When Edward Chow Kwong-fai studied in London in 1968, the 16-year schoolboy learnt the trick of how to get a bigger serving in Chinatown restaurants - speak Cantonese. Now, if he wants his meal 'super-sized' he has to speak another language.
'If you cannot speak Putonghua you find it difficult to order food in Chinatown in London these days,' said Chow, chairman of Hong Kong-listed CIG Yangtze Ports, who is now based in Hong Kong but visits London frequently to see his six children studying there.
Chow's experience underscores the growing influence of the mainland in Chinatowns around the world - long the bastion of Hong Kong food and culture. London's Chinatown district, Europe's biggest and a tourist hot spot, has long been dominated by copycat Hong Kong-style restaurants and shops with names such as Fook Lam Moon, Hong Kong Buffet and Wan Chai Dim Sum.
Nowadays many of the waiters and waitresses speak Putonghua, while menus are in simplified Chinese characters used on the mainland, not the traditional characters used in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
'In the old days, ordering food in Cantonese in restaurants in Chinatown was the done thing. If a Chinese ordered food in English, the waiters would give you funny looks,' Chow recalled. 'If you spoke Cantonese, you got a bigger plate of food. If you could speak Hakka - the dialect of many New Territories people who emigrated to the UK - the waiters would give you better treatment, bigger portions, roast duck with lean meat and other freebies.'
He said the complexion of Chinatown had changed in the past few years following an influx of immigrants and students from mainland China. 'On several occasions, many waiters and waitresses have not spoken Cantonese and I have had to converse in Putonghua. Later, I found out they were from Fujian or Shanghai so I started speaking to them in their dialect. Then I began to get better treatment again!'
