https://www.scmp.com/rss/327360/feed SCMP culture journalists and dedicated 'foodies' Bernice Chan and Alkira Reinfrank speak with chefs, bartenders and restaurateurs from across Asia as they sip, sample and taste their way through the local and international cuisine in Hong Kong in this delicious bi-weekly podcast. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com With a flick of his wrist, tempura master Eisaku Hara lightly coats a large tiger prawn with batter and drops it into a sizzling cauldron of golden oil. After years of training, Hara can simply listen to the sizzle of the hot oil and monitor the size of the bubbles to know exactly when this prawn tempura is perfectly cooked. After no more than 30 seconds he whisks out the prawn, allows any excess oil to drip off, and plates it for his watching diners. “Tempura is the most difficult Japanese dish... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3117672/tempura-isnt-japan-how-fried-portuguese-classic-became-staple?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3117672/tempura-isnt-japan-how-fried-portuguese-classic-became-staple?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 14 Jan 2021 23:32:38 +0000 Nestled among street stalls in Hong Kong’s working-class Sham Shui Po district is one of the city’s oldest tofu makers. It’s 1am and staff at Kung Wo Tofu Factory are busy at work using a stone mill to grind pre-soaked soybeans. The process of making tofu is laborious: the ground mixture is boiled, then strained, before it is pressed into cubes fresh for the morning’s customers. “We make around 5,000 pieces of tofu every day. We don’t want to add any preservatives to our product; we prefer to... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3109515/how-tofu-made-it-america-was-disparaged-decades-seized-moment?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3109515/how-tofu-made-it-america-was-disparaged-decades-seized-moment?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 15 Nov 2020 00:25:36 +0000 Cantonese egg tarts, with their silky smooth, eggy custard filling and flaky pastry crust, are hard to resist when walking past a Hong Kong-style bakery. It’s even harder when they’re fresh out of the oven. For customers at Tai Cheong Bakery, one of Hong Kong’s oldest egg tart shops, the Cantonese treat isn’t just a delicious dessert, it’s the taste of their childhood. “It’s the sweet and savoury mixed together. It’s very nostalgic for me,” says one hungry customer in between bites. “When I was... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3102712/history-egg-tarts-savoury-sweet-england-canton-short-crust?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3102712/history-egg-tarts-savoury-sweet-england-canton-short-crust?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 24 Sep 2020 23:15:07 +0000 With nimble fingers, dim sum chef Leung Kwok-wa places a freshly rolled dumpling wrapper in his palm, scoops a spoonful of pork filling into the centre and – as if by magic – encases the bulging filling by pinching, pleating and rotating the dough at lightning speed. Within seconds, the chef, from Hong Kong’s Dim Sum Library, holds in his hand a perfect xiaolongbao, also known as a soup dumpling in the West. Xiaolongbao are delicate parcels served piping hot in a small bamboo steamer. Within a... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3097791/history-xiaolongbao-or-soup-dumplings-outskirts-shanghai?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3097791/history-xiaolongbao-or-soup-dumplings-outskirts-shanghai?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 18 Aug 2020 22:52:27 +0000 A scene in last year’s Academy Award-winning film Parasite, in which the housekeeper whips up instant noodles with finely marbled Korean Hanwoo beef, had viewers around the world drooling. The dark South Korean comedy thriller was the first non-English-language film to take home an Oscar for best picture, and won a slew of other awards. It wasn’t just the film that took off, either – its noodle dish, ram-don, became famous too. YouTube was flooded with “how-to” videos and some US supermarket... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3090342/those-ram-don-noodles-parasite-cheap-noodle-treat-popular?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3090342/those-ram-don-noodles-parasite-cheap-noodle-treat-popular?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Jun 2020 23:15:11 +0000 Few people, when tucking into a serving of butter chicken, would think about the history of the Indian dish. For Raghav Jaggi, however, this aromatic staple is more than a taste of home – it’s his family’s legacy. His grandfather, Kundan Lal Jaggi, dedicated his life to tandoori cuisine and is one of three Punjabi Hindu refugees celebrated for inventing butter chicken. Few other dishes can evoke such a passionate and varied response from diners but, whether it’s religiously ordered or... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3086104/story-butter-chicken-one-most-popular-indian-restaurant-dishes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3086104/story-butter-chicken-one-most-popular-indian-restaurant-dishes?