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the priced five-spice chicken and the lowly pigskin

The Sung army once sought shelter here after defeat

wolfed down the fishermen’s reserves from big wooden basins

dining on the beach in crude circles, with no elegance of the past

Away from the capital, they tried wild flavours of the rural folks.

Unable to stay on top, they collapse with general consumption

No escape from touching bottom colours, whether you like it or not,

no way to block exchanges between humble mushrooms and rare squids

Reversed relationships taint each other and affect the purity on top

Nobody can stop the meat juice from trickling down, and let

the bottom-most turnip absorb all the flavours in all its sweetness.

Leung Ping-kwan (translated by himself)

* * *

For a while, there were two competitive schools of Western-style cooking in the British colony: Cantonese and Shanghainese. Both offered affordable dining at a time when authentic Western eateries catered almost exclusively to expatriates. But soon they merged into each other, spawning soy sauce Western as we know it.

A meal cooked in this fashion typically begins with Russian borscht followed by a main of baked pork chop over fried rice, or beef Stroganoff with rice.

Over the years, soy sauce Western dishes have made their way onto the menus of cha chaan tengs (see Tea Cafes, below), cafeterias, even McDonald’s. Queen’s Cafe Click here and Tai Ping Koon Click here still make decent soy sauce Western dishes.

Tea Cafes

Tea cafes (cha chaan tengs) appeared in the 1940s as cheap and cheerful neighbourhood eateries serving Western-style beverages and snacks to those who couldn’t afford Earl Grey and cucumber sandwiches. Since then, their menus have expanded to include popular Chinese and soy sauce Western dishes. Many tea cafes have their own bakeries creating Western pastries with Chinese characteristics. Some of the better known are the pineapple bun (bo law bao), which does not contain said fruit, the cocktail bun with coconut stuffing (gai may bao), the ubiquitous egg tart (daan taht) and its Macanese cousin, the Portuguese egg tart.

Cha chaan tengs are perhaps best known for their Hong Kong–style ‘pantyhose’ milk tea (nai cha) – a strong brew made from a blend of several types of black tea with crushed egg shells thrown in for silkiness. It’s filtered through a fabric that hangs like a stocking, hence the name, and drunk with evaporated milk. ‘Pantyhose’ milk tea is sometimes mixed with three parts coffee to create the quintessential Hong Kong drink, tea-coffee or yin yeung (literally meaning ‘mandarin duck’, a symbol of matrimonial harmony; see left).

* * *

COFFEE, TEA OR TEA-COFFEE?

Tea fragrant and strong, made from

five different blends, in cotton bags or legendary

stockings – tender, all-encompassing, gathering –

brewed in hot water and poured into a teapot, its taste

varying subtly with the time in water steeped.

Can that fine art be maintained? Pour the tea

into a cup of coffee, will the aroma of one

interfere with, wash out the other? Or will the other

keep its flavour: roadside foodstalls

streetwise and worldly from its daily stoves

mixed with a dash of daily gossips and good sense,

hard-working, a little sloppy…. an indescribable taste.

Leung Ping-kwan

(translated by Martha Cheung)

* * *

Cha chaan tengs often appear as settings in local films because they’re the only places where you’d see lovers, Triads, students and retirees sharing a table. For a retro experience, go to Kam Fung Cafe Click here, Lan Fong Yuen Click here, Mido Cafe Click here, Pak Kung Cafe Click here, Star Cafe Click here and Wah Nam Cafe Shop Click here. For the modern version, we recommend Honolulu Coffee Shop Click here and Sun Chiu Kee Click here.

Dai Pai Dongs

If during your wanderings you see a makeshift food stall built into a rickety hut, with tables and stools spilling onto the sidewalk, you’ve sighted a dai pai dong (daai-pàai-dawng), an open-air cooked-food stall. After WWII, the colonial