An ode to Hong Kong's 'pan-Western' cuisine

There's no such thing as 'inauthentic' food: a quick survey of Hong Kong's 'pan-Western' food with examples from my quarantine meals can tell you why. 

Exhibit 1: Beef spare ribs braised with red wine sauce, with a side of steamed rice, to start with a cream and butternut squash soup

Exhibit 1: The UK has 'pan Asian' eateries; Hong Kong has its fair share of 'pan Western' food too.

Take these beef spare ribs as an example. On the surface, the ingredients - celery, a red wine sauce - are unmistakably Western. But the side dish has been thoroughly localised.

Indeed, in most pan-Western eateries, one has exactly three side options: rice, pasta, or potatoes & salad. In that order. And by 'rice', it invariably means a portion of plain steamed jasmine rice. It's never basmati. It's never Nandos-style spicy rice either.

Exhibit 2: On the right is a localised borscht

Exhibit 2: This is a local version of the borscht - 羅宋湯 in Chinese, literally "soup of the Rus". White Russians took it to Shanghai with them after the 1917 communist takeover; the Shanghainese, in turn, took it to Hong Kong with them after the 1949 communist takeover. Somewhere on that journey cabbage replaced beetroot.

By convention, a local two-course pan-Western meal set starts with a soup. There are two and only two options: the 'red' soup, i.e. the house borscht, or a cream-based soup (eg Cream of Chicken / Mushroom) which is colloquially known as the 'white' soup of the day. The choice is often summarised as "red or white (soup)?" when waiters take orders. Don't confuse that with the similarly phrased question about wine.

Exhibit 3: Penne with beef brisket and shiitake mushroom

Exhibit 3: Yes, you're looking at some penne with beef brisket braised in rehydrated shiitake mushrooms. I think it's delicious. But, of course, this is not exactly Italian. I suspect my Italian friends might decry it as “inauthentic”.

In a similar way, Hongkongers in the UK often look down on British pan-Asian food: a kitsch mimicry of Chinese food that puts sweet and sour sauce on everything, the stereotype goes. Better stick with "authentic" Chinese restaurants and English pubs, we think (myself included).

The fashionable quest for “authenticity” could sometimes disparage hybrid cuisines as “fakes”. But they’re not. They’re fruits of cultural exchange over many years too. They may not be your taste - Wagamama has never been mine - but they’re no less “authentic”.

And we should know better.

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