P
Chinese · Guangdong Province
Cantonese Radish Cake (Lo Bak Go)
Lo bak go: radish (turnip) cake of Cantonese dim sum. Shredded daikon mixed with rice flour batter, dried shrimp, Chinese sausage, and spring onion, steamed in a mould until set, then pan-fried in slices until golden and crispy. A dim sum staple that doubles as a Chinese New Year festival food.
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I
The Market List
The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.
600 g
200 g
rice flour
Origin · ThailandWismettac · Vancouver →
350 ml
water
cold
Your own market
40 g
dried shrimp
soaked in cold water 20 minutes, drained, roughly chopped
Origin · VietnamWismettac · Vancouver →
2
3
spring onions
finely sliced
Your own market
1 tsp
fine salt
Your own market
To fry
3 tbsp
neutral oil
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
To serve
soy sauce, chilli sauce, sesame oil
at the table
Your own market
Each tap is counted, so the stockist sees the demand Provenance sends them.
II
The Method
1
Place the shredded daikon in a wide pan with a splash of water and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the shreds are fully tender and translucent and any released liquid has largely evaporated. The daikon is ready when it yields without resistance to a spoon and the pan holds only a light sheen of moisture.
2
Whisk the rice flour with the cold water in a large bowl until completely smooth with no lumps. Stir in the salt. Add the warm cooked daikon and mix thoroughly so the shreds are evenly distributed through the batter.
3
Fold in the dried shrimp, diced lap cheong, and spring onion. The batter should be thick, heavy, and just pourable — this is where the dish lives or dies: if the batter is loose or watery, the cake will collapse when sliced and fried; if it is too stiff, the interior will be dense and gluey. Adjust with a little rice flour or water as needed to achieve a thick, dropping consistency.
From the canon — Lap cheong (腊肠, Cantonese: lap cheung, Mandarin: la chang) are the sweet, intensely flavoured, dried Chinese pork sausages that are one of the most distincti… Lap Cheong (腊肠) — Chinese Sausage: Curing and Drying Tradition →
4
Lightly oil a loaf tin or square cake mould. Pour in the batter and smooth the surface level. Set over a steamer of vigorously boiling water, cover, and steam for 45–50 minutes until the centre is fully set. Insert a skewer into the centre — it should come out clean and the surface should no longer wobble when the mould is gently shaken.
5
Remove from the steamer and allow to cool completely to room temperature, then refrigerate uncovered for a minimum of several hours and ideally overnight or up to three days. The cake is ready to slice only when it is cold and completely firm throughout — a warm or even cool-but-not-cold cake will crumble under the knife.
6
Turn the cold cake out onto a board and cut into slices roughly 1.5 cm thick. Heat the oil in a wide frying pan over medium heat. Add the slices in a single layer without crowding and fry without moving them until a deep golden-brown crust forms on the underside. Turn once and repeat on the second side. The slices are ready when the exterior is deeply golden and audibly crisp at the edges, and the interior has warmed through.
III
Quality Hierarchy
01
Reserve — Fresh daikon at peak firmness, house-made lap cheong from a specialist Cantonese charcutier, whole dried shrimp from a reputable dried-seafood supplier, stone-milled rice flour.
02
Estate — Good-quality market daikon, branded lap cheong from a Chinese grocer, plump whole dried shrimp, standard rice flour from an Asian supermarket.
03
Market — Supermarket daikon, readily available dried shrimp, any commercially produced Chinese sausage. The flavour backbone holds but with less depth.
04
House — Daikon from any source; dried shrimp and sausage omitted or substituted with whatever savoury dried ingredient is to hand. The result is a plain radish cake — honest, but a different dish.
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Sight. Cooked daikon shreds are fully translucent and the pan holds only a light sheen of residual moisture — no pooling liquid.
◇Touch. Steamed cake does not wobble when the mould is shaken; a skewer withdrawn from the centre is clean and dry.
◇Touch. Refrigerated cake is cold and completely firm throughout — it holds a clean edge under the knife without crumbling.
◇Sound. Frying slices produce an audible sizzle at the edges as the crust deepens; the sound softens when the moisture is driven off and the crust is set.
◇Sight. Pan-fried slices show a deep, even golden-brown on both cut faces.
◇Where it lives or dies. The batter must be thick and heavy before steaming — too much residual water from the daikon or too thin a rice flour ratio and the cake will collapse when sliced and refuse to hold a crust in the pan.
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VI
What to Pour
The pairing
Baijiu
From British Columbia
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Without alcohol
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The whole pairingPillar VII
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Sourced through Provenance