Chinese regional cuisine: Shunde food, and where best to eat it in Hong Kong
Shunde in southern China is blessed with a wide selection of fish, and three of the most popular – mud carp, ju and grass carp – are used in traditional fish paste, hotpot and congee
In Shunde cuisine, nothing is more important than freshness and an umami taste – summed up in one Chinese word, xian. Cantonese food is heavily influenced by the cuisine, which is also known as Shun Tak.
A town in the Pearl River Delta in southern China, Shunde is blessed with a rich variety of freshwater fish. The cooking style dates from the Qin and Han dynasties 2,000 years ago, came to prominence during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, and has flourished in recent years.
Born and bred in Shunde, Ricky Chan, chef-owner of the Shun De Kung Seafood restaurant in Jordan, Hong Kong, grew up eating fish. He is so accustomed to a fish-based diet, he says, that he would “feel unsatiated without having fish for every meal”.
Of the wide selection of fish available in the Pearl River Delta, and three are especially popular.
Mud carp is a tricky one, as most of its bones are tiny. Shunde chefs deal with the problem by finely chopping the flesh and small bones to make a sticky paste. Mixed with chopped water chestnuts, pickled cabbage and tangerine peel, the fish paste is formed into balls.
