Swiss Wing is the name given to a kind of sweet soy sauce

Soy sauce

Soy sauce is a condiment produced by fermenting soybeans with Aspergillus oryzae or Aspergillus sojae molds, along with water and salt...

-flavored chicken wings

Chicken (food)

Chicken is the most common type of poultry in the world, and is prepared as food in a wide variety of ways, varying by region and culture.- History :...

 served in some restaurants in Hong Kong

Cuisine of Hong Kong

Hong Kong cuisine is influenced by Cantonese cuisine and parts of non-Cantonese-speaking China , Western world, Japan, and Southeast Asia, due to Hong Kong's past as a British colony and long history of being an international city of commerce...

. It is marinated in sauce made up of soy sauce, sugar

Sugar

Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...

, Chinese wine

Chinese wine

Jiu is the Chinese word that refers to all alcoholic beverages. This word has often been mistranslated into English as "wine"; the meaning is closer to "alcoholic beverage" or "liquor"...

, and spice

Spice

A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, or vegetative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for flavor, color, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth. It may be used to flavour a dish or to hide other flavours...

s. Despite the name "Swiss," it is unrelated to Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

. Instead, it is believed to have originated in either Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

 or Guangzhou

Guangzhou

Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...

.

There are no concrete answers as to the source of the name of the dish. One story goes that a Westerner came across the dish "sweetened soya sauce chicken wings" in a restaurant, and asked a Chinese waiter what that was. The waiter, who did not speak perfect English, introduced the dish as Sweet Wing. The customer misinterpreted sweet as Swiss, and the name was used ever since. However, this story may be a mere urban legend

Urban legend

An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...

.

Some claim that the dish was invented by a local restaurant, the Tai Ping Koon (太平館). It is a common practice in Hong Kong restaurants to name a new dish after a place, which may or may not have any connection with the dish itself at all.


Swiss Wing is also features in the TVB cooking variety series So Good.

External links

• History of Tai Ping Koon Restaurant from their website.