Blast from the Past

Reminisce back to mid-century Hong Kong with typhoon-shelter crabs and deep fried innards from these nostalgia-reviving restaurants:

Kwan Cheuk Heen
Old-time chefs scraped the bottom of the barrel for ingredients—literally. Short on cash, they made use of the cheapest parts of pigs, birds and cows, meaning that the dishes had to be extra delicious to make things like intestines, feet, livers and hearts taste like delicacies (which they later became). “In the old days, people were very poor,” says Wings Mok, the Harbour Grand’s director of marketing communications. “They would make use of every single thing.” These concoctions were complicated and took a long time to cook. Kwan Cheuk Heen, the Harbour Grand’s Chinese restaurant, is reviving close-to-extinct favorites until August 31. Offerings include dishes like deep-fried duck webs and chicken liver rolled in chicken intestine—which may sound a bit risky, but after deep-frying, the wraps are doused in honey sauce, which can make anything taste delicious. Served in a clay pot, the braised pork belly, bean curd sheets and chives in shrimp paste sauce are another throwback, as the dish was traditionally made with leftover food from the previous day, which was then all thrown together in the pot. Potentially less scary offerings include roasted Chinese pork sausage with honey and sautéed bean sprouts with baby clams. During the 1950s and 60s, the good cuts of meat and the fat were all reserved for the higher-end restaurants that could afford them—and in a funny twist, it’s actually harder to track down the more unsavory parts of animals these days. Given its special menu, it’s clear that Kwan Cheuk Heen is up to the challenge.
Harbour Grand, 23 Oil St., North Point, 2121-2691

Loong Toh Yuen
Food historians can delight in the array of old Hong Kong dishes at Hullett House’s Loong Toh Yuen. The restaurant has resurrected delicacies from Hong Kong’s past, such as steamed pork with shrimp paste from Tai O, and oyster with ginger and chives cooked in a clay pot. Sliced pigeon, deep-fried pork trotter and braised scallop and conpoy are among the restaurant’s retro specialties. Loong Toh Yuen’s dark-wood latticework and rounded archways make for an intimate Chinese teahouse setting with some colonial flair; red lanterns lining the corridor leading up the restaurant add to the romance. For an added boost of heritage, sign up for a site tour of the building—as the former Hong Kong Marine Police station, Hullett House embodies nostalgia in more ways than one.
Hullett House, 2A Canton Rd., Tsim Sha Tsui, 3988-0107

Loyal Dining
In the 1960s and 70s, though Hong Kong had been subject to British rule for over 100 years, the city became a prime destination for an influx of foreigners who wanted to live and work here. The newcomers—Brits, Italians, Americans and the rest—brought their cuisines along. Chinese diners became enamored with some of the new foods available to them, while traditional Western dishes adopted Asian flourishes. Loyal Dining, a new restaurant in Central, aims to capture that fusion; signature dishes include beef Wellington, pigeon simmered in sweet soy sauce and baked lobster and seafood fried rice. The concept is the brainchild of film director Steven Lo, who has fond memories of that bygone era. “I wanted to create an environment for people my age to recall the sweet days of childhood,” he says, “and to introduce this classic dining experience for the younger generation, too.”
66 Wellington St., Central, 3125-3000

Loong Yat Heen
Using 40-year-old recipes, two-Michelin-starred Chef Yeung Kin-Yip and his team at the Kowloon Hotel’s Chinese restaurant have crafted a wide range of old-style Hong Kong dishes, incuding minced pork with diced abalone and salt fish, stewed pork in preserved soy sauce served with steamed bread and braised bird’s nest soup with mashed winter melon and conpoy. These traditional dishes require long preparation times and complicated craftsmanship, and they’re available at both lunch and dinner until August 31.
Kowloon Hotel, 19-21 Nathan Rd., Tsim Sha Tsui, 2734-3722

Café on M
Typhoon-shelter cuisine came to prominence in Hong Kong in the 1950s and 60s, when a fairly large population of fisherman, immigrants and so-called boat people lived on their vessels. Should big storms hit the city, the boats parked close together in the typhoon shelters to shield themselves from winds and currents. As a result, the communities formed were also close-knit and had with their own cuisine, language and even wedding rituals—though their denizens were often poor and the hygiene less than standard. The tastes and preparation styles of this cuisine weren’t strictly Chinese—they also benefited from Vietnamese, Malaysian, Thai and Singaporean influences, such as the addition of lemongrass and other strong flavors. The most popular dish to come out of these enclaves is crab cooked with garlic, scallion, chili and black beans. The spicy crab dish is still served in restaurants around Hong Kong, but other parts of typhoon-shelter cuisine haven’t yet been institutionalized. Café on M at the Intercontinental Grand Stanford is attempting to bring them back, with a special menu until August 31 that features seafood specialties like lobster congee, pan-fried oyster cakes and their take on the famous garlicky, spicy crab.
M/F, InterContinental Grand Stanford, 70 Mody Rd., Tsim Sha Tsui East, 2731-2860