What you need to know about Hong Kong’s food

His parents both grew up in Hong Kong – a special administrative region of China which was under British rule for 156 years until 1997.

“My mum and dad lived in the UK from the Sixties, but when it came to them cooking Western food, they were terrible at it. They cooked the food of their culture and where they grew up, so we grew up eating Cantonese cooking, food from Hong Kong.”

“I think most people don’t realise that most of the Chinese food we’re used to eating in the UK would have originated from Hong Kong and the Canton region [of the south],” says the 41-year-old. “So things like your classic sweet and sour porks and black bean beef, or chow mein. Fried noodles, those dishes are very much Cantonese cuisine.”

Compared to other regions, Hong Kong food has a more mellow flavour, he explains. “There’s not as much of a constant chilli flavour that people are used to from Sichuanese food, for example, in Hong Kong we’re very much reliant on fermented soybean flavours.”

Some of the key ingredients in Hong Kong dishes are light and dark soy sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil, along with ginger, garlic and spring onion, says Pang: “Quite simple ingredients that can be used to make up hundreds of different dishes.”

Food scene

“Hong Kong has a very eclectic mix of cultures, and the food culture is everywhere and it surrounds you,” says Pang. “As soon as you land in Hong Kong, you smell food coming out of the restaurants.

There are many different types of Hong Kong diner; from Cha Chaan tengs (tea house lounges) and Dai pai dong ( a type of open-air food stall) to dim sum houses only serving only dumplings on moving trolleys.

“That’s the beauty of it, it’s got this massive eclectic mix [but] you have Cantonese cuisine at its core,” says Pang.

“Cha Chaan tengs, have a sort of post-war, 1950s, what Hong Kong people thought Western food was like [vibe]. Things like French toast with a knob of butter on top and condensed milk. Or you might have a five spice pork chop, deep fried and put in a crusty roll.”

Here, you’d sip on ‘milk tea’, which Pang says is the national drink – “Essentially a builder’s brew, but made with evaporated milk and poured through a stocking. That’s very traditional.”

Dim Sum culture

Dim sum is a traditional Chinese meal of small, bite-sized dishes including dumplings and buns.

“Hong Kong, is the place for dim sum – from little cafes and eateries all the way up to huge dim sum restaurants that could probably take 1,000 people at one time,” says Pang, who recommends ordering 50-60 for a group of four people.

“In the West, dim sum eating culture is more of a lunchtime thing. In Hong Kong, these dim sum restaurants will be open from the early hours in the morning all the way through to midnight. Quite often the restaurants do 50% off from 6am to 9am, so older people go there with their newspapers and have a bit of a gathering, it’s quite a community.

“It’s such a big part of our culture, and that sort of sharing element of eating.

Understanding heat

“Chinese food, no matter whether it’s stir-frying or not, it’s all about understanding heat, and when you’re confident with that, you can cook anything,” says Pang.

“Even if you’re braising something. If you threw everything into a pot with all the liquid all at the same time, it would just boil something. Whereas if you’re properly braising, you’re hammering the flavour of a glaze or sauce into your meat or veg first before you bring more liquidised stock or water into that braise later on, to make the meat more succulent over time.”

Black pepper glazed short rib bao recipe

“Baos, burgers and sliders have been setting food trends around the world for years now,” says Jeremy Pang.

“We tried a version of this slider in a new organic restaurant called Sohofama in Hong Kong, which seems to be leading the way in urban farming and healthier cooking styles, while still managing to maintain the best part of traditional Chinese cooking techniques to create delicious dishes like this.”

If you’re making your own bao, try either the hirata bun fold or burger bao fold, and steam them just before finishing off the meat.

Ingredients

(Serves 4)

4 beef short ribs, separated

½ a portion of bao dough, ready to make 8-10 steamed hirata buns

or burger baos

For the poaching liquid:

1 star anise

1 small cinnamon stick

2 cloves

2 bay leaves

1tsp black peppercorns

½tsp salt

1 litre water

For the glaze:

3tbsp jarred Chinese black pepper sauce (available in Chinese

supermarkets)

2tbsp light soy sauce

4tsp sugar

Method

1. Place the short ribs in a large saucepan and add all the poaching liquid ingredients. Bring to the boil on a high heat, then lower to a gentle simmer. Poach the beef ribs on a low heat for 3 hours, until the meat starts to fall off the bone but still keeps its shape.

2. While the meat is cooking, make your bao buns if you haven’t made them beforehand.

3. Mix the glaze ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Once the ribs have been poached, remove them from the poaching liquid and carefully remove the bones, leaving the meat itself whole and intact as much as possible.

4. Cut each long piece of meat in half vertically, in order to make more reasonably sized portions that will fit well into the steamed buns. Put the pieces of meat into the bowl of glaze and gently coat the pieces of meat, using a spoon to baste on all surfaces and sides.

5. Just before you finish glazing the meat, start steaming your bao buns. Char each side of the meat under a hot grill (minimum 230°C) on a lined baking tray or unlined rack, or finish directly on the barbecue.

6. Serve one piece of short rib to one steamed bun for ease of eating (with only moderate gluttony), along with some pickles or salad and condiments on the side.

