Chiu Chow cuisine, cooked food markets, private chefs: Hong Kong dining picks of a Slow Food executive
- Chinese-American Charlene Ho, who works as a special projects coordinator for Slow Food Hong Kong, enjoys farm-to-table and plant-based cuisine
- Her go-to food market is the Bowrington Road Cooked Food Centre, where she gets Chinese roast chicken at Wai Kee and vegetarian food at Kan Kee
California-raised Charlene Ho is a university biochemistry lecturer and Slow Food Hong Kong’s special projects coordinator. She spoke to Andrew Sun.
As a Chinese-born American, I consider myself a third culture kid. We always had a lot of international influences and exposure to different foods living in a small university town in the US. My first nanny was Mexican, so I grew up eating tortillas, beans and cheese which, as a Californian, is not that surprising.
In graduate school, I studied biochemistry regarding nutrition, so I did a lot of research on how humans actually use food’s chemical compounds. Knowing what you eat and how it affects your body is always fascinating.
I’m not vegan but I do like places that emphasise non-animal-based proteins, although I am not a big fan of alternative meats. Treehouse (Shop 1, The Steps, H Code, 45 Pottinger Street, Central, tel: 3791 2277) and Locofama (9-13 Fuk Sau Lane, Sai Ying Pun, tel: 2547 7668) both always have a good variety, and things I don’t usually cook at home.
Other places that I like have a farm-to-table ideology. Several times I have gone to Aulis (Shop 8, UG/G, Sino Plaza, 255 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay, tel: 2817 8263). I like sitting at the counter and talking to the chef to see where their ideas, influences and creativity are from.