antique patisserie

My favourite activity as of late has been trundling up and down the roads of Central Noho/Soho, especially around the Wellington/Gage/Graham St areas. ‘Twas a mere coincidence that I came across this lovely little tea room in all its pastel-coloured glory while prying my eyes away from Tai Cheong Bakery’s famous egg tarts (located right across from Antique). Of course, walking up the steep steps of Graham Street in spikey heels had rendered me sweaty and red in the face (alas, too much eating, too little moving) and I deemed myself unsuitable to take tea that afternoon. I did, however, take a peek at the wonderful display of cakes and macarons just inside the door. Delectable looking macarons with creamy complexions waited languorously inside their bell jar-like confinements to be devoured (“saucy little minxes”, as Bill Bailey would say); the assortment of little cakes vyed for my attention with their cute and creative designs – the chocolate cake with the three little macarons caught my eye and two days later I dragged my mom there to indulge a bit.

With a tinkle of the door, we were in. The waitress who showed us into the tea room was absolutely charming – soft-spoken and very hospitable. Reading a few reviews afterwards, it seems quite a few people have become quite enamoured by her (though less could be said about her colleague, but more on that later). The tea room is quite small, with around 6 tables – three on one side of the room with ‘antique’ styled chairs (I’m afraid my decor lingo is rather limited) and low tables, the other side held ivory coloured tables and chairs, very classy. Everything about the room was lovely, from the flock pattern on the armchairs to the (faux) crystal-trimmed lampshades.

‘Chocolate forest’ cake

We each ordered the cake tea set, which obviously included a cake as well as a pot of tea or coffee of your choice. I had the ‘chocolate forest’, as pictured above – a wonderful black forest-inspired gâteau with layers of raspberry cream and jelly, topped with three macarons of varying sizes (though their flavours were practically indistinguishable from each other). My mom had the ‘berry basket’ – a tart berry mousse-cake topped with various berries, including a very pretty physallis fruit.

She stuck with Earl Grey tea (which had a very sharp scent and tasted a tad bitter) while I pondered over the very-appealing sounding ‘Gorgeous Geisha’ and ‘Sencha Vanilla’. At this point we’d been sitting for well over 10 minutes and no one had came to take our order, so we decided to simply go up to the counter instead.

The waitress that served us eventually was simply rude – she acted as if taking our orders was a chore, and somehow throughout the whole exchange, had an expression on her face that made it seem like I was offending her with my very presence (!). When I asked her what the Geisha tea was made of, she said it was ‘just green tea’, as if it were obvious. Ah well, so I opted for the sencha vanilla in the end. She was quite short with us, and after we’d ordered there was a brief awkward moment where no one said anything and she just stared at us as if waiting for us to waste more of her time. Scary. Maybe she was just in a bad mood that day.

Other than that, we had a marvellous time. There were only two other patrons in the tea room for a while, followed by a small group of girls. Soothing classical music plays in the background that adds to the mellowing experience (and I liked it – often I find classical music pretentious and distracting, but this was pleasant). No one bothers you. And of course, the cakes are magnificent – I really enjoyed my chocolate forest, which was a nice contrast between the tart raspberry and bittersweet chocolate. Yum. Somehow it reminded me of that not-so-good raspberry star dessert at Ducasse, except it was so much better. Next time I aim to try their signature cheesecake and ‘misu misu’ (tiramisu). And the sencha vanilla tea was extraordinary. I drank cup after cup, just breathing in that wonderful light vanilla scent.

Their macarons also looked so delectable, sell for $11HKD each, and they also do a macaron tea set ($50HKD) that includes two macarons of your choice along with the choice of tea/coffee/hot chocolate. Did I mention that they also have a million other tea sets as well, including a scone set, as well as the full traditional afternoon tea set (a bit pricey though, I’d rather go to a hotel for that). Another large display is dedicated to Whittamer chocolates and truffles, which are imported from Belgium. And the tea is served in lovely bone china from Royal Albert. Dainty! All in all, a lovely destination for tea and cake lovers.

