When someone tells you they mix business with pleasure on foreign trips, take it with a pinch of salt. I believe the two make a dangerous cocktail. Imagine going on a trip with two jealous mistresses. You cannot do justice to either and only end up with frayed nerves. To avoid such excruciating situations, I limited my investors’ meet in Hong Kong to a dedicated business trip. The day was taken up by lengthy PowerPoint presentations, pie charts and bar graphs. While the ‘fragrant harbour’, popularly known as Hong Kong, shimmered below the 42nd floor of International Commerce Centre, I chewed on bland sandwiches with jasmine tea. You don’t want to burp after a rich lunch in the middle of a banker’s question about your turnover.

TO THE AIRPORT, HUH?

But this was Hong Kong. The capital of Chinese food. A melting pot of cuisines, as Chinese is no single cuisine. There is island Chinese, mainland Chinese, Cantonese, Hakka, Taiwanese, Korean, Thai, even Hong Kong Chinese, and they all do rock and roll here. My appetite was growing like King Kong’s. Ask me how I avoided looking hungrily at the international investors. When we reached the last leg, however, my team pushed towards HK International Airport, and I decided to take a detour for fried chicken wings. Of course, I promised to join them at the airport just before the flight.

A KOWLOON DETOUR

When you are determined, even the Gods intervene — a friendly Chinese cabbie, whose parents had come from Tangra of all places, whisked me away to the place where the Dragon was born. Yes, Kowloon City. This is not only the birthplace of our childhood hero Bruce Lee, but also a heaven for Thai and Cantonese food. The best way to discover its cuisine is to amble down the street. From imperial Peking duck and roast pork to hearty congee and noodle, the streets begged me to stop and chomp every two steps. Meanwhile, time was flying and I had barely scratched the surface of HK.

WELL ABOVE AND BEYOND

Was tonight going to be the night of cosmic connections? Over and above the street sounds, I heard a friend from my schooldays calling out my name. No, I was not high on Chinese poppy, it was an old friend, Ranjan, who had lived in HK for the past 30 years. The emotional reunion had to be celebrated with a dinner at HK’s most happening restaurant, Above & Beyond.

Above & Beyond serves up the most sensational Cantonese cuisine. The lush interiors on the 28th floor staged a meticulous harmony of Chinese flavours. We had Deep-fried Whitebait With Honey Chilli And Sesame. Then we tried Noodles With Mushroom And Black Truffle.

I was expertly manoeuvring the Steamed Turbot in the delicate soy sauce broth when I got frantic calls from my flight-bound friends. As I enjoyed the finest Chinese of Hong Kong, it seemed that God had designed a little surprise party for me. The last and final call for Anjan Chatterjee to reach the departure gate for flight CX 663 from Hong Kong to Mumbai rang through the busy terminal while I was transfixed in the middle of a supreme bite. The Cathay Pacific flight lifted off and took my angry and muttering friends with it. I was already well “above and beyond” by then.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

That evening, I went after my game with a vengeance. After the ascetic diet of the last few hours, I was the hungriest soul in Hong Kong, zeroing in on every item that I had missed. On my list were iconic street snacks of curry fish ball, Mak’s Noodle with shrimp wontons, roast goose drumstick, egg puff and pineapple bun. It was a list fit for at least a day or two. It might take a week even, who knows.
Next day there were more calls from Mumbai, demanding to know when to book me for the return flight. I had no clue when I would be done. It sent the whole team back home into a spin. Except my wife — she coolly rounded up all her friends and announced there would be party all week. That’s one of the reasons for chasing investors in the first place, but to come back to the point, after my flight departed without me, I was left alone in HK to settle unfinished business.

MARKET MUNCH

Food is serious business and there can be no trip to Hong Kong without a visit to Gage Street, a market street in the central district. Next morning, I woke up, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and went straight to Lan Fong Yuen to meet my friend for breakfast. Once a daipai tong, or a street-cart vendor, it has expanded into a traditional cha chaanteng and one of the best places to have Hong Kong’s milk tea with a pork chop bun on the side. Their macaroni breakfast platter summed up Hong Kong’s Sino-British moorings — it had congee, dim sum, cha siu bao (barbecue pork-filled steamed buns), chee cheong fun (rice noodle), deep-fried Chinese doughnuts, macaroni soup with ham, fried noodles and, to wash it all down, British malt drinks such as Ovaltine.

FISH AND FLOWERS

Hong Kong is no place for lazy breakfasts, though. People march in and out of the traditional eateries, finishing their brisk meals and emptying the table for the next customer. We had to do the same. You will not find anyone with a tranquil cup of coffee and a newspaper. We relaxed by looking at the flowers instead, at the flower market. We bought gold fish too, at the Tung Choi Street market. It is supposed to bring luck and for me, the day was already looking up.

WHATTABUFFET

The Verandah at The Peninsula Hotel changed my perception of an Oriental Buffet. It had given the city its first gourmet Chinese buffet — an expansive affair of fusion flavours. The play of Asian and Western cuisines turn into one of the highest creative pursuits as sushi, sashimi and smoked salmon play with teriyaki, lemongrass, and avocado and mango salsa. The buffet extended in a spread of cakes and sandwiches in the afternoon.

RIGHT BITE AT NIGHT

The afternoon gradually drifted into the glittering nightlife of Hong Kong and the city came out to swing through the remaining hours of Saturday. Next to swish fine-dining establishments you will find mom-and-pop shops that keep the night crawlers fed and happy. Though they are being crowded out by the gentrification of neighbourhoods, I found Ngau Kee Food Cafe and Nam Kee Springroll Noodle Co. that have survived on the narrow market streets. Some of these mom-and-pop shops like Yak Lok (the roast goose specialist) and Tim Ho Wan have earned Michelin stars and are the true, local food culture of HK. Ichiran, on Causeway Bay, serves customised bowls of ramen. Spicy or mild, take your pick. Another sought-after place for late-night bites is Chicken Hof & Soju, a chicken lover’s paradise. From Korean Fried Chicken to Hong Kong Drumsticks, it is worth every nickel.

FOOD AS INVESTMENT

My trip now looked successful in every way. Food is a great investment in life but most people seem to forget that. A banker may make your company’s bottomline look good, but at the end of the day it is a good life that matters. It needs small instalments of happiness. I flew back to Mumbai airport, but not without a cargo load of Hong Kong’s Chinese food, packed for my friends. No one then uttered a single word on how I had ditched them — that’s how you get away unscathed!