Eatsplorer, Food Magazine

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atsplorer

Issue 43, November 2017

Top Ten Thai Snacks Everyone Needs to Try

Hong Kong Reinvents DimSum

Avocado Toast Challege

the Best Fish and Chips in the London

$6.99

BOST

MO’S I

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RE A C E C

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M O N , AS

Taste the FLAVOR Taste the POWER

Hong Kong Food: 4 - Hong Kong Dimsum :

Checking out the latest Dim Sum restaurant in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. We explore how the dumplings are made.

By: Natalie Carroll

9 - Street Eats: Exploring Asian Desserts

dim sum

Hitting the streets of Hong Kong in search of the most popular snack.

By: Timothy Chan

12 - Best, Local Noodle Bowl

Based on recommendations readers sent in, we searched for the best, local noodle bowl in CauseWay Bay. By: Jenny Simpson

14 - Local Fish Mongers and Why They are Popular Checked out several fishmongers to see why they are signfiicant to the community.

By: Samuel Burt and Eli Jackson

16 - Old School Sweets & Snacks

Asked several readers to submit the name of snacks and sweets they had growing up and we went to buy and try them.

By: Natalie Carroll

Thai Street Food: 18 - Insects For Snacks

Explored the insect-food culture dominating Asia, particularly places like Thailand.

By: Alex Bucknell

20 - Thai Delicacy Voted by Readers Went to try out the five top voted thai foods that tourist don’t know about.

By: Natalie Carroll

23 - Contrast between North and South Thailand Food Looked at the food difference between North and South Thailand.

By: Maggie Burns

London Brunch Life: 33 - Food Trucks and their Importance We took a walk through London and hit up random food trucks to understand their importance to the food world.

By: Jenny Simpson.

36 - Fire Station turn Brunch Hot Spot Checking out old converted warehouses and fire stations that are now popularweekend hot spots.

By: Natalie Carroll

40 - Brunch Bars

The brunch bar is what a combination between exotic cocktails and instagrammable food.

By: Katherine Jacobs.

43 - Avocado Toast Challenge

We held a compeititon to find the most unique, most popular way to design avocado toast.

By: Samuel Burt

26 - Bangkok Eats: Exploring Asian Desserts

46 - Wine and Dine,

30 - Seafood Catch: What’s to Eat?

50 - Fish and Chips Hunt

What does the city food culture offer that other places don’t? We find out for you.

By: Emily Sharington Surrounded by the ocean, we see how Thai people cook and serve their seafood.

By: Timothy Chan

Looked at the most expensive brunches in London and what makes them so pricey.

By: Emily Sharington Exploring the city to find different types of Fish and Chips, a famous nglish dish.

By: Maggie Burns

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H O N G KO N G

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G DIMSUM by: Natalie Carroll

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The Creation of Hipster Dim Sum An Exclusive Interview with Chef Lee

It’s 8 a.m. in downtown Boston and rush hour traffic is nearing its peak. The normally bustling streets of Chinatown are deserted with only a few passersby wandering the narrow alleys. Chinese restaurant Hei La Moon is opening its doors to the early morning breakfast crowd ready to indulge in a traditional Chinese breakfast.

The morning sun fills the space inside the vast

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dining area, illuminating the red and gold furniture that

under control. This is John, “just John,” as no one at the restaurant knows his full name.

“Your appetite isn’t very big in the morning so you want to eat smaller amounts of food, so you can eat more for lunch,” John said. “Chinese people don’t eat much for breakfast so they want something small in the mornings.”

The table setup is as simple as the restaurant’s decor. The only items placed in front of you are a bowl, a porcelain spoon, chopsticks, and a tea cup.

There are no knifes and forks to make things easy. If dominates the restaurant’s interior. A waitress pushes

your chopstick skills aren’t up to par, you better start

around a cart piled with buns, lifting the covers off

practicing.

several bamboo steamers to reveal what freshly made

“The char siu [pork] is cooked in a special

dumplings are on offer. Meanwhile, a handful of diners

stove then we cut it into small pieces,” Lim said. “Once

meticulously choose what dishes to feast on

it’s cooked in small pieces, we mix it with a special

for breakfast.

barbecue sauce and put it inside the buns.

The two-story Chinese eatery looks more like a

Lm and the nine other chef ’s sole responsibility

ballroom than a restaurant. The main dining area is one

is making dim sum. Everything on the menu is made

big open space, crowded with round tables draped in

in house, from the dumpling wrappers to the custard

white tablecloths. Images of dragons hang on the walls,

of the egg tarts. While there are dozens of different dim

and red decorations—symbolizing luck and happiness

sum items on the menu, there seems to be only three

in Chinese culture—are interspersed throughout the

core ingredients.

space. Hei La Moon’s simple furnishings allow the

You may have also noticed that desserts are

food to serve as the main attraction. The restaurant’s

scarce at Chinese restaurants. There are a few sweet

refined dim sum, the Cantonese brunch tradition

treats, however, to cap off a dim sum brunch. The last

that translates to mean “touch the heart” and refers

thing you should order is the traditional baked egg

to the cuisine of small foods and the savoring of tea,

custard tart—dan tat in Cantonese. The rich egg filling

has allowed Hei La Moon to become a staple in the

paired with the light and flaky crust of the tart makes

Chinatown food scene.

for an exceptional way to end your full tea brunch.

