A Chinese restaurant in Hamilton

He is really cooking with his heart

When chef Hong immigrated to Hamilton from GuangDong Province in Southern China, he faced two challenges – adapting to a slower pace of life and cooking for a Western palate.

At first, Hong found Hamilton life dull and monotonous compared with the rich life in his hometown of Guangdong

It took him about three years to adapt and slowly get used to life here. Hong prefers seafood and mutton when eating because the tastes of the two dishes remind him of home.

At the same time, he came up with the idea of opening a restaurant in Hamilton.

However, when the store was opened, it was not easy to run because Hamilton was a small place with a small crowd.

Hong found Hamiltonians very health conscious and not driven by taste as much as they are nutrition. To him, a lot of local food seemed to taste flat.

When he started his restaurant, he tried to cook colorful, fragrant and tasty dishes. He enjoys the process of cooking, paying close attention to both the taste and the quality. For him, he feels he likes to cook from the heart.

My dream is to combine Chinese food culture with New Zealand food culture, and I keep working hard at it.

However, his first menu was different from the local concept of food and beverages. That’s why when the restaurant started, the business was very quiet and most of the customers Chinese.

Hong spent some years experimenting in order to make his dishes more local. He sometimes adds honey to his dishes, as well as his own “special sauce” – a secret he will not share with anyone.

Hong has three specialties in his restaurant: Crispy milky flavor curd,  salt and garlic pork rib, and ShanYuan style Deep fried chicken.

He perfected these three dishes after years of experimentation – and says they contain his rich experience and the essence of Chinese Cantonese cuisine. The three dishes are nutritionally rich and tasty and popular with both Kiwis and Chinese customers.

Hong finds local New Zealanders prefer to eat fried rice in the restaurant, while Koreans prefer a meat dumpling and chili chicken. As for his Chinese customers, many tell him eating his dishes is like returning to China.

Over the years he has attracted a steady following of customers who have grown to like his style of Cantonese-based cuisine.

For Hong, the success of his dishes lies with the guest’s evaluation.

When I finish a dish, I care about the guest’s evaluation of it so as to facilitate my improvement. I feel particularly happy when the guest offers a sincere compliment about the dishes I have cooked. The guest is happy, so am I.

When he first started. Hong named his restaurant Shanyuan Hall, but he wanted more local people to come and he wanted his restaurant to play a role in the connection between Chinese and Western culture. So, he changed the name to Silver Spoon Hall, and the two names add up to Shanyuan Silver Spoon Hall.

Hong has come a long way from his beginnings as a 16-year-old trainee pasta chef straight out of junior high school back in his hometown in 1988.

He found he loved cooking and being involved in the industry. Although he started studying pasta making at a young age, he changed direction after he met a Cantonese cook while on his way to deliver pasta.

In the conversation with the Cantonese chef, Hong found himself a little more interested in Cantonese cuisine, so he gave up his deep-seated pasta study and went on to study in Cantonese cuisine.

His decision has benefited all Hamiltonians as his popular restaurant demonstrates.

Their website: https://www.sscr.co.nz/