Little Bao and Regent Hong Kong serve up a taste of home


Since Little Bao was established in 2013, Chow has become known for taking Chinese tastes and ingredients into unexpected territory. Its signature bao borrows the format of an American burger, with a steamed bun surrounding fillings that have included pork belly, fried chicken and mushrooms.

At Regent, that approach raises a question many Hongkongers could answer differently: what does home taste like?

A noodle dish without the noodles

The answer starts with dishes whose references are easy to recognise.

Take gon chow ngau ho, the Cantonese favourite of beef and flat rice noodles fried over fierce heat. In Chow and Choi’s “Beef Noodle” Fries, the noodles disappear. Crispy chips are tossed in double-fermented soy sauce with caramelised Brandt beef and ghost pepper hot sauce. The ingredients have changed, but the memory remains.

Chiu Chow Seaweed Poppers recall hand-pounded cuttlefish balls in seaweed soup, recast as crisp bites with black garlic mayonnaise and lemon. The Salt & Pepper Kuruma Prawn Bao looks to the dai pai dong, combining prawns, cuttlefish, dried sakura prawns and Shaoxing miso.

Chiu Chow Seaweed Poppers reinterpret hand-pounded cuttlefish balls in seaweed soup as crisp bites served with black garlic mayonnaise and lemon.
Chiu Chow Seaweed Poppers reinterpret hand-pounded cuttlefish balls in seaweed soup as crisp bites served with black garlic mayonnaise and lemon.
Salt & Pepper Kuruma Prawn Bao brings a dai pai dong favourite into bao form, combining fresh prawns, cuttlefish, dried sakura prawns and Shaoxing miso.
Salt & Pepper Kuruma Prawn Bao brings a dai pai dong favourite into bao form, combining fresh prawns, cuttlefish, dried sakura prawns and Shaoxing miso.

Then comes perhaps the most familiar cha chaan teng reference. For generations of Hongkongers, its cooking has provided its own kind of comfort food, woven into everyday life.

The Satay Beef Short Rib Bao takes satay beef noodles in another direction, replacing the usual thin slices of beef with slow-cooked short rib, peanut-satay sauce and compressed pineapple. A vegetarian “Char Siu” Bao turns towards dim sum, using celeriac and black termite mushrooms with a fermented red bean curd glaze.




Read Full Article At Source

Share. Save. Don't Miss The Buzz: XFacebookRedditLINETelegramWhatsAppGmail

Leave a Reply