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Hong Kong tang
The ex-colony's restaurants heat
up with cutting-edge cuisine and Qing dynasty classics
by Jeremy Ferguson
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Pssst: the Dragon has awakened. As recently
as a decade ago, cooking in China still hadn't recovered from the
maelstrom of 20th-century history. Hong Kong stood unequalled as
the foodie capital of the Middle Kingdom.
Not any more: a new generation of chefs has
returned the People's Republic to ancient glory as one of the world's
greatest food destinations. Now the question is, how does Hong Kong
maintain its gastronomic groove in the Dragon's wake?
Hong Kong gastronome and bon vivant
Billy Mark responds with a cautious optimism: "Yes, we're facing
a huge challenge from China," he says. "But we're still sophisticated
and cosmopolitan. We have the international vision. We're the meeting
point of all the Chinese cuisines from Cantonese to Sichuan, not
to mention world cuisines like Italian and Indian. And because of
troubles in recent years, our restaurants have learned to care about
the customer. We're really much better because bad things happened
to us. This gives us an edge."
It's no secret that Beijing plans to sideline
the former British colony in favour of home-grown Shanghai. Yet
in spite of Shanghai's sweeping advances, Hong Kong is clearly determined
to hold its ground, or lose as little as possible. The city's middle
name is resilience, and it shines on every front, from tourism initiatives
to bold architecture that is transforming the skyline yet again.
Europe on
a Plate
The always-trendy restaurant in town is Spoon (18 Salisbury
Road, Kowloon; tel: 011-852-2721-1211; www.hongkong-ic.intercontinental.com)
in the InterContinental Hotel, with its defining Victoria Harbour
panorama. Spoon is one of seven such restaurants around the world
established by nine-Michelin-Star chef Alain Ducasse. The concept
is built to travel: streamlined French cooking stressing high-ticket
ingredients in modest portions.
The restaurant exudes glamour from the celebrated
skyline view to velvet banquettes with mink cushions. Its ceiling
is a panoply of 550 hand-blown Murano glass spoons. Appointments
are uniformly chic. All that's incongruous is the head-banging music.
If Spoon's priority is to please the Cantonese, why the racket?
Dinner may launch with an amuse bouche of
foie-gras custard; now that sets a tone. Among starters, Chilean
sea bass and Alaska black cod appear to have been caught this morning.
Keep in mind that Yu, arguably Hong Kong's finest fish restaurant,
is just upstairs.
Wagyu -- Australia's answer to Japan's Kobe
beef, with cows massaged daily and fed on beer -- has the texture
of butter. Beef cheeks, all the rage, arrive absurdly tender and
succulent and sauced in black truffle. For dessert, pine-nut ice
cream prevails.
Hong Kong does Italy proud, too. Over at the
Ritz-Carlton, Toscano (3 Connaught Road Central; tel:
011-852-2877-6666; www.ritzcarlton.com/en/Properties/HongKong/)
has been pleasing the city for years with Florentine surroundings,
effusive service and the northern Italian cuisine of Umberto Bombana.
The chef's best dish may be a starter: the warm salad of scallops
and scampi napped with Sevruga caviar. Scampi consommé with
seafood and green-pea ravioli fuses Italian and Chinese (Chitalian?)
smartly. Among mains, both seared grouper cradled in zucchini flower
and pinkly roasted duck breast are sure bets.
Some Like
It Hot
But if the Cantonese like their cooking subtle, outsiders may prefer
more spirited Asian. Head for the south side of the island, shop
for a bargain at Stanley Market and lunch at Sukho Thai (Level
2 Stanley Beach Villa, 90 Stanley Main Street; tel: 011-852-2899-0999),
one of a kickline of international restaurants revitalizing a formerly
dull strip of beach. Sukho Thai isn't content to be good at what
it does: it shares the building and its menu with Saigon.
The Vietnamese pho lover slurps a wonderful beef broth piled high
with thinly sliced beef and rice noodles, roaring with sweet basil,
star anise and cinnamon. To finish? Iced Vietnamese coffee, the
reason God created condensed milk.
For six decades, Hong Kong Central's four-storey
Yung Kee (32-40 Wellington Street, Central; tel: 011-852-
2522-1624; www.yungkee.com.hk)
has performed as a Cantonese banner-carrier. It has icons: shark's
fin and bird's nest -- the Emperor's New Clothes of Chinese cuisine.
It has signature dishes: crackling won tons stuffed with minced
pork hint at deep-fry heaven. Pork arrives in the style of crispy-skinned
duck, alternately crunchy and fork-tender, savoury-and-sweet. And
zapped with five-spice, roast leg of lamb morphs to a Cantonese
classic.
But you don't need a glittering emporium to
eat well in Hong Kong. Start your day at Law Fu Kee (50
Lyndhurst Terrace, Central; tel: 011-852-2850-6756) in Central,
an amiable hole-in-the wall specializing in congee, simmered-to-velvet
Chinese rice porridge laced with ginger and spring onion.
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