Special Feast of Pun Choi Irresistibly the Best
Traditional family-style Pun Choi is the must for celebratory feasts
Pun Choi for every celebration
I remember clearly when I first discovered the delights of Pun Choi.
Over twenty years ago, I saw an advertisement at a restaurant showing what looked like a huge ceramic basin filled with a tasty assortment of poached shrimps, braised mushrooms and stewed meats piled high inside.
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I had to have it, so I persuaded a group of friends to go and try it with me. Many of my friends, although having grown up in Hong Kong and hearing of Pun Choi, hadn’t tried it before.
Meal shared with family
At that evening dinner, we all discovered that Pun Choi was a special and ideal meal to share with family and friends. Pun Choi is exactly that, a meal made for sharing. In Cantonese “Pun” is a basin. “Choi” is vegetable or food.
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So “Pun Choi” means simply a basin full of food. Pun Choi is a unique folk dish and a tradition indigenous to Hong Kong’s New Territories villages. It has a centuries-old history in Southern China, particularly in Guangdong Province and Hong Kong.
The tradition is still very much an important part of New Territories village life. Whenever there are celebrations such as weddings, festivals and significant events, the villagers organise huge open-air banquets.
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These banquets may host thousands seated at hundreds of round tables, all supplying one Pun Choi in the middle of each table, to be shared by a dozen or so villagers.
Most festive village reunion meal
These days, Pun Choi banquets are meant to entice family and friends to return to the village to celebrate and eat together. The original rationale for filling a large basin up with food is not well-known.
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The basins I have seen range from ceramic flowerpots, traditional wooden tubs, and more often now, aluminum wash basins that are heated over a portable gas stove.
One pot Pun Choi
Perhaps it was due to necessity, because a wash basin was the largest container around that could be used to hold all the food. Or maybe it was by design to make the meal communal and for sharing at a round table. Villagers will have their own traditional tales of why it is in a basin.
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However, one thing is for sure – Pun Choi is meant for family-style sharing. There is no signature method, but what is a tradition is that classic dishes are prepared separately and then layered methodically in the basin one at a time.
Layers upon layers for Pun Choi
The layering is meticulous, because there is a rationale for each dish and a reason for where it is layered.
Hardier vegetables such as daikon and taro are placed at the bottom to absorb the sauces and broth. Fish balls and reconstituted dried squid, dried shrimp, pigskin, bean-curd and bamboo shoots are layered in the middle.
The most expensive and luxurious dishes such as roast duck, poached prawns, poached chicken, stewed pork, stewed mushrooms, oysters, shark fin, fish maw, prawn and crab are arranged beautifully at the top.
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Green vegetables, such as lettuce are provided on the side and thrown in after most of the food has been eaten so the sauce and broth can boil the vegetable. It is eaten last.
Auspicious Pun Choi ingredients
There is no limit to what can be included, but auspicious ingredients are a necessity. So, chicken and pork -to signify wealth, because the rich can afford meat is a must.
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A type of black hair-like vegetable, “fat choy”, is also often featured and placed on the top, because in Cantonese it sounds like the word for prosperity.
The traditional way of preparing a Pun Choi banquet required organisation and teamwork. It used to be that all the food and the preparation of the basins were done in the villages, by the villagers themselves.
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The planning and the manpower marshalled to host such an event was part of the festivities. It promoted unity, everyone working together and the sharing of closely held village specific recipes and cooking methods amongst the village families.
Today, many villages choose to get their Pun Choi prepared by professionals. So, on the day of the banquet, basins are fully prepared with food elsewhere and are delivered to the villages and placed one per round table.
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All the food is fully cooked before it is put in the basin, so when it is time to eat, the contents are covered and warmed over for 10 to 30 minutes over an open fire just before serving.
Feasting from top to bottom
Once the feasting begins, the basin remains on top of the stove, and the contents bubble and stew away as the diners pull and pick at the food and eat to their hearts’ delight.
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At the end, the basin is never emptied, but what is left looks a delicious mess. Never to shy from an invitation to a good meal, I have had many Pun Choi since my first.
My first authentic “village Pun Choi” meal was a fabulous introduction to the classic and traditional way a village banquet is prepared and served. The Pun Choi was cooked and prepared by an army of village ladies on stone benches behind the village hall
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in one of the oldest Tang walled villages in the New Territories. The Tang clan were among the first immigrants to Hong Kong and are considered one of the indigenous peoples of the New Territories.
The annual Pun Choi meal was their traditional way to celebrate Chinese New Year. Classically presented, the meal was boisterous and loud. I remembered everyone huddling around the bubbling boiling Pun Choi to keep warm because it was a cold January evening.
The meal was preceded and followed by Lion and Dragon dances, while music played throughout. The food presented in the Pun Choi was lovely and still resonates as one of the most unique that I have had.
I also had Pun Choi in a Yuen Long village to celebrate the wedding of one of my friends, an event celebrated during the heat of the summer. It was so hot and humid; I thought it was a crazy thing to be eating food from a boiling basin.
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I was melting, but the bride and groom looked cool and classy throughout the banquet. This Chinese New Year, I had the pleasure of enjoying Pun Choi once again in a village.
Lunar New Year most celebrated
Chinese New Year, also known as Spring Festival or Lunar New Year, is the biggest festival in Hong Kong. Once new year start it began the time for family reunions, chatting, drinking, cooking and enjoying a hearty meal together.
Exactly the season and reason for Pun Choi, I made my way to Yin Kong Tseun, a village in Sheung Shui with a minibus load of friends for a wonderful evening of food and fun. Yin Kong Tsuen was hosting their eightieth year of Pun Choi feasting.
Along with the meal, there was a stage set up for singing and dancing and announcing a thousand lucky draw prizes. The evening was perfect. Not too hot or too cold, the outdoor banquet was very comfortable.
The night sky was lit up by a full moon and, incredibly, also by the skyscrapers and the neon lights of Shenzhen, which is just across the border.
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Although the dish was initially associated with special festivals traditionally in the villages based in the New Territories, Pun Choi has gained general popularity in all urban Hong Kong too.
Particularly during Chinese New Year, restaurants will promote their own special version of Pun Choi, including all-vegetarian versions. Pre-ordered take away are encouraged as an easy way of having the traditional family reunion meal but without the fuss.
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No longer relegated to New Territories villages and special occasions, Pun Choi can be pre-ordered and purchased from many specialised stores and restaurants any time of the year. So do give this classic Hong Kong meal a try soon.
Text & Photo Cammy Yiu
