Asians, the film based on the bestselling book of the same name by Kevin Kwan. And while many of the articles for the film focus on its importance in Asian American representation in Hollywood or the cultural conflict of the plot between traditional class hierarchies amongst rich Chinese versus “rags to middle class riches” Chinese Americans, I, of course, want to write about the food mentioned in the books and movies. In the book series there are liberal mentions of various places that the exorbitantly rich of Singapore, Hong Kong, and Shanghai dine in, which does include places open to the public and are relatively affordable. Below you can find a few of those places found in the film and/or books in Singapore and Hong Kong and my thoughts on them (if I have been). Be aware, there will be some spoilers of the movie and/or books below.

[Following that you’ll find my reflections of the movie].

Singapore:

Newton Food Centre – After Araminta and Colin pick up Nick and Rachel up they head to Newton Food Centre where they order from different stalls specializing in their own dishes. I’ve never eaten at Newton Food Centre but in the scene you can see the foursome chow on various Singaporean dishes like Satay at TKR Satay, Oyster Omelette at Hup Kee Fried Oyster Omelette, and ice kachang at 88 San Ren Cold and Hot Dessert. For reference, in the book they actually go to another hawker centre, Lau Pa Sat, though Nick prefers the satay at Newton.

Hong Kong:

Roast Goose Rice and Tong Choy at Yat Lok

Yung Kee – In the books, Yung Kee is described as the place where the uber rich go dine on roast goose. And while the refined trappings of the restaurant remain intact, a family feud a few years ago led to a split. The better Kam family roast goose now lies at Kam’s Roast Goose in Wan Chai (in decidedly less upscale digs) which also racks up a Michelin star, unlike Yung Kee. Although Kam’s Roast Goose is fantastic, I do have a preference for Yat Lok (also a Michelin star earner) in Central.

Fook Lam Moon – Although I don’t recall this so-called “Tycoon’s Canteen” being in the books, it was mentioned by Kevin Kwan as a place where old money still eats. And honestly my one visit to their TST location showed perfectly why, and it’s not because of their food (which is good but not mind blowing spectacular). It’s because of their service, where they have a number of private rooms, a multitude of wait staff to refill your tea cups so you never have to, and even nice small shelves so your bags never, ever touch the ground (or hang over your seat). Reservations are probably required but it’s not too hard to make one online.

Dim sum at Lung King Heen

Lung King Heen – In the book when Rachel is at the bachelorette party on Samsara Island, Kitty and Alistair are purportedly seen at this three Michelin star restaurant, the first (but now not only) three Michelin star Chinese restaurant in the world. The food might not be the most innovative compared to other high end Cantonese restaurants in Hong Kong, but the dishes are well executed. Like most higher end Cantonese restaurants, the cheaper option is to eat the dim sum ate lunch (which even for 2 people will probably set you back around $40 USD). Advanced reservations of a month or two are advised.

REFLECTIONS

And now to my reflections on the film. Of course, there’s many things I could say about the movie, but I want to focus on how particular parts of the movie affected me. Like Love, Simon, Crazy Rich Asians was an important movie in terms of its cultural impact as a romantic comedy to me. While neither obviously hewed super close to my experience, both movies were well made movies based on reader adored books (of which I read both books before either were movies) that hopefully launch a number of other movies beyond the straight, white upper middle class narrow confines of the vast majority of major studio romantic comedies of the past.

Crazy Rich Asians itself resonated with me loudly in no small part because Kevin Kwan wrote the book for and in the perspective of the Asian American experience, especially those like me who are Millennial children of immigrants. The impetus to root for Rachel is because Rachel is like many of us, children of Asian immigrants that moved to the United States with immense sacrifice to hopefully provide opportunity for their children. (To be clear that’s not the entire Asian American experience which also includes refugees of war as well as those whose families had means to send their Baby Boomer and Gen X children to colleges in the US and Canada)

As such, what Rachel deals with in her trip to Singapore to meet Nick’s family and childhood social circle, she, like us, have a very fish out of water experience when visiting the Asian motherland. There are customs and traditions, regardless of your class or ethnicity (though in the Crazy Rich Asian series, accentuated by class) that are generally known but not quite fully experienced until you visit your ancestral home (or in Rachel’s case, a nation where the majority of folks are Chinese like herself). And in those moments many Asian Americans realize that you’re not quite [Asian ethnicity] enough, but similarly you’re not quite “American enough” for non-Asian, especially white folks, at home.

