Finding the Hong Kong chicken heir (and other PE princesses)

Last week, Daily Maverick published my celebration of the Sino-South African culinary classic, Hong Kong chicken. For those who might have missed my musings, the poultry perfection under discussion is a sweet, salty, sticky, savoury soy sauce and rice wine-laden dish that is adored in the Eastern Cape but almost unknown outside of the province.

The recipe was probably first cooked up in the late 1940s by a Cantonese-born, Port Elizabeth-based chef named Fok Zee Lum/ Tommy Fok. Over time, something served at Chef Fok’s Silver Lantern started to appear on other Chinese restaurant menus and then in homes all across the Windy City.

Such is the enduring appeal of Hong Kong chicken that, almost a century after its invention, almost all PE people, regardless of colour, class or creed, now consider it to be part of their regionally specific epicurean identity. As the recipe has spread its wings and flown beyond the Chinese community, Hong Kong chicken has gone rogue and now often includes Coca-Cola among its ingredients.

So, that is a summary of what went before. If, dear reader, you think that there is no more to say about a gloriously glazed chicken dish, you would be wrong. Hong Kong chicken is the gourmet gift that keeps on giving.

Since the first piece was published, I have been inundated with food memories and vintage photographs. So many people remembered dining at the Silver Lantern. Numerous birthday dinners and engagements to be married were marked therein. The family of Lau Yat Sing (who bought the Silver Lantern from Chef Fok) sent a photograph from the late 1950s of their father (and his magnificent bowtie) in the restaurant.

The family of Lau Yat Sing (who bought the Silver Lantern from Chef Fok) sent a photograph from the late 1950s of their father (and his magnificent bow tie) in the restaurant. (Photo: Supplied)

And then I hit the Hong Kong chicken jackpot. An elderly lady from Chef Lynita Kin’s Bible study class had contact details for Chef Fok’s daughter, Sonja Gin! In Vancouver! I am usually implacably opposed to the use of even one exclamation mark, let alone two, so the liberal scattering above indicates the extent of my excitement.

I tried not to get my hopes up. The number that I had been given for Gin was quite old and no one knew if it was still in use. I expected to find myself attempting to explain the impossible to a confused Canadian.

I was bracing for disappointment when the call was answered and there on the other end line was the princess of Hong Kong Chicken herself! Poor Sonja Gin was somewhat surprised to find herself talking to a gushing stranger with an obsessive interest in her father’s recipe.

She generously humoured my insanity, telling me that her parents came to South Africa from Guangdong (by way of a short stop in Hong Kong) in the 1940s but had left the country in 1957 because: “When I was about two years old, my mother ran into a wasps’ nest and was stung so badly that she was paralysed. We had to leave Port Elizabeth and go back to China for medical treatment.”

Poor Sonja Gin was somewhat surprised to find herself talking to a gushing stranger with an obsessive interest in her father’s recipe. (Photo of the infant Sonja Gin supplied)

The Fok family subsequently went on to England where, having failed to make a success of Chinese restaurants — apparently, the English were immune to the charms of Hong Kong chicken — Tommy opened a fish and chip shop in Bristol. And then another and another. He retired as the owner of four chippies in the southwest of England.

Gin did try to return to South Africa in the early 1970s. She says: “I was trying to work out who I was, and I thought that I would reclaim my birthright. I still knew people. Friends of my father. I thought that I would make my home in South Africa.”

The apartheid authorities had other ideas and were unwilling to recognise her rights of abode in the land of her birth. At the airport, the police took her into a little room and asked a lot of questions. But that is a story for another day…

Gin remembers: “He did make his chicken recipe at home sometimes, but we had no idea that it was special. To us, it was just Dad’s chicken. My memory is that there was soy sauce, maybe oyster sauce, perhaps rock sugar, sesame oil and corn starch, but I didn’t follow my father into the hospitality industry because my dad said it was 24-7 and he wanted a better life for me, so I can’t be entirely sure.”

That is the bad news. The good news is that Gin is attending a get-together of the Port Elizabeth Chinese Association in Toronto at the end of July and has promised to ask around to see if any of the elder PE émigrés have a copy of the original recipe.

She says: “I was aware that Chinese people of my dad’s generation made the recipe in Port Elizabeth restaurants, but I didn’t know that other people in the city make it.”

She was astonished but delighted when I showed her the Hong Kong chicken double-page spread from Gqeberha-born chef Khanya Mzongwana’s cookbook, Sh*t’s Real, Let’s Heal. In the preamble to the recipe, Mzongwana writes about her mother making it in the 1980s in her New Brighton township kitchen.

Gqeberha-born Chef Khanya Mzongwana’s cookbook; Sh*t’s Real, Let’s Heal. (Photo: Supplied)

Last week’s Daily Maverick published the recipe that I cobbled together from the hints and tips of the (somewhat secretive) Chinese diaspora chefs currently living and working in Gqeberha. This week I am offering up the Mzongwana family’s version.

Mzongwana says: “I love how elusive this recipe is; all the secrecy around its ancestry makes me feel like I’m in a very specific and special kind of culinary club. It’s the best kind of camp and kitsch club — the Coca-Cola is what gives it its true character!

“My favourite memory of Hong Kong is seeing my mom place a whole chicken and two litres of Coke on the kitchen counter next to the stove and cheering because I knew it was about to go down! Oh, and spooning the dark, sweet syrup over rice. Yuuum. She made it better than anyone, which made me feel like I had the superior mom.”

If the Toronto elders do locate (and are willing to part with) the original recipe, I will bring that to the table too. One can never have too many versions of this national taste treasure.

Khanya Mzongwana’s Hong Kong Chicken

Port Elizabeth-born Chef Khanya Mzongwana’s version of PE’s Hong Kong Chicken, from her cookbook, Sh*t’s Real, Let’s Heal. (Photo: Supplied)

1.5kg chicken drumsticks, thighs or wings

1 cup soy sauce

1 cup of Coca-Cola

½ cup sugar

¾ cup of honey

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 thumb-sized piece fresh ginger, grated

1 teaspoon corn flour

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Toasted sesame seeds to serve

Method

Heat a large pan, add the oil. Fry the chicken pieces on a high heat until brown (about 5 minutes on each side).

Combine the remaining ingredients (except the sesame seeds) in a pot and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve the sugar.

Once the sauce thickens, throw in the chicken, reduce the heat and simmer until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce is thick and sticky. This will be roughly 30 minutes for drumsticks and thighs. About 20 for wings.

Serve hot over rice, scattered with sesame seeds. DM

Khanya Mzongwana’s book can be purchased for R250 from [email protected]

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