How to eat and drink like a local in Hong Kong

It is 7 am on a weekday but U-Banquet in Wan Chai, Hong Kong’s erstwhile red light-district that is now acquiring a reputation for restaurants and discreet bars, is already full.

The humungous, 300-seater banquet hall serves as a shiny wedding venue in the evenings, but every morning it makes a quick turnaround to function as the neighbourhood’s go-to dim sum parlour.

Glittery lights and chandeliers have been incongruously switched on in the light of day. Dim sum trolleys snake past chattering people at round tables. The hustle and the bustle of the place is the energy of vibrant commerce.

Yum Cha, originally just tea in Cantonese but now connoting tea and dim sum, is Hong Kong’s favourite pastime. It’s impossible to find bad dim sum here. Everything is gratifying — at any hour. However, it is only the touristy places that will serve you little baskets of har gao, sui mai, turnip cakes, pillowy baos stuffed with char siu pork and more through the day. Dining on dim sum is firmly a breakfast activity for the Cantonese and could extend up to lunch but not beyond. It is also a social activity. Which is why, at UBanquet, we have groups of older men and women, who don’t have to go to work that morning, spreading out newspapers and exchanging what we can only assume is neighbourhood gossip, and eating communally.








In pic: 1 & 2. Tea and dim sums are popular in Hong Kong.

Every neighborhood has its dim sum place. Eating here also means following certain etiquette. Brisk waitresses will first place kettles of tea on your table. Do not drink them — instead, wash all your bowls and chopsticks with the hot tea! Our Hong Kong host shows us how, insisting on hygiene.

If you are trying to eat (and drink) like a local in Hong Kong, scout for the “best” cheung fun. The slippery rice roll is a local favourite and while U-Banquet does some credible versions stuffed with different meats, if you are a fanatic, make a trip to the Michelin-recommended snack shop Hop Yik Tai in Shum Shui Po, Kowloon’s poor neighbourhood. Like Wan Chai, it is now crowded with culinary gems. Though my local host does not think much of Michelin’s recommendations in Asia, he agrees that the snack shop is worth it.

The cheung fun, literally “pig’s intestines”, references southern China’s preference for offal (though its fillings are never offal). It’s a fun, non-intimidating snack, which can sometimes come plain, topped with shallots and soy sauce — the dexterity of the cook is apparent in how translucent the wrap is and how neatly folded it is. When it is stuffed with fresh or dried shrimp or pork and onions, the skin of the cheung fun should allow a glimpse of the delicious stuffing, instead of being a stodgy, opaque cover. It’s nuances like these that define Hong Kong’s food traditions — much like India.




In pic: The skin of the cheung fun should allow a glimpse of the delicious stuffing

Like Indian food, there are dishes that show the diversity of cultural influences as well. In Macau, on a previous visit, I had discovered the egg tart, which the Macanese vociferously claim as theirs. The Portuguese brought in the caramelised pastry. The Hong Kong version is slightly different: the tart is not as cooked and caramelised as the Macanese and resembles an English custard tart. One theory around the dish is that the egg tart came to Hong Kong from Macau, and was perfected here to be smooth and glistening like the English confection.




In pic: Hong Kong’s egg tart resembles the English custard tart

Tea Trends
What are snacks without tea? Hong Kong, with its unique mix of Chinese and British traditions, has to be tea’s cultural capital. Apart from yum cha places, there are tea cafes (cha chaan tengs) that serve the beverage with Britishmeets-Chinese snacks — scrambled eggs and macaroni with Chinese twists. There are fancier relics of colonialism that offer loaded afternoon teas, sandwiches, scones and black tea. The peninsula’s high tea still has many takers. This thriving tea culture combined with Hong Kong’s trading might as an entry port into China’s huge market and vice versa means that this is just the place to catch tea trends dominating the business and consumer palates worldwide.

The spanking Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre near the Victoria Harbour is the venue for a decade-old, annual tea fair organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. This is the event to go to for a fair sense of where tea is headed as a gourmet food product. Tea cocktails, matcha and green tea have been trending globally and seem likely to grow to other parts of the world (such as India), where tea is not a lifestyle food fad as yet. Chai (as distinct from the more delicate tea) maintains its stranglehold in India.

At the fair, however, you see teas in gourmet avatars — green tea tailored as the perfect match for gin and vodka, white teas aged and pitched as the new superfood, and the pu-er, a fascinating Chinese tea type that is now a collectible item.