This is crystalized in 2 of the most powerful scenes of the movie: the dumpling making scene and the mahjong scene [major spoilers ahead].  In the dumpling making scene, Rachel makes dumplings for the rehearsal dinner along with a couple of Nick’s cousins, Nick’s aunts, and Nick’s mom. There’s visible tension between Rachel and Nick’s mom, Eleanor, which comes up to a head when Eleanor catches Rachel as Rachel is lost finding a restroom. The end of the conversation, after Eleanor regales Rachel on how she wasn’t seen as good enough to marry Nick’s dad, hits with a sting when Eleanor, played by the incomparable Michelle Yeoh, tells Rachel that she will never be good enough.

“You will never be good enough” is a phrase that serves both the plot narrative and a line that touches like a cattle prod to Asian Americans like myself. On one side, people like me are told by our Asian immigrant family and family (or people in general) living in Asia that we will never be good enough to meet expectations, including language fluency and respect for ancestral cultural norms. We are, in effect, too American. But then outside of Asian American enclaves at work or school where we try to fit in, we are criticized for having an accent (even if we might not have one – in which case we’re praised for having “surprisingly good English”), eating gross looking or stinky food (which then get popularized a decade later by white chefs that “discover” it), accused of eating cats or dogs (when we don’t), or exoticized for real or assumed body features and sexual desires. It may not be as pointed and direct as what our family members or those in our ancestral lands would say to us, but the effect is the same, we’re too Asian to be an American. It’s a dual hit for Asian Americans like myself who try to bridge our identities and be proud of these different identities, but are told that we aren’t good enough for either.

But as much as those words in the dumpling scene hurt (and when I shed a few tears on my second watch), the mahjong scene near the end turns the table and shows how Asian Americans can have agency and a potential to use perceived weaknesses into strengths. In that scene, Rachel invites Eleanor to play mahjong where they have a pointed conversation about family and cultural compatibility vs. following your heart. What Eleanor doesn’t know, but Rachel soon reveals is that she rejected Nick’s engagement knowing that what Eleanor thinks is a winning hand (marrying Nick) is not one at all and in Nick’s current situation it would be lose-lose. So Rachel chose for him and shows the strength and power of Asian Americans. Rachel then leaves, revealing that she would have had a winning hand but knowingly gave it away to Eleanor (which you can read more in AngryAsianMan’s excellent primer on the scene). The scene shows that Asian Americans like myself actually do understand and respect both the Asian cultural traditions of familial piety and American cultural understandings of individualism and freedom to follow your passions. But the choice isn’t either or; by understanding both cultures you can make your own decisions and not be boxed into one way of doing things.

The movie isn’t perfect by all means, but the books and the movies are so emotional and powerful for Asian Americans who have experiences like myself because it’s one of the first stories we’ve read and seen on the screen that reflects our dual cultural experience. It’s not a story by and for the people (especially the fantastically rich) of Singapore. It’s not a story even for immigrants like my parents who do live in the US now but their major cultural upbringing was from where they were born (who I’m sure will like most of the story anyway, if my aunt is any indication). It’s a story by and for Asian Americans, like Rachel, born and raised in America.

Egg Waffles (鷄蛋仔)

After dinner Sunday night my friends and I decided to go to a Hong Kong dessert place. We stumbled on the place by pure accident, but it gave me a chance to eat one of my favorite dessert items for my birthday: an egg waffle (or 鷄蛋仔 as it’s called in Cantonese and eggette as an alternative in English).

Egg waffles, if you don’t know, are very popular dessert/snack items sold on street stalls throughout Hong Kong. While the origins of this snack item is little known, the modern day form is an egg rich batter that goes into a waffle like griddle with egg-like pockets where puffs of chewy dough form. An ideal egg waffle is crispy and crunchy on the outside while also being soft, slightly sweet, and a little chewy inside the puffs. These can be enjoyed throughout the day, but usually I have them either as a mid-Afternoon snack or a post-dinner dessert.

雞蛋仔 at 利強記北角雞蛋仔
credit to Phillip Lai – “雞蛋仔 #lkk #hongkong” ( https://flic.kr/p/migDuc )

The best place I have had an egg waffle is, of course, in Hong Kong. There is a famous stall in the North Point neighborhood called LKK (利強記北角雞蛋仔 in Chinese) on 492 Kings Road, at the corner of Kam Hong Street. On Kings Road it’s hard to spot, but once you turn the corner onto Kam Hong St. you will see an unmistakable line for these egg waffles. The place is an institution, with a number of photos of TVB stars, like Nancy Sit, eating egg waffles at the place plastering the wall of the stall. Yet, it’s location in a fairly working class residential neighborhood means it is never really mentioned in English or Mainland Chinese travel press, given the place a very local feel. They even have a couple of other locations in Hong Kong, testifying to its popularity. The egg waffles, of course, are super great as well with pretty much perfect texture and at a bargain of $2 USD for one.

However, you definitely don’t need to travel to Hong Kong to eat an egg waffle. If you live or visit a city with a large population of immigrants who were born and raised in Hong Kong, like Los Angeles and San Francisco, you can get a bite of one too.

