Join the Canto Cooking Club: bit.ly/3Hv27qq Enjoying our content? Support us on Patreon - www.patreon.com/madewithlau Get the full recipe here - madewithlau.com/recipes/cantonese-borscht-soup What’d you think of Daddy Lau’s recipe?
I'm definitely going to try it. I also loved the Hawaii video. Do you think your next family trip might be to go to China? I wonder what it would take for your Dad to give a 5 there?
On behalf of all retirees, I just want to acknowledge that you are honouring your dad in a way that may not be obvious. By making these videos, you have given your dad a new sense of purpose and identity by allowing him to showcase his skills and talent which presumably came to an abrupt end when he retired after many years of hard and endless toil in the restaurant. Now he is able to not only contribute to your future but at the same time continue his, albeit in a much more pleasant environment. Thank you for the many wonderful recipes including those for the soul!
Where I live, we call a similar soup ABC soup( colloquial) but I must say...THIS IS the upgraded ABC soup I will cook from now on.....with additions of bay leaf, lemon n tomato sauce/ paste.Yum yum..I'm hungry now!❤️
In Hong Kong, the waiters would usually ask "Which soup do you want?" There are a few choices: Red, white or Chinese. Red soup refers to Borscht, White refers to Cream and Chinese refers to Chinese soup of the day.
One of my favorite dishes growing up in Hong Kong! Love listening to your dad speaking Cantonese explaining the dishes. I appreciate the non fussy laid back approach.
As a Hong Konger living in Australia now, i am really grateful for learning how to make this and cook it myself. Thank you! 作為宜家係澳洲嘅香港人，我好開心可以自己整到羅宋湯飲，多謝嗮！
My father also came from the same generation in China, he came to America in the early 60's worked as a busboy, a cook then Chef. My father never kept any recipes it was cook by experience and with love. In watching your dad's cooking it reminds me so much of my father's cooking and I missed him very much. Thank you for keeping the Cantonese tradition cuisine alive in this channel, appreciate watching you and your family's connection!
I really appreciate that this channel is delicated to Cantonese cuisine alone; and you talk about the dish's origin/ background in every video, in addition to cooking techniques, like a culture & cooking mashed-up show. That makes it so much more interesting to watch. Thank you the Lau family for preseving Cantonese recipes & culture and sharing them with everyone in the world! ❤❤❤
I'm a grandchild of eastern European Jewish immigrants to the USA who also loves Chinese cuisines, so I was fascinated to see this video, and appreciated the historical background on how borscht migrated to Shanghai and then Hong Kong. I make a lot of Euro-style borscht - as a matter of fact, I just came home from grocery-shopping with a bunch of beets destined for borscht - and now I'm thinking of doing a bit of a hybrid version. I'm thinking gingerroot would go great with beets! 😋I confess I'm also curious as to how the beets fell by the wayside as the soup traveled to Hong Kong - I'm guessing beets simply didn't appeal enough to Chinese flavor preferences to become a regular crop in China the way tomatoes and potatoes did? TBH, beets can be kind of a love-it-or-hate-it vegetable in the USA as well but I love 'em 😀
I don't think ppl growing beet in hk or China. I never saw it in the market or my family never bought beet in HK. Didn't know about beet until I moved to the states. Probabaly that's why beet was not used back then.
I've read the tomatoes were a substitute for the red colour that beets would have given the soup, the former of which were more available. I imagine the sour cream mentioned was a similar casualty.
Probably because beets aren’t used in Chinese dishes but tomatoes are. So restaurants wouldn’t buy a specialty ingredient if they could make do without it
Andong did a good job on the history of borscht on his channel and the TL;DR is that beets were primarily used a regional version which was propagated to the rest of Russia through a cookbook published by the Communist party. Since this dish was brought to HK by people fleeing the Communists, they may well not have used beets in their "native" version.
Also.. im a practising muslim and when I was i. The US, one of my chinese muslim friend's dad made this for us. He used lamb shanks.. it qas so so good. Im definitely making this. Thank you for the recipe
What a wonderful, wonderful channel. I love your dad. I love his calm gentle demeanor and way of talking. I appreciate him teaching us detailed techniques as he goes along. It’s hard to find Cantonese dialect anymore. It’s so comforting for me to listen to. My dad is same generation, Cantonese, and mannerisms very much like your dad. He has passed on. Watching your dad make me miss mine very much. I hope he stays around a long time
The star of the videos is your dad. I like it better when he explains the steps. It’s not just the info, it’s his personality and choice of words. He reminds me so much of my dad.
