Outdoor Eating at Temple Street, Kowloon HKG

[anil]

EATING IN TEMPLE ST. KOWLOON, HKG

Night Market, Temple St. what a concept. A must for every

visitor to HKG. More specifically, eating in Temple St. can

be adventurous and fun.

There are many small places, as well as outdoor seating by the

sidewalk.  Last trip, in November, we sat down in a hugh semi covered

off-the-street  kind-of-a-place. Picture, if you will a typical

Mall type of a food court, except that these places are makeshift,

look shanty like, and each kitchen has most seafood on display.Unlike

the food courts here, they also have a few large tables with plastic

chairs for themselves. Very few tables for two, the mone that are

there tend to be on the sidewalk proper.

Food here is inexpensive and good. Menus are in

Chinese and a few of the kitchens have a photo-copied English menu

with limited choices. You don't want that do you ?

Large and small groups of people congregate in the these tables, order

Heineken beer in large bottles, and an assortment of seafood

appetisers - snails in large bowls.

Order an assorted platter and the good folks of the kitchen associated

with your table will drag in a small LPG bunsen burner on to yourtable. On top of it will be a round can like container with a

partition in the middle. Each partition contains a different kind of a

broth. Then comes the big platter, with slices of meats, live prawns

in wooden skewers,and Chinese lettuce and Watercress. On the side, one

has hot-oil (as in spicy), teriaki sauce, and yes, a bottle of Tabasco

As the broths start bubbling, dip in the skewers of live prawns, or

douse the watercress, or the other meats and seafood, eggs (of various

birds). When you feel that the prawns or the vegetables are reasonably

done, pull it out, dip it in your choice of sauces, and slug it down

with Heineken. All this for 10-15USD per head.

Bon Appetit.

[Niall]

This reminds me of my trip to gurney drive in Penang. Fantastic food. Amazingly cheap. In fact that pretty much describes the entire trip to penang. 1:Get up. 2:Decide where to have breakfast. 3:Eat. 4:Decide where to eat next.5: Decide what to do until the next time we were eating. Do it. Go back to 3 and continue until bedtime. go to bed. Go back to 1.

[Fat Guy]

Anil, thanks for the great post. I'm sorry I don't know enough to add to the thread, other than to thank you.

[hzrt8w]

Reading this 3-year old post about eating street food on Temple Street, Kowloon, Hong Kong brought back some of the memories of the street food I was accustomed to eating growing up in Hong Kong. There used to be many more places offering street food. You could find them in every corner in HK. But the movement of eliminating these street food hawkers has pretty much wipe them off the streets for good. Now some of these street food got absorbed into the mainstream "dim sum" offered in restaurants, or some operators need to set up a storefront to offer these traditional small eats.

There are only a few spots of these street food vendors left. The ones along Temple Street... may be for attracting tourists? I don't know.

Some of my favorite street food:

- Clams cooked with a hot and sour sauce (tomato, basil, chili, whatever else...)

- Periwinkles cooked in brown bean sauce, sweet, garlicy

- "fake" shark fin soup: shreds of chicken in broth colored with soy sauce, thickened with corn starch

- Various fried fish paste stuffed vegetables (bell peppers, chili peppers, egg plants) and tofu. Or the fish paste balls.

- Dace fish paste boiled in broth, served steaming hot in a small bowl mixed with shredded lettuce, with sesame oil and ground white pepper added

- Steamed "poor man" siu mai (the ones made with really fatty pork and no shrimp, wrapped in siu mai wrappers), fun goaw - Teochew style dumpling with thick wrapper and minced pork seasoned with peanuts inside. Steamed buns.

- A pot of various beef organs including stomach, liver, kidney, lung, intestines

- A cold-cut meat snack assortment including chicken feet, duck gizzards, pig intestines, cuttle fish, etc.

