KEUNG Yin-man is anxious to show people what his seafood restaurant looks like. He has gone as far as printing a colour photo of it on the back of his business cards. He has good reason: on Lamma island there are two eateries bearing the name Lamma Hilton - one stands near the Sok Kwu Wan pier (near the Lamma Peninsula, Conrad, Mandarin, and Regent), while Mr Keung's establishment is to be found at the other end of the waterfront.
'And people often go to the wrong one, the copycat,' says Mr Keung, the owner of the 'genuine' Lamma Hilton, also known as the Fishing Village Restaurant in Chinese.
'People often go to the fake one because it is more conveniently located. But we were here first.' But how do we know his restaurant is the genuine one? After all, a worker at the one near the pier was certain that was the first Lamma Hilton. The tattooed man, who did not give his name, said: 'We were here first.' The Post then called up its owner Peter Cheng to double check. He was not available, but another man, who also did not give his name, answered on his behalf.
'We have been here over the last three decades,' he said. But why did they, the Shum Kee Seafood Restaurant, adopt an English name such as the Hilton in the first place? 'I've heard the idea came from a gweilo many years ago,' the man said. 'We were probably the first one to adopt a hotel name.' Mr Keung, who is of the Tangga boat clan, however, has a longer and more convincing, story to tell.
'Years ago, back in the 1970s, a woman from the Hilton Hotel came to dine at our restaurant and she was mistakenly charged $5 dollars for a bowl of rice,' he recalls.
'Of course, it should have been just five cents. Five dollars in those days was a lot of money, so when the bill arrived, the woman exclaimed: 'This place is more expensive than the Hilton.' The name stuck.' Mr Keung's wife, Chan Liu, also a Tangga and the restaurant's chef, says their business goes back to when the family first bought the land on Sok Kwu Wan 25 years ago.
'In the mid-70s we bought the land on Lamma initially to build an ice factory, but we later found that there was no water supply,' the 58-year-old recalls.