How has Hong Kong’s food landscape changed since your childhood?
I grew up in Prince Edward and my grandparents were in Sham Shui Po, so I was always back and forth between these two areas. There are [still] the dai pai dong in the Sham Shui Po area but a lot of this really authentic stuff is disappearing.
Over time you see more and more places that have been open for 60 years but are closing in a matter of months. It is a tough business, though, with the rent in Hong Kong. For example, once I understood how to cook, I could not believe how cheap puff pastry egg tarts could be given the labour that goes into them. It's insane that puff pastries made in-house can cost [as little as] HK$10.
How do you think they do it?
I think Hong Kong people are really hardworking. They don’t think about, oh, does it make sense given the amount of time and labour it takes, and not being able to see my kids grow up
