There’s a place in Asia
where your macaroni doesn’t come with cheese,
but in soup.
China and its cuisine are incredibly diverse.
We travel from city to city, to uncover the local food scene
and meet the people behind it.
This time, we’ll go to Hong Kong.
If you don’t know what to eat,
just pop into a cha chaan teng.
These casual, squeezy cafes
offer Hong Kong-style fast food meals for less than $10.
My favorites are satay beef noodles and milk tea.
I usually order milk tea when I go to a cha chaan teng.
Every cha chaan teng has a distinctive taste.
Some milk teas are sweeter, some have a stronger tea flavor.
That’s what makes the culture unique to Hong Kong.
Milk tea is essential.
Locals learned to make it when they were under British rule.
We are at the city’s oldest existing Cha chaan teng.
It’s said that Hong Kong-style milk tea was invented here.
My name is Lam Chun-yip.
My brother and I are the second-generation
owners of Lan Fong Yuen.
Our silky milk tea is famous in mainland China
and Southeast Asia.
Basically any place with a Chinese community knows us.
My dad started the business
when he first came to Hong Kong in the early 1940s.
Milk tea wasn’t popular in Hong Kong yet.
Ships would dock at the Hong Kong pier,
and sailors would give my dad tea.
He collected a lot of tea in his glass jar,
and he didn’t want to waste it.
One time, he tried to mix different types of tea together
and brew them.
The milk tea made out of mixed tea is so much richer.
This is a mixture of six different types of tea.
This is what we call a stocking bag.
We use water that’s 100°C (212°F) hot.
And we boil the tea and water together.
When you see bubbles, it’s time to pull the tea.
Let it boil again,
and pull again.
You have to repeat this process six times.
The tea leaves have to be seeped long enough
to bring out the color and fragrance.
For every cup of tea, we add slightly over 20% of milk.
That’s it.
When I arrive every morning,
the first thing I do is make myself a cup of milk tea.
I try it, I make sure the quality is good
before serving it to the customers.
Cha chaan teng became really popular in the 1960s
as Hong Kong’s working class population grew.
The dishes, which were a mix of eastern and western food
like instant noodles, macaroni, and canned meat,
were cheap and convenient.
At these spots,
you usually eat with spoons and forks, not chopsticks. ﻿
Our menu only has around 10 dishes.
Basically staples that cater to all types of customers.
The customers already know what they want
as soon as they arrive.
If I ever change the menu,
the customers may not like it anymore.
Old shops like us also have a human touch.
Traditional cha chaan teng have some similar elements.
We have a counter, folded chairs, flies, and foul language.
The customers have been coming here since they were small.
They don’t mind if it’s not pretty, glamorous, or cozy here.
This is what they look for here.
They are like our friends.
But when the pandemic struck,
some cha chaan tengs were forced to close.
Profit margins weren’t that good to start with.
For those that are still in business,
their owners have had to get creative. ﻿
When we think about a signature dish
we must preserve from our cha chaan teng,
it would definitely be egg tarts.
Our version has caramel lava in it.
We created different flavors of lava egg tarts.
For example, we have Yuenyeung (tea and coffee mix),
Horlicks, Ovaltine,
and a taro sago flavor.
Pineapple bun is another very traditional cha chaan teng dish.
We also came up with a new flavor and made a Peking Duck roll.
Our beverage makers also experimented a lot
with traditional cha chaan teng drinks
that would go well with coffee.
They found that Horlicks goes very well with coffee.
It’s a very local drink,
so we launched this drink called Horlicks Latte.
Tai On was a cha chaan teng that opened in 1969.
They had been in Yau Ma Tei for decades.
We heard that the owner Mr Chan was going to move to Australia
and didn’t have plans for the restaurant.
So we asked if we could take over the business.
We wanted to preserve it because
not many cha chaan teng with over 50 years of history
remain today.
Our way is to keep it exactly the same.
You see the booth seats, the chairs, a bar at the corner,
and the glass doors.
But with the food,
I had doubts we could sustain our business
if we still sold traditional items like ham macaroni,
or ham and egg sandwiches.
We wanted to combine cha chaan teng flavors with cafe food,
so that people are wowed by the new flavors.
We like this kind of retro-looking restaurant with new features.
Many people like to come here.
The tastes and textures of the food here are better
than the traditional ones.
Actually it seems weird to me.
I want the original taste and look.
I wouldn’t say a change is not good.
But still, I miss those oily floors,
In fact many people criticized us.
Some of them called us soulless.
The market will decide our future.
If our food is not good, or people dislike the changes we made,
then we’ll be forced out of business.
For now, it’s still too early to decide
if we are doing a good job or not.
I like the new cha chaan tengs.﻿
As the world evolves, we can’t always stay in the past.﻿
Hi guys it’s me again!
I’m Angie, who produced episode 2 of city bites Hong Kong.
As a Hong Konger,
Cha Chaan Teng is definitely something I can’t live without.
Honestly, the food is nothing fancy.
Does it really taste that good? Not always.
But whenever I don’t want to think,
it’s just very easy
and comforting to pop into one. ery easy
In this episode, I also wanted to bring out the debate
of whether it’s better to hold onto the tradition
or evolve it into something new.
Please share your thoughts with me in the comment section!
And yes, do stay tuned for our coming episodes.
In the next episode,
we explore the menu at a local Dai Pai Dong,
a type of restaurant in Hong Kong
that‘s known for their heavenly stir-fries.