Soy Sauce Western: Hong Kong’s Self-Made Cuisine
At the end of February, Mid-Levels stalwart restaurant Czarina shut its doors. The establishment had been around since 1964, and made its mark serving a unique style of Hong Kong cuisine: soy sauce western. Essentially a very localized interpretation of western dishes—one where steak is offered with rice instead of potatoes—soy sauce western is a tribute to Hong Kong’s complicated colonial past, and it’s an increasingly niche dining category in the city. In commemoration of Czarina and the dwindling number of SSW restos around town, we revisit five longstanding east-meets-west establishments.
Tai Ping Koon
A fifth-generation family-owned restaurant, Tai Ping Koon has been serving soy sauce western for more than seven decades. Over the years, the establishment has gradually shifted from being a fancy restaurant for the rich, into an affordable yet sophisticated restaurant for all.
Tai Ping Koon’s renowned “Swiss sauce” perfectly illustrates the idea of soy sauce western. Urban legend has it that once upon a time, a western customer eating a soy-based dish at a similar east-meets-west resto heard “Swiss” instead of “sweet” when he asked for the name of the sauce—and that name stuck. TPK’s Swiss sauce is freshly made every day, using western ingredients like celery and bay leaves mixed with Chinese elements like Shaoxing wine and soy sauce. Indeed, Tai Ping Koon had set out to change western dishes to suit Hongkongers’ tastebuds from the very beginning. The TPK baked soufflé takes the original creamy and sweet recipe for a French soufflé, and changes it to a recipe that only uses eggs, to give the soufflé a lighter texture and flavor.
Tai Ping Koon is also one of the few restaurants in this day and age that provides accommodation for its staff. “They can have a good rest here, and living together allows them to bond very well, and they have a sense of belonging,” says Andrew Chui, the managing director of Tai Ping Koon, and the fifth-generation owner of the family business. “These are the intangible benefits that cannot be measured in numbers,” he continues. Many customers tell him that they have been eating at Tai Ping Koon since they were children, and are now bringing their own children here.
“Some people say it’s stupid for me to not sell the property, but I don’t see Tai Ping Koon as a business,” says Chui. “I want to keep this collective memory of Hong Kong people alive.”
G/F, 60 Stanley St., Central, 2899-2780.
Queen’s Café
When the Queen’s Café first opened, it brought the then relatively inaccessible Russian cuisine to Hong Kong, but it also added some Chinese touches along the way. Rice went on to the menu, and soy sauce went into the pot.