Tropical Hotpot
Shenzhen’s talent for innovation extends to the kitchen
Tropical Hotpot
Shenzhen’s talent for innovation extends to the kitchen
If you haven’t eaten coconut chicken hotpot, you haven’t been to Shenzhen, or so the saying goes.
In less than 50 years, Shenzhen has mushroomed from a small market town with a population of a little over 300,000 sitting on the border of what was, in those days, colonial Hong Kong, to a sprawling city of 17.5 million. I first visited back in the late 1980s, but just recently I’ve been popping over from Hong Kong quite regularly, so I thought I had better get my hotpot credentials in order.
The concept of hotpot, where ingredients are cooked in a simmering broth that is shared by all participants at the table, is almost 2,000 years old. The coconut chicken version, however, is a Shenzhen original whose origins go back only as far as 1996. It was created by an Indonesian Chinese businessman named Huang Yabin, who was living in Hong Kong at the time.
He opened a restaurant in Shenzhen’s Luohu district, just across the border, called Fatty’s Coconut Chicken. Using culinary sensibilities honed in Southeast Asia, he combined coconuts from Thailand and Chickens from his ancestral home in Hainan, with the Cantonese love of delicate flavours and good old Hong Kong business savvy. In so doing, he created a wonderfully tropical version of a dish that is normally associated with colder, more northerly climates.
What goes in
Quality ingredients are the key. The broth consists of the water from fresh young coconuts, mixed with chicken stock for depth. Into the simmering broth go chunks of free-range chicken from Wenchang, in Hainan. These birds are raised on peanut and coconut bran and have long been famous for their tender meat. Along with the chicken go strips of coconut flesh.
Six minutes is the time allotted for cooking, and the wait staff will place a timer on the lid to discourage enthusiastic diners from diving in too soon. You can use this time to mix your dipping sauce.
Pour some soy sauce into a bowl and add to it the desired amount of chopped red chilis, minced galangal, and mix well. Squeeze into this the juice from a couple of calamansi. For those unfamiliar, calamansi are a small citrus fruit about 15mm in diameter. They are little bomblets of tart juice, but with a fragrance a little like mandarin oranges. Originally native to the Philippines, they are now also cultivated in other parts of Asia.
When the six minutes are up, dip pieces of succulent chicken into your sauce and proceed to Nirvana. You should also pour some broth into a bowl and drink on the side. If your pot gets low, the staff will gladly replenish it. It is normal practice to finish the chicken before adding other ingredients. These usually include lettuce, mushrooms, and tofu, but others may vary depending on the restaurant. I must confess I didn’t check the menu, but I would imagine a nice cold beer would also pair well, for those who would like one.
Its success is due to its simplicity. Today, there are about 1,700 restaurants and numerous variations in Shenzhen alone serving the dish, and its popularity has now spread to other parts of China.
When appetites are satisfied, it is time to sit back and enjoy some convivial conversation with good friends. Or maybe simply reflect on how this city has, in such a short space of time, grown to become the third largest city in China, and one of the world’s leading technology hubs. But Shenzhen has also made a cultural mark with its first entry into China’s large and impressive culinary catalogue.
Photo was taken at Tongren Four Seasons Coconut Chicken Hotpot
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Shangri-La Shenzhen Hotel
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