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 26 May 2020 14:44:12 +0000 “Who hates fried chicken? Even a shoe tastes good when you fry it,” chef Yong Soo-do says with a laugh, as he waits for a vat of oil to reach optimal temperature to fry thinly battered pieces of chicken. Like many Koreans, Yong has fond memories of growing up eating fried chicken with his family. His father would bring home a big bag containing a crisp and juicy bird once a month to share around the dinner table. “When my dad bought home fried chicken, it was like a party. It was a feast for the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3040904/how-korean-fried-chicken-other-kfc-became-huge-hit-south-korea?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3040904/how-korean-fried-chicken-other-kfc-became-huge-hit-south-korea?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 08 Dec 2019 06:30:07 +0000 Eat Drink Asia and Inside China Tech, two podcasts produced by the South China Morning Post, have won prizes at the inaugural Asia Podcast Awards. The winners were announced at the Asia Podcast Summit which aims to cultivate Asia’s growing podcast industry. Eat Drink Asia clinched the Best Entertainment Podcast award, which is a monthly podcast that deep dives into the forgotten history of some of Asia’s most popular dishes that have gone global. The podcast features the Post journalists and... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/3037715/south-china-morning-posts-eat-drink-asia-and-inside-china-tech?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/3037715/south-china-morning-posts-eat-drink-asia-and-inside-china-tech?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 14 Nov 2019 11:45:10 +0000 Theign Yie Phan has to stop herself from chowing down a banh mi every day of the week. But it’s hard to resist when you’re the head chef of a restaurant that specialises in the delicious Vietnamese sandwiches. “It is a good between-service snack. I eat one every other day. It is definitely not something you get sick of,” she says with a laugh, as she stands in front of an array of colourful ingredients ready to be stuffed into a crusty baguette at Le Petit Saigon in Wan Chai. Along with pho, the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3034400/story-banh-mi-vietnams-super-sandwich-took-world?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3034400/story-banh-mi-vietnams-super-sandwich-took-world?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 27 Oct 2019 01:30:12 +0000 On this episode of Eat Drink Asia, we take a closer look at an iconic Vietnamese dish that is also one of the world’s most popular sandwiches – banh mi. While the French baguette stuffed with Vietnamese ingredients might look simple, there’s more to it than meets the eye. The dish was born in Vietnam’s colonial era, when locals weren’t allowed access to wheat flour, making it hard to imagine the sandwich would later become world famous. Since the 1970s, banh mi has been popular in faraway... https://www.scmp.com/podcasts/article/3034516/eat-drink-asia-banh-mi-where-vietnamese-tradition-and-french-colonialism?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/podcasts/article/3034516/eat-drink-asia-banh-mi-where-vietnamese-tradition-and-french-colonialism?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 25 Oct 2019 04:52:39 +0000 Once in a while chef Jordy Navarra opens a can of Spam and shaves off thin slices of the processed meat before frying them crispy, then laying the slices on top of a bed of rice. The dish takes him back to his childhood. “All of us sort of grew up on it,” the 34-year-old Filipino says. “It’s something I remember fondly. It’s comforting, one of those few things that my mom would prepare for me. And in that sense I enjoyed it, just because it came from her.” Generations of Filipinos love eating... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3030413/spam-story-how-luncheon-meat-became-hit-asia-and-beyond-its?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3030413/spam-story-how-luncheon-meat-became-hit-asia-and-beyond-its?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 28 Sep 2019 16:00:07 +0000 Born at the end of the Great Depression and made famous during World War II, more than eight billion cans of Spam have been eaten over the past 82 years. Spam is an iconic American brand, but many people outside of the US feel deeply connected to it. Today, Spam might have a negative image in its home country, but some chefs in the US are doing their best to overcome that stigma. How did Spam become popular during the war, and then manage to stick around for almost a century? Where did Spam get... https://www.scmp.com/podcasts/article/3030585/eat-drink-asia-all-about-spam?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/podcasts/article/3030585/eat-drink-asia-all-about-spam?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 27 Sep 2019 02:12:19 +0000 Many may remember the 1998 film Mulan, the tale of a young Chinese girl who pretends to be a man to take her ailing father’s place in the army. In a joint promotion for the original animated feature, McDonald’s released a condiment called SzeChuan sauce for a limited time. Hong Kong-born Kevin Pang, who was raised in the United States, remembers it well from his teenage days. “It tasted very much like American Chinese food, it was too sweet. The texture was very gloopy, very sticky, and I think... