Vignettes of the World
The plane touched down at Kansai Airport and I looked for the train ride to Osaka. The plan, originally, was to stay that evening in a hotel in Osaka, then the next morning I would see Osaka Castle before heading out to Kyoto. I saw …
Ask just about any Hong Kong person and you would find answers to all things Japan. Japan is hands down the most popular travel destination for Hong Kong people. In fact, many in Hong Kong call it “going home” when they go to Japan. Clearly, …
Besides the Cha Chaan Teng’s, the Dai Pai Dong’s are also a way of dining that is distinctly Hong Kong. In recent months I have had the pleasure of visiting a few Dai Pai Dong’s in Hong Kong. I do consider the Dai Pai Dong’s to be heritage dining. Let us delve into its history.
Dai Pai Dong refers to the large outdoor dining areas, oftentimes located in a large swarthe on busy streets in heavily residential districts. They feature large green canvases as the overlay. Food is served on folding tables and chairs that are taken down when the restaurant closes each day.
Some people call these canvassed areas with pointed tops “mushroom pavilions.” These types of dining establishments were exceedingly popular for Hong Kong’s working class during the 1950s or so.
The word “Dai Pai Dong” means “stalls with the big license,” referring to the fact that the operators have the licenses to serve cooked food in a predetermined location outdoors. The origin of the Dai Pai Dong’s are very much a part of Hong Kong’s economic history. Even as early as 1847, the Hong Kong Government has instituted a system of regulating hawkers. There was the “small license” and the “big license,” as distinguished between the Itinerant License holders that operated without a fixed location, and the Fixed-pitch License holders that operated at a fixed location, even though both ran their businesses on the streets.
As a matter of practice, the Fixed-pitch (dai pai) license holders have to display their license at the place of business. The license is a large piece of paper with the name of the license holder and the approved location of the business. A point to note is that not all hawker license holders sold food. The big license was also issued to barbers, shoe shiners, newspaper vendors or craftsmen.
Needless to say, this type of business operation was going to be the means of living for a lot of the immigrants that came to Hong Kong with virtually no other prospects. That was the economy of Hong Kong in the early colonial days. The Hong Kong Government chose to regulate the hawkers of Hong Kong, for it knew full well that social problems would surface if people could not find a livelihood.
Fast forward to the 1950s, around the time that WWII ended and the Hong Kong society was in desperate need for normalcy and economic recovery, the hawker and Dai Pai Dong economy blossomed further as more immigrants came from China due to the Civil War. The cheap food enabled the working classes to have a quick and economical meal. Of course, these Dai Pai Dong’s were also key players in Hong Kong’s economy.
Beginning in the 1970s, the Hong Kong Government began taking active measures to regulate the hawkers further. On one hand, the Hong Kong Government grouped many of these Dai Pai Dong’s in centralized locations. Due to the consistent development of public housing estates, the Hong Kong Government offered many of these Dai Pai Dong’s the option to move to the cooked food section of the wet markets. Otherwise they would have to surrender their licenses and accept compensation from the government. On the other hand, the Hong Kong Government has also ceased issuing Dai Pai Dong licenses in 1972, to slowly phase out these establishments. That is the same practice as the Itinerant License (the small license) for hawkers.
For a lot of the well-known restaurants in Hong Kong, the Dai Pai Dong was the humble beginning with which they established a footing in the market decades ago. Once they managed to accumulate the capital for a better arrangement, many also opted to “move up” to a covered dining space, regardless of the government’s hawker policy.
As such, a lot of Dai Pai Dong’s are now proper restaurants with air-conditioned, rented store space. There is, of course, that element of nostalgia if you find a Dai Pai Dong that still operates in the canvassed stalls outdoors (see below on Shing Kee). Those are certainly the classic and perhaps it is worthwhile to do it once before they are all gone. But a lot of the good ones that moved to a proper dining space are still serving the kind of food that represents the working-class dining culture. They tend to be wok-fried food, and I will explain below.
Wok hey! This is a term that has transcended territorial and cultural boundaries in recent years, thanks to the world movement for chefs of all nations to dabble in the cooking of foods in cultures other than their own. The term “wok hey” is uniquely Cantonese. Literally meaning “the fiery fumes of the wok,” it refers to the palatal sensation of the lingering, sizzling fumes of food that were thrown for rounds in the wok over a piping hot gas stove.