Watching your vlogs reminded me of my HK years.(1989-2008)I missed the people I served.I owed them a lot. They are one of the best people I met in my lifetime abroad . The language is sweet to my ears and almost forgot it already but this vlog rewinds my Cantonese words. Thank you.
Everytime I watch Lau, my heart is warmed. He reminds me of one of my favorite uncles…his voice, skills, speech patterns, and his love for his family…just gives me the BEST feels. Thank you for honoring him and sharing his gifts with us.
I am also a lau and I’m loving all these videos. Thank you and your dad for showing the ABC’s the work that goes into our cultures food and the history behind it
HK borscht soup is in my top 10 of holy grail soups. I like to throw in beef bones to make the soup extra flavorful and I always add a bit of soy sauce, fish sauce, and Worcestershire sauce at the end to season. Thanks for sharing your recipe!!
Totally love your channel! Have learned some fantastic recipes that my ABC wife , who's father is also a retired Chinese restaurant chef, has raved about. Your videos and the recipe posts are so very thorough and instructive. Finally, your overall family warmth love and respect comes through especially when you all enjoy the meal together. I started following your channel during the beginning of the pandemic, and finally had time to post this note of appreciation and recognition for what you and your family continue to create Randy! BRAVO!
I find it very interesting to know the way that foods have travelled across the world and this is a wonderful example! Thank you for the history lesson!
Thank you for promoting and preserving the authentic Hong Kong style cooking and recipe in your channel. And yes we speak Cantonese and write in elegant traditional Chinese… Thank you!
I love how food unites everyone. Like Russian borscht and Chinese cuisine, just beautiful. It makes me want to cry. I hope that people in the future share their cultures and foods with one another with love and a drive to become a more peaceful world.
@@ЮляКамаєваnational heritage 500 years older than the nation 😂😂 The only Ukrainian heritages are unmatched levels of corruption, hate, and jealousy😂😂
Glad that you finally did this! As a Shanghainese this is one of my favorite 'western' dishes back home, which I surprisingly found out that it's not that common in actual 'western' countries like here in the US when I came here years ago, until I started going to Eastern European restaurants. The version I'm familiar with is a little bit different, and I think I just modified it to my personal taste too much. But I think that's the point: this soup is meant to be very versatile, and literally every household has their own recipe. A little bit of the story of how the 'borscht' came to Shanghai and changed the ingredients: one theory is that since stuff like beets and sour cream were an absolute luxury for China & Shanghai back then (remember, China was a very poor country 100 years ago, even in large cities), they had to find local alternatives. And tomatoes (or ketchup, as it was cheaper) were used eventually to provide the red color as well as the sweet & sour taste provided by the combination of beet juice & sour cream. And traditionally a slurry was made to create a cheaper, non-dairy version of a 'creamy texture'. Although as I finally started to explore Eastern European dishes, it seems that for some reasons I came across the Polish cabbage & sausage soup (ZUPA Z KAPUSTY Z KIEŁBASĄ), which as name suggests, uses cabbage & sausage (Polish kielbasa, to be exact, the classic smoked sausage). But they also season it with some kind of tomato products, either tomato paste or ketchup. And other veggie selections, such as potatoes, onions & celeries, are similar.
@@janusjones6519 Yes & no. But today in China I believe many ppl, at least many middle class ppl living in a city like Shanghai, can afford to buy imported beets. And can afford to have authentic dishes made with beets, imported or homegrown. And speaking of homegrown, you need $$$ to do it obviously. Of course, things like importing & home-growing a foreign species was rare back in 1920s anyways. But still I don't think it was completely impossible for ppl with $$$ then.
@@davidfreeman3083 it wasn't just money. Beets wasn't found in mainstream Chinese cuisine and most Chinese weren't used to the taste. Even today, few Chinese eat beets and they are largely found in specialty import stores in Chinese cities. . The substitution with tomatos, which in itself was an import from central Asia had much more to do with preference and taste than money. Beets were a cheap ingredient consumed mostly by the lower classes in the west anyway so it wasn't like it was a luxury ingredient, and there were plenty of actual luxury foods being consumed in great quantities in Shanghai during the 1920, as it was one of the most metropolitan and affluent cities in Asia at the time.
