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H.L.Tam | profile | all galleries >> Hong Kong Record >> Lung Moon Restaurant tree view | thumbnails | slideshow

Lung Moon Restaurant



Lung Moon Restaurant, which has stood on Johnston Road for six decades, recently announced it will be closing its doors by the end of November.

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Lung Moon Restaurant Lung Moon Restaurant Lung Moon Restaurant Lung Moon Restaurant Lung Moon Restaurant Lung Moon Restaurant

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an nguyen 24-Jan-2010 03:12
I don't know how I miss this wonderful gallery.
I love the mood, the quaint of the atmosphere, and now, may be just a memory.
Leland Wong 10-Dec-2009 12:41
HL; this is not my writing...it's from my good friend in HK... Bill Yim, the cartoonist and caricaturist. Please give him credit. Thanks. leland
Jean-Luc Rollier 08-Dec-2009 10:12
Great work!
JL Vote
H.L.Tam 02-Dec-2009 01:52
Hi Leland,

Many thanks for your priceless background story !

HL
Leland Wong 01-Dec-2009 23:54
I shared this gallery with an old HK friend who lived in Wanchai the majority of his life. Here is what he wrote.:

Thanks for these Lung Moon pictures! I was right in front of this old restaurant in Wanchai yesterday when lots of people were there taking pictures to remember the landmark by.
I spent a lot of time there when I was a teenage, sitting there with a buddy for hours over a cup of tea, sharing a dish of char siu bao and practising the art of spitting in front of everyone.
Like playing darts, you have to aim good when you spit to make sure your slimy
phlegm fly into the spittoon instead of landing on the gung fu shoe of the guy sitting opposite you.....and he could be a ferocious Wanchai Triad.
Yeah! Teahouses in the old days were quite different from what they are these days. First of all none of them were air-conditioned. Electric fans (mostly made by General Electric) decorated the ceilings and metal spittoons were placed under every table.
Most of the customers were factory workers or labourers and many of them go there with their pet birds in cages in the morning for breakfas, smiling at them and sweet-talking to them as if they were their lovers.
Many customers were seen sitting with one foot on the floor with the other resting on the chair so they could scratch the itchy toes comfortably as they picked their noses, sipped their pu erh tea and read their daily newspaper at the same time.
There were no stainless steel dim sum trolleys or pretty dim sum girls in those days. Trays of dim sums were carried on the heads by guys with sweaty armpits who tried to catch your attention by sceaming out: "Har Gau, Siu Mai" as they slided by your table.
There were no tickets or records of what you had eaten when you went out to the cashier to pay your bill. A sweaty waiter in shorts and tanktops would come to your table, count the number of empty dishes, work out how much you owe the house and then yell out the amount in restaurant jargon:
"Grab it!" is $5
"A week!" is $7
"Give him the change!" is $9 (you give the cashier $10 and you'll get a dollar change).
Everything was so down-to-earth that you didn't have to say Thank you or Please if you were in a lousy mood because your bitchy wife had been giving you the crap all morning.
Lots have changed in Lung Moon since those days but its toilets were still the same up to the very last day yesterday: All of them were still smelly holes in the ground.
Leland Wong 01-Dec-2009 16:13
another great one is retired. thank you for capturing the spirit.
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