A dish popular at breakfast and lunch, cheung fun is steamed rolls of ground rice starch. At dim sum restaurants, the rolls are filled with anything from fresh shrimp to roasted pork, but the snack and street food versions are more simple - often just plain rice flour rolls served with sesame paste and sweet hoi sin sauce, or flavoured with a little dried shrimp and sprinkled with chopped spring onions. Although it's usually an inexpensive dish, it's still hard to master. The consistency of the rice-flour mixture has to be just right and the steaming time precise. The texture should be silky smooth.
The perfect wine with this humble snack needs to be pure and focused. It can't be too strong or it will mask the delicate texture and flavours. Too much hoi sin sauce will drown any wine, so go easy.
Ruinart Champagne Brut Rose
Reims, France
This brand is new to Hong Kong and we're fortunate to finally get our share of wines from this historic house. Ruinart rose out of the ashes of the first world war to become one of the most sought-after hand-crafted champagnes in the world. This rose is one of the house's main wines. The top of the range is the Dom Ruinart Rose, which is made only in superlative years. The champagne's soft, supple gas extends the cheung fun's silkiness and exaggerates the rice starch's gentle nuttiness. The infrequent bursts of richness from dried shrimp reshape the palate, and the wine's natural acidity marks the beginning and ends of each set of flavours and texture combinations.
Available for HK$600 from Riche Monde (tel: 2976 1888)
Tio Pepe Fino Sherry