How to Say Beef Sea Eaaw
Hong Kong's hot pot obsession
(Paradigm credit:
Karen Chiang
)
Gai Bo is so comforting, flavourful and affordable that it has become a staple in a urban center that has a curt attention span when it comes to food trends.
I
It was past midnight in a residential area in Cheung Sha Wan, and just Tai Po King Eating place and a few other local eateries were still open on the quiet street. As I walked inside, loud churr filled the small but bright dining surface area, and workers who'd just got off their night shifts were huddled around the tables clinking small glasses of beer and smoking cigarettes. Fresh chilli and spices were being fried in the kitchen, and the fumes started spreading out into the dining expanse. Yous could sense the anticipation as nosotros all sat waiting for one matter: the restaurant's signature Gai Bo (literally, 'chicken pot'), a steaming pot of spicy, saucy, stir-fried craven.
Hot pot has long been a big part of China and Hong Kong's dining culture, a simple one-dish concept where fresh vegetables and raw meat are quickly poached in boiling soup stock, with soy sauce and condiments like fresh coriander, leap onions and garlic adding actress season. Later on all the ingredients are eaten, a belly-warming and nutritious broth remains. It is a shared dining experience, where families and friends assemble around the hot pot to share stories and a meal.
Hot pot has become the symbolic dish of Hong Kong with more 250 restaurants serving information technology (Credit: Karen Chiang)
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The versatile cooking method of hot pot is believed to date back to the early Middle Ages in the Asian steppes to the n as a solution to eat and continue warm around ane communal fire, according to Mary Ellen Snodgrass in the Encyclopedia of Kitchen History. The centuries-quondam comfort food then spread around the region, inspiring variations like Szechuan Maotu hot pot, a Chongqing specialty with a tongue-numbing broth and cow innards; and Peking chrysanthemum hot pot found in Sukang, where the goop is made from white chrysanthemum flowers, prawns and pork. The cooking method fifty-fifty influenced Nippon's nabemono (table cookery) – a Japanese version of hot pot where the broth contains chicken or seaweed, and cooked ingredients are served in individual bowls with dipping condiments.
Just the version that can be constitute today in Hong Kong is so comforting, flavourful and affordable that it has become a staple in a urban center that has a short attending bridge when it comes to food trends. It may not have been invented hither, only with 266 restaurants offering Gai Bo on Hong Kong's dining directory OpenRice, it has truly become a dish of the urban center.
What's different about Gai Bo from traditional hot pot is its two-part procedure that finer turns one meal into two consecutive ones.
First, a heavily flavoured pot of stir-fried chicken topped with a healthy scattering of coriander is served on superlative of a gas stove to keep warm. Frequently diners will cull to add other ingredients like fish maw or deep-fried soy rolls to soak upwards the sauce. Then, once the craven pieces are finished, goop or water is added to deglaze the pot, which turns the meal into a traditional hot pot. At this bespeak, diners can gild other raw hot pot ingredients to share; usual suspects include beef strips, prawns, pork balls and vegetables.
Gai Bo's two-function procedure effectively turns 1 meal into two sequent ones (Credit: Karen Chiang)
The dish'due south huge popularity belies its relatively brusque history, and there is no consensus as to its exact origins. According to Edmund Lam, owner of Hong Kong'southward Supreme Restaurant, Hong Kong's first all-you lot-can-eat Gai Bo buffet concatenation, "Information technology was first popularised in Shenzhen and communist china, with flavours of Sichuan cuisine which are very spicy." Indeed Yu Jun Eating place in Shenzhen'southward Xiangxi Village claimed to take invented it first in 1994, proudly proclaiming 'The First Gai Bo' on their menu.
