Once inside, they quickly order the boluo bau, freshly baked "pineapple buns" that havetempted generations of Hong Kong children. There is no pineapple in them, but the sweetcrispy crust that tops each bun is scored into diamond patterns like a pineapple. Mostcustomers will wash it down with a glass of chilled sweet, milky tea.
"In the first three months after I opened the restaurant, 99 percent of the customers were HongKong people living or working in Shanghai. But now, more than half are locals," says CharlieHau, the owner of the restaurant.
Nostalgia permeates the place. Old-style electric fans, antique bottles, condiment bottles onstainless steel trays, and green-and-white tiles on the floor - all these seem to come out of theset of a Wong Kar-wai film about the good old, bad old days of Hong Kong.
No wonder, because Charlie Hau himself is a filmmaker from Hong Kong,
Born and raised in Hong Kong, Hau realized hisambitions to become a film producer, but henever thought about opening a restaurant -until 2007. Shuttling between Hong Kong andShanghai, Hau found it hard to locate asatisfyingly authentic cha chan teng inShanghai - that classic Hong Kong cafe offeringgrassroots comfort food and drink.
There were already quite a number of thesecafes in Shanghai as larger numbers of peoplefrom Hong Kong came to Shanghai for pleasureand business. But few of these offered a 100-percent Hong Kong-style menu. Instead,Shanghai-style cold dishes and Sichuan-stylespicy food often adulterated the menus.
"My friend told me there were at least morethan 300,000 Hong Kong people working andliving in Shanghai then. I was stunned," Hausays. "I told myself, if there are so many, it isenough to support my business."
But many friends were not so encouraging, asthey were unsure if the local clientele wouldaccept a totally Hong Kong-style menu.
But Hau has had the last laugh. His risk paid offand his restaurant is now one of the hottestspots in Shanghai.
His insistence on authentic ingredients, decorand good service has pushed the cost up, buthis efforts have been endorsed by a growingclientele - so much so that he opened hissecond cafe last year.
"Shanghai people are more open than Iexpected. I feel very lucky to see such success here," he says, noting that more Hong Kongentrepreneurs are looking for opportunities here.
His secret to success is attention to detail. For example, Hau says his best seller is the iced milktea. The balance of milk, tea and sugar makes the tea here smooth and rich, but there is onemore secret.
Most cafes or restaurants add ice cubes into the hot tea to cool it down, but the melting icedilutes the drink and affects the taste.
Hau, however, found a brilliant way to cool the drink without affecting the flavor. He uses themilk tea itself to make ice cubes, rather than water. As a result, the milk tea remains nice andrich even when the ice cubes melt.
"I was inspired by Japanese cafes, actually. They use coffee-made ice cubes to prepare icedcoffees, so that the flavor won't be diluted," he explains.
Food-wise, Hau says the best seller is the soy sauce chicken in rose wine, a recipe which Haufound in an out-of-print cookbook.
Gulao meat, the Cantonese sweet-and-sour pork, and scrambled eggs with shrimps are alsopopular. As Hau says, there are no secret recipes, just good authentic cooking. And you canalso sample other cha chan teng classics such as instant noodles with luncheon meat and afried egg, stewed spaghetti and rice with chicken ala king.
Published: 2012-08-20 Origin: chinadaily Views: 36