San Francisco Bay Area

It should be no surprise that the Bay Area has plenty of food vendors and restaurants that serve egg waffles. After all, the Bay Area has the largest number of residents that are from Hong Kong according to the census bureau, and it’s the only major metropolitan area with multiple Chinatowns where Cantonese is the lingua franca.

雞蛋仔 at Hong Kong Snack House

If you live in the East Bay (around Oakland and Berkeley), like I do, there are a number of options for one to get a taste of an egg waffle. Probably my favorite is the aptly named Hong Kong Snack House in the Pacific East Mall. The tiny store is very reminiscent of a Hong Kong street stall and serve nicely cooked, if slightly underdone, egg waffles. In Oakland Chinatown there are a number of options. If you are on the go, there is the Quickly on 10th Street that can satisfy your on the go craving for both boba and egg waffles. However, if you rather have it at a sit down restaurant, you can go to one of several Hong Kong style cafes/cha chaan tengs like the more upscale Shooting Star Cafe or the more bare bones Yummy Guide.

雞蛋仔 at Creations Dessert House

The city and the Peninsula are not left wanting either. Just the other day my friends and I went to Creations Dessert House in the Richmond where they served perfectly crispy, if oddly misshapen egg waffles. There is also the 4 location chain called Eggettes where egg waffles are their raison d’être. Not to be left out is the well reviewed Kowlooon Tong Dessert Cafe. And if you want a feel of being on a crowded street in Hong Kong, there is Dessert Republic in downtown San Mateo.

Los Angeles

雞蛋仔 at Tasty Garden in Westminster

To eat an egg waffle in Los Angeles, one will have to do what they have to do to eat any other amazing authentic Chinese food item: drive to the San Gabriel Valley. Once you are in the SGV, however, the number of options are numerous. A vast number of Hong Kong style cafes/cha chaan tengs have them, so you can get your fill at places like Tasty Garden in Alhambra and Monterey Park, Cafe Spot in Alhambra, and Tasty Station in Rowland Heights. Don’t need a meal and just prefer desserts or snacks? Tea and dessert places like Puffect in Walnut and Fresh Roast in Alhambra.

If you prefer not to drive in the SGV, not all is lost. Tasty Garden also has locations in Irvine and Westminster, though I prefer the egg waffles at the Westminster location. And while I haven’t tried the egg waffles at Phoenix, they do offer them at their locations in Gardena and Garden Grove.

Elsewhere

Outside of the Bay Area and Los Angeles, egg waffles are a little harder to find in the United States. While there was an “egg cake lady” named Cecilia Tam that sold bits of egg waffles in New York City during the 80s and 90s, there is little presence of the egg waffles now. You still, however, can get them in Boston at a little stall in Chinatown. In San Diego, one can find them at E + Drink, which is interesting given that the place is mostly Taiwanese (albeit Hong Kong style dessert places in the Bay Area often serve boba instead of Hong Kong style milk tea).

But no matter where I have an egg waffle, eating one just brings me a sense of warmth and comfort. It’s the ultimate snack, a perfect way to finish a busy day of work or a nice bonus to a birthday celebration with friends. In fact, I wish I was eating one right now.

Hong Kong Visit, Part 3

Hong Kong Island from the Ritz Carlton

Dim sum parlors and cha chaan tengs may be the most ubiquitous type of restaurants from Hong Kong, but they are far from the only type of restaurant that you can find there. While I wish I could have eaten it all, from the innovative takes on classic Cantonese at Bo Innovation to traditionally Tanka typhoon shelter crab, neither my schedule nor the constraints of my wallet allowed me to sample the true diversity of food Hong Kong has to offer.  However, I did get to sample some of the great array of food, which I’ve documented below.

Afternoon Tea

The Lounge & Bar at the Ritz Carlton
102/F, The Ritz Carlton Hong Kong
International Commerce Center, Elements, Hong Kong

Even though its been more than 15 years since the British handover of Hong Kong, the colonial roots of the modern city are undeniable and everywhere. This includes the ritual of afternoon tea by those of upper income classes (which I should note is different from high tea). My mother and grandmother always loved to reminisce about the delicious food and beverages of afternoon tea so I took the trip to Hong Kong as my chance to splurge a little on myself. I invited a cousin of mine who currently lives in Hong Kong as well and chose the Ritz Carlton not only because of its food reputation, but also because it has an incredible view of Hong Kong, which you can see above. The tea set for two came with the following:

Afternoon Tea at the Ritz Carlton Hong Kong

• Earl Grey Tea – I wouldn’t say that the tea blew me away, but it was definitely good tea. While many would add milk and some sugar, I just drank the tea as is, which I usually do for any tea.
• Scones with jam and clotted cream – Scones are typically the standard when it comes to afternoon tea, and these scones did not disappoint. They were nice and buttery, matching perfectly with the jam and clotted cream. As my cousin suggested I ate some of them as palate cleansers in between rich dishes.
• Raspberry Cheesecake – This was my probably my favorite item after the scones. It was rich without being too tense and the raspberry gave the small slice of cheesecake a nice fruity tartness to cut the richness of the dish.

