hong kong tatler. september 2017 217
PEGGY CHAN,
GRASSROOTS PANTRY
THE INSPIRATION: Spam and fried egg macaroni soup
THE DISH: Almond shell-shaped pasta with vegan Spam and
pine nut yolk cream
“Everyone who has grown up in Hong Kong has probably had
Spam and egg macaroni for breakfast, with the MSG-fi lled
chicken broth and frozen pre-cut carrots, peas and corn,” says
Peggy. “I remember always having this dish doused with white
pepper. So I wanted to recreate a dish that had all of these
aspects, but is homemade and plant-based.” As the chef-owner
of innovative vegan and vegetarian restaurant Grassroots Pantry,
Peggy has always been a champion of nutritious cuisine that
makes people stop and think. “Spam and egg macaroni is so
quintessentially Hong Kong but it’s full of empty calories. It’s so
good, but I started thinking about how we could make it more
nutrient-dense.” For her vegan-friendly dish, Peggy created pasta
using a mix of brown rice fl our, glutinous rice fl our and chickpea
fl our; a sauce of soaked and sprouted pine nuts blended with
nutritional yeast, lemon juice and olive oil; and “Spam” formed
from cashews blended with toasted and soaked black mustard
seeds. The result is mind-boggling. The dehydrated “Spam,”
which is crumbled over the fi nal dish, has a great depth of fl avour
and meatiness, and even smells like the real thing.