LET'S begin with the bottom-line: Hong Kong is still worth
revisiting and rediscovering. The Asian economic crisis has
affected it of course, but not in the same way we have been
affected. Prices have risen, and it is no longer the world's
bargain center. Because of this it must now be experienced in
different ways. Those who, bedazzled by shopping, sometimes
forgot to eat, must now experience its history, culture, and
especially its food.
Bottom-line sub-one: It is still the culinary capital of Asia, where
almost every kind of cuisine can be found in some 8,700
restaurants. And it is the Chinese culinary capital of Asia,
because almost all Chinese regional cuisines, which on the
mainland one would have to cross a continent to taste, can be
sampled in Hong Kong.
It is all authentic--Szechuan, Hokka, Hunnan, Beijing, Canton,
Swatow and more, whether originally for emperors, for peasants
or for fisherfolk--because ingredients from China and from the
West are all freshly available.
I was there to witness the foodfest called Hong Kong
International Culinary Classic '99, which included chefs in
competition, prizes for dishes and awards for chefs, cooking
demonstrations and classes, and for us guests of the Hong
Kong Tourist Association, visits to restaurants.
Seafood. Dinner at the Superstar Seafood Restaurant (five
branches in Kowloon and Hong Kong) featured Summer Greens.
Seafood, it seems, is especially for Spring (March to May): fresh
lobsters steamed, boiled, broiled, baked, grilled, stir-fried,
sauteed. For Autumn (September to November) crabs are the
feature: green, giant, soft-shell, and especially at the hairy
Shanghai crabs that come down live in large jars filled with ice,
to simulate the wintry waters back home. Winter (December to
February) is of course hot pot season, as well as for tonic food
like bird's nests, snake, dear antler and ginseng, balancing yin
and yang, increasing qi (energy) and improving health.
Summer (June through August) calls for melon greens--winter
(kundol), fuzzy, (hairy marrow), bitter (ampalaya). Thus dinner
started with light shark's fin soup in winter melon. It went on to
deep-fried Mandarin fish (one whole 7'' de-boned freshwater
denizen per person).
The roast duck had been cooked in yellow (cassia flower)
wine--light and sweet. Dried scallops and black mushrooms
were braised with melon in a light broth--and voted the table's
favorite. Steamed buns were filled with Tientsin cabbage and
mushrooms. Finally, the house specialty--stonefish dumplings
in ethereally thin dough--unbelievably delicate yet succulent.
Dessert was a yellow bean pudding.
Lightness was the theme song, delicacy the style, greens the
color for summer. How can one not visit in all the other
seasons?
Hot Pot. But yes, the hot pot can be tasted even in the
summertime. Sun Tung Kee restaurant in Tsim-Sha Tsui
(branches in Hong Kong, Vancouver and Singapore) brings on
broth in large pots, to bubble and boil on the table flame. There
is a choice of broths (vegetable, satay, pig's stomach); we had
the first two in a divided pot. One cooked in perforated ladles
mushrooms (golden, shiitake, straw), thin-sliced delicately
marbled beef, tofu, giant oysters from Canada, sotanghon, fish
slices, shrimp or squid balls, greens--in any order, to any shade
of done-ness--and dipped it in a sauce of one's devising (with
chilis, garlic, leeks).
The choosing, dipping in, fishing out, rescuing, sharing, serving
each other, discussing choices and merits, make for a truly
communal Asian meal. No aloneness, isolation, loneliness or
alienation is possible around a hot pot.
Dim Sum. Or in a teahouse. Since the 10th century, the
Cantonese of southern China have developed some 2,000
varieties of dumplings, buns, rolls and variants thereof, savory
or sweet. One has them with tea--for breakfast, for tea, for
merienda, for lunch. We have good dim sum in Manila now,
quite impressive in quality and variety. But Hong Kong is truly
dim sum country.
The Luk Yu Teahouse (Stanley Street, Central HK) is half a
century old, has polished wood and grills, and white-coated
elder ladies passing around dim sum in shoulder-hung trays.
(They refused to be photographed, because ''their eyes would
go dim.'') Male waiters pour tea and mark tables reserved for old
customers with a teacup and a newspaper. It was full at
breakfast time (mostly businessmen), not really for the dim sum
which was less than great, but for the atmosphere, which is
attractively ''old HK.''
Good dim sum is to be had in many other places in Hong Kong,
including glossy hotel and other restaurants where lines form at
lunchtime. The best dim sum I've ever had was at the Golden
Unicorn years ago, where one dumpling filled with prawns and a
broth was served alone in its steamer-basket, as if it were an
emerald. Its succulence burst in the mouth.
Roast Goose. The one and only Yung Kee (32 Wellington St.,
Central HK) is justly famed, having been named by Fortune
magazine and others one of the top restaurants of the world.
The roast goose is still superb.
The geese (fed corn, rice, vegetables) are grown in China, on a
farm owned by Kam Shui Fai and his family. He started the
restaurant in 1942 as a cooked-food stall. It is now a four-story
building, all restaurant, seating 750 and ''the only one in the
world''--no branches.
Every day, 87-year-old Mr. Kam and his son, Director and
General Manager Kinsen Kam, try the goose, to check its
quality. Another son prepares the sets of ingredients for some
300 ''geese roosted and served with plum sauce each day.
Always, all these 57 years, the goose is charcoal-roasted--the
same family recipe.
Kinsen Kam cites the preserved (''century'') eggs as a specialty,
and braised garoupa tail as his favorite dish--but only next to
roast goose. Older diners like the crisp skin and fat, he says; the
young like breast meat; he himself favors the meat below the
neck. He offered to order for us, and this is what we had: the
unforgettable roast goose; the braised garoupa (memorable);
baby Chinese pechay, each about 2'' tall; a wintermelon bowl
that one scraped into the soup flavored by mushrooms, crab
meat, prawns, scallops, bits of goose meat and slivers of roast
skin. Ummm.
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