Come try our Toronto version one day, Peter! 
There are a few places where ’ ja leung ’ are made to order…piping hot, crunchy and fresh!
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Why aren’t they doing that? Not enough flow so they only make a big batch and the ja leung sits and waits too long for customer orders?
Or is it that people care more about price with the bad economy and less about quality?
Or is this considered old fashioned food that not as many order compared to before?
Its just mind blowing that this is happening. I can accept the city is in decline in many ways- economy, financial industry, container port. But I can’t wrap my mind around that even the food is declining.
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I have no idea… it’s not terrible to the point of the yau ja gwei being mushy and limp - which is what happens at the cheap congee places - but I remember it being fresh and crunch each and every time I ordered it at either Tasty or Ho Hung Kee. The crunch just isn’t there anymore.
It’s still on the menu and I order it every time without fail, and I’m sure enough people do order it.
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Or Toronto poached all the good Cantonese chefs away from HK, again… lol.
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Your first sentence’s observation likely fingers a cause for the second’s. Optimism is a key ingredient of many productive successful endeavors.
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Maybe the food is still as good as it ever was.
…
Re: poaching chefs. My friend, a chef who is in his late 40s, is originally from Hong Kong. He has been working in Canada for around 20 years. He worked in LA for a while before that. He is moving to Mainland China today, to work on a project that will likely keep him there for 3-5 years.
It’s China that’s poaching the Hong Kong chefs with their big bucks.
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The original wan chai location — they’ve been going ever since it opened.
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Well that’s too bad.
The one we had at Tasty was crunchy, as was the one at Forbidden duck that was fancier (stuffed with shrimp).
As also the versions I have eaten in nyc.
My personal view of the food here is that global chinese food has improved by leaps and bounds in the last decade, because there’s not a lot I’ve eaten here that I haven’t eaten of comparable quality in nyc (and in the case of dim sum, even in Mumbai).
Talented chefs seem to have traveled far and wide with the diaspora, and I feel lucky that I’ve had access to similar food elsewhere, rather than disappointed here (not even remotely - I’m loving all of it).
(And I’m a very picky and judgy diner, as my posts on these boards can attest 
.)
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Hong Kong’s rent is one of the highest in the world, with declining tourism, post covid home eating habits, work from home, the profit margin is getting lower. Not to talk about certain Japanese seafood products are banned in HK due to radioactivity issues. Also, locals tend to travel to other countries during vacation (especially for Japanese food). Restaurants and shops are facing very difficult time in New Territories when they see their regular clients take their weekend trip in Shenzhen due to much cheaper cost of living. Also, for some reasons, restaurants has difficulty in hiring, many places decide to close early for dinner.
Totally agreed. In short, people are saving money due to uncertainty, the reason why restaurants serving Rice with Two Sides 兩餸飯 is proliferating even in the prime locations.
SiJie today - a family run Sichuan restaurant that’s another fast favorite of my hosts.
I did not fully understand what they meant by family place / they live there until I bumped something with my chair on the way out and someone’s MURPHY BED popped open 
Very nice folks, very little English except a paper menu that we marked off (and a younger son happened to be around who understood a bit more of some fussier requests because our vegetarians had multiplied).
Delicious, fresh, beautifully seasoned and balanced food. Very different than the meal at Qi a few days ago (which was also very good, this seemed more home style and with different flavors).
We did our now usual 4 orders each of favorites.
Cold noodles with chilli oil
Smacked cucumbers
Fish in chilli oil
Sichuan salt & pepper prawns
Sichuan eggplant
House fried rice
Potato shreds with green pepper
Chicken with mixed peppers
Dry fried green beans
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After three or so dim sum meals in hk, I had the sense that the quality wasn’t that different from NYC. But upon returning to nyc, I realized I was comparing Hong Kong dim sum to a nyc best hits list, “oh, i had shumai at golden unicorn that was just as good, rice rolls at kings, etc but no one place in nyc had the across the board consistency we found in Hong Kong. And we had a couple of uniques bites that we haven’t found since.
Also, not sure what you’re seeing for price, but we found a place that was mentioned in the Mich guide and it was around $8pp
How are the tarts? I didn’t have any when we visited.
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AHEM! 兩餸飯 is now called “This this rice” in HK
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You are lucky then. I found generally the dim sum in Paris are disappointing. First, the variety is lacking. There is an absence of finesse. Also there is the fact that they are not respectful to the original recipe in putting pork and shrimp together in a siu mai but selling two types separately.
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I always parse places by items
The tarts have been good, we’ve had 3 or 4 so far I think.
The Portuguese sourdough ones had a lovely custard, I didn’t think the sourdough added much but apparently they are extremely popular.
(Almost everywhere we have eaten / eaten from has had some Michelin or other, I’m not really paying much attention as it’s the tail wagging the dog imo.)
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Yes, that is also the case elsewhere.
But even at Forbidden Duck the other day, some things were not available (eg cheung fun was a small and odd selection).
In Mumbai I miss pork shumai (they swap chicken, and seafood is also available) but the quality and finesse of other things more than makes up for that.
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Took off on my own for a half day of touristing on Lantau — monastery, Buddha, fishing village.
It was a bit cloudy and I caught a couple of showers, but the temperature was perfect and so was the light for photographs. Reminded me strongly of the hills near Mumbai in the monsoon — lush, verdant, misty, romantic
My stomach has been angry at the amount of food I’ve been stuffing in, so I took it easy today and snacked lightly from the vegetarian restaurant at the monastery. Only a few bites — took the rest home for later (or for others to snack on).
The ladies at the counter were very nice (I was the only non-chinese looking person who had wandered to the counter) as was an older lady behind me who took it upon herself to double check that I knew what I was asking for, and also that I was given exactly that
I sampled turnip cake (why aren’t they available vegetarian at regular dim sum?), a taro dumpling (ditto… the dim sum ones have pork), and a spring roll because I couldn’t resist. I also packed a portion of the “vegetable fungus noodles” in case I got hungry later (I did not).
There was also a whole display of sweet items that others partook of heavily, and a range of mock meat items.
There was also a restaurant with set menus.
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Will you be in Hong Kong much longer?
Just had some very good Cheung Fun wrapped Shrimp & YouTiou today at Imperial Treasure here in Shanghai.
They have a store in HK as well.
Looking forward to Hong Kong next year. Have fun!!!
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Yes this is what I ate at forbidden duck
But they didn’t have any of the regular “plain” kinds (shrimp, beef, etc)
I’ve got a few more days
I’ll get to a not-fancy dim sum place before I leave
I hear you!!! 
I’m a simple Yum Cha guy myself. Dining partner(s) ask me what kind of fun I prefer? I invariably say I don’t care, whatever you want. Ha, cha siu or beef, it’s all good. I’m all about the silky fun itself.
We had a less than enjoyable version yesterday, with egg and shrimp. Fun was not smooth at all and flavor was sorely lacking.
Egg in cheung fun is common on the Mainland. Never had egg in fun in HK or USA.
Too bad Tim Ho Wan is always queued up. It’s actually pretty good, for a Michelin pick. 
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