Nothing quite like a pot of homemade vegetable soup! I think I will add a little more seasoning, maybe a little fish sauce or worcestershire sauce. I love this show,father and son working together, and the family sharing the meal. Thank you.
Being from Eastern Europe it feels kinda surreal that I'd see Borscht of all things on this channel! Can't complain though. Looks like a DELICIOUS pot of soup! 😁
Actually many European continental cooking recipes are easily accepted by Chinese, because there is very high chance that counterparts exist in both cultures due to the large library of Chinese cooking recipes. 😊But recipes from English speaking countries or related to Cheese are not very popularly accepted by Chinese 😂
I have been making this soup for quite a few years now. It is one of my favourites, especially during winter time as drinking it will warm up your body. I make it slightly different. Initially, I did use tomato puree and ketchup to season the soup. But over the years, I have found that if you can find fresh and tasty tomatoes, you don't need any puree or ketchup. I don't even add any chicken soup as a base. But I did experiment with different parts of beef. And yes, the best would be either beef sheen or oxtail. Oxtail does give an extra flavour to the soup. By the way, try to avoid using any type of beef steak. It would be a waste of the steaks as they don't provide much flavour to the soup. Salt and pepper, and if you really want to intensify the tomato flavour (due to the fact that tomatoes in most supermarkets are tasteless nowadays), you can add a can of chopped tomatoes. By the way, the couple of bay leaves do make a lot of difference. And you can replace the lemon with some fresh cherry tomatoes as they do provide quite a tangy taste. If you use lemon, I would advise only using fresh ones. Don't use one that looks slightly dry or dull in colour as the skin can be very bitter which can ruin the taste of the soup. And as Mr Lau has said, this soup tastes even better if consuming it the following day. So if you cook it today, after it is done, leave it for consumption for either lunch or dinner on the following day. The reason is the cabbage. It fully releases its flavour by then.
@@lesleyjaneco-acob2282 Hi, I am very sorry. I don't use a pressure cooker so I can't really answer your question. However, theoretically, it will help to soften the cabbage. Well, you can let us know if you use a pressure cooker for this soup. As to the alternative of cherry tomato, again I am very sorry. As drinking this soup will warm up the body, I only cooked it 3 or 4 times each winter. It took me a while to realize some of the failures were due to the tomatoes available around my hometown. When I said failure, I meant a rather bland soup. And I had to add some tomato puree but the taste are different. The best taste really depends on the tomatoes and the sweetness of the cabbage. It is rather unfortunate that nearly all the supermarkets in the UK sourced their tomatoes from Spain. And it seems that they are tasting less like tomatoes as the years go by. And now, even some of the cherry tomatoes are becoming bland. So, if you cannot source a good crop of tomatoes and cabbage, you may have to resort to using tomato puree and sugar as a supplement.
My grandma from Shanghai would make a similar soup and I've always wanted a recipe for it! Can't wait to try this - she didn't put in celery, ketchup, or sugar.
Had this 3 times a week after schools growing up at cha chan tents-it was either a cream soup or this and I was pretty 50/50. Never ever picked the Chinese soup. Lo song tong is the best.
There are a lot of videos about this soup but most of them is in Chinese. Thanks for promoting it in English to let the world know more about Cantonese dishes. Appreciate your effort.
Omg, I grew up eating this! My mum would make this a lot during winter times! Thank you for sharing, I will give this recipe a try. I miss my mum and her cooking.
Growing up and going to HK cafes, you had the option to choose between a cream soup or borscht soup and I always chose the cream soup because it's sweeter and you can dump in as much black pepper as you want LOL but now that I'm older, I found myself to actually crave this borscht soup so I'm so happy Mr. Lau shows us how to make this!
Haha yeah I'm the same. I also think my appreciation of this soup grew after I grew up. I still usually go for the cream soup though if it's the option (I feel like this style of traditional "HK style western food" cafe restaurants in Hong Kong are declining in numbers)
thank you Master Lau making this no fancy dishes, i can understand cantonese and it is superwarm to hear master Lau's instruction, this is the soup i like so much as a kid, but i never know to make it, Now i can do it for my family! thank you so much!
