Finding Christchurch’s authentic Chinese food

Press, 15 June 1985, Page 14

Finding Christchurch’s authentic Chinese food

CH’NG POH TIONG is pleased to find the standard of cuisine in Christchurch’s Chinese restaurants has improved since his first stay here two years ago. A free-lance journalist from Singapore whose articles on food, wines and travel have appeared in the “Melbourne Age’” and “Signature” magazine, he is spending this year in Christchurch, completing his law studies at the University of Canterbury,

“Eat in Canton” is an old Chinese saying. The gateway city, now known as Guangdong, was for a long time also a haven for adventurers and exiles.

These same colourful characters brought with them an indulgent life-style that has since inspired a branch of Chinese cuisine famous for its variety and innovativeness.

Without exception, all the Chinese restaurants in Christchurch pattern themselves after the Cantonese model.

Some succeed better than others in their attempt to serve up authenticity, itself a difficult and complex concept.

impossible and one has to employ whatever other ingredients the new environment throws up, then authenticity can still be attained by preparing the new ingredients in the old way. And so if you cannot obtain fresh shrimps (caught the same morning) for yong chow fried rice, there’s no reason why fresh scallops

Authenticity, I believe, can best be approached by looking at two parallels of the same problem. Broadly speaking, it can be achieved where the original ingredients are used in the same dish. Where this is

will not give the classic serving the necessary colour and good taste. In the last two years, Christchurch has seen many new Chinese restaurants. It is heartening to note that all of them seem determined to offer Chinese food-the way it should be. To this end, they avoid sweet, starchy sauces and deep fried this and that to

cook up some very genuine and naturally tasty food. The Imperial Swan Restaurant, in Armagh Street, does some splendid noodle dishes, and an accomplished beef "in black sean sauce. Together with oyster isauce, this is a Cantonese favourite. While the oyster variety is sweet, its black bean cousin encourages a hint of

bitter, and is definitely an acquired taste. For some unknown reason, Chinese fare in New Zealand relies extensively on the use of onions. In Singapore and Hong Kong (the two most important Chinese culinary capitals today), this earthy vegetable seldom, if ever, lands on the banquet table. Here, things are also changing. Relying more on original ingredients, we now find bamboo shoot, baby corn, and even water-chest-nut being used as “substitutes” for peas, cabbage, and cauliflower to afford Chinese food the very important crispy and crunchy

texture for which it is so famous.

While these exotic vegetables still come out of leans, I look forward to the day when greater awareness and demand will see New Zealand cultivating them, and perhaps even incorporating them into your own cuisines.

Recently, I tasted a commendable mixed vegetables and fish dish at the Hong Kong Restaurant in High Street, which made use of just such ingredients. The new Golden Triangle Malaysian Restaurant, in the Triangle Centre, provides an equally interesting variation with a combination of

seafood and vegetables, although the inclusion here of bean sprout does not work well and was, when I dined there, overcooked. As a result of the newer establishments, the over-all standard of Chinese food in Christchurch has gone up considerably in the past few years. Chinese cuisine has become more exciting even as competition Seats up in the kitchens. Bui until restaurants stop serving chop suey and ice cream with lychees (there are no such concoctions in the Chinese repertoire), there will always be that much more room for improvement.