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3020151/how-sichuan-cuisine-conquered-world-ming-dynasty-mcdonalds?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3020151/how-sichuan-cuisine-conquered-world-ming-dynasty-mcdonalds?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 28 Jul 2019 02:45:04 +0000 When the animated film Mulan was released in 1998, McDonald’s launched its SzeChuan Sauce, marketed as an accompaniment to their chicken McNuggets. Almost 20 years later, the long-forgotten sauce regained its mainstream popularity thanks to adult cartoon Rick and Morty. But there is no such thing as SzeChuan Sauce in Sichuan province, China. So where is this sauce from? And how does it differ from “authentic” Sichuanese food? With these questions in mind, Bernice Chan and Alkira Reinfrank... https://www.scmp.com/podcasts/article/3020212/sichuan-food-history-ming-mcdonalds-and-rick-and-morty?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/podcasts/article/3020212/sichuan-food-history-ming-mcdonalds-and-rick-and-morty?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 Jul 2019 07:19:58 +0000 Sushi is pretty much ubiquitous around the world, a food that looks deceptively simple with a mound of rice seasoned with a touch of wasabi and finished with a slice of raw fish on top. But the sushi we know today neither looks nor tastes like it did centuries ago. First of all, the rice was not supposed to be eaten. It was used to preserve the fish and was thrown away, leaving just the fish to be eaten. Second, it wasn’t even originally from Japan. Listen to the journey of sushi via iTunes,... https://www.scmp.com/podcasts/article/3016358/eat-drink-asia-why-people-didnt-use-eat-rice-sushi-and-how-it-became-what?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/podcasts/article/3016358/eat-drink-asia-why-people-didnt-use-eat-rice-sushi-and-how-it-became-what?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 27 Jun 2019 09:41:33 +0000 More than 45 million kilograms (100 million pounds) of jalapeños are ground up each year to produce Huy Fong Foods’ legendary Sriracha hot sauce, lauded for its spicy kick, vinegary tang and garlicky aftertaste. Recognised the world over for the white rooster that stands proudly on its label, this ubiquitous sauce, which first tantalised taste buds in 1980, has developed somewhat of a cult foodie following. From fans getting tattoos of the bottle and personalising car number plates after it, to... https://www.scmp.com/podcasts/article/3011610/eat-drink-asia-sriracha-story-american-made-hot-sauce-thai-roots?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/podcasts/article/3011610/eat-drink-asia-sriracha-story-american-made-hot-sauce-thai-roots?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 24 May 2019 03:06:21 +0000 For many diners, the first Thai dishes that spring to mind will be pad Thai, tom yum goong and green curry. They are on the menu of practically every Thai restaurant around the world. What they might not be aware of is that the delicious concoction, called “Thai stir-fry” in the local vernacular, is not historically a traditional dish. In fact, pad Thai’s roots are as political as they are culinary. It was imposed upon the populace more than 70 years ago as a cornerstone ingredient of a... https://www.scmp.com/podcasts/article/3007841/eat-drink-asia-nationalist-politics-behind-pad-thai?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/podcasts/article/3007841/eat-drink-asia-nationalist-politics-behind-pad-thai?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 27 Apr 2019 10:00:17 +0000 Have you ever wondered why dim sum is served in trolleys? Or what the most authentic experience of dim sum is, and how much work it takes to make shrimp dumplings? Borne of the necessity to feed busy workers at affordable prices in the early 1920s, dim sum has evolved into a culture of a much wider variety of foods and places to eat. Hong Kong now has has a huge and diverse number of dim sum restaurants, from century-old tea houses where you have to fight your way to the trolley to grab some... https://www.scmp.com/podcasts/article/3003756/eat-drink-asia-your-ultimate-guide-dim-sum?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/podcasts/article/3003756/eat-drink-asia-your-ultimate-guide-dim-sum?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 30 Mar 2019 04:00:10 +0000 Bubble tea, which has its roots in 1980s Taiwan, has become something of a global sensation. It has become an international smash hit, spreading through China, Asia, the USA and all across Instagram, with stores popping up and developing as fast as people can queue for them. So we ask ourselves- What's special about bubble tea? Who invented it? How did it become a global phenomenon? And why is it accepted by the mainstream so much faster than dishes such as General Tso's chicken or chop suey?... https://www.scmp.com/podcasts/article/2187288/eat-drink-asia-bubble-tea-success-story?