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Eater
29-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Eater
Messy, Peppercorn-Packed Chinese Irish Spice Bags Take the World
is the associate editor for the Northern California and Pacific Northwest region writing about restaurant and bar trends, coffee and cafes, and pop-ups. On any given night, a tactile, no-frills plate of fried splendor lands on tables at Little Dumpling in Dublin's Temple Bar neighborhood, right around the time it lands on thousands of other tables throughout Ireland. It's a spice bag: a collection of spicy, starchy bits and bobs on top of chips (french fries). Something like disco fries, it's a staple of Chinese takeaways across Ireland, and the stuff of post-bar street food legend. Since the dish premiered at Templeogue's Sunflower Chinese restaurant around 2006, the spice bag has morphed and spread in Ireland, abroad, and all over social media. As chefs mix in their own variations, it's become an entire genre of food, its own galaxy in the universe of Irish culinary culture. Unless it arrives in a tremendous pizza box (in which case it might be called a 'spice box'), the dish's traditional packaging is a brown paper bag nearly translucent with grease. This quotidian container unleashes a messy, yet tantalizing combination of fried and spicy items. There's always chicken, usually in strips, whether they're coated, breaded, or fried. And there are always fries and onions. There might be other vegetables too, like spring onion, fresh chiles, or grated carrot. Then come all sorts of accouterments, from spring rolls to chicken balls. And there's curry sauce on the side, except if the takeaway is among the feverish camp that swears by satay sauce. Then there's the signature spice, which varies bag to bag. The Gaelic name for the finger-licking late-night hit, 'mála spíosraí' (roughly 'mala spice') hints at the dish's particular genre of numbing heat. Sichuan peppercorns are a throughline, as is nutty, earthy Chinese five spice, but chefs apply flavors in various forms. Chef Jules Mak goes for muddled and ground Sichuan peppercorn, salt, pepper, sugar, a bit of chile powder, and a tap of MSG. Once a year, his high-end Hong Kong-inspired Mak At D6 in Dublin sells a metric ton of spice bags for one month only. 'We blitz them out a bit more bougie,' he says. 'We do a hundred a night.' Per national outlet RTE, Hong Kong diasporic communities, known simply as 'Hongkongers,' represent much of Ireland's Chinese migrants. Their use of spice in items like spice bags looks a lot like the genre of salt and chile dishes that spans across South Asia, applied to everything from ribs to prawns. Mak, whose father hailed from Hong Kong and mother from the Emerald Isle, grew up seeing to-go orders for chips, curry, and rice at Furama, his dad's stalwart Chinese restaurant in Dublin that closed about a decade ago. It was called a 'three in one' then, and Furama wasn't the only place doing it. Following Sunflower's spice bag, Mak says, the three in one faded, as the three items fused into spice bags across the restaurant scene. 'It's a bit of a bastardized Chinese dish,' says Irish food critic Russell Alford, 'but it's ours.' As Sunday Times food critics, hosts of the Gastro Gays podcast, and authors of Hot Fat (a book all about fried foods), Alford and Patrick Hanlon have watched the spice bag spread over the years. They point to the early 2010s as the first time the dish jumped to the international stage. Australia and New Zealand were early adopters. 'It's kind of this icon of Irish cuisine, of Irish culture,' Hanlon says. 'It's changing the perception of Irish cuisine abroad.' The Chicken Salt Fries at Pecking House. Pecking House Spice bags are particularly tuned to spread on social media. The dish combines items — fries, fried chicken, spicy food — that are known winners online. The oil-slicked bag also unfolds to reveal its contents like a Christmas present, making for a great reveal in TikTok or Instagram videos. Versions made with an air fryer, which received international star treatment in 2017, spurred the dish further into the global consciousness. The dish also capitalizes on a rising tide of Irish cultural exports. Arguably Ireland's most famous culinary offering, Guinness, is also having a moment; 'splitting the G' (downing a Guinness until the foam lands in the middle of the letter G on the glass) has fueled a boom in the Dublin-made beer. Actors like Paul Mescal, Saoirse Ronan, and Cillian Murphy have cemented themselves in young American minds the way John Hurt and Richard Harris did for their Gen X parents, rap group Kneecap is taking the world by storm with frenzied gigs, and global focus on the ongoing siege of Gaza has brought Ireland's own history of colonial struggle into focus. A