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Stir-fried crab at Arun Thai. Photos: Bruce Yan

Some like it (very) hot: Five Hong Kong restaurants for spice lovers

Can you take the heat? We sample hot dishes from five different cuisines - Thai, Korean, Sichuan, Peruvian and Javanese

When you eat a chilli it activates the same nerves that respond to a naked flame rather than your taste buds. It's all the other delectable ingredients that come under the word spice that the world's cooks use to bring flavour to their hot dishes. Hot food fans would be lost without all those dried seeds, berries and other plant matter that end up in spice jars. Here's our pick of five different restaurants — and the cultures they represent — dishing up their take on the perfect hot dishes.

 

Arun Thai

Brought up in northeastern Thailand and based in Sydney, restaurateur/chef Kham Signavong believes it's crucial to stick with the truest Thai taste. And he keeps his Hong Kong restaurant, Arun Thai, as authentic as possible, maintaining the high levels of heat that you would find on the streets of Thailand.

Stir-fried prawns with kaffir lime leaves in hot southern chilli paste.

Thai cuisine can be split into four regions of heat levels: southern Thai being the hottest, then Isaan (northeastern), northern and central. Each dish from each region has a different level of aroma and spice based on the five core flavours: salty, spicy, sweet, sour and bitter.

Crispy fish with spicy dressing.

First on our menu was (HK$198) stir-fried prawns with kaffir lime leaves in a hot southern chilli paste. The salty chilli paste with a strong spicy aroma dominates the dish to give you a big punch. Made by crushing various ingredients including turmeric, kaffir lime and lemongrass with lots of red chilli, which is served on top of fresh fried prawns, this dish is among the top three spiciest in the cuisine.

Some raw ingredients.

Our favourite, however, was , a northeastern style crispy fish with spicy dressing of lemon grass, mint leaves and coriander. The mint, kaffir lime and coriander give a bitter taste, which is a contrast to the sour and sweet dressing of lime juice and palm sugar. Topped with toasted chilli powder and toasted rice, the barramundi dish has all the heat that it needs.

G22, G/F K11, 18 Hanoi Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, tel: 3188 1239

 

Han Ah Rum

The shop next to Han Ah Rum changes tenants regularly - its current occupant being the popular Taiwanese cafe Teawood - but the Korean restaurant has been at the same spot since it opened eight years ago.

Spicy seafood soup.

Headed by two (translated as middle-aged ladies in Korean) and synonymous with home cooking, the kitchen promises to whip up dishes based on recipes inspired by their three decades of culinary experience.

Marinated raw crab in chilli sauce.

Spicy dishes and their heat levels are marked on the menu with red chilli symbols. One of the banchan (side dishes on small plates), a freshly made kimchi that is as crunchy as it is spicy, is a mere warm-up for the dishes to come. You can choose your preferred heat level for most dishes, including the dry-fried kimchi pork (HK$240) which gets its flavour from house-made aged fermented cabbage.

The marinated raw crab in chilli sauce (HK$220) is the one to look out for. Mixed with (fermented chilli paste), chilli powder and honey, the sweetness of the flesh is further elevated with a generous sprinkle of roasted sesame.

The view of Causeway Bay from the booths.

Another favourite is the (spicy seafood noodle soup, HK$130). The seafood toppings are mere accompaniments, as it is the broth, made with prawns, anchovies, seaweed and chilli powder, that will leave you craving more. To turn up the heat, guests can ask for some chopped fresh chilli or chilli oil - of which, warns shop manager Cindy Park - a small drop is sufficient to burn your tongue.

6/F Causeway Bay Plaza One, 489 Hennessy Road, Causeway Bay, tel: 2877 7797

 

Yu Chuan Club

Just one year after opening on Lockhart Road in 2009, Yu Chuan Club was so popular that it had to move to a bigger space. Now on the first floor of a commercial-residential building on Amoy Street, the no-frills restaurant continues to draw a loyal following after a scorching dose of Sichuan food.

The menu rarely changes, and two-thirds of the dishes are spicy. Owner Chan Tang-wa, a Sichuanese who has lived in Hong Kong for more than 30 years, started the restaurant after deciding that locals deserved something more than the usual watered-down version of the cuisine. He wanted to share his love for the intense flavours and aroma that reflect the cuisine of his home province.

Dry-fried chilli chicken.

He insists on hiring chefs from the area, and the current two are from Chongqing. Besides the house-made chilli oil - the recipe for which Chen Jicai, the younger of the two chefs, refuses to disclose - they pickle their own brined chilli peppers using and , two types of pepper that he says are unique to Sichuan.

"When I started training as a chef, I would choke when I prepared the spices and chillies. But not any more," says Chen. "In fact, all the local staff here have got used to it. We Sichuanese love our food hot; we don't feel right without getting a spice fix even for a day."

