Lan Fong Yuen — From Common Local Food to Tourists’ Haven

Take a walk in Central during non-office hours and you find two hot spots that brim with tourist energy. The Tsim Chai Kee wonton noodles and Lan Fong Yuen together take over the little walking space there is in the Central Mid-levels escalator area as throngs of people queue for a spot to eat common local food.

What’s all the hype there at Lan Fong Yuen? It was my second try to visit the restaurant today and it proved itself to be another long queuing experience. Last time, I simply didn’t bother to line up. But I was determined today.

The History of Lan Fong Yuen

Lan Fong Yuen began its first chapter in 1952 as one of the oldest cha chaan teng’s in Hong Kong. Its original founder was named Lam Muk Ho. It has since stood in the current location at Gage Street, unfazed by the sea change that swept over all of Central in the decades past. It is currently run by the second-generation Lam owners.

In the local community, Lan Fong Yuen has always been somewhat popular with its signature dishes, which really do stand out even amongst the thousands of cha chaan teng’s in Hong Kong. Today, however, Lan Fong Yuen is perhaps more popular with the tourists than with the Hong Kong diners. As a result, its staff operates in a few languages at the same time within the small restaurant space. I swear I heard a waiter spoke “milk tea” in Korean to the Korean lady right next to me.

Distinctly Hong Kong—The Cha Chaan Teng Culture

I have previously written about the cha chaan teng’s of Hong Kong. The cha chaan teng is a little bit difficult to dub an English name over. In European terms, the cha chaan teng is somewhat equivalent to the café’s of France in the way that they are prevalent in all corners of Hong Kong. The commonality of the food served in the cha chaan teng is like the fish n’ chips in Britain, as classic food that is humble but representative of the local dining culture. In American terms, the cha chaan teng is like the millions of fast food stores in America, each restaurant or brand serving a variety of, essentially, the same type of food, meant to be consumed in an easy, quick and casual manner.

There is no argument that the cha chaang teng’s are distinctly Hong Kong, as its food clearly expresses Hong Kong’s historical character as a predominantly Chinese society with heavy foreign (British and otherwise) influences. The omnipresence of cha chaan teng’s in Hong Kong is also the very testament of a working class culture. Most of them serve up comforting food in one plate, ultimately meant for just one person to order, eat, finish, have a milk tea, then move right along the day’s rhythm.

Simply put, the cha chaan teng’s of Hong Kong are run of the mill restaurants that populate ubiquitously throughout Hong Kong’s dining map. But some cha chaan teng’s are better than others. In Lan Fong Yuen, I came to see why the good ones really stand out.

The Food of Lan Fong Yuen

The menu of Lan Fong Yuen features a limited number of choices as compared to other cha chaan teng’s in Hong Kong. I saw why this was so, for it focuses on doing the things that it does very well, particularly the dishes that it rightly takes credit for creating.

The spring onion chicken over dry ramen noodles is a signature dish at Lan Fong Yuen. In fact, I think it is the only Cha Chaan Teng in Hong Kong that serves this dish now (as Hoi An Café has closed down). Traditionally, spring onion dip goes very well with steamed chicken in Cantonese cuisine. Lan Fong Yuen gave it a twist and puts a spoonful of spring onion dip on pan-fried chicken thigh. The ramen is served without a broth, with just a symbolic dash of soy sauce to keep it moist. If you do not like pan fried chicken thigh, then you may consider the pan-fried pork chop as the protein of choice.

Other famed items at Lan Fong Yuen are its pork chop buns and buttered French toast. These are the food that earned the good name of Lan Fong Yuen throughout its history.

On the day that I visited, I saw people ordering the spring onion chicken ramen and French toast left and right. They must have been the items promoted by the popular “Chinese Instagram” app Red Note.

Silky-Smooth Milk Tea

A cha chaan teng experience would not be complete without a cup of silky-smooth milk tea. The tea base is key to a good cup of milk tea. The tea is very dark and quite bitter on its own. Lan Fong Yuen makes its tea from a mixture of tea leaves from Colombo in Ceylon, and with milk from Malaysia.

In Cantonese, the silky-smooth milk tea is known as “the stocking milk tea.” It acquired this name because typically the tea is brewed and then filtered through a large tea bag before being poured into the cup to mix with evaporated milk. The large tea bag acquired the color of the tea over the years — as they are not very often replaced — thus looking like the stocking of women. The milk tea is not in fact filtered through stocking.

After this filtering process, done repeatedly, is the tea silky-smooth. I prefer my milk tea a little sweet, so I usually add one full paper sleeve of sugar in my hot milk tea. If you order iced milk tea, then you can ask for no sugar, little sugar, regular sugar or more sugar.

I do think that the milk tea of Lan Fong Yuen is smoother than the usual milk tea we get at the cha chaan teng’s. That said, perhaps the long lines there are not worth me waiting like this more than once in a blue moon.

Queuing for Lan Fong Yuen

Beware for the queuing at Lan Fong Yuen. There are two lines: one is for takeout, the other one is for dine in. I made the mistake of lining up for takeout, and wasted 15 minutes at the wrong line.

Photo: The queue on Cochroane Street is for getting takeout.

The line for dine in forms right outside the drinks making station of the restaurant and extends on Gage Street. The line for takeout forms across the restaurant and extends along Cochrane Street, beneath the Central Mid-level escalator.

Photo: The queue on Gage Street is for dine in.

Lan Fong Yuen closes on Sundays.

Sources

The Wikipedia on Lan Fong Yuen (Chin).