It is difficult to describe wok hey in words. At first glance, it is not about the flavors. It is, first and foremost, about the temperature of the food. But a really good Dai Pai Dong chef will make food effusing wok hey even after it turns cold. At a closer look, it does have to do with the flavors of the food, because more of it is drawn out with extreme heat, an open fire and the quick throwing motions in the wok.
Because the food of Dai Pai Dong’s are mostly wok-fried, wok hey is hands down the standard of first order, to which any Dai Pai Dong must meet. The same Cantonese fried rice can be good in a fine dining hotel restaurant but judged differently if it were served in a Dai Pai Dong. Any Dai Pai Dong that failed to deliver wok hey would have failed its spirit as the street food of Hong Kong.
Let’s first consider Shing Kee, which is famous as one of the very few classic street dining stalls remaining in all of Hong Kong. You will not miss Shing Kee when you pass by the food-busy streets in the Old Central Market area. Shing Kee is open on Stanley Street just under the Mid-Levels escalators.
On this day we opted for a la carte dishes instead of the lunch special sets. We ordered a chicken clay pot called “jer jer chicken.” Shing Kee really lives up to its reputation in this dish. The clay pot was sizzling all the way when we worked through our bowls of rice with the chicken. The pot had two main ingredients, chicken and pork liver. There was an astute amount of aromatics (meaning, heaps of them) and a very nice sauce base that gave the claypot dish its flavors. Good claypot cooking has the effect of crisping up the ingredients. In this case, both the chicken and the pork liver pieces had a slightly charred texture.
We also order a steamed fish that surely paled in comparison to the claypot.
Tung Po Kitchen is famous for its wonderful Dai Pai Dong food, and its reputation has run for decades. Originally in North Point, the restaurant was located in a cooked food section in the wet market. It has now reopened its doors in Wan Chai in a proper restaurant dining space.
As we sat down for the food, we were amazed and thought that it really lived up to its reputation. The wok hey was so good in the fried rice that you could still taste it after the fried rice turned cold.
The problem with Tung Po Kitchen is that it has become very touristy due to its good name. It played American music throughout our time there, and it was so loud that my friends and I simply could not have a conversation. The owner went around the tables in an endless toast to the foreigners there, and perhaps the atmosphere was too much a party for us.
Surely, you wouldn’t expect low key whispers and the subtle clinking of tall wine glasses in a street food stall, or in any common Chinese restaurant for that matter, but having to scream off our lungs was a little extreme. It is for that reason that I likely would not go back to Tung Po despite its wonderful food.
This Fo Tan establishment is one amongst many Dai Pai Dong’s in the area. The good thing with the Dai Pai Dong’s in Fo Tan is that they are mostly air conditioned even as canvassed street restaurants. We sat comfortably there during a dog day of the summer.
However, I thought the food was a bit too low-key for a Dai Pai Dong. There was not enough wok hey. It did not taste bad, but perhaps not enough to claim the fiery reputation of a Dai Pai Dong. The restaurant does offer some unique dishes, such as honey fried eel. The prices are surely reasonable too.
Let me offer a last word of caution to readers. The Dai Pai Dong’s had humble roots serving working class food for the Chinese people of Hong Kong, but many of the upgraded Dai Pai Dong’s now are not cheap, especially if you order seafood. If you are a foreigner in Hong Kong, ask for the price before you order seafood dishes. Better yet, go with a local.
The Wikipedia on Dai Pai Dong (Chin).
Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, Itinerant Hawker Licence.
Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, Fixed-pitch Hawker Licence.
The train to Shenzhen would depart in the early evening and I debated how to spend the day in Jiangmen. To be honest, there was not very much in this city that I wanted to see, as I was almost always only keen on heritage …
I have a very favorable impression of Jiangmen due to a personal memory of my grandma. When WWII began, resources were scarce. She would take her mother’s Qing dynasty clothes to the merchants of Jiangmen in exchange for money. “One piece of my mother’s Qing …
The theme of security and protection has been prominently featured in the diaolou’s that I have visited in Kaiping. But Nan Lou is perhaps the only diaolou that came with an official history in the defense of the nation.