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/podcasts/article/2187288/eat-drink-asia-bubble-tea-success-story?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 22 Feb 2019 09:44:22 +0000 An in-depth chat with career bartender (and 2017 American Bartender of the Year) Jeff Bell from the famous PDT bar in New York, upon opening the Hong Kong edition of PDT at the Mandarin Oriental; and Singaporean-born Swiss chef Gray Kunz, who has been cooking and operating restaurants in Hong Kong since the 1980s, talks about telling the story of Singapore and Asia through his food at Cafe Gray Deluxe in the Upper House in Hong Kong. https://www.scmp.com/podcasts/article/2173418/podcast-bartending-pdts-jeff-bell-chef-gray-kunz-cafe-gray-deluxe-eat-drink?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/podcasts/article/2173418/podcast-bartending-pdts-jeff-bell-chef-gray-kunz-cafe-gray-deluxe-eat-drink?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 15 Nov 2018 16:00:15 +0000 In the first episode of our Eat Drink Asia podcast, we covered the Hong Kong debut of famous New York burger chain Shake Shack at IFC Mall in Central, and in episode seven we look at how the burger wars are heating up again. Shake Shack is opening its second location in the Pacific Place mall in Admiralty, and a few hundred metres to the east in Johnston Road, Five Guys from Washington opens later this month. Podcast: Koreatown, Israeli food at Francis and cart noodles – Eat Drink Asia If... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/2172270/podcast-hong-kong-burger-wars-and-wagyumafias-us100-sandwiches?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/2172270/podcast-hong-kong-burger-wars-and-wagyumafias-us100-sandwiches?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 08 Nov 2018 12:30:45 +0000 Hear more episodes of Eat Drink Asia on our SoundCloud playlist Welcome to episode 5 of the Eat Drink Asia podcast – from Macau, the former Portuguese enclave across the Pearl River Delta from Hong Kong that was returned to China in 1999. It’s a convenient destination for visitors from Hong Kong because it’s only an hour away by hovercraft. World’s 50 Best Restaurants controversy: Eat Drink Asia podcast Some people may know Macau as the place in Asia that makes more money from its casino tables... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/2162914/eat-drink-asia-podcast-finding-best-food-macau-minchi-egg-tarts?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/2162914/eat-drink-asia-podcast-finding-best-food-macau-minchi-egg-tarts?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 05 Sep 2018 14:15:00 +0000 Welcome to the fourth episode of the Eat Drink Asia podcast. In this episode, we head to Yardbird, one of Hong Kong’s most popular restaurants. Having opened in 2011, late last year it moved to bigger premises in Sheung Wan, and in May, worked with Phaidon to publish a high-end cookery book, Chicken and Charcoal. We talk to Yardbird chef and owner Matt Abergel about how the restaurant was hatched, and he reveals some big news on the expansion front. Summer seems to be the season for... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/2154842/hong-kong-yakitori-restaurant-yardbird-plans-expand-us-eat?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/2154842/hong-kong-yakitori-restaurant-yardbird-plans-expand-us-eat?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Jul 2018 05:00:30 +0000 Welcome to the third episode of the Eat Drink Asia podcast. This month, the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list was announced in Bilbao, Spain, but it caused a bit of controversy online. We talk about the lack of female representation on the list, the narrow scope of cuisines represented, and how the restaurants are ranked. Next, we head to Wan Chai to Hong Kong’s new “it” restaurant, Francis. Who knew it would be a place that serves Israeli cuisine? We talk to the co-owner, James Ward, who... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/2152681/eat-drink-asia-podcast-worlds-50-best-restaurants-unpacked?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/2152681/eat-drink-asia-podcast-worlds-50-best-restaurants-unpacked?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 27 Jun 2018 05:00:00 +0000 Welcome to the second episode of the Eat Drink Asia podcast. We finished recording the show last Friday morning, but that evening, while I was trying out a spaghetti dish by a new chef at Sabatini in the Royal Garden hotel, I received a shocking text message about Anthony Bourdain. Details were scant at the time, but the reverberations from his death are profound. It was his trip to Hong Kong that featured in the last episode of his television series, Parts Unknown, to air before his... https://www.scmp.com/comment/blogs/article/2150401/eat-drink-asia-food-podcast-episode-two-bourdain-robuchon-tripe-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/blogs/article/2150401/eat-drink-asia-food-podcast-episode-two-bourdain-robuchon-tripe-and?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 13 Jun 2018 05:30:45 +0000