食在香港 Eat, drink and be Merry Hong Kong Style

[douglaslam]

If you are looking for some viewing entertainment, this, Two Hairy Bikers escapade in Hong Kong would fill the bill. It is all about eating in Hong Kong. It is hilariously funny in many parts. But be quick because it would be on line for a limited time only

www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/286649411989/Hairy-Bikers-Asian-Adventure-Hong-Kong

Hong Kong is always close to my heart. It might have been my permanent home if I didn't get a chance to settle in Australia. It brought back memory of my own experiences in Hong Kong in the 1950s and 1970s.

At 15'. a young man tells us he and his brother share the same bedroom with their grandmother. This is not unusual because when I arrived in Hong Kong in 1956, I shared the same bed with my grandmother and aunt. In fact between 1956 and 1961, we moved houses seven times. I shared the same bed with my grandmother right up to my departure for Sydney. In those five years, my primary schooling was truncated because I changed school five times.

At 30' there is a segment on Western food Hong Kong style. It is very popular there. Tyuti1668 would know it well. I especially like the silky smooth and rich milk tea. The tea is a blend of many varieties, and strained through a nylon stocking like sieve. The sweetener is light condensed milk, usually Carnation brand.

Enjoy

[lachinatown]

You were in Hong Kong two different periods Douglas?

The video says, its not available outside of your Australia. Thanks Douglas.

[douglaslam]

lachinatown, i have indeed spent two extended periods in HKG. The second period was from 1972 to 1975, almost three years in duration. I worked two jobs, three jobs to save money to go back in Jan. 1973. I missed the folks in HKG so much. It was my first fight, on a Japan Airlines DC 8. The excitement was too much, I couldn't sleep.

It's a pity you couldn't see the video in the U.S., why don't you try youtube or Google Two Hairy Bikers. That episode is really entertaining and funny.

[laohuaqiao]

Youtube,

[laohuaqiao]

Douglas,
We were in Hong Kong at identical period, about 1955 to 1961. Except for a few months in Hong Kong island, we lived in Cheung Sha Wan and Shum Shui Po, one could have called them Taishan districts, in Kowloon.

Only the rich had refrigerators back then, so a few spoons of condensed milk mixed in hot boiling water was our breakfast drink in the morning. Cheung fun, delivered up to door by the vendor, and buttered toast with condensed milk, made on a charcoal stove on a sidewalk, were my favorite breakfast food.

Hoong Kong milk tea must have come much later, I don't remember having it then nor when I made a brief visit in 1973.

Spam/luncheon meat has become a popular Hong Kong food. I remember the very first time I ever had it, back in the late 1950s. I think it was the British or US military was getting rid of their overstock/expired food supply, passing them out for charity distribution. Just about everyone in HK qualified as a refugee back then. Wow, I thought it was delicious, spam and rice went well together.

[douglaslam]

laohuaqiao, nice work in finding this Youtube video. I didn't think it would be available.

Yes, I was in HKG from 1956 to 1961. All up I have over eight years residence but not in a continuous seven year stretch. Thus, I did not qualify for PR and an ID card. It is very regrettable.

I lived at three locations in Shum Shui Po. The first one was Shun Ning Rd.順寧道. We rented a windowless room. There were so many tenants that I hardly knew any of them. The shared kitchen and bathroom were impossible. I remember we used a kerosene stove to cook inside the room sometimes.

Down below on the footpath, refugees from mainland China slept rough in makeshift shelters made out of off-cut timber and cardboard boxes.

Then, we moved to Castle Peak Rd. 青山道. It was also a windowless room. But from the front living room which had access to, we had unobstructed harbour views. Close by, on a hillside, were squatter huts which were so common in those days.

The third location was 兼善里. At the time, manufacturing started to take off in HKG. There were many garment factories in Shum Shui Po area.

We moved to the second and third abode because of my aunt and her husband's Cuban networking. The flats were bought by our Chungshan compatriots from Havana.

I treasure my memories of Hong Kong in the 1950s. Lohuaqiao, you must be familiar with those locations.

