Hang Ten in Tai Hang
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Johannes Pong and Dorothy So pick our ten favorite things in our new favorite district.
Tai Hang, you ask? This little slice of old Hong Kong near Causeway Bay and Happy Valley has been sort of a hipster hangout since the 60s and 70s, when the richies from Happy Valley would drive down to get their fancy automobiles serviced at the garages while they chilled out in the bing suts. No, it’s not as thoroughly cool as Tokyo’s Naka-Meguro, or as cobble-stoned and charming as Abbesses in Montmartre, Paris, but it’s one of Hong Kong’s more authentic neighborhoods that has been left relatively intact. Recently, the area has been experiencing a bit of a renaissance as modern-day hipsters, fashion designers, minor celebs, and artists move in and open boutiques, cafes and trendy new office and residential spaces.
In particular, the little grid of streets around the main drag of Wun Sha, the neighborhood’s nucleus, has seen an explosion of cool one-off shops and boutique cafés open up amid the vegetable stands, tatty cha chaan tengs, congee dives and dirty garages. This is our top ten from one of Hong Kong’s last authentic neighborhoods on the island.
Open since the 1970s, Man Sing was one of the first proper restaurants in the area (excluding the dai pai dongs). The proprietress is the uber-social and jocular Carol Mak, and it’s enjoyed the patronage of many a Cantopop star in its day. With its dirt-cheap prices and absolutely stellar food, Man Sing is still one of the most popular restaurants in Tai Hang, and the many plastic stools outside are almost always filled up during meal hours. Their signature meat cake is a mountainous mound of ground pork, speckled with bits of fatty meat to keep it succulent and tender and topped licentiously with a single salty egg yolk and a drizzling of soy sauce. The dish is a favorite with many diners, including karaoke king Eason Chan. Other great menu items include the steamed egg with crab and their spicy and fragrant “saliva chicken.”
16 Wun Sha St., 2576-7272
Izakaya Mizaki
There are ramen and Japanese curry houses around the hood, but Jason, Dan and Sam’s Izakaya Mizaki
on the corner of the Wun Sha main street offers a bit of
Vancouver-style Japanese fusion for nostalgic Vancouverites in the
area. We suggest you go for the rolls—BC rolls, dragon rolls, sunset
rolls, black wing rolls, quail egg and fish roe sushi, and the Japanese
yam tempura roll. For a bit more decadence, down a shot glass of
daiginjou, pearl oyster, uni and salmon roe. Regina Ip likes coming
here too.
2 Sun Chun St., 3488-5543
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