A Pho to Remember?

Dinner last night -- rare beef pho at Chua Lam's Pho in Central

Yesterday my colleague and I finished an assignment in Central just before 6pm and she was wondering where to get a cheap bite to eat.

I suggested Tsui Wah, the cha chaan teng chain, but she said "no" right away. Then I remembered the famous food writer Chua Lam had opened a pho shop nearby and suggested we check it out.

Food critic and restaurateur Chua Lam at his restaurant

Called Chua Lam's Pho, with the tagline "A bowl of pho to remember", is on Wellington Street in a two-storey building with minimalist decor, complemented with beer bottles cut to have plants in them. There's a variety of seating and even more upstairs so we went up to get a table near the corner. The menu is pretty straight forward.

If you want to splurge, there's the "special beef pho" for HK$128, apparently with wagyu beef, but we stuck to the "rare beef pho" for HK$88.

Or you can have a basic beef pho for HK$68 and add toppings like raw beef, beef shank, brisket, tendon, beef ball, and tripe.

There are also other dishes like fried spring rolls, or rice paper salad rolls with fish and mango, or Thai pomelo salad -- what is that doing there! We ordered a dish of stir fried morning glory.

While we were waiting for our food to arrive, we sipped on the complimentary glasses of water and quickly realized they had a sweet peanut flavour! It's obviously a ploy to get customers to order drinks as well, which is what we did -- a young coconut for my colleague, a preserved plum and lime soda for me.

The ground floor interior of the shop

The food arrived quickly and in large bowls, and come with small cups filled with basil leaves, bean sprouts, lime wedge and fresh chillis. When the place first opened, everyone was raving about the soup base, and I have to say it has a round, flavourful beef taste, and wasn't oily.

Meanwhile the portion of morning glory was much larger than we expected and a bit on the spicy side, but still delicious.

My drink had a fake green syrup in it, probably a lime syrup which was completely redundant, while my colleague enjoyed her drink and the thick coconut meat inside.

In the end our bill came to HK$360 for two, a cheap and cheerful dinner.

Chua Lam's Pho
UG/F, 15-25 Wellington Street
Central
2325 9117

Hotpot Controversy

Chua Lam has said hotpot has no culinary significance in Chinese culture

Chua Lam (pronounced choi lam) was a film producer for Shaw Brothers Studio turned food critic turned restaurateur who has gotten into some hot water recently.

A highly respected food columnist, he has written a lot about food, and even taken his fans on foodie tours around Asia. He even wrote in his column that to ensure his groups had the best food, he would taste test several restaurants per day.

Chua opened a Vietnamese pho eatery last year

Last year he put his money where his mouth is and opened a Vietnamese noodle shop called Chua Lam's Pho on Wellington Street in Hong Kong's Central district. I have yet to go but hear the soup base is excellent. No doubt there are lines out the door.

However, the other day he was interviewed on a mainland Chinese talk show called Day Day Up.

The host asked him if there was any Chinese dish Chua would want to get rid of, and he replied hotpot.

"Because hotpot is a cooking method totally lacking in cultural significance. You just throw some ingredients into a pot. I don't get what's so delicious about it," he said. "If hotpot fandom continues to grow, you'll see fewer and fewer chefs in the years to come."

His comments immediately ignited indignation online, with many professing their love of hotpot and questioning why it should be removed.

While hotpot is a popular way for friends to get together over a meal and talk why they cook their food, from a culinary standpoint, there is no skill involved, nor is it about having the best ingredients as they will all be cooked in the same pot and can easily be overcooked if you're not watching.

There's a variety of ingredients to cook in the hotpot

What Chua says is true, that if there are more hotpot restaurants, that eliminates the need of hiring chefs and so culinary standards drop.

I enjoy the odd hotpot, but not very often. I like the socializing aspect of it and it makes a meal more drawn out than if you ordered dishes in another restaurant. However it is your cooking skills that are put to the test, especially when poaching shrimp and fish for example, as well as cuts of beef and lamb.

Other ingredients like mushrooms, tofu and corn can be left simmering for a long time.

In the end there's a lot of scum at the top of the "broth", and it can be very oily from the meats cooking in there. My other concern about eating hotpot is that you can easily order too much food and feel compelled to finish it all, and have to waddle home afterwards, feeling very uncomfortable trying to digest all that food.

Mainland Chinese hotpot complete with hot charcoal

Thank goodness places like Haidilao offer half portions (and a noodle dance!), but that's not really the issue...

While people criticizing Chua claim there is cultural significance in hotpots, can someone explain?

Just seems like good business sense to just prepare ingredients and have customers cook their own food...