Despite their popularity, the Hong Kong street food stalls known as dai pai dong have become scarce. - The Straits Times/ANN
HONG KONG, Jan 21 (Bloomberg): At a street-side stall in a working-class neighbourhood in Hong Kong, a husband-and-wife team churns out orders of fried rice, toasted egg and spam sandwiches and milk tea against the roaring sound of an open-fire stove. Groups of diners hover around the stall’s seven tables, eager for something to warm their bodies on a cool fall day.
Despite their popularity, the eateries known as dai pai dong have become scarce. Only 21 remain, down from as many as 40 in the 1950s and 32 in 2004, according to official data.
The government hasn’t issued any new licences since the 1970s, while existing ones can only be transferred to family members. Many also struggled during the yearslong strict Covid restrictions, which were only recently lifted.
“We have something that can’t be found elsewhere. Our staff and customers come with warmth,” said Ms Irene Li, who’s been serving famous tomato soup noodles and other dishes at Sing Heung Yuen, a dai pai dong in the Central financial district, for 47 years. “It reminds me of the old Hong Kong. You can’t find such feeling in the city now.”
In Cantonese, dai pai dong refers to an eatery where both cooking and dining take place outdoors. Literally translating to “big-licence-plate stall” – a reference to the physical size of the licences – the shops first emerged after World War II as an affordable dining option for the ranks of the city’s poor.
The stalls are popular for their distinctive outdoor dining experience, but more picky diners go there to seek out wok hei, which means “breath of the wok”, a technique that gives food a distinctive charred flavour. A Hong Kong Tourism Board video released last year also promoted a dai pai dong in Sham Shui Po, one of the city’s poorest districts and where many of the remaining stalls are located.
Sing Heung Yuen once enjoyed long lines of South Korean tourists before Covid, said Ms Li, due to their love of ramyeon, or Korean instant noodles, which are similar to the restaurant’s signature dish. Hong Kong’s Covid-zero policy not only kept foreign tourists out for years, but social distancing rules including caps on diners per table and bans on dining-in meant local business also plummeted.
The lifting of the most severe Covid travel rules and social distancing restrictions in recent weeks will help dai pai dong recover to some extent, but the more entrenched challenge may be navigating the layers of red tape that keep operating the stalls difficult.
The government’s reluctance to issue new licences stems from concerns over food safety and public hygiene, though it has acknowledged the stalls’ cultural importance.
It relaxed the rules around the succession and transfer of licences in 2009 to allow immediate family members to apply, rather than just the owner’s spouse, but applicants must still meet a complex list of considerations, including whether they have worked closely with the original owner.
The government said in response to a request for comment that the hawker licensing policy has been reviewed and updated to respond to public needs amid growing popular demand for preserving local culture.
“It’d be best if the licence could be easily transferable to the next generation,” said Ms Sandy Yau of Kan Kee in Sham Shui Po, which has been in business for over 50 years. Her husband is the third-generation operator, yet the family has difficulty registering him as the licensee as his grandfather, the current licensee, is still alive.
In Singapore, which also has a lively outdoor-dining culture, a 15-year hawker resettlement programme that started in the 1970s moved street stalls into sheltered open-air complexes. Hawker culture has since been inscribed into Unesco’s list of intangible cultural heritage.
One way that dai pai dong in Hong Kong try to continue operating amid such challenges is to move indoors. Technically, the stalls no longer qualify as dai pai dong if they aren’t outdoors, but operators may prefer being inside nonetheless as the locations are cleaner, better regulated and less susceptible to weather.
Mr Toby Choi, 31, helps run Dai Lee Dai Pai Dong, located in a municipal services building also in Sham Shui Po. He had been working as an accountant in the US before returning to help operate his father’s eatery, which shifted indoors in 1996. Choi said he hopes the government can issue new licences for outdoor dai pai dong, even if they have to be more stringent on health and safety issues.
“Much like Fukuoka’s yatai or Los Angeles’ food trucks, outdoor dai pai dong stalls should have a place in Hong Kong as it is one of our few remaining culinary heritage,” said Mr Choi.
But he is also one of the few young people who are willing to take on the business of running a dai pai dong, with succession another major factor in their decline.
“I wish to keep running the business ourselves, until we no longer have the ability to do so,” said Ms Yau. “But as parents, we also wish for a more comfortable career for our sons.” - Bloomberg
