Hong Kong style Borscht, and Other Curious Chinese Fusion Dishes
- CCNCC
- Jun 1, 2018
- 3 min read
Hong Kong Style Borscht, or Luo Song Tong
Order a combo-meal at a cha chaan teng—a "tea lounge" that more closely embodies the spirit a local diner or greasy spoon—and the server will give you a choice between a daily special Chinese soup, a cream-based corn soup, or a Hong Kong style borscht.
As strange as it sounds, luo song tong (sometimes spelled luo sung tang or some combination of the two) is so common in this setting that no one even bats an eye. This Hong Kong or Cantonese style borscht, however, barely resembles the East European soup from which it gets its name. Where traditional borscht is a rich, deep red or purple beet soup often served with sour cream, Hong Kong style borscht consists of a tomato-based broth with potatoes, cabbage, celery, carrots, and beef or oxtail—no beets required. Instead, the resulting tang or acidity might remind you of Hot and Sour soup without quite the same kick.
Luo song tong (羅宋湯 or literally, "Russian soup") is believed to originate in the early 20th century in Harbin, nicknamed the "Ice City," in Northeast China. Refugees of the Bolshevik Revolution, called "White Russians" (as opposed to the "red" bolsheviks), flooded Harbin and Shanghai during and after World War I, the Russian Revolution, and Russian Civil War. Some stayed in Shanghai, opening Russian restaurants—while others, further displaced by the Chinese Civil War/Communist Revolution (1927-1950)—fled to Hong Kong and did the same.
Sources:
Why do Hong Kong Restaurants Serve Borscht? The Overlooked History of Russian Hong Kong - Christopher DeWolf
Luosong Soup: Too Chinese to be Borscht? - Kian Lam Kho
Hong Kong Style Borscht Soup - The Missing Lokness
Chicken Manchurian
Moving to the China-India border, the origins of this dish are relatively clear. Most credit its invention to Nelson Wang, a third-generation Indian citizen of Chinese descent, in 1975. Working in Mumbai at the time, Wang blended a popular Indian flavour profile of ginger, garlic, and green chilies with soy sauce, cornstarch, and vinegar into a gravy-like sauce. He then dredged and deep-fried diced chicken and tossed it with the sauce.
The dish became so popular that Wang opened his own restaurant, China Garden, in 1983. It has since become a national chain and even has a franchise in Nepal. Although this dish is unheard of in China, Indian-Chinese or Chinese-Indian cuisine is still popular in border regions and perhaps abroad to a lesser degree. Indians refer to this type of cuisine as "Desi Chinese"while the Chinese might associate such fusions with Hakka cuisine, which has a similar taste profile (although often conceived as a regional identity, "Hakka" refers to an ethnolinguistic group dispersed throughout Asia and other parts of the world).
Sources:
How Chicken Manchurian Found its Place in Indian Cuisine - Janice Leung Hayes
"Hakka" in the Berkshire Encyclopedia of China - Ooi Giok Ling
Chinese Food in India -- a Fiery Fusion of Flavours - Sanjiv Khamgaonkar
Swiss Cream Roll
You might also know this dessert as a jelly roll (American) or a yule log — a thin layer of light and airy sponge cake rolled around a sweet filling. In Western or European swiss rolls, the filling is often jam, jelly, or fruit, while the classic filling for Asian swiss rolls tends to be whipped cream. You can buy them whole or in individual slices that show off the beautiful spiral inside.
In Victoria, you may have seen these in Fairway or at Chinese bakeries, although it seems every country from Denmark to Argentina and Malaysia to Sweden has its own version. The one place you can't find it, oddly enough, seems to be Switzerland; despite its name, the dessert is believed to have originated elsewhere in Europe, while the United Kingdom is credited for introducing it to Hong Kong and similar parts of the Chinese diaspora. This delicate dessert would certainly fit perfectly on an afternoon tea platter.
While chocolate or coffee-flavoured sponge cake is common enough in Western desserts, flavours, such as mango or green tea, or ingredients like sesame or bean paste add a distinctive Asian flair. One famous Hong Kong bakery, which specializes in swiss rolls, even uses charcoal powder.
More adventurous or accomplished bakers might try a hurricane (or typhoon) swiss roll, which has a gorgeous storm-shaped pattern on the inside. To make the pattern, first pour two differently coloured batters into a sheet pan, one on top of the other.
After laying down two differently coloured batters on top of each other in a sheet pan, use the back of a spatula or knife to draw horizontal and vertical lines all across the batter. Then bake and assemble the cake as usual.
Sources:
Swiss Roll - CooksInfo.com
Hurricane Swiss Roll - Jeannie Tay
Hurricane Swiss Roll Cake Recipe - Ann Low
Hurricane Swiss Roll - Chocolate - Suka Suka Amel
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