In 2009, Hong Kong-based chef Mac Kwai Pui did something unthinkable. He quit his honorable job as chef at Lung King Heen, a Cantonese-style fine dining restaurant at Four Seasons Hotel, and opened his own 20-seat dim diner in Mong Kok, a working-class neighbourhood in Kohlun. Mac and Leon called out their new restaurant, Tim Huan. Among their most popular items was baked pork buns with short-lasted toppings. This is a cross between Cha Siubao and Hong Kong’s iconic Borobao (also known as pineapple bread).
It was fresh, unassuming sweet pork stuffed like a pillow, and the bread was very good, which caught the eye of a Michelin guide. In 2010, Tim Huan is famous for becoming the cheapest restaurant in the world to win a Michelin star. Today, the restaurant is a celebrity 80 locations Over 10 countries (including the US) thanks to the infusion of private equity cash after the success of the starry sky. Last year, Tim Ho Wan was fully acquired by the Jollibee Foods Corporation of, yes, Chickenjoy’s fame.
Every time I returned to Hong Kong I would visit Tim Huang, especially for cracked pork bread. They were well made and most importantly, the char siu filling was generous and not too sweet. The same bread from New York’s Tim Huan is much sweeter and perhaps tailored to the local palate. However, in recent years, These pork buns in Hong Kong taste more like dessert than afternoon snacks. In other words, they are sweeter than ever. I contacted the restaurant to see if their recipes were streamlined, but they did not respond to my request. So we turned to the next logical source, Reddit. So I plagued me with tweeting about certain beloved East Asian dishes, albeit completely anecdote.General’s Chicken, Korean tteokbokki– Now it’s far more sweet than before.
Those dishes and other favorites, like Cantonese cha siu and glazed Korean fried chicken, have become global icons for each dish, paying tribute to the sweet and delicious flavors. but In some cases, sweetness is no longer just a supporting flavour, but a defining flavour. That wasn’t always this way.
First, it helps to establish a baseline of sweetness that has played an important role in many East Asian cuisines over the centuries. In the realm of delicious cooking, sugar and other sweeteners are treated like spices. This is one of many ingredients used to make the food taste tasty. In Cantonese cuisine, for example, “sugar is used as a tool to balance and is primarily used to enhance the flavor,” says Hettil Im McKinnon, author of the Cookbook. Sugar is extremely essential for cooking, so chef Calvin Eng at Cantonese American Restaurant Bonnie’s I recently published a cookbook with the title in Brooklyn Salt sugar MSG. “It’s one of the most important triplets of Cantonese flavors,” he says.
A touch of sweetness is essential to the ability to shift and shape other flavors across Asia, but in theory it is not a component that should stand out in itself. Just govern the stimulating fish sauce in Thai and Vietnamese sauces, or pound the spices of Sichuan stir fry. Even desserts can be seen when their sweetness is muted or as popular phrases progress,Not too sweet. “The pursuit of flavour frequently occurred in the blending of flavour,” says a unique book from 1969, in the Chinese philosophy of gastronomy and equilibrium, which exists in kitchens throughout the region.
Sweetness may be essential, but it didn’t always come from the cane’s sugar The more acceptable derivative Like rocks and unsleashed raw sugar. In Asia, indigenous ingredients such as honey, overdrained rice, grain syrup and fruit have historically added nuances and characters to the plate. In Korea, for example, pears and onions were the only source of the sweetness of burgogi marinade. “If you look at recipes from 50 or 80 years ago, no one has used sugar,” says Hooni Kim, chef owner at a Korean restaurant. Dunge, Mejuand Little Bang Chan Shop In New York. As an imported ingredient, “Sugar was really expensive, so we relied on fruits and vegetables,” he adds.
The cane factory is native to the Pacific Island of New Guinea, but has grown for over 2000 years in countries such as India and the Philippines. For most of its history, sugar cane sugar is a luxurious product that only the wealthy can buy, and many spent quite a bit of time getting it. In the book Sweetness and powerSydney Mintz famously portrays sugar as the world’s first currency in the world’s economy, covering slavery in the Western world. More recent books, The world of sugar Urbe Bosma reads like the other half of the story, detailing the role of sugarcane in the East. Until the mid-1800s, sugar served an almost utilitarian purpose in the proletariat, either as an energy source or as a medical science.
Of course, sugarcane has a bittersweet history in Asia as well. By the time of exploration in the 15th century, the Asian sugar trade had attracted the attention of distant settlers and local entrepreneurs. Following the Dutch occupation in the mid-1600s, Taiwan became the world’s largest sugar export colony, and the local cuisine of Tainan, a sugar hub, is today widely said to be sweeter than in other parts of the country. Hong Kong’s Taikyo Sugar Refinery was one of the world’s largest sugar plants in the 1880s and undoubtedly benefited the British founders. Ultimately steam power and improved steel technology transformed sugar from self-sufficient crops into world commodities. “In the 19th century, sugar was what became oil at the age of 20. It was a major commodity,” writes Bosma. With the invention of high fructose corn syrup in the 1950s, sugar became cheaper and easier to obtain than ever before.