There were a number of other items as you can see from the picture, but all in all I was very pleased with most of the items. Service, however, left a little bit to be desired as it took a while for our tea and coffee to get refilled. Regardless, my cousin and I enjoyed catching up while partaking in delicious afternoon tea.

Cantonese Barbecue (燒味)

Yat Lok (一樂燒鵝)
G/F, 34-38 Stanley Street
Central, Hong Kong

After Cha Chaan Tengs and Dim Sum, probably the next most ubiquitous type of restaurant in Hong Kong is one that serves Cantonese barbecue. In nearly every major street with a mom and pop restaurant, usually at least one serves Chinese barbecue. You can usually tell them apart by the fact that they hang roast ducks, roast pork, and barbeque pork near the front windows. If you have been in any Chinatown of a major American city, you have probably walked past and/or seen some of these restaurants too. Of all the Cantonese barbecue places in Hong Kong, one of the most well known is Yat Lok. Specifically, Yat Lok is famous for its roast goose, which many order in drumstick form served atop a noodle soup with rice noodles. Given its reputation, I decided to spend a dinner there and ordered the following:

Roast Goose Rice and Tong Choy at Yat Lok

• Roast Goose Rice (燒鵝飯) – I generally prefer roast meats over rice so I decided to order a roast goose rice plate instead of a roast goose noodle soup. The first few bites had extra crispy skin but little meat and I almost became really disappointed. However as I ate other slices I truly understood why this roast goose is highly rated – for most of the slices the skin was nice and crispy while the meat was perfect and moist.
• Water Spinach/Ong Choy With Fermented Tofu (腐乳蕹菜)- One of my favorite childhood dishes was also one of the simplest that my mom cooked – Ong choy with fermented tofu. This time Yat Lok perfectly blanched the greens to be cooked, yet a little crispy with a dollop of fermented tofu sauce on the side. Once dipped, the ong choy was a wonderful balance of freshness, saltiness, and a little spice.

As a side note, the po po (婆婆), or elderly lady/grandmother, that was the cashier chastised me when I paid. Why? I had unconsciously brought in a Starbucks drink the the restaurant which was seen as a side of arrogance and rudeness. Since Starbucks is considered a luxury item, by bringing in that drink I was considered snobby as if I didn’t want to drink the drinks they served. In fact, they do serve a pretty good milk tea, which is what I should have ordered instead.

Cantonese Desserts 

Ching Ching Dessert (晶晶甜品)
81A Electric Rd
Tin Hau, Hong Kong

I’ve talked a lot about savory items, but like many food cultures, there are a number of sweets for dessert too. So after dinner at Goldfinch, my cousin took me to Tin Hau for some dessert. Tin Hau, which is a neighborhood on the opposite side of Victoria Park from Causeway Bay, is apparently home to many favorite local dessert shops, most of them along Electric Road. I didn’t know whether Ching Ching was the best or most well known, but I trusted my cousin’s judgement and browsed through the menu of a number of childhood favorite desserts. In the end I got:

Desserts at Ching Ching

• Mango Pudding (芒果布丁) – I loved eating mango pudding as a child and this version outranked them by far. Not only could you taste the fresh mango in the pudding, but there were soft dices of mango in the pudding itself making a very light yet decadent dessert.
• Silken Tofu with Ginger Syrup (豆腐花) – This dessert, made with hot silken tofu and drizzled with a sweet ginger syrup, was my mom’s favorite sweet treat. In the United States is hard to get a good version as the tofu is often brittle or the syrup is not quite right either in amount or flavor. This version was practically perfect with silken tofu that stayed intact and a syrup that added a slightly sweet flavor without overpowering.

Now there are many other desserts on the menu, including grass jelly and almond “tofu” jelly, but given the quality, I feel like they might be all good. Granted, having never lived in Hong Kong I might be missing some of the nuances that might further distinguish one place from another.

Final Thoughts

As I mentioned before, I wish I could have eaten more. These three blog posts are only a glimpse to the vast food culture of Hong Kong. If I was to make a metaphor, my food experience in Hong Kong was like eating a few morsels of dim sum – enough to have me satisfied, but so tasty it keeps me hungering for more. In fact, as I write right now, I am saving up money and room in my stomach again so I can take another trip to the Fragrant Harbor again.