Even before you get a mouthful of the dim sum,

But what about soup dumplings? This fatty

you can tell it’s going to be authentic—the kind of

pork dumpling can be found at most Chinese

food you would be served at a highly regarded eatery

restaurants around town, but not at Hei La Moon. Soup

in Hong Kong. The waitstaff—clad in red uniforms—

dumplings—referred to as xiao long bao in China—are

speak only a little English. When it comes to ordering,

a Shanghainese-style dumpling that’s not usually eaten

there will usually be a lot of pointing and

at breakfast. Hei La Moon prides itself for serving

nodding involved.

authentic Cantonese cuisine, so it would not make

Dim sum is originally a Cantonese custom, but is now served throughout China and the world. M On

sense to serve items from another region.

“The unique thing about dim sum is that it

weekend mornings, the large dining space fills with

is cheap and the portions are small,” John said. “If

hungry customers, and Hei La Moon’s manager, strolls

you order something you do not like, you can order

amongst the tables, ensuring that everything stays

something else, it’s only three dollars for a dish.”

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Piggy Dumplings by: Natalie Carroll

Just like bread, dumplings probably arose independently in several cuisines. And in all likelihood they were invented as a way to stretch a small amount of meat to feed more people. A pound of pork or beef might not be enough for a family of four, but mix it with some

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Matcha, Matcha by: Natalie Carroll

perfectly sufficient meal.

These piggy dumplings are actually called “Baos” and there are two types: the traditional steamed version is called zhēng chāshāo bāo while the baked variety is usually called chāsīu chāan bāau. Steamed cha siu bao has a white exterior, while the baked variety is browned and glazed. Encased in the center of the bun is tender, sweet, slow-roasted pork tenderloin. This cha siu is diced, and then mixed into a syrupy mixture of

Matcha is finely ground powder of specially grown and

oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, roasted sesame seed oil, rice

processed green tea leaves. It is special in two aspects of

vinegar, shaoxing wine or dry sherry, soy sauce, sugar

farming and processing: the green tea plants for matcha

and cornstarch.

are shade-grown for about three weeks before harvest

Many Hong Kong restaurants are making the

and the stems and veins are removed in processing.

dumplings fun to eat. Chef Ling from Yum Cha said

During shaded growth, the plant Camellia sinensis

he came up with the idea after noticing an increase of

produces more theanine and caffeine. This combination

people taking their phones out during lunch time to

of chemicals is considered to account for the calm

photograph some of the dishes that were a bit more

energy people might feel from

creative. He decided to expand upon that idea and sat

drinking matcha.

down with his staff to come up with more fun ideas.

The role of the Japanese sweets is not only to make the tea taste better. They also give a sense of the season. The four seasons are clearly defined in Japan, and the tea ceremony is devised to give participants a sense of the seasons. This is true of the sweets as much as any other aspect of the ceremony. In Japan, April is the month when cherry blossom trees are in full bloom.

Sakura-mochi is a Japanese confectionery which uses leaves of the cherry blossom tree.

Resturants now are combining sweet and savory into one dish and playing on the younger generation’s new hip vibe. By making the food more visually appealing, restaurants are able to attract more people who are into photography and “cute” food. Now a days it is more than just eating the food, but about admiring it, and documenting it as part of our culture.

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cabbage and onions and wrap it in dough and it’s a

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Little Robots by: Natalie Carroll It’s a humble dish that manages to capture the tongue: char siu, a concoction of farmed pork sweetened with honey and cooked in the near-primitive process of skewering over an open fire. Char siu has become so

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Gudemama Eggs by: Natalie Carroll Meet the egg yolk that is taking Hong Kong by storm All of Sanrio’s adorable characters, like Hello Kitty, have unique personalities.

The newest creature is called Gudetama, and it’s

iconic, it was added to the Oxford English Dictionary this year, defined as “roast pork marinated in a sweet and savoury sauce.”

In Hong Kong in the 1950s and 1960s, much of the city was of the struggling working class and a plate of barbecued pork served with a heaping side of steamed white rice was a satisfying treat that soothed aching bodies and tired souls. Today, the char siu rice plate is still a lunch staple for many office workers. You could even say Hong Kong is somewhat addicted to the comfort food.

A char siu chef worth his weight in salt will pay close attention to the roasting time as the highly-sweet marinade means the pork can burn easily, and yet diners love to have a little bit of charring on the edges

known as the world’s laziest egg. Gudetama is one of

of the meat for a crunchy accent. To achieve rosewood

the most popular characters in Sanrio’s arsenal and his

glazed char siu with a juicy-on-the-inside, just-ever-so-

products are flying off the shelves. Since becoming just

slightly-charred-on-the-outside takes years of training

a popular cartoon, Hong Kong and Japana chef ’s have

as a chef. Nearly all Cantonese restaurants make their

taken advantage of this and created food out of

own char siu in-house and pride themselves on their

this character.

secret recipes.

The bao itself is created with the same ingredients but incorporates a bit more creativity and a warm custard inside that restaurant goers can enjoy as a final dessert. Since Gudemama can be positioned in different ways, chefs have different interpretations for their food, allowing for their to constant creativity for the dish. Along with the piggy bao and the matcha dumplings, this bao has also seen much popularity in the last six months. So much so that some restaurants have turned themselves into full fledged fans for the cartoon; places in Hong Kong and Japan are purely dedicated to all things Gudemama, from their wallpaper to their drinks and food. One customer commented and she loves it because it makes food more fun to eat and just silly overall.

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