Cantonese egg tarts are hard to resist with their silky egg custard filling and flaky pastry crust. Found in bakeries and eaten at the end of dim sum, the egg tart is a sentimental dessert in Hong Kong and across southern China, but its roots are not native to the region. It’s believed the British first brought custard tarts to southern China in the 1920s, where local chefs adapted the recipe before it was brought to Hong Kong. To uncover the full history of the egg tart we travel all the way…

Eat Drink Asia

Hong Kong egg tarts and their medieval English origins

Xiaolongbao - or soup dumplings as they are known in the West - are delicate parcels of pork and broth that are served piping hot in a bamboo steamer. In this episode Alkira Reinfrank and Bernice Chan uncover the origins of this golf-ball sized dumpling, tracing it back to a district on the fringes of Shanghai, China. They speak to the daughter of a xiaolongbao master to find out what makes the perfect soup dumpling, and find out how Din Tai Fung began in Taiwan selling cooking oil then made…

Xiaolongbao: how soup dumplings went global

Jjapaguri, or ram-don, as it is known in the Academy award-winning movie Parasite, is a super easy and cheap dish that simply mixes two kinds of instant noodles together. In this episode of Eat Drink Asia, we look into the food references in the film and how a dish only known to Koreans quickly became something global audiences salivated over.

The story behind Oscar-winning film Parasite’s ram-don noodles

Vicky Cheng, chef and owner of one-Michelin-starred VEA tells us how to turn a humble pack of instant noodles to a glorious okonomiyaki — a classic Japanese pancake.

Quarantine Cooking: Instant noodle okonomiyaki

As popular and ubiquitous as curry is around the world, the word ‘curry’ doesn’t actually exist in India. Just like you’d never get fortune cookies at the end of your meal in China, you won’t find curry on a menu in India. On this episode of Eat Drink Asia, we look into butter chicken – not curry – a dish that balances the smokiness of the meat and the silkiness of the sauce like no other. We traced it back to the grandson of the inventor of this iconic dish, who told us its origin story of…

It's butter chicken — not curry

This is a quick coconut fish stew recipe that will make you look like the chef of the house. It's shared by chef Palash Mitra, who helms the Michelin-starred restaurant New Punjab Club in Hong Kong. How to make it: Cut the fish into manageable pieces and season with salt, turmeric, crushed peppercorns, and curry leaves (optional). Heat some coconut oil and add in mustard seeds, chopped shallots, tomatoes, and a bit of ginger. Sautée till transparent and add the fish, lightly fry and…

Quarantine Cooking: Coconut fish stew

Listen to top chefs in Hong Kong describe how they cook their favourite comfort dishes at home. Today's recipe from chef Barry Quek only requires three ingredients: instant noodles, an onion, and a hard cheese, like cheddar or parmesan

Quarantine Cooking: French onion instant noodle soup

When it comes to fried chicken, almost every country has their own take on it. The Philippines has Jollibee, South Africa has Nando’s, Japan has Karaage... but no country has made the competition more intense than South Korea. So for today's episode, we are going to take a look at two equally iconic KFCs — Kentucky fried chicken and Korean fried chicken. How are they made? How did they influence each other?  And we are looking further than that — to the Korean war, the first cookbook…

KFC vs KFC

The dish was born in a time when Vietnamese weren’t even allowed access to wheat flour, making it hard to imagine the sandwich would become world famous.

Banh mi: where Vietnamese tradition and French colonialism collide

American icon became popular during the war and managed to stick around.Your junk email is named after the canned meat, by the way.

All about that Spam

We tried KFC’s spicy chicken mooncakes so you don’t have to.From the end of the Yuan Dynasty to modern Hong Kong, mooncakes have been the bearers of political messages.

Mooncakes then and now

Bernice Chan and Alkira Reinfrank analyse the cultural appropriation, and fascinating history, of Sichuan cuisine. They delve into the chemistry of the Sichuan pepper and unpack the components of a traditional meal.

The surprising history of Sichuan cuisine

It turns out that early sushi was not about rice. And it originated from the Mekong, not Japan.

Sushi did not originate in Japan: how raw fish and rice became a world favourite

Plot twist: The rooster sauce was created by a Vietnamese refugee, but is American-made, and Thai-inspired.

Hot facts about Sriracha sauce, and why you’re saying it wrong

The complex origin and nationalist agenda behind the iconic Thai noodle dish.

History of pad Thai: how the stir-fried noodle dish was invented by the Thai government

Bernice Chan and Alkira Reinfrank take you beyond restaurant reviews and ratings for monthly in-depth features about cuisine and culture in China, Hong Kong and Asia. Brought to you by the South China Morning Post.

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