- Cheung fun: they take out the freshly made rice noodle kept warm with a bath of hot water, use a pair of scissors to "chop, chop" cut it up in front of you, pour on some light soy sauce, sweet flour (red) sauce, mustard and/or chili sauce, and sprinkled with sesame seeds

- Salt-baked chicken thigh or wing: The chicken wing/thigh are wrapped in wax paper, buried in a big pile of rock salt and heated/steamed

- Chestnuts (in shells) stir-fried with black gravels with sugar added. The sugar glaze makes the chestnut shells very shinny and appealing

- Pot of broth cooking fish balls, pork blood, pork skin, squid (reconstituted from dry squid)

- Pig trotter braised in sweet red vinegar with young ginger

- Tea eggs

- Red bean dessert soup

- Soy sauce chow mein (with bean sprouts and green onions), Soy sauce chow Shanghainese style thick noodles

- Guo Jing Joong - sticky rice with a piece of pork and salted egg yoke wrapped in lotus leave (? I think it is) and steamed to perfection

- Deep-fried daikon cake: made from shredded daikon mixed in a flour batter, molded into the shape of a cup cake, deep-fried

Oh, what am I doing? I made myself hungry!

[annachan]

Some of my favorite street food:

- Clams cooked with a hot and sour sauce (tomato, basil, chili, whatever else...)

- Periwinkles cooked in brown bean sauce, sweet, garlicy

- "fake" shark fin soup: shreds of chicken in broth colored with soy sauce, thickened with corn starch

- Various fried fish paste stuffed vegetables (bell peppers, chili peppers, egg plants) and tofu.  Or the fish paste balls.

- Dace fish paste boiled in broth, served steaming hot in a small bowl mixed with shredded lettuce, with sesame oil and ground white pepper added

- Steamed "poor man" siu mai (the ones made with really fatty pork and no shrimp, wrapped in siu mai wrappers), fun goaw - Teochew style dumpling with thick wrapper and minced pork seasoned with peanuts inside.  Steamed buns.

- A pot of various beef organs including stomach, liver, kidney, lung, intestines

- A cold-cut meat snack assortment including chicken feet, duck gizzards, pig intestines, cuttle fish, etc.

- Cheung fun:  they take out the freshly made rice noodle kept warm with a bath of hot water, use a pair of scissors to "chop, chop" cut it up in front of you, pour on some light soy sauce, sweet flour (red) sauce, mustard and/or chili sauce, and sprinkled with sesame seeds

- Salt-baked chicken thigh or wing:  The chicken wing/thigh are wrapped in wax paper, buried in a big pile of rock salt and heated/steamed

- Chestnuts (in shells) stir-fried with black gravels with sugar added.  The sugar glaze makes the chestnut shells very shinny and appealing

- Pot of broth cooking fish balls, pork blood, pork skin, squid (reconstituted from dry squid)

- Pig trotter braised in sweet red vinegar with young ginger

- Tea eggs

- Red bean dessert soup

- Soy sauce chow mein (with bean sprouts and green onions), Soy sauce chow Shanghainese style thick noodles

- Guo Jing Joong - sticky rice with a piece of pork and salted egg yoke wrapped in lotus leave (? I think it is) and steamed to perfection

- Deep-fried daikon cake: made from shredded daikon mixed in a flour batter, molded into the shape of a cup cake, deep-fried

Oh, what am I doing?  I made myself hungry!

←

You're making me hungry!

To add to your list, I also miss:

Stinky tofu (fried, with lots of hot sauce)

Grilled, dried squid (like squid jerky)

Pan-fried chive dumpling

Eggette

Waffle (fill w/ butter, sugar, peanut butter and condense milk)

Looks like I may need to take another trip to Hong Kong, soon.....

[hzrt8w]

Yeah yeah. More memories came back to me. To add to the list:

- Baked yam (sweet potatoes)

- The green herbal drink bunk dai wun, chilled.

- Ma Tai Lo (sweet drink made with waterchestnuts and eggs)

- Various shaved ice (red beans, pineapples, etc.)

- Leung Fun (grass jelly with shaved ice)

This is too much to bear! Too much!

Anna: if you go to Hong Kong, let us know where you can still find these street eats. I am eager to make a home visit too. Next year perhaps.

Edited November 3, 2005 by hzrt8w (log)

[wesza]

I think most of our readers may be to young to remember "The KING of Temple Street" he was written up by almost every newspaper in Hong Kong for years.

My children insisted that I bring visitors [that they wanted to watch reactions from] to observe the Kings nightly antics. Often it seemed that the biggest crowds on Temple street [and crowds in Hong Kong are the REAL thing.] Were buying Wings from the King.

We used to invite him for a snack after he finished work as he was friendly with my partner who now lives in Honolulu's father just to listen to his stories [translated by others].

