【The Food That Makes Us】Soybean Sprouts Stir Fry with Omnipork Strips
【The Food That Makes Us】Omnivore Auntie | Soybean Sprouts Stir Fry with Omnipork Strips
In this series, we head into the kitchens of local Hong Kong homes to see how novel plant-based meat products are used in everyday households. What we discover is a wealth of intimate knowledge with food, as well as memories of how a generation grew up. Beyond the brand of the “future” that these exciting products often adopt, we unveil how forward-thinking innovations and cultures are more connected to our past than we could imagine.
Explore other stories in this series:
Vegan Uncle | Hong Kong-style Jajangmyeon
Vegetarian Auntie | Nyonya Sambal Heura Chicken with Nasi Lemak
1 / What’s the story behind this dish?
I used to be quite small as a child and my mum wanted me to grow taller. She read an article once where the interviewee, who was quite tall, claimed that they often ate the highly affordable soybean sprouts stir fry. With our doctor’s confirmation that soybean sprouts were rich in protein and could help muscles develop, this became a recurrent dish in our household.
I still remember how my mum chose to mince the sprouts to create better texture. It was a laborious process though. For convenience on weekdays, I skip the mincing, and instead add more green onion, carrots, wood ear mushrooms, shredded pork, or minced beef to maintain the texture.
As the Omnipork was sold out, I bought Omnipork Strips for today. My daughter said it was reminiscent of the flavours of her grandmother’s cooking. This dish is truly full of family memory.
2 / Have you noticed any changes in Hong Kong’s food culture over the years?
Many Hong Kong families tend not to cook but eat out for all three meals. However, I did notice that many young parents these days know that eating out too much is unhealthy, and have started becoming more mindful of what they eat.
My parents worked through my childhood. My father had to work on Sundays too, so my mum was usually the chef. I remember our Sunday grocery days clearly. Mum would plan all the dishes and arrange the ingredients in advance - making sure they were rinsed, marinated, and put away tidily to make cooking easier for the week to follow.
I recall every meal coming with an assortment of vegetables, from tomatoes to onion to bell peppers…. My dad explained that vegetables came with their own nutritional values, so we had to achieve balance through variety. “Eat the rainbow” was such a memorable kitchen principle that there was no question I would inherit it when I started my own family. In fact, even the way I do meal-planning is something I learned from my parents. Because of that, I had been able to eat at home even during my work life.
These days, if young parents don’t have a domestic helper at home, they would plan their meals like us - prepping all the ingredients in advance so they can cook easily after work. This is only for the lucky ones who get off work on time though!
3 / What was your turning point in making a significant change in your diet?
Food safety and pricing. When I was a child, I remember almost all the food in Hong Kong was imported from Mainland China. We used to buy everything from the wet market. But when my daughter turned 6 or 7 (around 20 years ago), I started noticing a lot of news coverage on the poor quality of Mainland foods. So I cut back on wet market visits.
Going to other supermarkets like Jusco, I discovered all sorts of foreign imports - from Japan and Korea to France and the Netherlands. The options seemed endless and were nowhere as expensive as imports are now. And so, because of food safety issues, my family started relying on imported meat and vegetables. It wasn’t until recently, when a fellow Tuen Mun friend introduced me to a market stall owner and I learned where the local vegetables came from, that I felt confident enough to buy them.
As we age, we’ve started eating a lot more vegetarian due to health reasons. With technology these days, it’s also really easy to witness the once distant lives of animals. Sometimes we don’t care about things that feel faraway, but in the end the consequences of our actions come back to us.
4 / Share your plant-based meat recipe.
【Soybean Sprouts Stir Fry with Omnipork Strips】
Serves: 2
Total cooking time: 30 mins
Ingredients:
300g soybean sprouts
1 bulb green onion
1 carrot
Some wood ear mushrooms
1 tsp ginger, minced
1 tsp garlic, minced
1 pack Omnipork strips
1 tsp cooking wine
1 tsp sesame oil
Some ground pepper
Steps:
Marinate the Omnipork strips for 1 hour (I used black bean soy sauce). Wash and drain the sprouts and dice the green onion. Slice the carrot and soak the wood ear mushrooms until soft.
Use a bit of oil to fry the wood ear mushrooms until fragrant. Add a bit of cooking wine, ground pepper, and sesame oil to remove their raw taste.
Add the ginger and garlic. Once fragrant, add the sprouts, green onion, and carrot. Fry until they turn tender.
Finally, add the Omnipork strips and a bit of salt. The dish is done when all vegetables are tender.