Antique Patisserie Tea Room
Shop 1, G/F, 46 Lyndhurst Terrace, Central, Hong Kong
Tel: 2542 2816

Antique Patisserie stores
Shop 309-310, The Lee Gardens, 33 Hysan Avenue, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
Tel: 2907 2908

Basement 2, Sogo Department Store, 555 Hennessy Rd, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
Tel: 2573 6998

waiter, is that a pantyhose in my tea?

Many times I’d walked past 蘭芳園 (Lan Fong Yuen) and gazed at it in wonder, but never stopped because I thought it to be more of a take-away stall (though I noted that you could perch on the small wooden stools on the raised platform in the front). Sneaky peeps – turns out there’s an entire restaurant hidden behind that facade! Entrance is from that small corridor on the left of the stall.

Who knew?

I was meeting two friends who happened to work in the Central district, so we arranged to have lunch there. Unfortunately, between the hours of 12:30-1:30, all the restaurants (even so-so ones) in the area are attacked by the brigade of OLs (office ladies) and besuited bankers and other working folk. When I got to Lan Fong Yuen at 12:50 the place was already heaving and there was a queue steadily forming outside. Because of its popularity, they have a policy that if all members of your party aren’t present, you can’t get a table. Two of us ended up waiting for the last person just outside of the restaurant, behind the stall, which was basically their kitchen. We watched the efficient staff do their magic in the tiny space – one man was in charge of making the famous ‘pantyhose’ milk tea (practically five orders a minute, from what we saw), another in charge of their equally famed thick toasts with peanut butter/condensed milk as well as their pork chop buns, and another piling on the toppings onto platefuls of steaming-hot ramen before the waiters would whisk them off into the restaurant.

Left: A worker busily makes cup after cup of milk tea. There are about 4-5 kettles on the boil at once on the stove. Right: My cuppa. Note the happy men in the background slurping up their ramen!

We were eventually seated at a table in the corner, along with two other groups of people – they come and go quite quickly, so in the span of half an hour there was a cheerful group of young male office workers, a young-woman/old-man couple, two teenagers, and then a tourist couple from mainland China. It’s certainly elbow-to-elbow dining, but it’s fun because you get to peek at what everyone else is ordering (the satay beef noodles looked a bit putrid, but judging from the reactions, it was divine; seeing different dishes also made me wish I’d ordered a pork chop bun – it’s so round and cute!).

I already knew what I wanted to order – I had their signature braised ramen noodles with pan-fried chicken breast and scallion oil, and a hot cup of pantyhose tea. Who knew that such simple fare could be so good? I’m not generally a fan of instant ramen, but at the very least, it was cooked very well – al dente and not soggy and watery. The pan-fried chicken breast was also surprisingly good – juicy, and with a crisp skin and SO. MUCH. FLAVOUR. There was sliced cabbage for texture, and the scallion oil was magnificent, it really brought the whole dish together. Humble food but oh-so-good (and probably oh-so-unhealthy!). It cost $36 for the lunch together (roughly £2.50) and we left feeling happy and satisfied. It’s worth noting as well that the service was really friendly – which you don’t really expect it to be, considering how busy and popular the place is (as a rule of thumb, the more popular a place is here, the less staff feel like they have to try hard with good service).

It’s worth mentioning that ‘pantyhose’ tea doesn’t really refer to what’s in it (bless you), but it does refer slightly to how it’s made. The brew is filtered through a nylon fabric that hangs like a stocking, thus its name as ‘pantyhose’ tea – reason being it really filters out any imperfections and grains in the tea, as well as somehow integrating the evaporated milk and tea together more smoothly, which results in a super silky brew. The strength of the tea is also a result of it being brewed for exactly 13 minutes, according to the owner. At times, I’m tempted to try it on my own with an unworn pair of stockings just for fun. (A trick that my dad uses to make his tea smoother, actually, is to add discarded egg shells into the pot – allegedly, some famous milk tea vendors also add this to their brew – the remaining egg white sticking to the inside of the shell somehow helps to add a smooth texture to the tea. You still have to filter it, of course, but in this case we just use a fine sieve.) By the way, the above image is courtesy of Reuters, who wrote a pretty good article on pantyhose tea, as well as Lan Fong Yuen (take a look at the related video!).

