Hong Kong's first teahouse was called "Xing Fa House", which was built in 1846 at Shui Hang Hau on Sheung Wan Road. In the 19th century, Hong Kong had a long curfew, and the development of teahouses was slow, until the curfew was lifted in 1897, and major teahouses sprung up. At that time, teahouses could play chess and walk birds, and big-name teahouses even invited famous Cantonese opera singers to sing, so teahouse pastime has also become a leisure activity for people.
Hong Kong's tea-drinking style was passed down from Guangzhou. Opened in 1889, Guangzhou Lianxiang House is known as the "first lotus pastry", and its predecessor was Lianxiang Cake Pastry Restaurant, which specializes in pastry and delicacies. In 1918, Lin Heung House opened in Hong Kong, and then opened 3 branches in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, in 1960, many old buildings were demolished and rebuilt, and only Wellington Street in Central was left for business. Nowadays, the Lin Heung Lou in Guangzhou and Hong Kong are homologous and different, but they are no longer connected and the types of food are very different, and the old-fashioned dim sum recommended below has long since disappeared without a trace in Guangzhou's morning tea shops. In order to attract the hot business, Lianxiang House opened a branch "Lianxiangju" on Des Voeux Road West Street in Sheung Wan not far away, producing a replica of Lianxianglou with the environment.
Lian Heung Lou is a very old-fashioned restaurant with little innovation. There are no consultants, no VIP rooms, many people, noisy, and shared tables are the characteristics of Lianxiang Building. Open from 6 a.m., morning tea refreshments are served until 4 p.m. The waiters are all old, quick and impatient. As soon as the trolleys come out, diners often flock to them.
Taste the lotus fragrance building, the first chicken ball bag. Hong Kong foodie Cai Lan also praised his chicken ball bag. This dim sum is limited every day and is often sold out when it is late. The appearance is not good-looking, but the production process is quite cumbersome, of which the dough is the key. The well-made chicken balls are packed with dough, which burst like flowers blooming after steaming, and the meat filling is faintly visible, and the skin is soft and not sticky to the teeth. If the hair is not good, it is too hard and the skin is broken. When you break open the skin of the bun, the meat filling inside is steaming hot, and there are shiitake mushrooms, chicken, salted egg yolks, quail eggs and other fillings, which are rich and flavorful. Chicken balls used to be divided among manual laborers, and they were large in size, but the price was half that of ordinary dim sum. The cumbersome production of chicken ball buns, and the subsequent orders are affected by strong satiety, which has been abandoned by most morning tea shops in Hong Kong, and only a few time-honored brands such as Lianxiang Building, Lu Yu Tea House, and Fengcheng Restaurant have preserved it as a tradition.
The menu price of Lianxiang House is about 2/3 of that of Lu Yu Tea House. Old-fashioned dim sum shines here. There are egg yolk and jute buns in Lu Yu's tea room, and there are egg yolk lotus paste buns in Lianxiang Building, and the buns are steaming when they are broken, but they are not a whole salted egg yolk, not as firm and distinct as Lu Yu's tea room. However, when you taste it, the lotus paste tastes pure, sweet and not greasy, the salted egg yolk is delicate and sandy, and the combination of sweet and salty complements each other, and the product is not bad. In addition, Lianxianglou egg yolk mille-feuille cake is also worth trying, with distinct layers of yellow and white, soft taste, full of milky flavor, sweetness and softness are just right, and it is even difficult to find in Guangzhou.
The four sides of the hall are decorated with ancient Chinese poems, landscape calligraphy and paintings, and the elderly are usually seen only on weekday mornings, and on weekends there are diners who come from all over the world. However, the hygienic environment of the two restaurants is worrisome, with dirty dishes and chopsticks placed directly on the floor of the hall, and the steamer has been used for many years and has a shabby dark texture. Cash and Octopus can be used at checkout. In addition, when leaving, you can also go to the lotus cake house on the first floor to buy souvenirs, traditional chess cake cake, red date cake, lotus paste cake and so on are very good.