The King was a Hawker who had the pitch [spot] on the busiest intersection on

Temple Street where he set up every night in the middle between 4 separate corners his Large Kerosene Wok that he used for cooking and serving his only specially. "Deep Fried Chicken Wings" that were marinated in a spicy chili curry sauce served from at least 40/50 5 Gallon Oil Cans his quota for the night with plenty full cans of oil available. The Wings were wrapped in newspapers to carry away.

What amazed and brought attention to the King was his method of cooking and serving the Wings.

After the King pumped up his Kerosene Fired Wok and added his oil it didn't take long after he put in his first can of Wings to be fried. They were ready to serve after about 10/15 minutes and lines started to form.

What was so special is that the King used no utensils other then a Steel stirrer to move around his wings after adding them to the hot oil.

When they were ready he served them by picking them out of the oil with his hands, wrapping them in paper and handing them to a assistant to serve and receive payment. It was done so quick that I realized that many customers didn't realize that he was putting his hands in and out of the hot oil constantly.

Each order contained 8/9 whole wings per serving, and every can had 22/25 pounds of wings. This added up to about 1000 pounds of hand fried chicken wings nightly. [depending on the weather] During the winter he sold more since it was cooler and they opened more hours.

My company supplied him with the wings for many years since we made sure to only deliver Yellow Skinned Wings from the Gulf States from Chickens fed Marigold to enhance the skin color of a constant size thru our jobber.

The Kings hands were Yellowish in color all the way up his forearms but his hands were callused the same as anyone who works hard with their hands, except for the color they felt like everyones hands.

He only shrugged his shoulders and found it funny that no ones else would even try to do things his way. It seems that eventually he just began doing it gradually to make things quicker and faster until he found himself doing it all the time.

He also felt that his hands were golden color because he was proud of being richer then most of the other Hawkers on Temple Street. He was definitely one of a kind and may have been in business over 20+ years.

I have never met a more modest cook who so consistently prepared one item with no competition [guess why]. When we took "Craig Claybourne" to visit Temple Street he felt that this was one subject he preferred not to write about, even though he enjoyed the wings, but kept shaking his head.

My family's favorite Temple Street treats were "Stinky Bean Curd" and "Toysan Carts", with at least 20 varieties to choose from, my kids loved Spicy Fishballs.

Irwin

[jtnippon1985]

I think most of our readers may be to young to remember "The KING of Temple Street" he was written up by almost every newspaper in Hong Kong for years.

My children insisted that I bring visitors [that they wanted to watch reactions from] to observe the Kings nightly antics. Often it seemed that the biggest crowds on Temple street [and crowds in Hong Kong are the REAL thing.] Were buying Wings from the King.

We used to invite him for a snack after he finished work as he was friendly with my partner who now lives in Honolulu's father just to listen to his stories [translated by others].

The King was a Hawker who had the pitch [spot] on the busiest intersection on

Temple Street where he set up every night in the middle between 4 separate corners his Large Kerosene Wok that he used for cooking and serving his only specially. "Deep Fried Chicken Wings" that were marinated in a spicy chili curry sauce served from at least 40/50 5 Gallon Oil Cans his quota for the night with plenty full cans of oil available. The Wings were wrapped in newspapers to carry away.

What amazed and brought attention to the King was his method of cooking and serving the Wings.

After the King pumped up his Kerosene Fired Wok and added his oil it didn't take long after he put in his first can of Wings to be fried. They were ready to serve after about 10/15 minutes and lines started to form.

What was so special is that the King used no utensils other then a Steel stirrer to move around his wings after adding them to the hot oil.

When they were ready he served them by picking them out of the oil with his hands, wrapping them in paper and handing them to a assistant to serve and receive payment. It was done so quick that I realized that many customers didn't realize that he was putting his hands in and out of the hot oil constantly.

Each order contained 8/9 whole wings per serving, and every can had 22/25 pounds of wings. This added up to about 1000 pounds of hand fried chicken wings nightly. [depending on the weather] During the winter he sold more since it was cooler and they opened more hours.

My company supplied him with the wings for many years since we made sure to only deliver Yellow Skinned Wings from the Gulf States from Chickens fed Marigold to enhance the skin color of a constant size thru our jobber.

The Kings hands were Yellowish in color all the way up his forearms but his hands were callused the same as anyone who works hard with their hands, except for the color they felt like everyones hands.

