4 - Flavour of Human Warmth: A Narrative of Relationship/Affinity in Hong Kong's Caacaanteng

Hong Kong has been known for her plethora of cuisines as well as marked dichotomy between ‘cosmopolitan dining-out culture and more conservative Chinese cooking at home’ (Cheung, 2022). From time under British colonial rule to her current status as a special administrative region of China, Hong Kong has been a hotbed of hybridization and creolization, especially in her foodways (Watsons, 1997). Caacaanteng, literally Tea Restaurant, can be regarded as the epitome of such process, serving an eclectic menu of mixed origins for the public at a reasonable price: a lunch set of Cantonese barbequed pork with spaghetti in broth, side of omelet and toast, and a HK-Style Milktea costs only GBP$4. As HK’s most common kind of restaurant, its long opening hours and no-frills efficient operation make them not only a “third place” in Oldenburg’s sense (1989), but also as many claim, espousing a flavor of human warmth (人情味; renqingwei). As a ubiquitous Sinophone notion, and particularly for independent caacaantengs of history, while hinting towards nostalgia, such flavor continues pervading people’s understanding and utterances. Based on observant-participation as a waiter at the Silver Park Caacaanteng, this paper interrogates the macro narrative of flavor of human warmth by examining relationships, memories and embodied experiences, the aggregate foodscape at caacaanteng from a nano perspective. It argues that this flavor is constituted not only by food and relationships, but also sensorial experience, especially the foul senses, ‘unintentionally curated’ by its operation.