lot of these factors come together at Bar Snack in New York's East Village (recognized as the 85th best bar in North America), where Kneecap plays on the speakers all the time, a dedicated tap whips up foamy pints of Guinness, and the spice bags flow like stout through cobbled streets. When co-owners Iain Griffiths and Oliver Cleary were ideating the menu for the bar, which opened in November 2024 before the kitchen came online in April 2025, they saw the smash burger trend waning. Griffiths, who is Scottish, and Cleary, who is Irish, thought spice bags could be the next hit thing. Their rendition arrives in the characteristic paper bag: buttermilk-fried chicken tendies, peppers, onions, and fries with spices and a curry sauce. They also put the Spice Girls logo on T-shirts to hype the bag's debut. 'That felt like one of the most U.S. things we could do,' Griffiths says. But the spice bag was good enough to earn fans among their Irish clientele as well. '[They] would look up and give us the nod, like, this is good.' At New York's spicy fried chicken specialist Pecking House, chef-owner Eric Huang approached the dish from another side. He grew up in a Chinese restaurant, so the flavors of the spice bag were nothing new to him. After learning of the dish while cooking with chefs from the United Kingdom and clocking the version by New Zealand's Andy Hearnden, Huang rolled out his own iteration, titled Chicken Salt Fries, on Saint Patrick's Day 2025. The dish goes heavy on an in-house seasoning salt, along with cumin, coriander, Sichuan peppercorns, and a few more seasonings. It arrives with a curry sauce meant to evoke classic Japanese brand Golden Curry, providing a sweet, sentimental edge to the feisty medley. All around the globe, the cost of the dish has a lot to do with its cultural supremacy. Little Dumpling serves a generous spice bag for just 13 euros, Pecking House's goes for just $9, and Bar Snack serves the Georges St Special, a happy hour-ish combo of a spice bag and a Guinness pint for $22. As a U.S. recession looms and the EU fights to avoid sliding back into an economic downturn of its own, these familiar, affordable items — especially versions given a facelift to make them feel like a treat — draw diners out when James Beard starts to look like a bank robber. But chefs also recognize that upscaling the dish too much would rob it of its 1 a.m., effortless cool. Though some international spice bags have diverged significantly from the original dish, including 'healthy' recipes made with tofu or more vegetables, most iterations stick to the unkempt joy of a greasy, cheap mess of fried stuff. Despite the spice bag's online virality, Hanlon and Alford insist it shouldn't be a destination, phone-eats-first dish. Huang acknowledges that, for Pecking House at least, the spice bag's viral moment is already over. But he keeps serving it for the Irish expats and anyone who fell in love with the dish while visiting Ireland, the folks who tell Huang the dish takes them right back. 'They pour the sweet chile sauce over, the hot curry sauce, too,' Huang says, 'and it's this steaming, greasy bag they're eating. And when they put their hands in the bag, it's a really, really awesome eating experience.' A few more spice bags to try around the world: The Kitchen Bronx (New York City)
South China Morning Post
14-07-2025
- General
- South China Morning Post
In pictures: Hong Kong's long lost landmark buildings
Hong Kong is an ever-changing city and nothing exemplifies this more than the pace of development of its buildings, harbourfront and landscapes. Many buildings, once considered an iconic part of the city's character, are no more, existing only in memories and photographs. The Furama (right) and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Central, Hong Kong, were torn down for redevelopment in 2001 and 2008, respectively. Photo: SCMP Archives The Jumbo Floating Restaurant in Hong Kong, in 1990. The restaurant, which closed in 2020, capsized and sank in the South China Sea in 2022. Photo: SCMP Archives Singer Frances Yip outside Lee Theatre, in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, in 1991. Built in 1925, the Beaux-Arts-style theatre was demolished in the 1990s. Photo: SCMP Archives The 1930-built Tung Tak Pawn Shop, in Wan Chai, Hong Kong, in 2015, just before it was demolished. Photo: SCMP Archives The old General Post Office building in Central, Hong Kong, was built in 1911 and torn down in 1976. Photo: SCMP Archives
Straits Times
15-05-2025
- Health
- Straits Times
S'pore must be wary of synthetic drugs amid worst overdose epidemic in history: Veteran journalist