He only shrugged his shoulders and found it funny that no ones else would even try to do things his way. It seems that eventually he just began doing it gradually to make things quicker and faster until he found himself doing it all the time.

He also felt that his hands were golden color because he was proud of being richer then most of the other Hawkers on Temple Street. He was definitely one of a kind and may have been in business over 20+ years.

I have never met a more modest cook who so consistently prepared one item with no competition [guess why]. When we took  "Craig Claybourne" to visit Temple Street he felt that this was one subject he preferred not to write about, even though he enjoyed the wings, but kept shaking his head.

My family's favorite Temple Street treats were "Stinky Bean Curd" and "Toysan Carts", with at least 20 varieties to choose from, my kids loved Spicy Fishballs.

Irwin

←

Are you refering to Craig Claiborne, the NY Times food critic who died in 2000?

[Ben Hong]

I have been there, and done that. Many, many times.

A note of caution though, I was warned by many people after I told them that I had shellfish (clams, cockles, perriwinkles...) on the streetcorners not to do it any more. Hepatitis is a constant worry after eating shellfish.

[annachan]

Anna: if you go to Hong Kong, let us know where you can still find these street eats.  I am eager to make a home visit too.  Next year perhaps.

←

When I went back last year, I stayed in Causeway Bay. There is a store right in the heart of the shopping district that serves up a vareity of street food. Since we stayed close by, we make a trip there everyday to pick up some goodies. The place offered eggettes, waffles, chive dumplings, fish balls, siu mai, stuffed freid tofu (not the stinky type), an assortment of fried vegetables, cuttlefish, beef organ stew, fake shark fin soup and some more that I can't remember. Within and around the shopping district, I also found places for chestnuts, grilled squid, herbal tea/dessert, cheung fun, etc.

I do want to emphasize Ben Hong's point. Do skip the street food if you have a sensitive stomach. I have never had a problem with street food, ever since I was little. My sister and my aunt (who has lived in Hong Kong all her life and is till there) do not dare go near street food. They have sensitive stomachs (over sensitive, in my opinion) and almost always get sick. It's not just the seafood items, they even get sick from eating siu mai or fried vegetables. Do beware when enjoying your street food. You don't want food poisoning to ruin your trip....

[hzrt8w]

When I went back last year, I stayed in Causeway Bay. There is a store right in the heart of the shopping district that serves up a vareity of street food. ...

←

Causeway is the center of all kinds of food/restaurants. I observed the recent trends of food courts established inside some shopping centres. The one that is modelled after the Singaporean food courts with different independent vendors selling different types of food and a shared common dinning area. What used to be "street food" two to three decades ago might have migrated to these shops in the food courts.

Causeway also has a high concentration of Japanese who are residing in Hong Kong. I remember stepping in to a Japanese/Chinese grocery store and saw all kinds of Japanese produces and packaged food, including nice sashimis, sushis and many other ready-to-eat items.

I agree that Hepatitis is a real threat to visitors who are not used to the environment. It is high risk to eat seafood from street vendors. Because I grew up in Hong Kong, I have been fine during every one of my visits. I cannot say the same for my wife who grew up in California. She had stomach problems almost during every visit. We have been very careful in picking what to eat (her portion, that is!).

[Claudia Greco]

EATING IN TEMPLE ST. KOWLOON, HKG

Night Market, Temple St. what a concept. A must for every

visitor to HKG. More specifically, eating in Temple St. can

be adventurous and fun.

There are many small places, as well as outdoor seating by the

sidewalk.  Last trip, in November, we sat down in a hugh semi covered

off-the-street  kind-of-a-place. Picture, if you will a typical

Mall type of a food court, except that these places are makeshift,

look shanty like, and each kitchen has most seafood on display.Unlike

the food courts here, they also have a few large tables with plastic

chairs for themselves. Very few tables for two, the mone that are

there tend to be on the sidewalk proper.

Food here is inexpensive and good. Menus are in

Chinese and a few of the kitchens have a photo-copied English menu

with limited choices. You don't want that do you ?

Large and small groups of people congregate in the these tables, order

Heineken beer in large bottles, and an assortment of seafood

appetisers - snails in large bowls.

