How Christmas in Hong Kong evolved from a European affair to a Chinese...
How has Hong Kong celebrated the Christian festival of Christmas since early times, and in what ways did this change as society expanded, diversified and evolved?From Hong Kong’s mid-19th century urban...
View ArticleMandarin Oriental pastry chef on catering for a Thai princess, his training...
“When I was young, I liked to eat and was always around the kitchen, so I started to cook. One time, my father took me to Lyons [in southeast France], where the Bocuse d’Or – the world culinary...
View ArticleHow to make five-spice roasted pork rack with crispy crackling and meat...
When I cook a holiday meal for a crowd, I like to lay out a buffet of several main dishes and plenty of sides, so everyone has a lot of choice.For vegetarians, I make quiche, salad and protein-rich...
View ArticleHow to make bread pudding with whisky sauce and home-made crème anglaise: a...
Many people are under the misconception that custard is a packaged yellow powder that’s mixed with water or milk to make instant crème anglaise and pastry cream. But these powdered mixes don’t come...
View ArticleHow to make dishes from two-Michelin-star Disfrutar, world’s 5th best...
Disfrutar Vol. 1 (2021) is not light bedtime reading: together, the two books that make up the boxed set weigh in at more than 6kg (13 pounds). Fortunately, the lighter of the two volumes, which tells...
View ArticleKorean fast food pioneer in Hong Kong on proving herself to her mother and...
“My mother came to Hong Kong in 1963 to help my aunt, who had a food and beverage business here. Two years later, my mum opened Lee Fa Yuen, which we believe was the first Korean restaurant in Hong...
View ArticleHow to make roasted vegetable tart with piment d’Espelette butter that adds a...
Although most people think of butter only as being made from cow’s milk and as either salted or unsalted (sometimes called “sweet”), there are many different types.Butter can be made with milk from...
View ArticleHow to make butadon – Japanese rice bowls with pork and onion – hearty,...
I love donburi –“rice bowls” that can have toppings as varied as tempura or grilled eel to chicken and egg. Donburi is not a fancy meal; instead, it is hearty and comforting.ButadonButadon, which...
View ArticleBorn poor, Hong Kong’s ‘Abalone King’ worked his way up to found a...
“Abalone King” Yeung Koon-yat’s life has changed dramatically from the extreme poverty he was born into in 1932 in Shiqi, a subdistrict of Zhongshan, Guangdong province.When Yeung was seven, his...
View ArticleNordic cuisine chef on pickling, fermentation, and swapping 17-hour...
“My mum cooks family-style dishes like steamed fish and chicken. Her seasoning is complicated, very flavourful, not straight from a bottle. She mixes several ingredients together and I always ask her...
View ArticleHow to make vegetarian mapo tofu – who needs meat when you have mushrooms?...
Like a lot of people, I am making the effort to eat less meat, especially when dining at home. I’ve never cooked with mock meat, but where I can, I substitute the original protein-rich vegetarian...
View ArticlePlastic waste created by Hong Kong’s 21-day hotel quarantine – what can be...
As Hong Kong marches towards its seventh quarantine cycle for returning residents (with approved hotels now numbering 44, up from 40), one quantifiable problem remains clear: the use and disposal of...
View ArticleKorean temple food and the Buddhist ethos at home: how vegetarian foodies can...
Many cultures were preaching the importance of sustainability and a plant-based diet long before it became common knowledge that these practices are essential for the good of the planet.Because they...
View ArticleMichelin-star chef’s war on waste and sustainable eating push, and how he...
“I was born in the 1960s but already in the early ’70s, global warming was on the agenda. I watched Jacques Cousteau films and in the ’70s, he was already saying there was a depletion in biodiversity –...
View ArticleHow to make Buddha’s delight, or fat choi jai – a Lunar New Year dish to...
One of the dishes I remember my grandmother making for the Lunar New Year is Buddha’s delight, or fat choi jai. The dish gets its Chinese name from fat choi – a blue-green algae often called hairy moss...
View ArticleHow to make lucky Chinese Lunar New Year dishes to bring money and happiness
Preparing a Chinese festival feast back in the old days must have been a daunting task.Can you imagine grating radish for loh bok goh (steamed radish cake) by hand, instead of with a food processor, or...
View ArticleHow to make Chinese sizzling vegetable pot (jer jer choi), a delicious...
Jer jer (sometimes spelled je je) is a cooking style that gets its name from the sound the ingredients supposedly make as they sizzle in a clay pot. Often, it refers to chicken served in a clay pot,...
View ArticleHow the cutlet reached Hong Kong and Singapore from India, and its culinary...
Creolised cuisines are a permanent marker of Asia’s otherwise disappearing “crossover” societies. From the 16th century onwards, successive waves of Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, British and French...
View ArticleHow to make plum and raspberry pie: a sweet, tart dessert that tastes as good...
Fresh plums have a long season – you can find different varieties in the market for most of the year. Plums and raspberries are a classic culinary combination.For the best flavour and colour in this...
View ArticleChocolate, avocados, tacos – Mexico’s culinary gifts to the world, and ways...
What would Italian food be without tomatoes, or Indian food without chillies? Imagine life without chocolate, or squash or beans.In México: The Beautiful Cookbook (1991), authors Marilyn Tausend and...
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