{"id":77940,"date":"2026-08-20T13:40:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T05:40:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=77940"},"modified":"2026-08-20T13:40:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T05:40:27","slug":"a-hong-kong-food-staple-is-having-a-gourmet-moment-cantonese-canned-fish-dessert-anyone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=77940","title":{"rendered":"A Hong Kong food staple is having a gourmet moment. Cantonese canned fish dessert, anyone?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Tins of fried dace with salted black beans \u2013 known as <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">dau si leng yu<\/em> in Cantonese \u2013 are a pantry staple in Hong Kong and in Cantonese-diaspora homes around the globe.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Affordable, ready to eat and with a long shelf life, the canned food is a symbol of working-class resilience. And it is highly valued; in April 2023, a masked man in a black windbreaker allegedly stole 48 cans of <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">dau si leng yu<\/em> (worth HK$1,800 or US$230) from a supermarket in Sheung Shui in Hong Kong\u2019s New Territories.<\/p>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">Although the first cans of the rich, savoury fish product were produced in 1893 in Canton \u2013 now <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">Guangzhou<\/span> in China\u2019s Guangdong province \u2013 fried dace with salted <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">black beans<\/span> became popular in Hong Kong because of the city\u2019s unique position straddling China and the world.<\/div>\n<div class=\"image-inline-container e1a5rv550 css-1llrc1m e1yqhwb40\" data-qa=\"Component-renderMap-StyledDiv\">\n<div class=\"image-inline caption e1fvabeq0 css-19sk4h4 ea9pn0s0\" data-qa=\"Component-Container\">\n<figure class=\"image-inline caption ea9pn0s1 css-d3pq8q e1gf69pb0\" data-qa=\"ArticleImage-ArticleImageContainer\">\n<div data-qa=\"ArticleImage-handleRenderImage-ImageContainer\" class=\"css-bjn8wh e1gf69pb3\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Dau si leng yu, or fried dace with salted black beans. Photo: Wikipedia\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/img.i-scmp.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto\/sites\/default\/files\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/08\/19\/f47833af-df2e-4b0c-b65b-8c1147565c10_f8ea02d1.jpg\" title=\"Dau si leng yu, or fried dace with salted black beans. Photo: Wikipedia\"\/><\/div><figcaption data-qa=\"ArticleImage-DescriptionContainer\" class=\"css-1bj5zno e1gf69pb1\">Dau si leng yu, or fried dace with salted black beans. Photo: Wikipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">During the 20th century, Hong Kong \u2013 which was ruled by the British from 1841 to 1997 \u2013 attracted refugees fleeing poverty and political turmoil in mainland China. These refugees brought the canned fish product with them to the city as an inexpensive food option during times of hardship.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\"><em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">Dau si leng yu<\/em> became an emergency staple food in Hong Kong, where severe tropical storms would often shut down markets and restaurants for days at a time. The product, which comes in an iconic flat oval tin, has long been viewed as a simple comfort food.<\/p>\n<h3 type=\"h3\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"eh0yk8h0 css-17x7qa9 e1pqa4re1\">Crafting a taste of nostalgia<\/h3>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cGrowing up, <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">dau si leng yu<\/em> was always in the back of the kitchen pantry for when my parents were away or too tired from work to cook anything substantial,\u201d says Jimmy Wong, a California-born pastry chef whose parents met in Hong Kong before emigrating to the United States. \u201cAt first, I thought it was a little scary because it\u2019s a bit different from a lot of the other canned foods you get here in the West. But I learned to love it because it can be used in so many different ways \u2013 even by itself.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/food-drink\/article\/3364539\/hong-kong-food-staple-having-gourmet-moment-cantonese-canned-fish-dessert-anyone?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tins of fried dace with salted black beans \u2013 known as dau si leng yu in Cantonese \u2013 are a pantry staple in Hong Kong&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[7964,6373,4974,979,108,13858,3569,5231,2767,8611],"class_list":["post-77940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-canned","tag-cantonese","tag-dessert","tag-fish","tag-food","tag-gourmet","tag-hong","tag-kong","tag-moment","tag-staple","wpcat-33-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/77941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}