How UK chefs are reinventing Cantonese prawn toast in thrillingly delicious ways
A beloved Chinese restaurant dish across Britain, Cantonese prawn toast is being transformed in ways that must be tasted to be believed
In London, at Thai-Americana Chet’s in The Hoxton Shepherd’s Bush hotel, the dish is transformed into a crisp bun filled with house-made prawn paste, while at Sri Lankan street food specialist Adoh, it becomes a plate of neat, rectangular, chilli-spiced sandwiches.
At Cafe Kowloon in London Fields, opened by restaurateurs Frank Yeung and Abhinav Malde and acclaimed Filipino chef Budgie Montoya, the prawn toast is made with thick-cut sourdough from the lauded E5 Bakehouse next door and served with the crispy prawn heads plus a chilli oil and spring onion mayonnaise.
At the two-Michelin-star, 13-seater Humble Chicken in Soho, Japanese-German chef-owner Angelo Sato serves a deluxe version of the classic Cantonese snack as part of his exquisite 16-course tasting menu that combines his Asian and European heritage.
Sato’s take replaces the prawn with a generous langoustine tail, briefly grilled over binchotan (Japanese white charcoal) until plump and bouncy, and kissed by smoke. The tail reclines on a fresh shiso leaf and a layer of ssamjang (Korean fermented soy paste) made with fresh tomato and the brains of the langoustine, which in turn sits on a rectangle of deep-fried tempura toast generously sprinkled with sesame seeds.
The dish is named after a nearby Chinatown diner, Old Town 97, that stays open until 3am and is also the site of the team’s “late-night, post-service shenanigans”.