We called a car to take us to Nan Lou. There were a whole lot of cars trying to get into the parking lot of the Chikan studio city. We had to call twice before we managed to meet our driver. Nan Lou is perhaps a 15 minute drive from Chikan.
From afar, the Nan Lou stands tall and proud as a testament of war history in a dedicated garden space. While its appearance does not stand out from the rest of the diaolou’s I have seen, it breathes history in a wholly different manner, as shown in the permanent scars on its exteriors.
These are the bullet holes inflicted on the building by the invading Japanese troops of World War II. The moving heroism of the Situ brothers that defended this tower is what makes the Nan Lou a must-see diaolou in Kaiping.
Like so many of the diaolou’s in Kaiping, Nan Lou was meant to guard against bandits. Built in 1912, Nan Lou stood at a location of critical strategic value, ashore the Tanjiang River and the neighboring road network into Chikan.
Photo: View of Tanjiang River from Nan Lou.
The Situs built this 7-story reinforced concrete tower. Nan Lou was fortified. On each floor there were gunholes, observation decks, machine guns and searchlights.
Situ Xu, leading six other members of the Kaiping Situ Self-Defense Forces, raged a staunch resistance here in Nan Lou against the onslaught of the Japanese into Chikan. Situ Xu was an overseas Chinese himself. He lived in Nanyang (Southeast Asia) for a long time, and returned to his homeland specifically intending to organize the resistance movement against Japanese invasion. He set up the Kaiping Situ Self-Defense Forces, who managed to stall Japanese advances in this area by winning a few battles in 1944 and 1945.
On July 17, 1945, the Japanese forces had closed in on Chikan. They surrounded this area with additional troops arriving on the Tanjiang River. They ambushed the Nan Lou at night. The team led by Situ Xu vowed to fight to their deaths.
The 7 celebrated heroes were Situ Xu, as captain, Situ Bing, as ammunitions officer, Situ Nong, Situ Yao and Situ Yu, as machine gun officers, Situ Xuan, as the clerk for the team, and Situ Chang, as the intelligence officer.
In Nan Lou they lasted 7 days and 7 nights of intense fighting against the Japanese troops approaching from land and water. There was no one to come to their rescue. As they were isolated in this tower, their food, water and ammunition ran out. Defeat was certain, but the 7 teammates were resolved. They wrote a joint statement as their final words, prepared to leave behind a testament of their kindred spirit. After days of fighting, the Japanese troops failed to claim Nan Lou. They decided to launch toxic gas bombs into the structure. This first attempt at gas bombing was thwarted by a south-blowing wind current.
Photo: The Japanese toxic gas bombs destroyed this window and its metal rail.
Our 7 heroes did, inevitably, meet the cruelest of fate. On July 25th, 1945, they succumbed to a series of toxic gas attack. They lost consciousness and the Japanese troops took them for a trial at the Japanese commander’s headquarters. Upon their refusal to surrender, the Japanese forces tortured them to death and mutilated them. They displayed their bodies outside of the Situ Library in Chikan. Thereafter, the Japanese simply tossed their remains into the Tanjiang River.
The villagers searched along the shores of Tanjiang River, and managed to find 5 of the 7 bodies for a proper burial at Gaozui Village, a location facing both the Tanjiang River and Nan Lou.
This story moved me to tears. Surely, in all kinds of war writing, be it a matter of ideology or actual fighting, the writers of museum texts in China tend to melodramatize the narrative. But taking the mere facts as they were presented, one would see a kind of heroism that arose only from the deepest of love for the homeland.
And it was in Nan Lou that I felt the soul of Chikan.
Descriptions on site at Nan Lou.
My friend and I went to Kaiping because she saw an ad on the MTR in Hong Kong promoting the Chikan Ancient Town. As such, it was with a whole lot of anticipation that I arrived at Chikan from Majianglong Village. And, to say the …
I had to hurry through the Majianglong Village because time with the hired car was up soon. Even a quick walk through the village brought forth quite a different experience from the previous two sites that I visited, the Zili Village and Liyuan Garden. Majianglong …
At first glance of the introduction of Kaiping, I was actually least interested in Liyuan. Somehow when the Diaolou’s are placed in a rich man’s manicured garden they seemed to lose authenticity to me. As it turned out, the Liyuan Diaolou’s were very engaging as historic structures. There were many buildings to visit there, plus a large garden to tour. I stopped by Yupei Villa in the garden and it was so cute that I did not want to leave.
