Unlike other foods such as sashimi or smoked salmon, Chiuchow cold seafood platters are not served raw, but steamed in advance and served cold with a special dip, such as soya paste and vinegar.
'Some people are afraid cold fish might smell fishy but it doesn't. It is served dry and cold so that the original flavour and texture of the fish can be brought out,' said Suen Suk-wah of Leung Hing Chiu Chau Seafood restaurant. (It was one of the restaurants forced to move out of the Sheung Wan alley known for its tasty, authentic Chiuchow cuisine, but nicknamed Toilet Row) Chiuchow, or Chaozhou in pinyin, is part of Guangdong province, but the coastal county has a distinctive cuisine known for its wide use of fish. Not a drop of juice is allowed to go to waste - hence yu lo, the salty fish sauce generously applied in seasoning Chiuchow dishes.
'Chiuchow fish sauce is like salt and soya sauce in Cantonese cuisine. We fry our dishes with fish sauce for the salty taste. It gives out the special aroma which brings out the flavours of the ingredients,' said Chan Lo-yee of Chong Fat Chiu Chow Restaurant in Kowloon City.
While fish sauce is normally bought in bulk from manufacturers, the lo sui, or spiced soy sauce which characterises Chiuchow cold stewed meats is still 'homemade'.
The sauce, made by simmering soy sauce with peppercorn, star aniseed, wine, water and other spices, is started when the restaurant first sets up, and is added to from time to time. The resulting rich and subtle mixture could be actually decades old, depending on how long the restaurant has survived.
'The older it is, the better the spice sauce tastes. It is covered and brought to the boil every day. We keep it well and it will not get rancid,' said Hong yau-shing, the chef and owner of 69-year-old Tau Kee Restaurant, where the pot of spice sauce has served a few generations.
The most well-known dish using this sauce has to be goose in spicy sauce, lo sui ngo. Thin slices of goose meat are cut and sprinkled with the sauce, and served with layers of dried bean curd and an accompanying garlic-and-vinegar sauce.
Chiuchow cuisine places great emphasis on the freshness of its ingredients.
Poultry, meat, fish, crustaceans, vegetables all rank high on their list and restaurants decide the day's speciality after their daily visit to the market, checking out what is recommended.
'In the past, people came for the chefs' delicate skills, but now they prefer simplicity. The freshness of the ingredients and the variety are the main selling points,' said Chan.
Apart from fish and goose, typical dishes include preserved olive (laam yuk) with vegetable, crab balls or prawn balls (haai jou, ha jou) in which the meat is mixed with water chestnuts and pork and deep fried, and oyster omelette known as oyster cake (jin hou beng).
Don't forget to try a plate of the humble but appetising pickled mustard-greens, haam gaai choi. Just a few chunks will turn a bowl of plain congee into a treat. Unlike the usual Chinese rice porridge which is like a puree, Chiuchow congee resembles a mixture of soggy rice with water, but goes well with the sharp flavours of side dishes and sauces.
To round off the meal, try the 'crystal' buns - lotus seed or red bean paste dumplings wrapped in a translucent skin from which they derive the name. Or for those with a really sweet tooth, a bowl of wu nai, a sweetened taro paste often mixed with gingko nuts.
The bill usually comes to the table with tiny cups of bitter kung fu tea, typically the Iron Goddess variety, which helps to clear the palate - and settle the stomach of those who have over-indulged.
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