In pic: Aged white tea

A tea that has taken the world of connoisseurs by storm, Pu-er is fermented tea that can be pressed into cakes and stored for long periods of time. Like the best vintage wine, the value of some of the best, aged puer can be eye-popping. At the fair, for instance, one of the exhibits is The Green Cabbage series produced by the highly reputed Menghai Tea Factory in Yunnan. Made in 2004, the series is no longer in production. Each tea cake of this vintage is priced above HKD 40,000. A Songpin tea cake, ostensibly dating back to the 17th century Qing dynasty, has been declared a rare collectible. At the exhibition, its bid price is HKD 10,148,000 for a 2 kg cake (called tong). In 2013, a tong from the Qing dynasty sold for more than HKD 10 million. Then, there are pu-er teas dating back to 1997 — the year the British handed over Hong Kong to China. That vintage is highly prized for obvious reasons.




In pic: Pu-er tea pressed into a cake to be stored for long duration

At such dizzying prices, pu-er is the world’s most expensive hot beverage — even if we have yet to hear of it in India. How it has grown to become a collectible like wine and art from just being an old Chinese tea is a fascinating story. But first, what exactly is this fermented tea?

The Pu-er Story
One of the old categories of tea in China, Pu-er is fermented through the action of natural bacteria and yeast on the leaves of the tea plant. The tea comes from a large leaf variety called Camellia sinensis found only in the mountains of Yunnan and in India. Unlike white tea (where only the buds are plucked) or green tea (where 1 bud and 1-2 leaves are plucked), pu-er comes from older tea leaves. Typically, one bud and 3-4 leaves are plucked. In the old days, the story goes, as this tea made its way from the mountains to the port cities of southern China, the tea got naturally fermented. There were those who prized the strong smelling brew but it was a common tea.




In pic: Pu-er tea comes from a large-leaf variety called Camellia sinensis found on the mountains of Yunnana

Since pu-er remained in China and because its processing is somewhat obscure, it was not allowed as an export into countries like the US. Even now, to people outside Hong Kong and Shanghai, it remains a mysterious (if pricey) tea. Though the tea gives a red liquor similar to black teas, black tea is oxidised, while pu-er is fermented. (Green tea in contrast is not oxidised, oolongs are only partially oxidised, and white teas are the most unprocessed of the lot.) What causes more confusion when it comes to pu-er is that there are two kinds — one is the common “ripe tea”, where the pu-er is sun-dried after fermentation. The second is the “raw green”, more natural. Both, however, come from cakes of maocha, unoxidised tea leaves.




In pic: Teas with new processing methods are a global trend

In Hong Kong, at places like U-Banquet, pu-er has always been a common tea used to cut through heavy meals. Its change in image, say tea fanatics, can be attributed to places like Shanghai’s Da Ke Tang, a “living room” for tea collectors. In 2007, when this place opened, there were already enough wine collectors in China. It was also a time of global economic upheaval and collectors were looking for a new commodity to invest in. Pu-er became that fad and has not looked back.

Kam Cha and Cocktails
When I meet Sophia Chong, director of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), she throws some interesting numbers at me. In 2016, Hong Kong imported $126 million worth food and beverages from India, and seafood accounted for 55% of the total imports. This was followed by tea! Both the categories may seem like carrying coals to Newcastle, but it’s an interesting thought that much of the prawn inside our dim sum may be from back home—as also several cups of tea.

Kolkata-based Manjushree Plantations, a BK Birla Group company, was exhibiting its award-winning oolong tea at the fair, marked by experts above many Chinese oolongs (the best oolongs are from China and Taiwan). If green tea in India has been picking up, in Hong Kong and China, black teas, especially from the Nilgiris, are doing well. We can only conjecture whether some of this tea will eventually go into Hong Kong’s popular drink, the kam cha—their equivalent of our chai.

A throwback to the British legacy, this is black tea cooked with condensed or thickened milk. The proportions are one part milk to two parts tea and sugar to taste. The tea is over-steeped to make an extra strong brew. Kam cha is a Hong Kong institution—along with Yuanyang, where tea is mixed with coffee! It’s not a brew for the faint-hearte




In pic: Matcha tea as cleansing soap

What is infinitely more sophisticated, however, are the tea cocktails. These have been trending all over the world. In Hong Kong, the experiments only get better. The discreet Bao Bei, a lounge and restaurant on Wyndham Street has collaborated with a local tea house to give us the likes of white peony tea with jasmine and gin and sencha and matcha with rum and cocoa! Then, there’s also Tycoon Tann on Wellington Street with a host of award-winning tea cocktails served up in tea cups.

These are new cuppas for an old brew--and one that we in India, another old tea culture, may enjoy too.

(The writer looks at restaurants, food trends and culinary concepts)