Radish Cake 萝卜糕

How it is made

What marks the Guangdong and Hong Kong cake is chopped cured meat, so it also goes by the name cured-meat radish cake (臘味蘿蔔糕). Rice flour, glutinous rice flour and cornstarch are mixed with plenty of water into a thin batter, and white radish is stirred in, shredded, in small pieces or ground. Cooks who want a fuller texture add chopped dried mushroom, dried shrimp, Chinese sausage or cured pork. The mixture is pressed into a square mould and steamed. The steps are simple, but the whole process takes a long time. Hong Kong-style radish cake usually contains dried shrimp.

How it is eaten

Traditional Cantonese tea houses serve it in two forms. Steamed radish cake comes seasoned with soy sauce. For pan-fried radish cake, the steamed cake is cut into squares and fried in a little oil until the surface turns golden, then dipped in sweet sauce, sesame paste or chilli sauce. Tea houses in Hong Kong and Guangdong also commonly stir-fry it with XO sauce (XO醬炒蘿蔔糕).

Hong Kong congee shops sell a plainer steamed radish cake, usually without meat and sometimes with nothing added to the radish at all. It is dressed with soy sauce and eaten with congee or fried noodles as a simple breakfast or snack.

Where it comes from

Radish cake also holds an important place in southern Fujian (Minnan) food culture and is common in southern Fujian, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia, where Hokkien and Teochew speakers call it chhai-thau-koe (菜頭粿) and Taiwanese Hakka call it luobo ban (蘿蔔粄). Among Hokkien and Teochew families in Singapore and Malaysia it is usually stir-fried: the steamed cake is cut into small pieces and fried with sweet soy sauce, spring onion, egg and garlic.