Christine Wong’s The Vibrant Hong Kong Table has recipes for porkless siu mai, squidless salt-and-pepper squid and shrimpless lo bak go (turnip cake). It also includes Hong Kong-style French toast, “Little Chicken Egg” waffles and the city’s beloved egg tarts – all without eggs.
Chopped dried tofu cake and hearts of palm replace the pork in the siu mai, while konnyaku (jelly made from the konjac plant) and artichoke hearts stand in for the seafood in the salt-and-pepper squid. The lo bak go recipe has the requisite radish, but beech mushrooms, carrot and vegan oyster sauce replace the dried shrimp and Chinese sausage. The sweet treats use plant milks, and ingredients such as sweet potato puree, flaxseed meal and silken tofu to replace the eggs.
The book aims to celebrate and preserve Hong Kong’s culinary heritage while offering a contemporary interpretation.
“What we eat is continuously evolving. We certainly aren’t eating the exact same dishes our ancestors did; adaptations have been made as a result of migration, accessibility, and sustainability,” writes Wong in the introduction. “This does not detract from the cultural significance and comfort of these foods. The future of food must be plant-strong in order to sustainably feed a growing global population.”
The impact of the global food system, especially meat production, on the environment is well established. Using one of the largest datasets available on the diets of vegans and vegetarians, a July 2023 study published in Nature Food found that following a plant-based diet resulted in only a quarter of the impacts of high meat eaters on greenhouse gas emissions and land use; just 27% of the impacts on water pollution; 46% on water use; and, 34% on biodiversity.
Professor Peter Scarborough of the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at Oxford University in the UK, the lead author of the study, says that dietary choice has a large impact on the planet.
“Cherry-picking data on high-impact plant-based food or low-impact meat can obscure the clear relationship between animal-based foods and the environment,” he says. “Our results, which use data from over 38,000 farms in over 100 countries, show that high meat diets have the biggest impact for many important environmental indicators, including climate change and biodiversity loss. Cutting down the amount of meat and dairy in your diet can make a big difference to your dietary footprint.”
Author Christine Wong’s move to a plant-based diet began in 2014, when she learned that food choices can have negative health, environmental, ethical and social impacts. Her new book is, in part, driven by frustration at the lack of plant-based alternatives.
Despite vegetarianism having an ancient heritage in China – when for thousands of years, out of necessity and tradition, meat was only a small part of most people’s daily diet – there are very few choices for vegetarians, let alone vegans.
Hawaii-born Wong, who lived in Hong Kong as a teenager and as a young businesswoman before settling in New York City, also crams the book with historical information about the dishes. We learn that Hong Kong French toast probably originated in the 1950s from Lan Fong Yuen, a street stall in the business district of Central. While peanut butter is today’s preferred filling, kaya jam (coconut milk with sugar, eggs and pandan leaves) was probably originally used. Wong uses a vegan kaya jam in her version.
The beautifully designed book also has sections on pantry staples, including how to make your own soy milk and tofu (including from chickpeas and other beans) and vegan XO sauce. Then there are handy suggestions for substitutes if ingredients are hard to find, plus snippets of advice. The recipe for lo bak go has a “Mama Wong Tip” for choosing a good daikon: look for ones that are firm, heavy and “fat” with smooth skin, as they will have a higher water content and will taste sweeter and less bitter.
Wong also includes recipes for festival foods, including Dragon Boat Festival rice parcels and five nuts mooncakes. She has a selection of recipes for Chinese New Year, including vegan poon choi (“basin vegetables”; layers of ingredients, the most prized on top, served in one large bowl), nin go (“year cake”; sweet glutinous rice cake) and Lunar New Year dumplings in gorgeous red wrappers, stained with beet juice – perfect for a Chinese New Year with a conscience.
The Vibrant Hong Kong Table: 88 Iconic Vegan Recipes from Dim Sum to Late-Night Snacks by Christine Wong is published by Chronicle Books (£25).
