Edition:
avatar image
Advertisement
Diner's Diary
LifestyleFood & Drink
Bernice Chan
Bernice Chan

Diner’s Diary | Ultimate knife challenge: we try carving soft tofu into a flower using a Chinese chopper, and it isn’t pretty

  • Chefs are well known for their skills with a knife, but the Chinese dish chrysanthemum ‘thousand cut’ silken tofu takes slicing to another level
  • A Chinese master chef can make the dish in 90 seconds, so how do we shape up?

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
0
Chef Junno Li puts the finishing touches to a a serving of chrysanthemum “thousand cut” silken tofu in chicken broth at The Chinese Library in Central, Hong Kong. Photo: Tory Ho
Bernice Chanin Vancouver
Knife skills are the stock in trade of any chef. For Chinese chefs in particular, mastering the use of a kitchen chopper is not easy. At The Chinese Library, a restaurant in the Tai Kwun heritage and arts centre in Hong Kong’s Central district, executive chef Junno Li Zhenlong proves his expertise with the blade in a series of dishes that show off his intricate knife skills.

One is the “golden lion” in which a mandarin fish is descaled and deboned, then carefully sliced into thin strips that are still attached to the body. The fish is then coated in batter and deep-fried in oil so the strips stick up. In the end, the fish does indeed look like it has a spiky lion’s mane.

Another delicate dish is a dumpling where the wrapper is a thinly sliced piece of winter melon that is filled with pork, prawn and bamboo shoots, poached and then served in a flavourful chicken broth.

Perhaps the most iconic dish that demonstrates dao yi, or the art of the knife, is the chrysanthemum “thousand cut” silken tofu. It doesn’t actually involve 1,000 cuts; the name refers to the numerous slices the chef needs to carve in a sheet of tofu to create thin strands that look like the petals on the Chinese flower.

Li is able to execute this feat in less than 90 seconds – but would an amateur like myself be able to make something remotely similar to his intricate edible flowers?

Advertisement