Some days, it’s just too hot for hotpot or a dish bursting with wok hei. For smart summer eating, you can’t go wrong with seeking advice from a Mediterranean chef.
Whether from Spain, Italy, Israel or the South of France, they know how to stay cool with their cuisine. We asked six chefs in Hong Kong who grew up in the warmer regions of Europe to tell us what they like to cook and eat when it’s this hot and humid.
1. Edgard Sanuy
The culinary director of Spanish restaurants Barbar and Pica Pica hails from Lleida, in northeast Spain.
Edgard Sanuy, culinary director of Barbar and Pica Pica. Photo: Pica Pica
Every summer, our family moved to a little apartment near the beach for a few weeks. When it was very hot, there were two dishes we always had.
One is a Rusa salad, which means Russian salad but it’s a Spanish dish. It’s a mix of boiled potato and carrots, mixed with mayonnaise, canned tuna and olives. Some people add shrimp or mussels. I add in the oil from a can of anchovies. It’s then mixed almost into a mush.
Mom always made a big tray to leave in the fridge. To me, it’s related to the best summers of my life.
A dish of Rusa salad. Photo: Pica Pica
At Pica Pica, gazpacho is served with a scoop of cucumber sorbet so it stays cold. Photo: Pica Pica
The other thing I love is gazpacho. My grandmother was sick of me grabbing a Coke or soft drink, so she made gazpacho and we would drink it in a glass. It’s half tomato, with cucumber, a little vinegar, garlic, sometimes she’d put in watermelon, strawberries or raspberries, to make it more kid-friendly.