Order an assorted platter and the good folks of the kitchen associated

with your table will drag in a small LPG bunsen burner on to yourtable. On top of it will be a round can like container with a

partition in the middle. Each partition contains a different kind of a

broth. Then comes the big platter, with slices of meats, live prawns

in wooden skewers,and Chinese lettuce and Watercress. On the side, one

has hot-oil (as in spicy), teriaki sauce, and yes, a bottle of Tabasco

As the broths start bubbling, dip in the skewers of live prawns, or

douse the watercress, or the other meats and seafood, eggs (of various

birds). When you feel that the prawns or the vegetables are reasonably

done, pull it out, dip it in your choice of sauces, and slug it down

with Heineken. All this for 10-15USD per head.

Bon Appetit.

←

Ahh, what happy memories of my childhood in Hong Kong (yes, I was an ex-pat American "business brat").

My funniest memory of Temple Market actually is from my adulthood, when I returned home to visit my parents with my then-boyfriend (now husband). First, despite my repeated warnings, he bought a pair of jeans from a stall in the street (the legendary "Hero Remix" brand, which you all know and love.) Any native New Yorker or fellow ex-pat (or world traveller) will immediatelyt grasp the implications of THAT fateful decision.

Second, we found ourselves in the main "drag" of the market, right in the middle of the food stalls with all the tables clogging the now-closed streets. The unofficial maitre d'/barker was, of course, a wiry little man with the obligatory little white towel, which he snapped and twirled and flapped as he hustled the crowd in towards the stalls Over the staccato clatter of Cantonese, my husband and I heard some tentative Italian spoken by a very nervous couple as they eyed the still-thrashing langoustines amid the mounds of rice, noodles and diced veggies. Eager to reassure them, the towel man cheerfully informed them (in Cantonese) that these huge lobster-like bugs were langoustines - no response. He tried again in French - no response. He tried in English - still no response. Finally, desperate not to lose potential customers, he draped his towel back over his left shoulder, pressed his fingertips to his thumbs in the traditional Italian hand gesture for emphasis, and screamed, "Scampi!" Ahhh - much happiness all the way around.

Relieved to see a few other "gwai-los" (foreign barbarians - i.e., us) unconcernedly tearing into the street food, the Italians plopped themselves down next to us and warily began eating, stopping to examine each piece, bite by bite. The towel man, by this time in a high state of anxiety, scuttled over to inquire how they were enjoying their Langoustine Fried Rice.

"Sic fahn?," inquired the Towel Man.

"'Have you eaten today', " I translated for my husband, "meaning -'how are you?' 'Come estai?'", I asked the Italians, but pointed to their food.

"Ah! E molto buono," said the Italian man.

"'It's very good,'" I told my husband, "HO yeh-ahhh," I told the Towel Man. Beaming. Smiles all around. Another burst of Cantonese from Towel Man, and another look of dread from the Italians. Before I could (rougly) translate one more time, Towel Man marched over to his langoustines, picked up one, and, smiling, thrust it towards the hapless couple.

"MANGIA BENE!," he barked ("Eat well!"). The Italians finally cracked up and relaxed, the langoustine was marched off to meet his fate at the hands of other diners, and the Towel Man proved he was as truly cosmopolitan as any three-star maitre d' in New York. Talk about street cred.

My husband and I still laugh about this - especially when he stubbornly insists on trying to wear his street jeans, which hang off the back of his ass like unbuttoned Dr. Dentons after just one wash. Told the stupid gwai-loh that would happen . . . (!)

[Claudia Greco]

Since my parents firmly believed in Nietzche's dictum that what doesn't kill you will make you stronger, my siblings and I were always allowed to eat street food growing up in Hong Kong. OK, we all got mild dysentery when we first moved there, but for the next 31 years thereafter, we all ate whatever we wanted with impunity. Naturally, we horrified a lot of other ex-pat parents by "going native" (this was 1966, remember, and British civil servants could be TERRIBLY condescending), but ironically, it was eating fresh, organic meat and veggies trained in from Canton just that morning and killed right before you in Wanchai market, that probably made us all so robustly healthy now. We never had processed food, chemicals, additives or even junk food - but we had those great fried peanut snacks, dumplings of every size, shape and stuffing, and, of course, the weird and wonderful Temple Market. And Stanley Market. And Taipo Market - home of the most perfect cha siu (barbecued pork) on a stick I've ever encountered. The cha siu bao (stuffed BBQ pork buns) were a little chunk of heaven in a bun, too. Too bad you guys will never get to try the baseball-sized Lao Fo Shan oysters (the oyster beds were closed down because of high mercury levels, a while ago), or the really fabulous chow fahn my sister and I used to find in tiny little eateries out in the country, near the Chinese border, when we were out horseback riding through tiny little villages - some of which still had moon gates from the 19th century. Man, just discussing this brings me back (!!)

