Where Hong Kong-style borscht soup comes from and a restaurant serving the real deal
Borscht found in Hong Kong is quite different from its Eastern European ancestors. A new restaurant has an authentic take on the dish
Hong Kong’s food culture has been an amalgamation of global cuisine since its development in the late 19th century as a colonised free port.
The hearty take on borscht found in Hong Kong, on the other hand, has become such a classic in cha chaan tengs, as well as in “soy sauce Western” restaurants – serving Hong Kong-style Western dishes – that it has been given a very Chinese name: law sung tong. Law and sung come from the Shanghainese word for Russia, while tong translates to soup.
The earliest writing found on the original soup, which is sour and often beetroot-heavy, dates back to the 16th century in Ukraine. It was also commonly made across many European countries, including Russia, which is in both Eastern Europe and North Asia.
The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw an influx of Russian and Slavic people fleeing their countries for political reasons and relocating to Shanghai, as well as increased trade between China and its northern neighbour.
This introduced borscht to Shanghai but, as beetroot was harder to come by in the region, émigrés used cabbage instead and added tomato paste for colour and flavour.