Hong Kong, despite mounting anxieties about its future, is today enjoying a quiet reshaping - perhaps even a mild revolution - of its venerable eating habits. The Cantonese cooking long traditional in this world center is being modified by a host of outside influences - Asian, European, and American. The thick, heavy sauces often found in Cantonese dishes are being lightened by the introduction of such "exotic" foreign products as asparagus, grape wine, butter, milk, and even mayonnaise.
Always willing to experiment, Hong Kong's Cantonese chefs are eager to work with such alien ingredients as asparagus. Our ordinary foods are often treated in innovative ways, and in the process new dishes are created - for example, "deep-fried" milk.
On my most recent culinary visit, I systematically explored the best hotel dining rooms in the colony. I chose hotel restaurants because that is where most travelers eat, and, as I learned, so do most of the well-heeled locals.
Nowadays the diner is usually offered two menus in these posh places. One lists the traditional dishes and the other offers "specialties." Those who choose the first option will receive individual bowls of rice but will partake jointly of the common dishes, using only chopsticks. In the new cuisine of small courses, each diner may enjoy a few exotic dishes of his own, using either chopsticks or knife and fork.
When I took friends from the Chinese University of Hong Kong to dinner at the Celestial Court restaurant in the Sheraton Hotel, we selected from both lists. Ordering this way resulted in an elegant menu of the old and the new, imparting a distinctly international flavor.
A general concern for health and hygiene has probably also stimulated a trend toward lighter sauces, more fish and seafood, and a greater representation of fresh fruits and vegetables. Any American who lives on a Chinese diet over an extended period is starved for salads and dairy products.
In Hong Kong, food is a serious matter. Tourists sampling the city's best restaurants will find it an expensive adventure - but worth it more often than not.
When the generally parochial mainland Chinese take control of Hong Kong in 1997, I hope they will assimilate Hong Kong's international cuisine as well. Hong Kong chefs will certainly be ready and able to teach the less-skilled mainland chefs much about both the rich traditional cuisine and the newer, lighter dishes just being introduced.
As a successful fusion of the best elements of the world's great food traditions, Hong Kong's new cuisine can most easily be preserved and developed further in China proper, where food is a major element in conversation and social life.
For your at-home enjoyment, I've brought back a few tastes of Hong Kong's new light cuisine, adapted to American standards and tested with American ingredients. Try these recipes and be the judge of whether this new cuisine is a successful addition to the traditional Cantonese.
Kowloon Egg Roll
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