Rents Are Rising, Tastes Are Changing, and the Undisputed Capital of Dumplings Is at an Inflection Point
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Rents are rising, tastes are changing, and the undisputed capital of dumplings is at an inflection point. Eat up while you still can. MAX FALKOWITZ MARCUS NILSSON 126 AIRBNBMAG • FALL 2018 DIM SUM is a contact sport at Lin way, they stopped for meals and rest at roadside teahouses, Heung Tea House. A new cart rolls which sold tea and little snacks like dumplings and buns. As onto the dining room floor, and for international trade grew, so did the need for teahouses to just a moment, the clatter of a thou- serve food, not just to itinerant traders but to all classes of sand porcelain bowls and spoons Cantonese- speaking southeast China. Foreigners may asso- quiets as a dozen hungry customers ciate dim sum with steamy carts and gilded banquet halls, bum-rush the lady with the curried but at its core, the meal is mercurial. It’s called yum cha, or tripe and siu mai. If you don’t shove literally “drink tea,” and it refers less to a type of restaurant your way to the front of the queue, or set of dishes than a unique social event: a relaxed morn- dodging surly waiters swinging five-gallon kettles of boil- ing or afternoon meal with family, friends, and idle con- ing water, you’re screwed. The good stuff is all gone, and the versation. Dim sum, the small bites you eat alongside, is It’s easy to get overwhelmed with best you’re gonna get is a sympathy steamer of fish balls and choices at yum cha; here are some often translated as “touch the heart.” The tantalizing con- wrinkled tofu skin. of the most common dishes to look for. cept spread beyond the Silk Road trade routes, and today, Pro tip: Rather than swarm the cart as soon as it appears, with nearly 7.4 million people packed into just over 1,000 Har gow Char siu bao start your own queue where you know the cart will stop in The most iconic Fluffy steamed buns square miles, Hong Kong is the undisputed dim sum cap- the middle of the room. Keep your ticket ready for stamp- dim sum delicacy— filled with nubs of ital of the world. ing and point to the dishes you want in rapid succession. shrimp dumplings chopped roast pork Dim sum is Hong Kong soul food. It’s daily breakfast, Request them by name, if you know them, and don’t be shy. wrapped in chewy, in a sticky- Sunday brunch, midday snack, and power lunch rolled into The seasoned regulars you’re playing against won’t waste translucent skins. sweet glaze. one. There’s back alley dim sum and white linen tablecloth time on please and thank you. Lo bak gou Mah lai goh dim sum, and in a status-driven city, it is the great equal- Then take your winnings back to your table and breathe; Squares of savory Steamed sponge izer: Plutocrats rub shoulders with construction workers, the key to weekend dim sum is the long game. Pour your- steamed rice-flour cakes, lightly often at the same table. self some tea, unfold your newspaper, and leisurely nibble cakes mixed with sweetened with But there are whispers—repeated often enough by indus- at your ivory-skinned rice noodle rolls filled with minced shredded daikon brown sugar. try vets and enthusiasts to make me worried—that Hong radish, then crisped beef and sweet, pungent orange peel. You don’t need to eat Kong’s dim sum culture is in danger. No one’s saying it out on a flattop. Liu Sha Bao everything at once, and your seat is yours for as many hours Steamed buns loud, but the signs are there. The core fan base is aging. So as you want it. Siu mai filled with salted is the pool of skilled cooks who can make it. A chronic labor Yellow-skinned duck-egg custard. shortage is only getting worse. And in one of the world’s most dumplings with open tops, usually Dan tat expensive cities, rents are rising so high that some wonder filled with a finely Egg-heavy custard whether any of Hong Kong’s classic dim sum restaurants, THOUGH MY background is very much not Chinese, eating ground mix of tarts baked in flaky founded on the premise not only of beautifully crafted bites at Lin Heung—a 100-year-old spot which (justly) gets a men- pork, shrimp, crusts traditionally but leisurely meals, can survive. made with lard. tion in every guide to Hong Kong dim sum ever written—feels and mushroom. Which is why I decide to head to Hong Kong on a week- like a kind of homecoming. My childhood best friend was Ngao yuk kau long dim sum bender, to chat up the experts over plate after Wu gok the son of Hong Kong expats, and as early as I can remem- Finely ground, almost plate of dumplings. In a city obsessed with its own