Mung bean vermicelli with shiitake and mangetout

Jeremy came up with the concept of a ‘wok clock’ to help his students organise their ingredients and cook more efficiently.

After prepping the veg and meat, it is placed in a circle in order of when to put them in the wok.

“Once you get into the habit of doing so, you’ll find cooking as a whole to be a much neater and more straightforward process,” says Pang.

Ingredients

(Serves 4)

2 dried shiitake mushrooms

100g dried mung bean

vermicelli (or glass noodles)

1 garlic clove

6 mangetout

½ carrot

1 spring onion

50g or approx 2 large handfuls of beansprouts

1tbsp vegetable oil

For the sauce:

1tsp chilli bean sauce

1tbsp vegetarian stir-fry sauce (swapsies: oyster sauce)

½tbsp light soy sauce

100ml vegetable stock

½tsp pure sesame oil

Method

1. Soak the dried shiitake mushrooms for at least 1 hour, or overnight for best results.

2. Soak the mung bean vermicelli in hot water for 3–4 minutes, then drain in a sieve and run cold water from the tap through the noodles to prevent them overcooking.

3. Finely slice the garlic, and finely matchstick the presoaked and drained mushrooms, mangetout, carrot and spring onion. Pick the ends off the beansprouts and wash the sprouts well by soaking in cold water, running your fingers through them a few times, rinsing, then soaking once more in cold water.

4. Mix the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl or ramekin.

5. Now build your ‘wok clock’: Place the garlic at 12 o’clock, followed by the carrot, mangetout, mushrooms, beansprouts, soaked vermicelli and then finally your sauce, clockwise around the plate.

6. Heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a wok to a high heat. Once smoking hot, add the garlic and stir-fry for 30 seconds, then add the carrot and stir-fry for another 30 seconds. Next, add the mangetout, shiitake mushrooms and the beansprouts and continue stir-frying for 1 minute more, then add the vermicelli, immediately followed by the sauce. Bring the sauce to a vigorous boil, then start to fold the noodles and vegetables through the sauce.

7. Once all the sauce is evenly coating both the veg and vermicelli, remove from the heat, scatter with the spring onion and serve.

Cantonese pork chops recipe

“Worcestershire, brown sauce and ketchup are a true show of how British food has been intertwined into Hong Kong cuisine,” says Jeremy Pang. “Unusual ingredients to find in typical ‘Chinese food’ perhaps, yet when combined with chilli oil and soy sauce, the balance of sweet and sour flavours marries seamlessly, creating the same flavour balance that Cantonese cuisine is so famous for.”

Ingredients

(Serves 4)

4 x 200-250g pork chops

1 red onion

Vegetable oil, for frying

Fresh coriander leaves, to garnish

For the marinade:

2 cloves of garlic

½ a thumb-size piece of ginger

1 spring onion

1tsp sugar

½tsp salt

¼tsp white pepper

1tsp pure sesame oil

1tbsp Shaoxing rice wine

1tbsp light soy sauce

2tbsp cornflour

For the sauce:

1½tbsp dark soy sauce

3tbsp Worcestershire sauce

3tbsp tomato ketchup

4½tbsp Chinkiang black rice vinegar

4½tbsp sugar

1½tsp Chiu Chow chilli oil

Method

1. Slice the pork chop meat off each bone in one long sweep, keeping each chop as one whole piece of meat and reserving the bones, as they are great to cook too.

2. Turn your cleaver upside down and, using the blunt end (careful not to hold the blade!), bash across the meat as many times as possible to flatten it out, making indentations along the pork and creating as much of a surface area as possible. This will begin to tenderise the chop and allow the marinade to really flavour the meat. Keep each pork chop in one large piece at this stage.

3. Once the pork is flattened, a similar thickness to an escalope, mix the marinade ingredients in a bowl and massage them into the bashed-out meat and the bones until they are completely coated. Leave to marinate in the fridge, ideally overnight, and for a minimum of 1 hour.

4. When ready to make the dish, finely slice the red onion and set aside. Mix the sauce ingredients together in a bowl and stir well until the sugar has fully dissolved.

5. Half-fill a medium pot, wok or deep-fryer with vegetable oil and heat to 180°C, or use a wooden skewer or wooden chopstick to test by placing the tip in the oil: if the wood starts to fizz after a second or so, the oil is hot enough. Using a slotted spoon or a Chinese frying skimmer, first lay the marinated pork chop bones in the oil and deep-fry them for 5 minutes.

6. Remove the bones and drain well on kitchen paper, then lay the marinated pieces of pork in the fryer one by one, so they don’t stick together. Deep-fry the pork for 2–3 minutes on a high heat, until crispy and brown on the outside, then remove and drain with the bones.

7. At this point, roughly chop the fried pork meat into bite-size portions (roughly 3cm squares). Heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a wok to a high heat. Once smoking hot, add the finely sliced red onion and stir-fry for 30 seconds or so. Pour in the sauce and bring to a vigorous boil, then add the bones and the pieces of fried pork meat and toss 2 or 3 times. Serve immediately, garnished with coriander leaves.

Hong Kong Kitchen by Jeremy Pang is published by Hamlyn. Photography by Kris Kirkham. Available now.