The aromatic chilli oil is the main ingredient in most of the appetisers, including (sliced beef and ox tripe) and (mouth-watering chicken). The brined chilli peppers are often used alongside , a spicy fermented bean paste, to add complexity and a blazing kick to ingredients such as frog, eel and pig intestine.

Frog in fiery broth.

Chen says there is no better beer food than the chilli chicken: crunchy, bite-sized chunks dry-fried with aromatics and a lot of , or "facing heaven" chilli. But the all-time favourite is the sliced fish in a fiery broth. Sole fillet is used as it's boneless and remains smooth after being poached in a tantalising broth of dried chillies, Sichuan peppercorn and chilli oil.

Each guest is charged HK$240 and can choose a fixed number of hot and cold dishes depending on the party size.

Flat 1B, Hundred City Centre, 7-17 Amoy Street, Wan Chai, tel: 2838 5233

 

Chicha

Chicha head chef Arturo Melendez says Peru is where all the world's foods meet. There's an Asian influence, and a Spanish influence that shows not only in the European herbs they brought with them but also in the spices such as cumin, turmeric and black pepper that their Moroccan slaves used. Then there are Peru's many indigenous foods, not only corn and several thousand potato varieties, but more than 50 types of chilli, known as .

Ceviche (corvina, tuna and mixto).

Melendez uses four types - smoky panca, cayenne-like amarillo, bright orange and little paprika-like limo, and rocoto, the hottest and with a flavour similar to bird's eye.

You'll certainly notice the in Chicha's ceviche - fish marinated in citrus juices and chillies. It was most noticeable in the corvino (sea bass), aided by red onion and radish, but balanced a little by corn kernels and sweet potato mash. Tuna and watermelon and a mixed ceviche with shrimp, octopus, scallop and squid are also delicious, but I found them a little milder (HK$295 for the trio).

Chicharrones (calamares).

The spice dusted calamares (HK$90) were most noticeable for the subtly spicy chilli and garlic mayonnaise they came with. Next up are some grilled skewers. Beef heart with walnut sauce (HK$65) has an offaly tang and melting texture offset by the nuts. Black cod (HK$95) shows the Japanese influence with a ponzu and miso sauce, while beef tenderloin (HK$85) has been marinated in beer. Each comes with a sauce made from different chillies and highlights that this ingredient is as much about fruity flavours as heat.

I ask the chef to hit me with his hottest creations, a hot scallop ceviche (HK$75) and what is essentially a pork slider, pan con chicharron (HK$60). I find that these are fairly mild compared to, say, Thai food, but pack a lot of flavour.

Anticuchos (corazon, pollo, oh my cod, camarones, tenderloin and secreto) at Chicha.

The chef's final recommendation? Go to Peru and try these dishes on a beach with a cold beer.

26 Peel Street, Central, tel: 2561 3336

 

Dapurku My Kitchen

Hong Kong resident Trisni Sutarti is a chilli fan from central Java, Indonesia, who likes her food hot. She's been known to put chilli paste instead of tomato sauce on a pizza. She recommends Dapurku My Kitchen in Causeway Bay as a place for authentic food from her home country, having previously enjoyed the fried rice dish nasi goreng there.

Sutarti says the spiciness of Indonesian food doesn't come just from the plentiful use of chillies but also shallots, garlic, pepper, coriander, lemon grass, galangal and salam leaf. "It's like a bay leaf but bigger, with a similar aroma," she says of the latter.

Spicy chicken leg with tempeh and a bowl of sambal terasi.

On a recent visit to Dapurku, I tried the chicken and tempeh in chilli sauce (HK$45). It's difficult to see the chicken under a thick layer of red chilli paste, seeds included, and not surprisingly, it's reach-for-some-water hot. The chicken itself is crisp on the outside and a little dry on the inside, which is how it is often served in Indonesia. To combat the heat, there is the blandness of the rice the chicken is served on, and a cooling cucumber and cabbage garnish. The nutty-tasting tempeh makes for a pleasing, crunchy contrast.

We also ordered a dish of the ubiquitous sambal, in this case sambal terasi (HK$20), a bird's-eye chilli paste flavoured with shrimp paste that is usually grilled or fried before being mixed with ingredients including shallots, garlic, salt and lime. Dapurku's is reddish-brown and hot enough to provoke coughing.

Dapurku My Kitchen.

While sambal may be everywhere, as Sutarti says, its use is optional: "Some people like to put a bit; some people like to put a lot."

Grand View Commercial Centre, 29-31 Sugar Street, Causeway Bay, tel: 2881 0456

 

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Fire in your belly
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