Yum cha!

“You want to eat like a local,” Luchie said, “start acting like one.”

“But it’s three in the morning!”

“That’s right. Go wash up.”

What kind of restaurant opens at 3 AM? If it has been around for as long as Sun Hing has (20+ years, I hear), the kind that has created its own niche in Hong Kong’s competitive dim sum scene. At this ungodly hour, its garishly lit interior offered solitary refuge among the shuttered storefronts lining Smithfield in Kennedy Town. For some patrons it is their first stop of the day, for others their last before home. Doesn’t matter; by all accounts, the place is almost always full.

To call the space “cozy” would be inapt at any other time of the day. It had rained hard near midnight, and for once we were thankful for the humid heat that greeted us at the door. Even the locals seemed… I dunno, kinder? Early morning does have a way of blunting the edges off the world and the world-weary. Good food, too — in this case, dim sum.

The meal itself is referred to as yum cha — literally, “drink tea.” Tea being recognizably allusive of sociability in large swathes of this planet, although that would probably be too meta for those who merely want to sample the local cuisine. Chowking this place wasn’t. Food was stacked chockablock on a side table near the entrance. We took what we fancied and joined two men at a table next to the open kitchen.

For starters, pork char siu bao. Compared to the siopao in the Philippines, they looked downright sloppy, but were light, fluffy, and filled just so. Now when was the last time I had siopao back home that did not promise to be an entire meal? I couldn’t remember.

The siomai were excellent, polished off before any of us even thought to dip them in anything. They merited an extra trip to the front of the house.

These beef balls reeking of coriander were ginormous and altogether too heavy for me.

But the curried pork tripe sure wasn’t.

What’s dim sum without braised chicken feet? Lighter in color/flavor than what I’m used to, but very good nonetheless.

Also, har gow (shrimp dumplings), plus one other that I forgot the name of. As for those egg custard buns on the upper right, I found out only later on that they were the unofficial house specialty. Guy holding the chopsticks? He wasn’t with us. Just like a local not to give the game away.

Sun Hing
Shop C, G/F 8 Smithfield
Kennedy Town, Hong Kong