Siu Chung Human, possessor of Tai Po King Restaurant, believes that he was the first to bring Gai Bo to Hong Kong, in 2002. "Information technology was the age of pork-bone hot pot, merely nosotros weren't doing as well as the others. I remembered the Gai Bo nosotros had in Xiangxi Village in Shenzhen and tried to make it for ourselves to gustatory modality. It was quite delicious, and so we starting selling information technology," he said. "The sauce from Gai Bo is especially fragrant. It saved our restaurant and we see it as our saviour."
Others like Lam and Jane Mentum, owner of popular Hashemite kingdom of jordan Gai Bo restaurant JKJ POT, say the dish pays tribute to 'Jer Jer Chicken Pot', a Cantonese dish traditionally served at dai pai dongs, or street hawkers, on roadsides in Hong Kong.
Some believe the hot pot pays tribute to the Cantonese dish 'Jer Jer Chicken Pot' (Credit: Karen Chiang)
"Also known every bit 'Chongqing' craven hot pot, [Gai Bo] is merely a variation of the Hong Kong 'Jer Jer Craven Pot'," Chin said. "There's actually no Gai Bo in Chongqing. Hong Kong people gave information technology the name probably considering its spiciness and sense of taste resembles Chongqing'south spicy cuisine. There are less and less street hawkers in Hong Kong nowadays where Jer Jer Chicken Pot used to be very popular especially during wintertime, when people want to share a piping hot dish. Now, more and more immature people go for Gai Bo instead for the similar feeling."
Indeed, the cooking method of Gai Bo is similar to Jer Jer Chicken Pot – dry out stir-fried. To become the heavy flavours to penetrate the meat, Gai Bo's craven is first marinated overnight in a spice blend that includes Sichuan peppercorn, star anise, cinnamon, angelica, soy sauce and oyster sauce. The marinated meat is and then stir-fried in a wok before existence served in a dirt pot and garnished with fresh coriander. The name 'jer jer' is an onomatopoeia signifying 'wok'south jiff' – the sound the raw meat makes when it hits the hot wok – and the irresistible charred smell that results is a huge function of both dishes' appeal.
"The trick is to wok-fry the raw craven," Chin said. "Some restaurants may starting time blanch the chicken to speed upward the procedure, but that volition result in white, banal and chewy meat that does not really alloy well with the sauce."
If you're in Hong Kong in winter hot pot is something you lot should make fourth dimension to experience (Credit: Karen Chiang)
She explained that striking the right spice notes is vital, which is why she sources their Sichuan peppercorn and chilli directly from Chongqing, China – the source of Sichuan cuisine. These help create a sauce that is aromatic and spicy merely doesn't overpower the taste of the craven.
Any the story behind the dish, today Gai Bo is ubiquitous throughout Hong Kong. Dedicated restaurants accept popped up left and right over the last decade with varying recipes and concepts, from classic broths to luxury toppings. There were short-lived variations involving cheese, seafood and imperial sugariness potatoes, and what originally was just clear chicken broth can now be establish as a lobster-based soup or a cocktail of Chinese herbs. A-la-carte Gai Bo restaurants in Hong Kong serve up premium ingredients like fresh seafood or paw-cut beef, just the true crowd-pleasers, with abiding crowds of students and families, tend to be buffet-style, all-you-tin-eat versions, where diners pay one toll for unlimited amount of hot pot ingredients, too as drinks and desserts.
Today, on any night of the week you lot'll detect Hong Kong locals huddled over a pot of Gai Bo, sharing stories, laughs and beers. Ultimately, anybody has dissimilar criteria for their favourite hot pot restaurant, be information technology the price, the sauce, the chicken or the location. However, if y'all're in Hong Kong in winter, Gai Bo, much like dim sum or pineapple bun, is definitely something you should make time to experience. My tip? Don't skip the crispy soy rolls – they soak up the sauce to requite you lot maximum flavour. A must-have at any Gai Bo tabular array.
Culinary Roots is a serial from BBC Travel connecting to the rare and local foods woven into a identify's heritage.
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Source: https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20171207-hong-kongs-hot-pot-obsession
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