Cantonese Cuisine · FFET10291
Kali yudan (curry fish balls)
Kali yudan is a Hong Kong street snack of fried fish balls simmered in a coconut-milk curry sauce and eaten from skewers or cups.
A round white porcelain plate holds golden fried fish balls coated in thick yellow curry sauce made with coconut milk, with shallots among them and sauce pooling below, with wooden chopsticks resting beside the plate.
The regional cooking of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau, prized for live, fresh ingredients and light flavours.
Kali yudan is a Hong Kong street snack combining Chaoshan-style fish balls and curry. Fried fish balls are simmered in a coconut-milk curry sauce and eaten from bamboo skewers or cups. Sales reportedly date to the 1950s, but the cited articles were not opened and no dated text was found, so this date remains an unverified report.
What
Kali yudan is a street snack of fried fish balls simmered in a spiced, coconut-milk curry sauce and eaten from skewers or cups.1,2,3,4
When
There is no documented starting date; street sales are reported to have begun in the 1950s. By the 1960s, it was a cheap snack for pupils.1,2
Where
Hong Kong. It has been sold by hawkers and is now also found in tea restaurants, shops and school canteens. The fish ball itself is Chaoshan in style.1,2
How
Inexpensive fish is minced to a paste, shaped into balls and fried, then simmered in a sauce of shallot, curry powder or paste, stock and coconut milk, and it may be eaten from bamboo skewers. Flour is often added to the fish paste.1,2,3,4
Why
It was sold by vendors carrying shoulder poles and later by cart vendors, and was a pocket-money snack in the 1960s. Hawkers used lower-grade fish, and curry arrived with Indian settlers under British rule.1,2
Impact and influence
Street sales declined under hygiene campaigns, while tea restaurants and school canteens keep selling it, and people who have left Hong Kong remember it with nostalgia.2
No tale about this food has been found.
Grandma Li
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
What I make at home is a simplified version with bought fried fish balls and bought Thai yellow curry paste, as both of my reference recipes do; it is not a street stall's own curry base. The sauce follows recipe A, a signed recipe with numbered steps: shallots, flour, curry paste, chicken stock, coconut milk, curry powder and soy sauce. The weight of the fish balls, 530 g, follows recipe B, because recipe A just says two packs. The 10 minutes of simmering follows recipe A. The amount of sugar and the way of serving are my own choices at home, and the conversions from ounces, cups and tablespoons to grams and milliliters are mine.
Ingredients
- Fried fish balls (bought) 530 g
- Shallots 5, minced
- Cooking oil 3 tablespoons, about 45 ml
- All-purpose flour 1 1/2 tablespoons, about 12 g
- Thai yellow curry paste (bought) about 55 g (2 oz)
- Chicken stock about 480 ml
- Coconut milk about 80 ml
- Curry powder 3 tablespoons, about 20 g
- Light soy sauce 1 tablespoon
- Sugar about 1 teaspoon
Steps
- Heat the 3 tablespoons of oil in a pot over medium heat and cook the minced shallots until browned, about 5 minutes, without letting them burn.
- Stir in the flour, then add the yellow curry paste and fry until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Pour in the chicken stock in several additions, stirring as you go so the flour does not lump, then add the coconut milk, curry powder, soy sauce and sugar and bring to a boil.
- Add the fried fish balls and simmer on low heat for 10 minutes, the time recipe A gives, until they are hot all the way through and the sauce clings to them.
- Thread them on bamboo skewers or spoon them into cups with the sauce; they also go with rice or noodles.
Tips
- Recipe B adds lemongrass, lime leaves and peanut butter and simmers for 40 to 50 minutes for a richer sauce, a fuller home variant than the street snack.
- Bought curry paste and fish balls may carry allergens in their ingredients, so I read the label each time before I buy; this is my own habit.
Allergens: fish, soy, wheat