Your Guide to Trends in Hong Kong 2013
Here are our predictions for what’s in and what’s out for 2013.
Trends in Hong Kong move in and out faster than a free-wheeling minibus driver at the end of his shift. From film festivals and crazy cocktails to heritage projects and paying for protesters, stay up-to-date with our predictions for the year ahead.
OUT
Big Flashy Restaurants
IN
Hole-in-the-wall takeaways
With rents climbing higher every day, when we see a new restaurant opening the first thing that comes to mind is not what food it sells, but whether it’s going to last the year. Smart restaurateurs are testing the waters with dinky little shopfronts in areas with lots of office workers and are making a killing at lunchtime. In the past couple of months we’ve seen chicken shop La Rotisserie (G/F, Manhattan Avenue, 255 Queen's Rd. Central, Sheung Wan, 2324-1898), Italian takeaway La Piadineria (Shop B, G/F, Block 1, Tern Centre, 237 Queen's Rd. Central, Sheung Wan, 3974-5380) and Macau pork chop bun joint Tai Lei Loi Kei (52-60 Lyndhurst Terrace, Central, 2871-2020) spring up to satisfy our cravings. Looks like those Mong Kok food stalls had a good business model all along.
OUT
Hipster Japanese
IN
Hipster Chinese
The Yardbird craze was fun (unless you had to wait in line for hours because of their no-reservations policy, of course), but we’re sort of over having a meal of meat on sticks, paying a bundle for it and then STILL not being full when it’s over. Plus, it’s about time the motherland’s cuisine got in on the action.
There’s a new thing to wait in line for now. Beijing-style street food has hit Central via month-old Mr. Bing (LG/F, 83 Wellington St., Central, 2568-8248), which serves up jianbing—a hot crepe-like wrapper filled will all sorts of yummies: egg, fried wonton sheets, cilantro, scallions and more. Mr. Bing offers various options for the crepe batter—green bean, millet and buckwheat—as well as special fillings such as Peking duck and char siu. Though it’s not expensive, its location along the escalator and the massive queues that form during lunch remind us of Butao Ramen’s. Once you’re in Central, you ain’t street food no more—you’re a bona fide fad. Then there’s Maureen (11 Hing Wan St., Wan Chai, 2915-2261), a noodle bar tucked down a side street behind the Blue House. The owner-chef Maureen Loh takes inspiration from traditional Chinese soups and noodles but chooses to forego the MSG in her delicate chicken and pork broths and springy noodles, making every bowl with the freshness and TLC of a home cook with the innovative touches of a with-it culinary pro. Lastly, pop-up enterprise Little Bao (www.facebook.com/littlebaohk), the brainchild of May Chow, has been spotted everywhere from Island East Markets to Clockenflap. Chow’s Asian-American fusion burgers have buns like mantou and innovative fillings like kimchi pulled pork, slow-cooked pork belly or truffled shitake-tempeh. At $60 a pop, they’re not cheap, but what super trendy foodstuff is? We hear she’ll set up a permanent shop in March.