[wesza]

May I address several comments about "Street Foods" in general.

In Hong Kong this term reflects the dishes served at "Tai Pai Tongs" or via "Hawkers" who operated with a lookout selling their wares streetside on Temple Street, Shanghai Street, many open Markets or various locations on Hong Kong Island and Kowloon.

The types of dishes being offered at most food courts are gentrified and not as interesting. The established Hawkers had their pitches developed over years where the customers gravitated during the seasons for specialties such a "Dog" in the Causeway Bay night market or live poisonous Snakes on Shanghai Street during the winter that were first sold for their "Bile" mixed with Wine, then delivered to stalls and small Restaurants that prepared Snake Soups for late night diners.

The Seafood, especially Shellfish severed by Hawkers has the reputation of being Poached Illegally from local polluted waters in Kowloon or the New Territories. This Shellfish during certain seasons is not safe to eat unless it is somewhat over cooked but this information is posted in all Hong Kong newspapers and via television to warn everyone to be cautious. Most consumers will ask to see proof of where the Shellfish originated from required by health department, that most vendors will provide willingly.

I remember being dumb enough to actually eat Clams that were cooked with Black Beans and Garlic from a stall that we trusted to sort the seafood before cooking without any adverse problems, but would definitely be more cautious with the increase in population. Another questionable treat is "Pearl River Oysters" that we could select live and have prepared cooked to order. Some of these Oysters weighed over a pound after being removed from the shell. They were cooked various ways in Clay Pots and were very popular when available.

And in response to "jtnippon1985" it was indeed "Craig Claiborne" NYT Food Critic, Columnist who also wrote Cookbooks during his second visit to Hong Kong. What impressed him the most was the Pigeon/Squab Restaurant over the tracks in Shatin that he visited several times both trips in awe of the volume of business and quality served consistently. I remained associated with him for over 20+ years. Visited often to his apartment on 57th Street in Manhattan or the Hampton's.

Irwin

[Ben Hong]

"What impressed him the most was the Pigeon/Squab Restaurant over the tracks in Shatin that he visited several times both trips in awe of the volume of business and quality served consistently".

Can't remember the name of that squab place in Sha Tin, but my cousin took me there on my first visit in 1968. He was forced to take me there three more times during my stay. I have tried to duplicate the squab served there about a dozen times, but I have never even come close. (Sha Tin nowhere near as densely populated then as it is today. In fact, it was like going back to the old villages in my memory.

[wesza]

"What impressed him the most was the Pigeon/Squab Restaurant over the tracks in Shatin that he visited several times both trips in awe of the volume of business and quality served consistently".

Can't remember the name of that squab place in Sha Tin, but my cousin took me there on my first visit in 1968. He was forced to take me there three more times during my stay. I have tried to duplicate the squab served there about a dozen times, but I have never even come close. (Sha Tin nowhere near as densely populated then as it is today. In fact, it was like going back to the old villages in my memory.

←

Ben:

Did your Uncle take you to Temple Street as the King was still in fine form until the 1970's serving Chicken Wings every night.

The Squab served at the Restaurant came in 3 sizes and you were expected to place your order for size and amount of birds upon being seated. The rest of your order was taken after tea service.

The Squabs were killed to order in the traditional way using old Chinese coins with a hole in the center that closed the beaks causing suffocation. This was supposed to make the Squabs taste better because the blood remained until the Birds were dressed and placed on metal skewers before being Baste Fried, with Dips into Dark seasoned Pearl River Soy Sauce.

On a busy day they served over 15,000 whole Squabs. The placed seated almost 1000 customers mostly on large family style round tables with Lazy Susan's, turn over was relatively fast with customers averaging 1 1/2 to 2 Squabs each.

The Kitchen operated with 10/12 heavy duty wok stations fired by diesel fuel plus a back kitchen that prepared side dishes and rice. There were 3/4 expediters placing and delivering the orders by the clothespin method common in Hong Kong.

The customer base was 98% Chinese as few non Chinese were even aware that it existed being on the other side of the railroad tracks in Shatin even though it had been in business for many years.

