In transient Hong Kong, veterans of the dining scene stand apart
In a city driven constantly to reinvent itself, several great restaurants have withstood the test of time to become venerable institutions
An institution, the common wisdom goes, is an establishment or custom founded by a society or culture. So which eating establishments best represent Hong Kong? Not surprisingly, most of the restaurants on the following pages are Chinese and, among these, many are Cantonese.
Cantonese cuisine is without a doubt the home cooking of Hong Kong, and many of the institutions featured are still run by the families who founded them. Some started out as catering businesses organising banquets on the rooftops of buildings, a common practice among the Chinese until the 1970s. They are witnesses to the intriguing changes the city has undergone in half a century.
But Hong Kong is an international city, so its institutions are not exclusively Chinese. Some of the classic western restaurants reviewed in previous pages have become institutions, and in the following pages include two non-Chinese institutions. One was a driving force behind the popularisation of Japanese dining in the city and the other is a firm reminder of Hong Kong's colonial past.
Rather sadly, a transient city like ours is hardly fertile soil for institutions to flourish. In recent years many have folded because of rapid urban redevelopment and greedy landlords. Those that have already come this far, though, are likely to stay for a long time. Let's pay tribute to them, listen to their stories and remember the good old days.