British journalist Ioan Grillo has reported on the drug scene from Mexico for more than two decades. ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN S'pore must be wary of synthetic drugs amid worst overdose epidemic in history: Veteran journalist SINGAPORE - Synthetic drugs like fentanyl have become so potent that illegal drug producers are intentionally weakening the dosage to prevent the drugs from killing their customers, said a veteran British journalist. Englishman Ioan Grillo has reported on the drug scene from Mexico for more than two decades, and is in Singapore to speak at the Asia-Pacific Forum Against Drugs, held at Furama RiverFront Hotel, on May 15. Used as a painkiller, fentanyl – a Class A controlled drug in Singapore – is estimated to be up to 100 times more potent than morphine. It killed 76,000 people in the US in 2023, and 48,422 in 2024. In his opening address at the forum, Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam said the threat of synthetic drugs is coming closer to home – after reports emerged in March that Malaysia had found traces of fentanyl in its sewage systems. Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam addressing attendees at the Asia-Pacific Forum Against Drugs at Furama RiverFront Hotel on May 15. ST PHOTO: BRIAN TEO Tapping his experiences with drug cartels in Mexico, Mr Grillo said fentanyl has killed so many people that it is actually bad business for the drug sellers. He said: 'Because you're killing off your customers. So they're trying to find ways to mix it up with other drugs or tranquillisers.' Mr Grillo said that 20 years ago, he would be able to have a conversation with a drug user or addict. But the effects of synthetic drugs are more pronounced, such that he can barely make sense of his conversations with drug users today. He said: 'The addicts today are completely zombified, and an incredible number of people are dying from these drugs. This may be the worst overdose epidemic in history.' He added that modern synthetic drugs could be manufactured so purely that the doses are exponentially higher than that of drugs in the past. Speaking to The Straits Times on May 14, Mr Grillo said the revolution towards synthetic drugs has surfaced in Asia, and will pose a bigger problem than traditional plant-based drugs, like cannabis. He said: 'If you look at it – the biggest problem in Asia is methamphetamine, and it is a synthetic drug. (Suppliers) have found big markets in the Philippines, in Malaysia, and it's the biggest problem in Singapore.' Annual statistics from the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) show that methamphetamine was the most commonly abused drug in Singapore in 2024. In its 2024 report, the United Nations-backed International Narcotics Control Board said a rapid expansion of synthetic drugs is becoming a global public health threat. These drugs, which are cheaper to make, mean greater profits for producers and traffickers. In 2021, CNB uncovered the first known attempt to traffic fentanyl in its pure form into Singapore after seizing 200 vials containing about 20mg of the opioid in a scanned package from Vietnam. To solve the global drug problem, former White House Office of National Drug Control Policy adviser Kevin Sabet said governments should tackle drug problems on the local level first. Mr Sabet, a drug policy scholar, will also speak at the Asia-Pacific Forum Against Drugs. He told ST that in Singapore's case, deterrence in the form of strict drug legislation seems to be working. US drug policy scholar Kevin Sabet said governments should tackle drug problems on the local level first. ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN But he warned that the global consensus against drug abuse has been challenged in recent years by those who lobby for legislative changes and softer attitudes towards narcotics. Said Mr Sabet: 'One of the things I'm extremely worried about is the movement to legalise drugs. It's coming from a multibillion-dollar movement that is very smart, calculated, and running in non-governmental organisations around the world.' He pointed out that a key goal for the movement is to break the global consensus against drug abuse and argued that countries cannot lose sight of the need to work together. He cited Thailand's experience with decriminalising the recreational use of cannabis in 2022, but later reversing its decision after a public backlash. Mr Sabet said the movement targeted Thailand, arguing that cannabis could be used for medicinal purposes and somehow convincing the authorities to go forward with the move. He said countries should not be swayed by such rhetoric. Said Mr Sabet: 'Instead, focus on a comprehensive approach and see prevention and recovery as your North Star. 'And do not succumb to those who tell us that we can simplify our way out of the drug problem by making drugs safer to use, or encouraging even more drug use.' Join ST's WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.
