Hong Kong, Between Courses

Hong Kong has a way of changing its mind about you every few streets. One moment you are walking past a tailor's window in Central, considering whether a jacket might improve your afternoon; the next, you are standing beside a market stall in Sham Shui Po, wondering how anyone can make a decision about so many kinds of electrical cable. Somewhere in between, somebody has suggested lunch.

This is a city where lunch is rarely an insignificant suggestion. It may mean dim sum shared around a crowded table, a bowl of noodles enjoyed rather more quickly than intended, or an unhurried meal high above the harbour. A cha chaan teng can offer the peculiar comfort of a menu that seems to contain everything one has ever wanted, including several things one had not thought to want until seeing them on another table. Order a milk tea, make room for something warm from the kitchen, and try not to mistake the briskness of service for a lack of affection. There are people waiting for their lunch, after all.

A city that remembers and rebuilds

Hong Kong's story cannot be reduced to a harbour view and a few handsome old buildings. It has been a trading port, a British colony, a place of migration and industry, and, since 1997, a special administrative region of China. Each chapter has left traces, though the city is not in the habit of standing still while visitors inspect them.

In Central and Sheung Wan, older streets and temples sit among offices, galleries and shops that would be delighted to sell you a very expensive chair. Walk along Hollywood Road and Upper Lascar Row, then take a turn towards the slopes of Tai Ping Shan. The pleasure is in the changes of pace: incense giving way to coffee, a shop window full of objects with past lives, and a staircase that appears perfectly reasonable until one is halfway up it.

Central can be polished, ambitious and rather splendid. A well-cut jacket does not feel misplaced beside its hotel bars and restaurants; neither does a healthy curiosity about the price of a cocktail before ordering another. The city has long known how to make an evening feel like an occasion.

Across the harbour

Sham Shui Po offers a different encounter. Its history as a commercial and industrial district lives on in streets associated with fabrics, electronics, food stalls and small businesses, even as cafés and newer shops arrive. A walk might take you from the haberdashery around Yu Chau Street to the bustle of Apliu Street, with a pause for something to eat whenever the scent makes continuing feel unreasonable.

The district is a real neighbourhood, not an exhibition of somebody else's hardship. Some residents face serious housing and financial pressures; others are running businesses, meeting friends, shopping or simply trying to get home. Visit with the same consideration you would want on your own street. Look closely, spend thoughtfully, and let people go about their day without treating them as background for a photograph.

Mong Kok brings a different energy: crowds, signs, market streets and a sense that the city has made several plans for the evening and intends to keep all of them. Tsim Sha Tsui, meanwhile, can move from a busy pavement to a view across Victoria Harbour in the time it takes to reconsider your dinner reservation. Take the Star Ferry if it suits your route; a crossing is a rather charming reminder that getting somewhere can be part of the pleasure.

The addresses worth a detour

A city becomes more personal when its neighbourhoods acquire particular doors. In Sham Shui Po, Lau Sum Kee Noodle on Kweilin Street is a place to consider for a bowl of noodles; Oi Man Sang on Shek Kip Mei Street offers the theatre of a street-side wok. Neither requires a complicated explanation before lunch. Go hungry, be patient if it is busy, and remember that the room belongs as much to its regulars as to anyone who has made a special journey.

A little further into the district's history, Mei Ho House began as part of Hong Kong's early resettlement housing after the Shek Kip Mei fire of 1953. Its heritage displays offer a more thoughtful way to understand the lives behind the city's buildings than treating an old estate as an atmospheric backdrop. Allow time for the stories, not simply the photograph.

In Kowloon City, Islam Food is known for pan-fried beef buns. It is the sort of address around which an afternoon can sensibly be arranged: eat first, then walk, then consider whether another small meal is an entirely unreasonable proposal. Kowloon City's food reflects several communities and traditions, so let curiosity extend beyond a single famous dish.

Take the slower boat

For a Hong Kong afternoon that feels a little further from the office towers, take the ferry to Peng Chau. Walk without demanding an elaborate itinerary, notice the shops and lanes around the pier, and visit the island's Tin Hau Temple if it is open to visitors. The island has its own working life and residents; its appeal is not that it has been arranged as an escape for everyone else.

The journey from Central is part of the occasion. Find a seat, put the telephone away for a moment and watch the city change shape behind you. A return ferry and something good to eat may be enough of a plan. There are afternoons that improve considerably when one does not attempt to conquer them.

One drink, perhaps two

Hong Kong is particularly good at the evening that develops one suggestion at a time. Begin with a drink in Central or Sheung Wan, walk to another bar if the mood takes you, and stop for a late meal when somebody admits they are hungry again. A bar-hopping plan need not become a challenge to visit every address on a list. Two interesting rooms and a good conversation are usually more memorable than six receipts and an uncertain journey home.

For something more intimate, Blue Supreme on Tung Street has a particular interest in Belgian and other beers; nearby Craftissimo combines a neighbourhood bar and beer shop. In Wan Chai, Tai Lung Fung offers a more nostalgic atmosphere. Each makes a different sort of evening, and none needs to be fitted into the same night merely because it appears on a list. Check current opening hours and reserve when appropriate; the city has a habit of changing faster than an old recommendation can be crossed out. Be kind to the people making your drinks, pace yourself, and do not expect every evening to require a view of the harbour. Though, admittedly, the harbour rarely hurts.

Room for contradictions

The temptation is to divide Hong Kong into tidy opposites: old and new, rich and poor, east and west, street food and fine dining. Those contrasts exist, but the city is more interesting when allowed to be untidy. A single day might contain an old neighbourhood breakfast, an afternoon among contemporary galleries and a drink somewhere with excellent glassware.

Leave room for the ordinary pleasures between the famous ones: the ferry ride, the newspaper at breakfast, the bakery you return to because you liked it, and the shopkeeper who points you in the right direction. Hong Kong does not need to be understood in a weekend to be enjoyed. It is quite enough to leave with a better question, a favourite meal and the feeling that you will need to come back.