Simran Savlani is the author of A Spark of Madness, a vegetarian cookbook that features inspired meat-free recipes from all over Asia. Besides that, she’s also the founder of Spark foods, a series of locally produced, Asia-inspired condiment products and snacks. Oh, and she also runs popular local neighborhood food and sampan tours when she’s not too busy cooking up a storm.
Here’s her story.
Please tell us a bit about your background.
I am a Made-in-Taiwan baby. I was born there in the late eighties and lived there for a few years, before moving to Bombay, India for middle-school and then to Hong Kong!
Hong Kong has been my home for over 25 years and I truly believe this city listens to your dreams. It facilitates and inspires. There is a story of hustle in every corner of this city, and it is a thing of beauty.
After college, I worked in media and lifestyle for a few years before finally deciding to take the plunge and enrol for Culinary School at Le Cordon Bleu, Paris to help me inch closer towards my childhood dream of wanting to open my own restaurant.
How did A Spark of Madness get started?
The year was 2020 and I thought in January I was ready to open my restaurant. I had been working on a business plan for over 5 years and now it was about executing it. However, there were other plans in motion and I got stuck overseas during Covid. All I did in those months, was cook, clean and eat, so when I came back to Hong Kong and I had to quarantine for two weeks in a hotel room by myself, I went a little mad in there and decided to publish all the recipes I had been developing during the Covid months into a cookbook. That was my Spark of Madness.
A Spark of Madness is an Asian vegetarian cookbook that encompasses recipes from India to Indonesia, Seoul to Singapore, Thailand to Taiwan. All the recipes are fool-proof, flavorful with an easy-to-find ingredient list. I personally get annoyed when I have to visit five grocery stores to make a dish and hence with the book I’ve specified ingredients when they are essential and needed, but for other ingredients I’ve suggested substitutes or hacks to make do with what you already have in your fridge and pantry.
All the recipes in the book are vegetarian, with some vegan and gluten-free options, but that being said, the book is not just for the meat-free. You can adapt the recipes for any diet.
What products are available under the brand, and where can we get them?
As an extension of the cookbook, we have a range of Hong Kong-inspired condiments. People are always bringing flavors from different parts of the world to our home island, but we wanted to bring the flavors we’ve grown up eating to the world.
Spark Sauces are four nostalgic flavors that we all love in this city. There’s Crispy Chili Oil, no explanations needed here. There’s Caramelized Spring Onion, our take on everyone’s favorite scallion ginger sauce — but we’ve taken a British approach on how they make an onion chutney where we puree the spring onion and ginger and then slow cook to let it caramelize before adding fresh spring onion for flavor and texture.
The bestseller is our Crack Sauce, which is inspired by dan dan noodles, but the flavors of peanut and chilis are prevalent across so many South-Asian dishes. Last we have our Black Truffle Chili Crisp, which is bringing the best of east-and-west with Italian black truffle and eight Asian spices. Every chef we meet hesitates to try this initially but we’ve managed to win them all over once they’ve had the first bite.
All our sauces are vegan and they of course taste great on noodles, dumplings, fried rice and Cheung fun, but they are not limited to just Asian dishes. The Black Truffle Chili Crisp on a burrata is one of the best bites. Crack Sauce as a marinade or sandwich spread is delicious, Caramelized Spring Onion on eggs or cream cheese bagel is beautiful, and Spark Crispy Chili Oil on anything and everything!
We also have a range of other condiments: Mad Honey, a lychee flower honey from the New Territories infused with Sichuan pepper, smoked paprika, rice vinegar, mushroom powder and salt. There’s also a range of alcoholic Spark Jams, a unique proposition so that a condiment occupying prime property space in your fridge can be used for several things like cocktails, bbq marinade, salad dressing, grilled cheese — and yet taste great on toast!
The latest condiment to join the mix is Crack Mayo, a spicy mayonnaise inspired by the cha chaan teng of Hong Kong. So expect flavors, of sweet, spicy, umami, creamy, and tangy, all in one bite.
Our products are available on our website and also at over 50 stockists around Hong Kong, including Bookazine, Feather and Bone, CitySuper, GOD, Spice Box Organics and more. We are also currently available in Singapore and Dubai and looking to expand overseas.
Is it difficult or easy to produce food products locally? Where do you source your ingredients?
Most of our ingredients are locally sourced. All our spices are from two local spice vendors in the city who have been running their family-business for over 100 years. I haven’t had better Sichuan pepper than the one I get from Yuan Heng Spice in Sheung Wan. All our veggies and fruits are from the wet market and our honey comes from bee hive farms in the New Territories. So we are proudly sourced and made in Hong Kong.
You also organize some amazing events around town. Tell us more about them!
We love bringing people together to break bread, or should we say enjoy a bowl of noodles together. So we’ve been doing a series of food tours exploring hole-in-the wall establishments around the city, and it’s called A Mad Food Tour. We cover different neighborhoods like Sheung Wan, Sai Ying Pun and Sham Shui Po, and you can choose from vegetarian or non-vegetarian options — so there is something for everyone to enjoy along with some Spark Sauces. We tend to run group tours during the cooler months, but can always organize a private tour throughout the year.
During the warmer months, we want to highlight another unique Hong Kong dining experience: dinner on a floating Sampan on Victoria Harbour. We managed to convince the sampan aunties to cook an eight-course-vegetarian Cantonese meal last year for our guests, and after the event got booked out within 30 minutes, we then hosted over Sparked on a Sampan over 45 evenings and to the Sampan aunties’ shock they were able to use the money made from a vegetarian meal to renovate their boats. Since then, we’ve been hosting this experience regularly and now have a seafood and vegetarian menu.
You can also find us at music festival and wine nights for our grilled cheese bar where we make a grilled cheese sandwich using our Black Truffle Chili Crisp and top the sando with Mad Honey. Delicious!
When is the next event we can look forward to, and how can we join?
We love bringing people together so we can’t say no to events and to keep up with all the madness, do follow us on @asparkofmadness where we post all our happenings!