Chapter 5: Hoi Shan Takeaway Food

Aside from the food cooked by Mum, we also have vivid memories of the food we served to customers at the Hoi Shan takeaway. Most dishes were westernized versions of Chinese food. Not to say it was bad, it was just different. In fact, I often make fried rice and sweetcorn soup - a devastatingly good combo. 25 years after leaving the takeaway life, I can still remember the full Hoi Shan menu and the 58 dishes on it. We lived on the premises of the takeaway so we were often called to complete chores. If you were not of age yet to reach the counter to take customer orders, there were plenty of prep tasks a pre-teen could do. These included bagging prawn crackers, cutting up mushrooms into quarters, cracking eggs. If the takeaway were making their own chips, you may have been involved in potato peeling and operating the chipper. My brother and I certainly did our fair share of tasks. 

Hoi Shan Curry

I’ve always loved our home-made Hoi Shan curry and nothing I have had elsewhere in the world can duplicate the fruity, spicy and savory taste. Brilliant with any protein on top of rice or for “curry and chips”. The Hoi Shan curry starts life as a curry paste, made from scratch. Once the paste is created, it can be used when needed, by adding water to make the curry sauce. 

In looking at the recipe for the curry paste provided by our Aunt Lily, I can see how adding all the fruits contributed to its uniqueness. I’ve downsized the recipe to create a reasonable quantity for home use. Once the curry paste is made, it will keep for about a week. During this time, you just take some of the curry paste, dilute with water and cook with anything you like. Add salt to taste and additional chili sauce if you want more spice. At Hoi Shan takeaway in Torquay, the most popular dishes were Chicken Curry (no 27) and Beef Curry (no 28). 

Forewarning - to make the curry paste, you need at least 5 hours. 

Ingredients

300g of finely-diced fresh garlic, peeled

150g of finely-diced fresh ginger root, peeled

Vegetable oil

1 roughly-chopped onion

1 roughly-chopped leek

Small swede, roughly-chopped

3-4 celery stalks, roughly-chopped

1 orange, sliced into quarters (include peel)

1 lemon, sliced into quarters (include peel)

1 banana, sliced (include peel)

1 apple, sliced into quarters (include peel)

1.5 bags plain flour

1.5 cups madras curry powder

0.5 cups turmeric

0.25 cups chili powder

1 can coconut cream (optional)

Steps

1. Begin by finely dicing 300g of fresh garlic and 1150g of fresh ginger root, peel scraped. 
2. Fill up half of a large cooking pot with vegetable oil and heat until very hot. Add the garlic and ginger to the hot oil.
3. Add the chopped onion, leek, swede, banana, celery, orange, lemon and apple into the hot oil and let it fry slowly. This can take up to an hour to fry until crispy. 
4. When done, carefully sieve out the ingredients and let the flavored oil sit to cool for half an hour on the stovetop.
5. For the second stage, prepare 1.5 bags of plain flour , 1.5 cups of madras curry powder, 0.5 cups of turmeric, and a 1/4 cup of chilli powder
6. Add one can of coconut cream and stir into the warm oil once until it melts. Auntie Lily uses coconut cream in this recipe. Dad does not.
7. First put the coconut cream in till it melts. Then add the flour, madras powder, turmeric and chili powder into the aid. Stir throughly and on a slow heat until it starts to thicken.
8. Put the pot into the oven at a low heat for 3 hours until set. You now have the curry paste which you can dilute with water to make curries

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Barbecue Roasted spare ribs (no 16)

I once made this dish for a group of friends on a weekend away hiking Mount Washington in New Hampshire, USA and it went down a treat. You just need to marinade the ribs ahead of time (preferably overnight). Ingredients for the marinade included hoi sin sauce, soy sauce, rice wine, tomato paste, chopped garlic, honey. You can make your own combination!

The Hoi Shan special (no 10)

This was a stir-fry of beansprouts, onions, water chestnuts with shrimp and pork with rice. There were 3 slices of chicken breast and 3 slices of char sui on top with a BBQ sauce poured over the dish. Missing Chinese food in my first term at Manchester University, I actually visited the local Chinese takeaway to get their very similar menu special! 

Chicken & sweetcorn soup (no 55)

Devastatingly simple, this soup was a later add-on to the Hot Shan menu. It’s also an easy soup to make at home - requiring very few ingredients and time. You can substitute the chicken for minced pork or fish. You can also make a vegetarian version by using a vegan broth substitute. 

Ingredients

1 chicken breast, no skin or bone, finely diced

1 can of cream of sweetcorn

Water

2 eggs, beaten

Sesame oil

Spring onions, finely chopped as a garnish

Salt & white pepper

• In a saucepan, cook the diced chicken breast meat in 300 ml of boiling water for 3 minutes until cooked through.
• Add the cream of sweetcorn and stir through
• Ensure the soup is boiling hot as you drizzle the beaten egg into the soup, stirring as you drizzle.
• Add salt and white pepper to taste
• With the soup in individual bowls, add finely-chopped spring onions if desired and drizzle with half a teaspoon of sesame oil. 

Corn soup as part of a vegan spread (bottom centre)

Luxury version: These days, Mum makes this soup even more flavorful by using corn cobs (instead of canned corn) and creating a stock first. Don’t attempt this unless you have plenty of time! First, she cleans the corn off the cob and puts aside. Then, she makes a stock from boiling pork meat, carrots and the cobs for a couple of hours. She likes to use a variety of different corn varieties including the white shoepeg corn which is very sweet.