To see the true spirit of Hong Kong, visit the TDC Food Expo in the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai. Four packed floors purvey everything edible, with much of it being cooked for you to try freeing or buying. Other halls offer gourmet food and drinks, fresh produce and tea. It’s a theme park of food, with everything from third-generation Hong Kong brands like Tung Chun soy sauce to Japanese Minami Cattle Feedlot offering fried beef samples. Some stands supply handy trolleys to cart away bulk purchases. Much food is free, but the paid-for products are heavily discounted, so this is a feeding frenzy. Determined grannies forage for a year’s supply of soy sauce and frozen dim sum and haul laden trolleys over your feet without a backwards glance. They have paid their HK$40 entrance fee and they are going to get their money’s worth. Today (19th) is the fifth and final day of the Expo, which stays open until 10pm. The crowd packs the walkway from Wan Chai MTR to the Convention Centre, with marshalls corralling them into fenced lanes. You’d think they draw was a hot rock concert, not a few free dumplings.
Not for the faint hearted
Elbows sharpened, hardened Expo professionals dive in for free anything, but especially beef. You can detect a Japanese wok frying tasty beef from 50 paces by the heaving mass alongside. They queue for five minutes for one bite, then re-join the line for another. It’s an object lesson in how to muster a crowd in Hong Kong - offer free food. As an Expo virgin I checked out the public halls, then retreated to nurse my bruised feet – and headed for the calmer trade halls. En route I passed several Chinese provinces displaying their wares, and tea producers, but tea lacks the box office appeal of teriyaki beef, so these corridors were calm. I tried to talk to the Guangxi folks, about their backdrop of barnyard chickens. Were they into free range eggs? The girl shook her head. ”Not chickens - tea,” she said. But there was no picture of tea. “Tea - and pork,” she added. But there was not a pig in sight. I realised she had been dragged over as the only English speaker for several metres, so in all probability this was not her stand.
Tranquil trade floors
The range of countries represented is vast and bewildering: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Mexico, it seemed endless. Products ranged from Iberico Jamon Melon Ice Cream, yes, that’s ice-cream made of 24-months dried Spanish ham and Hokkaido melon, to Indonesian free range Luwak coffee at HK$150 a cup (having first passed through a civet cat) from the Safety Stop restaurant in Sai Ying Pun, to cheese from OZO, the Polish Dairy Cooperative. Not to mention Xiang Fei raisins, known as Xiang Fei (Emperor’s concubine) raisins, a tribute to the Qianlong Emperor and Xiang Fei during the Qing dynasty, made by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Fruit Industry Co., Ltd.
Then there were Mini Snowy Moon Cake with Chunky Blueberry and Bean Paste, from Tai Pan Bread & Cakes, and La Favorita Truffle and Barolo Delicacy, which combines Italian Barolo wine and summer truffle to spice up pan fried foie gras, by JC Foods, Hong Kong. I could go on and on. There was Iranian Caspian Sea Water Beluga Huso Caviar, the world’s rarest category 1 caviar, back on the market after 13 years, from Caviar Bank. That’s just a few examples of what the nearly 1500 stands had to offer. And every business has a story.
Party stands