I’ve become a little obsessed with Tkachenko’s Restaurant and Confectionery, formerly of Hong Kong.
It’s popped up in literature: Martin Booth’s Golden Boy (Picador, 2006) and Janice Y.K. Lee’s The Piano Teacher (Viking, 2009) mention it in a 1950s setting. So I thought I would investigate this Russian restaurant that seemed so popular in Hong Kong back then.
A 1962 restaurant and nightlife guide (right) lists Tkachenko’s so I know it existed a decade after Booth’s and Lee’s stories took place.
So I turned to my friends at Gwulo.com to learn more. Tkachenko, a Ukrainian name, had a restaurant and bakery in Shanghai’s French Concession as late as 1938. The next mention of it was in Hong Kong in 1945, so presumably the owners moved south several years before Liberation on the mainland.
After reading the string on Gwulo about Tkachenko’s, I realized that Russian cuisine has had a lasting influence in Hong Kong.
I often took advantage of the many cake shops scattered throughout the territory and, from the Gwulo discussion, learned these cake shops were most likely influenced by the Russian confectioneries in Kowloon in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. (The White Russian enclave there petered out maybe 40-50 years ago when many settled in Australia.)
Also, I was always amazed to find cans of Campbell’s borscht in Hong Kong grocery stores, the labels in both Chinese and English. Thinking back with horror to my mom’s beet borscht (a family recipe handed down from our Russian Jewish predecessors), the white dollops of sour cream curdling into pink dots when mixed with the purple soup, I wondered why the cans in Hong Kong instead contained a thin minestrone-type soup. Perhaps the popularity of vegetable borscht stems from places like Tkachenko’s.
Might be time to light up the samovar.
Hello Susan,
I finally found out they were chocolate Amaretti cookies http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/chocolate-amaretti-cookies.html. I believe they are Italian? Yummy all the same
Dear Susan,
I am the one of the grand-daughters of Mr Tkachenko of the Tkachenko’s restaurants [Shanghai and Hong Kong]. My mother used to paint the fabulous chocolate-filled Easter eggs for the restaurant as a girl, and still makes the wonderful Borscht and Piroshki that we have all loved as we grew up – even though we didn’t ever eat them at the restaurant. My mother is now 88 years old and she would be only too happy to give you more information about Tkachenko’s. Currently my niece is looking into our family tree and her great-grandfather’s famous Russian Restaurant has piqued her interest. We all love the idea that others are interested in the White Russian community in Hong Kong. I bet my mother knew some of those names Vanessa mentions above! I will send her your website and ask her to contact you,
Suzanne Jankowski.
Daughter of Helen Jankowski [nee Elena Tkachenko]
Dear Suzanne,
Thank you so much for this fabulous message! I e-mailed you several days ago and just sent you a few images of Tkachenko’s menu that Vanessa sent me. Let me know if you didn’t receive those e-mails.
Thanks!
Susan
Hi Suzanne
Vanessa Seed messaged me via FB to say that you’d been in touch with her and that your mother would be happy to pass on her memories of Russians in Hong Kong.
My parents were George & Lila Pio-Ulski and because both lived in Shanghai before coming to HK, I assumed they would have known your mother. I emailed my sister, Lindy, who is 8 years older than I (she was born pre-war and I post-war), to see if my folks knew your parents and got this answer from her ….
“Omigod, Nonie! Nellie Tkachenko was the one who visited us during the war (we were eating rice with self-dug up winkles or whatever from the beach) and told us the war was over! Did they know the Tkachenkos!!! I guess Elena is Nellie! Tell her that I’m still alive too!”
Your grandparents and mother were obviously in HK during the Japanese occupation, as were my parents and Lindy, who was just 6 when the war ended!
I would so grateful if you could tell your mother that Lindy sends her love 🙂
My parents never talked much about their time in China or during the war in HK, and neither does my sister, so I’m having a hard time piecing together all that on my website, which I’ve started so that my kids & grandkids know more about their family history.
Susan, I hope you don’t mind me “talking” to Suzanne via your blog! I’m just blown away with all the little serendipitous bits and pieces that seem to pop out of nowhere!
Thanks 😀
Nona
Oh, this is wonderful! I love it!
Thanks so much, Diana! How fascinating!! There’s a great Facebook group called Hong Kong in the ’60s that discusses the former White Russian community in HK.
I remember all these places and the White Russian Community in HK. My father was one of them. Many people we knew did go to Australia. When we arrived it was “business as usual”.We had 2 Christmases and 2 Easters and many many wonderful Russian meals. No one made borscht like my English mother. Even her Russian friends thought it was the best!
My favourites were Cherikoff’s on Nathan Road in Kowloon, and in (I think) Happy Valley or thereabouts on HK Island, and Rikki’s on Canaervon Road in Kowloon, where I often went in the early ’60s with a friend of mine who for some reason I think of as having had Russian ancestry.
Thanks so much for your comment, Penelope! I love hearing about these Russian cafes! Rikki’s is a new one to me. I’ll check into that one. Thanks!!
nona, a friend of the tkachenko family, had this to say although she doesn’t remember ever eating there:
“I remember Tkachenko’s well, and also Cherikoff’s and Queen’s Cafe in North Point. Did you ever go there? The guy in charge was Mischa, a Russian speaking Chinese man who was rather fat and very jolly! Had the best chocolate covered triangle-shaped biscuits ever!! Mmmm! 🙂
Mr Tkachenko had a restaurant in Shanghai before coming to HK so I would imagine my folks knew him quite well. They also were good friends of the Cherikoffs”.
Wow, thanks so much! That’s so fascinating–a Russian-speaking Chinese man named Mischa! When I think of Russian-speaking Chinese, it’s always in a PRC-USSR context. Those chocolate covered biscuits sound divine. I wish I had come on to the scene before the Russian bakeries disappeared from HK.
I was a teenager in Hong Kong in the 60’s and a huge fan of Cherikoff and Chateclair’s potatoe salad. Can someone provide the recipe to that special tasting potato salad ?
I have an old Hong Kong cookbook that was a fundraiser for the symphony, so I’ll look there and will let you know what I find out!
I lived around the corner from Cherikoff’s on Nathan Road / Hillwood Road and would love recipes of their cookies and baked goods!
That’s so great you lived near there! I would also love to see their recipes. If I ever find one, I’ll post it here!
thank you so much! I remember eating in the restaurant and buying cookies and I think they had chocolate macaroons? that look like big chewy cookies. They were delicious!
I remember eating in their restaurant and buying cookies and they had what might be a chocolate macaroon? – like a big chewy cookie that was delicious. Is that a Russian cookie?
I’m not sure! It could have been a French-style macaroon?
Hi Susan, I think they might be Italian Amaretti cookies? I’m obsessed now!!
Hi Susan
I have a photo of Mischa on my page about Russians in HK if you’re interested 😉
http://pio-ulski.com/russians-in-hong-kong/
Cheers
Nona
Thank you so much, Nona! Your blog is wonderful and I’ve been enjoying it these last two days!