Another great recipe I'll be making on winter (it's 35 degrees Celsius over here). Thanks for sharing! Btw, your content is pure gold and I tip my hat to your father, who covers every dish he makes with millimetric detail and surgical precision. You can see all the years of experience he has in the kitchen. Greetings from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
omg I love this soup so much. Whenever we went to a specific canto restaurant and we ordered the meal set, I would order this soup because it was so tasty
I made this last week and it was sooo good!! This is one of my favourite soups. I followed your video exactly and made it for 2 people but we had enough for many days. Can you please make Watercrest soup or apple soup next? (My family makes this and I love eating it! Would love to see your version of it)
I am going to make this soup. Love this soup when growing up in HK. Didn't know lemon and pepper are part of the ingredients. Thanks for teaching us. Thumbs up!!!
I’ve been really loving your family’s videos and I’m so excited about this borscht!! Mr. Lau reminds me of my long passed Grandfather. Though they are very different people from very different cultures, there’s something about his energy that reminds me of Oleksander. He made the BEST borscht, Ukrainian style with beets. Other than the ginger, I can tell that this will have the same spirit as the original - sweet and sour with a focus on the beautiful flavour of the vegetables. Pork is also a very common meat addition and entirely appropriate. I’m going to have to make this for my Ukrainian- Canadian family!!
I just made this HK Borscht soup today and we love it. It bring back the childhood memories from Hong Kong. Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe to us all!!
This has some close similarities to Mennonite cabbage borscht that my family makes, except spare ribs and lemon instead of farmer sausage and vinegar. Will for sure make this!
This is one of my all-time favorite soups. My preferred meat has always been oxtail and the soup absolutely tastes better a day or two later after the flavor of all the ingredients have fully blossomed! A recent hack I've enjoyed with this soup is adding some Rao's Marinara sauce (a great cheat for any tomato based soup in my opinion!)
I just wanted to say I love the love and respect your father has towards your mother. Not often you see that in couples of their generation. A back bit of back bone for those who don’t know what I’m talking about, in Randy’s parents generation most married couples are together because of arranged marriage, especially in Cantonese culture, much like the grandparents on my mother’s side. It so happened that one day my grandparents were out for a walk together one day, my grandpa was about 27 yards in front of my grandma, my grandma slipped on a wet surface and four days later she sadly passed away in ICU. This is a message to all men, look after your partners, give them the love and respect they deserve because you’ll never what will happen. Even to this day my grandpa carries a a guilt and regret of not taking care of her enough.
Funny that the Russians in exile subbed beets for tomatoes due to they can't get any beets in shanghai but nowadays lots of restaurants uses tomato to make color adjustments so they can spend less time boiling the beets.
The mother is right, beef is so much better for this dish. Why doesnt she eat beef? When it comes to cantonese cooking, this is my favorite channel. I could listen to Mr Lau speak all day. You have taught me ABOUT so many dishes that i grew up with. My daddy made this occassionaly and i would gorge myself on this. I always called it a lighter "chinese version of beef stew". I had no idea how common this dish is in the motherland. I didnt know it was an influence from russia. I was looking for borscht videos, and imagine, to my great surprise seeing your video of my daddys dish. Thank yall so much for what yall do. Yall have brought me great joy on many days, beings most of my chinese side has passed away. I hope Mr Lau lives forever, bc i need this sweet man in my life
I had forgotten about this soup until seeing this. My mom would have been the same age as your dad I think, so this and all of your recipes are from near and dear to me. A huge thank you for doing this recipe. I love your questions and narration. Spot on.
I was born in HK and moved to the UK 19 years ago, and since became vegan, but this soup... oh my I'm feeling nostalgic and would definitely try to make one myself maybe with some plant based meat!
No wonder u have over a million subscribers. Your video style plus your dad's cooking makes me wana watch vids after vids even when I think I had enough. 😂
I've always wanted to try borscht soup but I don't take beef. Thanks to your dad I can now try making it with pork ribs. Please thank him on my behalf for this tip!!
Family favorite. Actually I heard from family history stories is that it was transmitted to HK via the Shanghainese cooks working in Russian households and restaurants who fled to HK after the civil war. These guys continued in the food industry working in HK CCT and restaurants. The white Russians also left China but many directly migrated to the US, Australia and Israel in large numbers.
I didn’t know the origin. We use to call it garbage soup “lap sap tong” when we were young since we just added whatever we had but had the core ingredients. Great on a cold day or when your sick.
Fun fact. Campbell’s Hong Kong distributor has this localized version of Borsch soup. Not sure if you can find it in China town around the world. But when we lived in Hong Kong we sometimes stocked them in the kitchen. Just a simple alternative to the home made one.