The owner of Liyuan was Xie Weili, who had spent significant time living in the United States. The name of the property came from the last character of its owner’s name, Li. Construction for the property began in 1926 and it took ten years to finish all the structures. As will be discussed below, the buildings in Liyuan also came in the style of the Chinese eclectic. Some of them are properly Diaolou’s, serving both residential and defensive purposes.
On the way to the Villa Zone, there is a section that displays miniature Diaolou’s of different locations in Kaiping. It is called Miniature Diaolou Scenic Area. You can take a look at some of the Diaolou’s that are of interest to you in this trip or the next. They are very realistic and I actually enjoyed this touristy display (miniature displays are considered tourist attractions in Southern China).
The general areas of tour interest in the Liyuan Garden are the Villa Zone, with clusters of structures with especially beautiful interiors. It is worth going in for a look. Then there is the gardens featuring beautiful buildings and structures, such as pavilions, bridges, manicured gardens, granite gateway, open air corridor and a very special Vine Pavilion.
The name of Panli Lou came from joining Xie Weili’s name with his father’s name, Xie Shengpan. It was built in 1926. The walls and the windows show western features, while the roof was built of traditional Chinese glazed green tiles.
All of the residential diaolou’s in the Liyuan Garden feature roman columns. Some of these columns support verandas. In Panli Lou, the roman columns feature prominently at the main entrance on the ground floor and in the central part of the verandas on the second and third floors.
Panli Lou is open for visit and I highly recommend a quick look into the beautiful interior, featuring elegant staircases and function rooms such as the kitchen. The tiled floor shows incredibly colorful patterns typical of that era.
The Panwen Lou was built in 1926 and served as the residence for Xie Weili’s older brother Xie Weiwen and his wife. With 3 stories, Panwen Lou has a similar appearance as the Panli Lou.
Letian Lou is the “security center” of the Xie’s villas. Built in 1911 with the intention to provide a guarding post to the Xie property, Letian Lou is five story high with gunholes throughout. All of its windows and doors were built with iron. Furthermore, its walls are 30-inch thick.
A shorter building named Jiong Villa served as the residence for Xie Weili’s fifth uncle. The building was built in 1932 and also features the Chinese eclectic architecture style. Matching roman columns stand on the sides of the doorways of the arched balcony above and the main gate below. The lime sculpture on the top plaque in the middle of the structure is a classic rendition of Diaolou art.
Built in the typical style of a bridge pavilion, Wanxiang Pavilion stands elegantly over the Kuahong Bridge. Its name meaning “the nightly fragrance,” the Wanxiang Pavilion features glazed roof tiles, gravel stone walls, geometric designs and come in two stories high.
The Yupei Villa is a tower type watchtower villa. As Xie Weili named this building with his own childhood nickname, it is a tower of love as the memorial built for Xie Weili’s second wife, Tan Yuying. Tan Yuying was a very talented woman that died giving birth the year after she was married to Xie Weili. The tower is four story high and open for visits. Its location being in the garden, it impresses visitors with a kind of atmosphere that is calm, artsy and pleasing. Italian décor lines the exterior of this tower.
Finally, before entering into the proper boundary of Liyuan Garden, you will see a row of interconnected commoners’ residence called Yunmei. This group of houses is representative of the traditional homes in the Kaiping area. Built in 1928, the five houses in this row are identical and interconnected via a corridor on the second floor. This expresses the father’s fair treatment for all his sons, and the wish that they take brotherhood to heart.
Dusk shall befall in about two hour’s time. I had to hurry to the final sightseeing of the day at Majianglong Village, before finally checking in to the hotel at Chikan Ancient Town.
Descriptions on site at Liyuan Garden.
For a very long time, the Lin Heung Tea House of Sheung Wan was known for being a prime touristy restaurant that the Hong Kong locals do not go. Often touted as the “most traditional dim sum in Hong Kong,” the restaurant served its dim …