[lachinatown]

Amazing that you remember all these Douglas. I don't remember any from Macau or Kowloon.

[laohuaqiao]

Douglas,
We did live in a room on Shun Ning Rd.顺宁路 for a month, then on Castle Peak Rd 青山道 for a few months and then in one of the low income relocation projects on Tokyo St. 东京街 for another few months. I remember my first Christmas celebration, each kindergarten student had to bring a toy/gift to exchange with another student. We could have been classmates, schoolmates or next door neighbors.

We finally settled on Tung Choy St. 通菜街, near Boundary St. 界限街, for the next 4 years to attend the Shum Shui Po Elementary School 深水埗小学 on Boundary St. It only dawned on me decades later that the school was chosen because it was targeting families of overseas Chinese; it was one of very few schools in Hong Kong that offered English classes from grade 1, back then most other schools didn't start to teach English until 4th grade. My mother was already making preparation for us to come to the US. Of course, I didn't know what was going on, why were we learning English.

Yes, I have fond memories of those days， playing on rooftop on summer evenings, the excitement of going to Lai Yuan 荔园 amusement park, listening to Cantonese operas, western and Cantonese pop music, classic Chinese and even Sherlock Holmes stories on the radio, when Sincere Dept Store built the first escalator in Hong Kong adults and children waited on line for the 'thrill' ride ... I can go on and on.

[douglaslam]

laohuaqiao and lachinatown, This is becoming nostalgic trivia by me and laohuaqiao. We both have something in common, our connection with HKG in our childhood. I don't think we were ever class mates. I never attended kindergarten anywhere.

We were greeted by another aunt in HKG on our arrival. We all crammed into a pre-WWll flat also on Tung Choy St. near Argyle. It had no flush toilet, all night soil had to be taken out for collection. Firewood was used for cooking. I slept on a sewing machine in the hallway. Fellow tenants were very nice. One, a taxi driver used to smoke opium. He needed his fix daily. I can still remember that pungent smell. At the bottom of the staircase, there was a small shop selling wooden clogs. They were so beautiful and colourful.

Going to Lai Chi Kok Amusement Park was always eagerly anticipated. I saw many films there, and only in later years could I learn of the names in English. One such film was The Naked Jungle starring Charlton Heston and Eleanor Parker.

I missed the sights, sounds and smells of old HKG. The clog shops, custom tailoring shops, cobblers, and dai pai dong 大 牌 檔 just about all disappeared en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dai_pai_dong I loved the kung fu epics on radio.

In 1975, my cousin from LA came on a Taiwan-sponsor tour with a stopover in HKG. We loved to stand and watch the cook strutting his stuff at a dai pai dong cooked food stall. The fiery stove was like a blast furnace. The stove is diesel-fuelled, with a compressed air booster. It roars and roars. Only Cantonese cooking can be looked on as a performing art. My cousin met her husband-to-be in the same tour group of young Chinese-Americans. They are still together.

The video also made mention of Temple St. I used to frequent the said street at night in the 1970s, spending a lot of time looking at the old Rolex and Tudor watches on sale by street vendors. I was so tempted to buy two or three of them. They would be worth a lot of money now. BTW, one of the first things I did on my return to HKG in 1973 was to buy a new Rolex watch. Forty-one years later, I still have the same watch. But each servicing would cost many times my original purchasing price. Even at a young age, earning only a paltry amount, I wanted to own a Rolex.

I, too, can go on and on about Hong Kong in the 50s. The city entity is now very much different. The harbour, what is left of after extensive reclamation is not what it used to be. Housing is exorbitantly expensive, the rural hinterland is gone, the fishing villages and floating communities are hard to find. I miss the old place.

[laohuaqiao]

Just before coming to the US, we lived on Fa Yuen St 花园街 near Argyle Rd and attended school around the corner, Tak Ming Elementary 德明小学. The school was ran by a former government official of the KMT, we wore military-like khaki school uniforms.

I also went on the summer youth program in Taiwan in 1973. The atmosphere in the program was commonly referred to as "Love Boat"-esque.

