Hong_Kong_Tatler_September_2017

hong kong tatler. september 2017 219

RICHARD EKKEBUS, AMBER

THE INSPIRATION: Seafood fried rice with egg and XO sauce

THE DISH: Ekkebus combined seared Hokkaido scallops

with fi nger lime, XO sauce sabayon, crispy Camargue red

rice, dried seafood and salicornia, creating a dish that

draws together fl avours and ingredients from his adopted

home of Hong Kong and his birthplace, the Netherlands.

In the 13 years that Richard has called our city his home he

has seen big changes in the restaurant sector. “When we

started Amber, we wanted to use a lot of local ingredients

but people just didn’t get it,” he recalls. “They would say, ‘If I

want XO sauce in a dish, I’ll go to a Chinese restaurant.’ Now,

I think if I put a dish like this on the menu, people won’t say

a thing.” He jokes that Amber is “slowly making its way to

Sheung Wan” through this dish. “It’s testimony to my time

in Hong Kong and a homage to the dried seafood vendors

in that neighbourhood.” In this recipe, Richard takes the oil

from the restaurant’s homemade XO sauce and whips it into

a light, airy foam using a siphon. The leftover seafood from

the sauce is dried out until crisp and used, along with red

Carmague rice that has been puffed, as a garnish. Slices of

fresh lotus stem add fresh contrast. Instead of spring onions,

Richard uses salicornia and oyster leaf as a hat tip to the

ingredients he grew up with in the Netherlands.

FOOD | LIFE