Where to find the best Lunar New Year puddings
Lunar New Year's pudding is an age-old tradition. Today's chefs offer fresh twists on the classics, infusing them with flavours from across the globe
FUNGUS AMONG US
Yee Tung Heen's executive Chinese chef Wong Wing-keung got the inspiration for this year's special mixed mushroom and fungus pudding (HK$228) while working in Yunnan as part of a chef exchange. Yunnan is famous across China for its mushrooms and Wong became enamoured of the fungi on offer there. To make the pudding, he combines morel mushrooms, porcini mushrooms, elm fungus and yellow fungus. Wong says he picked mushrooms that were not too strongly flavoured, so as not to overpower the taste of the pudding. He soaks the dried fungi twice, adding the second batch of soaking water to the pudding to keep the flavour mellow, before mixing in the chopped mushrooms. In another break with tradition, Wong slices the turnip instead of shredding it; this gives a roughly textured, rustic kind of pudding. The result is a rich and earthy taste, with a pleasing mix of textures from the dried and fresh ingredients. It's the perfect pudding for winter.
The Excelsior Hong Kong, 281 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay, tel: 2837 6790
THAT BEETS EVERYTHING
Lai Ching-shing, the Chinese executive chef at Yue in the City Garden Hotel, is no stranger to bucking tradition when it comes to making New Year puddings. Last year Lai offered a chocolate flavoured pudding that became a surprise hit. This year he continues his love of combining Western ingredients and Eastern techniques in a healthy savoury pudding. His beetroot pudding (HK$168) can be jarring when it is brought to the table: a jiggling blood-red plateau reminiscent of the cranberry moulds served at American Thanksgiving. The pudding is the simplest one we tasted, consisting of only three ingredients: beets, caster sugar and arrowroot powder, which thickens it up and adds a gelatinous texture. The pudding is profoundly beety: sweet and rich with a nice texture thanks to the arrowroot and the fact that the chef combines cubed beets and beet juice. Those expecting a more complex pudding may be disappointed, but beet lovers will be thrilled.