Afterwards I had a good stroll around the markets of Gage Street (where Lan Fong Yuen is located) and Graham Street. I swear I never get bored of doing so (I’ve already been twice in the week I’ve been back in Hong Kong). There’s just something so alive about these markets and streets that I can’t help but feel a pang of sadness every time I think about how they’re going to tear it down. A post about the area will probably follow, eventually.

蘭芳園 (Lan Fong Yuen)
2 Gage St, Central, Hong Kong
Tel: 2544 3895
Open daily 7am-6pm

breakfast in central

When you walk through the fresh food markets of Central, the sights and sounds can be an assault on the senses – on this occasion, so much so that we’d walked right past Hoi Wun without realising it. This was soon rectified, and we made our way into this charming little cha chaan teng (HK-style ‘tea restaurant’) for a much-needed breakfast.

Established in 1972, its humble provenance is reflected in the array of nostalgic childhood toys peppered on the cafe walls. Apparently, the owner’s brother is a designer and uses the cafe as an informal ‘gallery’ of sorts, collecting and displaying relics from the 70’s and 80’s – dolls, old piggy banks, plastic telephones and such. I regret not taking detailed photos of the displays, but may do next time (with permission)… it really is a fascinating place.

As any experienced cha chaan teng goer would know, the ideal seating is always the booth – offering the diner privacy, but with the luxury of seeing everything around them. The whole experience was more about the environment, to be honest. We ordered a simple breakfast of fried eggs and sausages with bread (I know, I know… why?), mainly because we didn’t have the power to stomach their famous satay noodles that early in the morning (and on second thought, I don’t think they serve it until lunch time!). And looking back, I wish I’d ordered a classic hot HK-style milk tea instead of the cold version (the hot drink comes in a quaint, thick rimmed cup so reminiscent of the type used in classic HK tea restaurants like these) – but after walking up and down the street in a wool coat (I underestimate how hot it can get in HK even in the dead of winter), I wanted nothing but ice. With that said, the iced milk tea still slid down like silk – smooth and velvety HK-style milk tea beats any other brew, hands-down.

Next time, I’ll be trying their recommended french toast, or the fresh-from-the-oven ‘pineapple buns’ (if you didn’t know already, the name refers to the somewhat crosshatched pattern on the bun from a crusty sugary layer, and not to its flavour) from their bakery trolley. I think that’s possibly the best way to enjoy Hoi Wun – in the lull of the afternoon, with a hearty cup of hot tea or coffee in one hand, and a bun in the other.

海運冰廳 (Hoi Wun Cafe)
28 Gage St, Central
open daily 7am-5pm
cash only
tel: 2545 4334

tee is twee

Afternoon tea is undoubtedly one of Britain’s greatest contributions to mankind. Dear sirs and madams, I tip my hat off to you. I relish the way you can just sit back and nibble delicious sweet and savoury finger foods, sip many cups of hot tea, and lounge for as long as you like in a comfortable, relaxing environment. Everything is marvellous after you take some time off to indulge in a quality afternoon tea.

Luckily for those of us in Hong Kong, the practice of a good cup of tea and a sit down is easy to locate and partake in, considering the numerous hotels and cafes that will offer ‘traditional English high tea’ during the afternoons, and unsurprising when you remember that we were once a colonial city. The cost of a proper high tea in England is more than what I could afford as a student, and so the bulk of my three-tiered gluttonous explorations have been based in Hong Kong. I’ve generally been very satisfied with the quality of afternoon tea in the city, and so I was rather excited when my mom suggested we go to the members-only (while it sounds posh, in reality anyone can join) China Tee Club in Central.