Hong Kong’s pork buns taste more like dessert than afternoon snacks.
The commercialization of sugar in East Asia transformed early players into economic powers that still shaped food supplies. In one visionary example, CJ Cheiljedang, the largest food manufacturer in Korea, was founded in 1953 as a sugar refinery. Today’s CJ is a Billions of dollars That giant I’ll make it all From burgogi sauce to marine biodegradable plastics (CJ owns brands such as Bibigo and Beksul). Large companies have very cheap sweeteners, allowing large companies to quickly produce more food, shelf stability and affordable. “Food sweetness has gained a great advantage in the emerging popular food industry, and is considered trustworthy and hygienic,” writes Bosma. As Bosma warns at the end of his book, modern consumers are forced to buy these practical and convenient foods for a while, even if they “will not notice the full range of sugar presence.”
Quickly browse the grocery store’s processed food selections will enlighten even the most blissful and ignorant. I recently visited my local H Mart and found out that the top ingredients in almost all of the pastes, sauces and seasonings are some kind of sugar. This trend causes brands to crave more products using sweetness, It’s addictive too. On the one hand, it is surprising that once niche ingredients such as red pepper paste and mapo tofu sauce are very widely available. On the other hand, what is crass on this kind of scale?
Looking for ingredients for Asian pantry without adding sugar can lead to such a specialty store Japanese Pantry, Gotham Glovesand Mara Market. One recently added to the latter site is Oyster sauce From Fujian, made with 75% oyster juice. It costs $18 compared to a $3 bottle of Lee Kum Kee sauce, but offers the delicious nuance of a more traditional recipe. “There’s sugar, but it’s not sweet and just perfectly balanced,” says Taylor Holiday, owner of Mara Market.
Of course, the flavorful food has time and place for the accentuated sweetness, and I think the place is a restaurant. So were the generation of entrepreneurs in China, Korea, Vietnam and Thailand who moved to the United States after 1965 and sold Westernized adaptations of culinary cuisine as a way to support new lives in new countries. This has led to the birth of sub-genres of cuisine, such as Cantonese Americans (see Orange Chicken) and Korean Americans (see Burgogitacos). “It’s quite a distance from what we eat at home,” says McKinnon. It’s not happening here in America. In Korea, famous chef Baek Jung-won makes money reputation To add a comical amount of sugar to his delicious recipes, like a popular noodle dish Bibim Guksu. Perhaps the commercial success of Americanized cuisine is driving away those looking for a global influence to make the most of their sugar. In the end, the sweetness sells.
In some cases, sweetness is no longer just a supporting flavour, but a defining flavour.
Still, dealing with a global audience is like a translation act where the source text is at risk of losing its integrity, or even worse, it becomes completely inaccurate. For Chef Nicole Poncecaca, of Jeepney, a Philippine restaurant in Miami, the idea that Filipino cuisine is primarily sweet is a totally false feature. “It’s not a sweet dish,” she says. “Our basic palate is what we call ‘asim’ and is sour. “Philippine cuisine is as diverse as the more than 7,000 islands that make up the archipelago, but still has commercial interests. Most of this variety has been distilled into a handful of dishes, often marinated with soda, like Jollibee’s famous sweet spaghetti and Filipino barbecue. “It’s not even a bit sweet, it’s from zero to 100,” says Ponceca. “And I think it’s missing out on the point of Filipino cuisine.”
As I’m calling it now, the great sweetness softens the westernized ideals that Ponceca identifies in his respect for the influence of the Philippine colonies, such as Spanish baked bread and American processed foods such as spam and ketchup. “It’s how much we see meat consumption, and that means we have money. I think the same can be said about sweetness,” she says. In this case, indulging in sweet treats is rooted in class and status, not just in taste, which is true in much of Asia. “In Korea, we respect Western culture,” says Kim. From Manila to Hong Kong and Seoul, sweetness is driven to affordable prices while hoping to be considered modern and refined.
To get back to the original question, is this food really sweet? Despite the persuasive tirad on the internet, it’s hard to say crucially. But mass-produced and processed foods and drinks certainly introduce more sugar into our diet. As a result, the sweetness has increased. There is a wide range of trends supported by data showing increased sugar consumption in Asia, not to mention sugar-related diseases like diabetes. According to One report“Developing countries account for about three-quarters of the world’s sugar consumption,” and “it is expected to lead to future growth in demand.”
Does this all mean that we are mercilessly marching towards the future of saccharin, covered by sugar spike saturation? If the way big companies, such as restaurants, global franchises, and other commercial interests are, then the answer is probably yes. But when universal flavored du Jour is sweet, we lose the contemplative ease of balance. We are entering an era where the best compliments once reserved for dessert in many Asian homes, but they are not too sweet, but now they apply to dinner.