reinven- A fried ball of bouncy steamed ber, we spent God-knows-how-many Saturdays with our tion, who will carry on this cornerstone of local heritage? mashed taro with meatballs, made with moms in New York’s Chinatown, mystified by the frenetic a delicate, lacy beef or pork and sea - And who are they carrying it for? pageantry of palatial dim sum halls and the act of flagging crust enclosing soned with Worces- down carts of treats like taxis at rush hour. Even after our a savory filling, tershire sauce. usually chicken weekly trips ceased, we still exchanged matzo ball soup Cheong fun and mushroom. and congee, and after spending months apart at college, Steamed sheets of rice we’d always reconvene for dim sum. My nascent fascina- Fu pei guen noodles rolled around SUN HING opens its doors to night owls at 3 a.m. and rum- tion with Chinese cooking and culture grew into a field of Steamed tofu skin minced beef, whole bles through 4 the following afternoon. It’s the kind of small, study; I recently co-authored a dumpling cookbook with a rolls, usually filled shrimp, or crisp fried decades-old dim sum joint that caters almost exclusively to with whole shrimp. savory crullers. Chinese American chef from the northern city of Tianjin, people from the sleepy surrounding neighborhood of Ken- and I travel to Asia at least once a year to further my edu- nedy Town. I have several restaurants like it on my to-visit cation firsthand. Hong Kong, with its neon and crowds and list, but I’d heard good things about its vibe and steamed grit, feels remarkably similar to the New York Chinatown buns. There are no tourists at the crowded tables, and the its émigrés helped build. But the dim sum is worlds better. space is so small that the waiters, overwhelmingly female, Back when the city of London was still a glorified Roman skip the carts for small trays from which they pass out dim pit stop, Chinese civilization was already more than 1,500 Learning the dim sum sum steamers. The only decorations are news clippings years old. Traders carrying fine fabrics, jade, and other trade at Hong Kong’s pasted to the walls, and the little space reverberates with Chinese Culinary sophisticated goods to the West traveled along a network Institute with Chef Chan chatty customers, waiters shouting orders to the kitchen, of routes called the Silk Road, which meandered along Chun-hung. Previous and the clink of cups and kettles. The delicious cacophony page: Rush hour at southern China into India and the Middle East. Along the ZHU ZIPENG BY TYPE ILLUSTRATION Lin Heung Tea House. of old Hong Kong. 128 AIRBNBMAG • FALL 2018 129 “If you look like a foreigner, they usually give you green mention the talk I’ve heard among dim sum chefs about the jasmine tea by default,” my dim sum companion, Hong trouble with finding good cooks, he’s not surprised. Kong native Jay Khilnani, tells me as he breaks some “Young cooks can get better benefits in Western restau- leaves off a compressed brick ofbo lei, an aged, fermented rants,” he tells me while inhaling a cloudlike roast pork bun. tea. It’s the go-to drink for yum cha, revered by locals for its “More time off, better healthcare, more opportunities.” In stomach-settling properties. “You have to tell them to bring addition, Western restaurants in Hong Kong, he argues, you this instead.” Like many yum cha regulars, he carries encourage more creative freedom—and promote their chefs his own tea to dim sum, and as he is the proprietor of the to the public as a marketing tactic—compared to the world of online store TeaLife Hong Kong, his stash is a big step up Chinese fine dining, which rivals the French for its military from the restaurant standard. discipline and adherence to tradition. Even if you reach the One of the joys of yum cha is seeing your food before you top of a classic Cantonese restaurant, you’re still expected to commit to it, and the steamed buns look spot-on. We order maintain your reserve, not campaign for your own celebrity. two baskets: one full of molten preserved egg yolk, salty and “It’s hard to open a restaurant in any city,” he goes on, “but sweet; the other stuffed with sticky-glazed nubs of barbecue especially here. Even more so if you’re not part of a restau- pork. The har gow, crisp shrimp wrapped in chewy, translu- rant group or in a hotel.” (Indeed, later that week I eat a flaky cent skins, look a little frumpy but taste just right; the shrimp abalone puff at the phenomenal Lung King Heen in the Four are fresh and sweet with a delicate snap, thanks to a brief Seasons that could trample any French pastry.) tossing with baking soda, a common Cantonese technique.