I have come very close to copying the dish with very fresh Squab, and using Asian Cheap not over refined Peanut Oil by Baste Frying over a high propane flame normally used for Turkey Fryers with larger then usual burners together with Basting Skewers sold in Asian Restaurant Supply houses in longer poultry type pieces. You must constantly keep putting oil over the birds letting it drain down the sides letting the oil run down to the base of the birds immersing the hot birds to cover them in the marinade and letting them drain before returning into the Wok until the are cooked slightly more then medium rare then serve whole for the fortunate eaters to tear them apart tableside by hand.

It is a very delicious experience to share together, but no where else is the Squab comparable and I've eaten it all around the world.

Irwin [tongue hanging out to drool]

OOOOPS don't remember the Restaurants name either, but have some one phoning from Shanghai this week who ate there all the time.

Edited November 4, 2005 by wesza (log)

[hzrt8w]

Can't remember the name of that squab place in Sha Tin, but my cousin took me there on my first visit in 1968. .....

←

I think you were talking about "Lung Wah" (龍華 - dragon china) in Shatin.

I found this article (in Chinese) talking about the restaurant. Per this article, "Lung Wah" has been in business since 1950. 龍華乳鴿

That article said they are selling 6000 squabs a day (year 2005).

Here are some pictures of the restaurant. See if you recognize it:

沙田龍華酒店 (in Chinese)

My brother-in-law took our whole family there for dinner once when I was a kid. I remember they are within a short walking distance from the old Shatin railroad station (which is a little bit north-east of today's Shatin railroad (KCR) station). But, of course, over 35 years ago, this hotel was facing the Sea of Shatin... but in the past 30 years it had been reclaimed and with many residential complexes built on top. They are also at the trail head that goes up to the "Ten Thousand Bhudda Temple" in Shatin.

Edited November 4, 2005 by hzrt8w (log)

[wesza]

Can't remember the name of that squab place in Sha Tin, but my cousin took me there on my first visit in 1968. .....

←

I think you were talking about "Lung Wah" (龍華 - dragon china) in Shatin.

I found this article talking about the restaurant. Per this article, "Lung Wah" has been in business since 1950. 龍華乳鴿

That article said they are selling 6000 squabs a day (year 2005).

Here are some pictures of the restaurant. See if you recognize it:

沙田龍華酒店

My brother-in-law took our whole family there for dinner once when I was a kid. I remember they are within a short walking distance from the old Shatin railroad station (which is at the same spot as today's Shatin railroad (KCR) station). But, of course, over 35 years ago, this hotel was facing the Sea of Shatin... but in the past 30 years it had been reclaimed and with many residential complexes built on top. They are also at the trail head that goes up to the "Ten Thousand Bhudda Temple" in Shatin.

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Ah Leung:

Thank you for remembering the Restaurants name. I understand that it had been reduced in size thru the years when formally leased land became available for other uses but the basic Restaurant location was owned. It was the only place of this size that wasn't able as popularity increased to accommodate maj jong games since they had no quiet periods when they weren't busy. This happened after the Shatin Tunnel was completed and they became more accessable.

The space that was needed just to stack, store and keep the Squab Cages for several days business, plus to dress and prepare the high volume of birds required was bigger then the actual Restaurant, but then no place accessable is allowed to remain countrified in Hong Kong very long. Wonder what the population in Shatin is now, it used to be like a country villege when I arrived in Hong Kong famous for growing rice. Is "Lung Wah" still in business ?

Irwin

[hzrt8w]

..... Wonder what the population in Shatin is now, it used to be like a country villege when I arrived in Hong Kong famous for growing rice.  Is "Lung Wah" still in business ?

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That was long, long time ago. Shatin used to have a small airport for private planes. I learned how to ride a bicycle there when I was about 6. (mid 60's). It has been since demolished. The old Sea of Shatin was landfilled. The HK Government had developed Shatin as one of the "Satellite Cities", along with Tuen Mun and Tai Po. My first estimate of the population is around 1/2 million. And, according to this web page, the population of Shatin is 480,000 per cencor in 2001. You can see the explosion increase from 109,000 to 493,000 from 1981 to 1991. I am sure if you go there today, you would not be able to recognize most places.

Here are some pictures of Shatin from Google:

http://images.google.com/images?q=shatin&hl=en

Lung Wah is still alive and well, selling 6000 squabs a day.