A Legend of Pigeons — Lung Wah Hotel
“During the transport, the chefs would feed the baby pigeons with their own mouths to prevent them from starving. Because we used only baby pigeons of 23-24 days old, they were not able to eat on their own yet. If they could eat on their own, then they were too old for us already.” ~Mrs. Chung Kam Ning, interview with the Metro Radio Hong Kong
The story of Lung Wah began last century, in 1938. In its 80 years of existence, the “red house,” as it was known then, has witnessed a stellar chapter of Hong Kong’s history. Its fame as Shatin’s first hotel, and its chicken and pigeon cuisine, has drawn the patronage of Hong Kong’s top echelon. On its Hall of Fame are the likes of Bruce Lee, Cantonese drama actor Fong Yim Fan, writer Jin Yung, and many more.
The Chung Family’s Side Business
The Chung family was a prominent family in Guangdong. Chung Kam Ning’s grandfather was a Qing government official. His parents fled to Hong Kong from the calamities of wars in the early 20th century. The parents were entrepreneurs owning several lucrative businesses, including an old-styled Chinese private bank and a trading company.
Chung Kam Ning’s mother built Lung Wah first as their country home. During the Japanese occupation, the Japanese took over the two-storied mansion and it served as the military headquarter for the Japanese Imperial Army.
After WWII, Chung Kam Ning’s father turned the venue into a hotel, as just one out of many business ventures of the family. But the economy was in tatters then, and business was very poor. That was when Chung Kam Ning volunteered to take up Lung Wah Hotel. At 20 years old, he did not have the funds to hire a well-known chef, but he had a spirit of determination.
He found Ho Pak, who was a cloth vendor. Ho only cooked a few common home-style dishes when he started. With a spirit of perseverance, Chung gathered all sorts of recipes available in the local newspapers. He and Ho worked closely together, and included any successful attempts into the menu of the hotel. Slowly, he turned the business around in the following few decades. Eventually, Ho also made it as a great chef in Hong Kong.
Certainly, Colonial Hong Kong was Lung Wah’s most glorious time. Christ Patten, Hong Kong’s last Colonial Governor, has visited Lung Wah three times. In his first time, he went unannounced. On the second time, he knew his way and went straight to the kitchen area and handed his own menu over to the chef. When eating pigeons, he would use his hands, just like the locals do. In 1996, then British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd visited Hong Kong. Douglas Hurd loved Shanghainese fried dumplings. Mrs. Chung made these dumplings for him because the restaurant did not serve Shanghainese cuisine.
The Legend of Roast Pigeon
Lung Wah gained its fame through its three most famous dishes: roast pigeons, chicken congee and the mountain stream tofu.
At one point, Lung Wah Hotel was surrounded by farmland and the family raised many different kinds of livestock. A pigeon breeder in Tai Po gave Lung Wah some pigeons suitable for breeding. And breeding they did. Very soon, the farm had so many pigeons that they became a burden, because there was not a high demand for live pigeons. Well, the most obvious thing to do was to eat them. Chef Ho Pak then suggested: why don’t we make some roast pigeons? And since then, roast pigeons became the signature of Lung Wah. Actually the specialty of Shatin, for that matter.
And the making of these dishes have also changed with times.
At its heyday, Lung Wah has once sold a record of 6, 000 pigeons within a day. However, since the bird flu of 1997, there was no longer live slaughter of pigeons on site. The restaurant still owns a pigeon farm in the mainland, but the pigeons are transported “freshly frozen” as most fowls are nowadays. Therefore the pigeons served are no longer “slaughtered-live” as the Lung Wah fans might remember. The same goes with the chicken congee.
The mountain stream tofu was once made with water from the mountainous streams in Hong Kong. Again, due to changing times, it was no longer legal to use mountain stream for commercial production of food.
As such, these dishes are the standing witness to Hong Kong’s history and transformation in the past eight decades.
Our Visit
We entered Lung Wah via the Shatin villages. After a ten minute walk from the Leisure and Cultural Services Department in Shatin, we arrived at the beautiful corridor with red lanterns. I seemed to see myself in my primary school days again. I once had the opportunity to eat “slaughtered-live” pigeons here.
It was pandemic time and for lunch there were just about two to three tables in the spacious main dining room. We received a warm welcome. According to Wai Ling, the famous food critic, patrons who will have pigeons should take it as the main course. Order side dishes that are light-flavored, so to fully appreciate the pigeons. That was what we did. We each had one pigeon and only ordered veggies on the side.
To be fair, I really could not tell if pigeons were better then. I thought these pigeons were just as good. They were hot and juicy.
I took some time to take a good look at the venue. The red house has many different chambers and courtyards. Famous writer Jin Yung finished writing the martial arts novel The Book and the Sword here. In one of the now-closed hotel rooms lies a wardrobe that the famous Qing reformer Kang Youwei has used. The very site seems to breathe the history of Hong Kong into life.
I lived in Shatin for a good 8,9 years before I left Hong Kong. Even during the 1990s, dining at Lung Wah was a big deal for the Hong Kong commoners.
Before we left, the staff gave us beautiful coasters as a souvenir. To me, the true gift was the fact that the restaurant has continued to keep its door open despite the many difficult times in recent Hong Kong history. I shall not take this nostalgia for granted, as many historic dining venues have closed since last year’s unfortunate events and this year’s pandemic.
I will certainly come again soon.
Sources:
The Gold Plated Plaque, Metro Radio Hong Kong, Episode 220.
韋然編著，黃花紅酒醉龍華 (2008).
Introduction of Lung Wah Hotel menu.