[douglaslam]

laohuaqiao, this is getting curiouser. I,too, lived in 花園街, No.14 to be exact. We were on the ground floor, the outside was a bicycle shop, which repaired and hired out bicycles. One female tenant used to steal kerosene from other people's stoves and put water in them. She also stole things like cooking oil and soy sauce. We used our hard bed as work bench to make paper shopping carrying bags 雞皮紙手抽. It was long before plastic bags. I witnessed scenes of the 1956 riots, the first of two major disturbances by pro-communist elements in the city.

Guess what, I,too, went to Tak Ming Elementary 德明小学 at the old campus to sit for an entrance examination. Tak Ming had a reputation in those days. Needless to say, I failed because as a new arrival from China, I knew not one word in English. I went to a school opposite 百樂門 Paramount Cinema. I think it was called 新民.

There were some very spunky chicks in the youth program. I went to their hostel in Waterloo Rd, one amply endowed girl was only too happy to be seen in her frilly nighties. She wanted everyone to see her deep cleavage. My eyes nearly popped out. Did you bag yourself a good catch?

Any more co-incidences to share?

[laohuaqiao]

I think we lived at no. 90 花园街, a few blocks from where you lived, I vaguely remember 百乐门. The reason I had to switch school was my grades were very poor at Shum Shui Po Elementary, at the end 4th grade I was ranked at the bottom of the class, something like 32 out of 34. Shum Shui Po School had a morning session and an afternoon session. The students with poorer grades were assigned to the afternoon session. I couldn't attend the afternoon session for the 5th grade, that would have upset the whole family's daily routine. So, I took the entrance exam for Tak Ming and I think I barely passed. The 5th grade had classes labeled 甲乙 丙 丁 戊 己 庚 辛, ranked in that order. I was in 5-辛, I had classmates who were 15 or 16 years old, that class was like a zoo. Never did finish the school year there, we were getting ready to leave Hong Kong and I stopped going to classes by May.

As to the summer program in Taiwan there was one very nice girl from Hawaii that I liked. Unfortunately, she gently told me very early on that she was already engaged ... ouch.

[douglaslam]

Paramount Cinema was one of my favourite haunts. I used to pay 25 cents for a front stall seat to watch re-runs in the 5:30 工餘場 session, or early 早場 session. My favouites were cowboy gun-fighter or war movies like Guns of Iwo Jima. There were many cinemas in Mong Kok where we were. I saw Around the World in 80 days at the Ritz, then there were the Broadway, Victory and The Gala.

I had five different schools in five years. Some were housed in residential flats, and had no government aids. In other words unregistered,so-called 野雞學校. Needless to say there were no such things as playground and library.

Many of our members may not know because of the influx of refugees from China and lack of facilities, some school operated two shifts, a morning school and afternoon school. The rooftop was the playing field. You've got admire the people of HKG for their resilience, never say die attitude and resourcefulness. The last school I attended was funded by the American Assemblies of God church in Ping Shan 屏山唐人新村,the rural New Territories. It was on level ground, single story buildings and a playground. It was sheer luxury.

Two years ago I went back to have a look at the school. The village was completely unrecognisable, I didn't even know how to get there by public transport without asking passers-by. The school was there but boarded up. I'll go back one day and take photos.

[samgeelee]

interesting exchanges between douglaslam and laohuaquiao. i'm learning a lot more through experiences that are shared here. thanks also for the informative video. i also had a privilege of visiting HKG, with my wife and a young lady colleague, sometime in the early 90"s. we were on a professional seminar. got to go around town, which i'm sure would be looking so different from the HKG of the 50's to 70's. had a not so pleasant experience with shopping as philippine-passport carriers were kind of looked down. i vowed not to pass by HKG again, but then i now have a US passport so things might be different.

and by the way, my late father had an older sister who he told us used to live in hong kong. i will post that photo later. good day!!!

[lachinatown]

Wow. Interesting.
We too lived at the 400 block of Shun Ning Rd. 顺宁路.