Tucked in a corner of Spring Garden Lane in Wanchai, sits a little old-style Hong Kong cafe called Kam Fung. It's well-known among the locals, and tourists throng it too, guidebooks in hand.
The house specialities!
The place is famous for its milk tea, chicken pies and pineapple buns (which ironically, contain no pineapple at all). Other pastries tease passers-by through the glass shelves behind the owner manning the cash register, but the pies are the main draw, and it isn't unusual to see two queues in front of the cafe; one for seating and another for takeaway.
My better half and I often cannot resist popping in for a snack when we're in the area. She loves the butter-crusted pies. They're savory and sweet all at once, crumbling and melting in the mouth. Paired with the house specialty, cold milk tea, it's a little piece of heaven!
Milk tea is a Hong Kong cafe must-have, and this place serves arguably the best. The quality is highly consistent and that very dependability brings regulars back again and again. The tea is made, then chilled for hours so that when you order it cold, the waiter takes a little tank of it out of the fridge by the door, and pours it for you without having to dilute the flavor with ice. (If you want it hot, it's whipped up fresh in the kitchen.) On a hot summer's day, it's amazing!
Seating is limited; a mix of 2 and 4-person booths and little round tables. Turnover is usually quick as people often wolf down their orders and head out the door. When it's peak time, sharing tables is a norm, tight though that can be. People are used to it however, and amiably wiggle a few millimeters left or right to make room for a newcomer to the table.
We usually make it a point to bring visiting friends here so they get a taste of old Hong Kong, and many fall for those famous pies too. I did this sketch after meeting a friend who had become a recent pie-convert.
There's more to show and more to sketch though, so I'll visit again another time and maybe fuel my sketches with another pie.
