Just returned from a short jaunt to one of my favourite Asian cities - Hong Kong - and I left feeling a little disenchanted with the pace of change that's sweeping the city.
Old hole-in-the-wall eats have made way for mid-to-large sized commercial chains (not necessarily F&B) as rentals get jacked up by property owners. The irresistible 'ka-ching' of better returns mean shovelling out mom & pop local food joints, and throwing out a red-carpeted welcome to branded stores willing to fork over inflated rental fees in the heart of the shopping districts, like Causeway Bay and its surrounds.
The trail of such joints shrivelling up at familiar spots on both the Hong Kong island and Tsim Sha Tsui sides have dampened my enthusiasm in visiting Hong Kong for eats nowadays. Add to that the joy of serendipitous discoveries of makeshift noodle stalls with mouth-watering menus in side alleyways.
I hear the old eating shops have either closed for good or moved further north towards outer Kowloon or the New Territories. One day they'll be forced out for good. Sign of progress, or regression at the mercy of commercialisation?
Having said that - the Hollywood/SoHo area still retains much of their easy, laid-back Cantonese neighbourhood charms, and while the expat community is existing cheek-by-jowl with the locals circa the Mid-Levels, the import of a deeply rooted eclectic F&B culture is not lost on the proprietors of those joints. While new cultural melting pots (by way of e.g. Thai, Vietnamese etc) have invaded the neighbourhood, it retains enough of an Asian-ness and Hong Kong-ness not to be mistaken for some western enclave with token Asian food joints. Let's hope it stays that way.
My wish for Hong Kong is to embrace the old with the new, and not to destroy the charm that these local mom & pop eats provide alongside the gleaming skyscrapers that dot the city skyline. If nothing is done to arrest the slide, soon we'll only be holding onto distant memories of a rich local experience that visitors have enjoyed from the island itself - and that can't be good.
