^All kinds of tea leaves in the glass jars. The far side on the wall is an old-styled clock. The restaurant is not air-conditioned, which is rarely found these days. The composition uses the customers in the background to complement the message of the tea leaf jars.
Some weeks ago the Macau series was interrupted by an influx of news regarding the unveiling of new compact cameras. Today the topic carries on.
Among the many old places worthy of a visit in Macau (by the way, if you are new to us, Macau is a special administrative region under the sovereignty of China and is an hour of catamaran ride from Hong Kong), the old teahouse is certainly an eye opener to gweilos and gweipos, as well as the young locals.
Lung Wah Restaurant of Macau is the most sensational one.
Going to any of these Chinese restaurant is generally known as Hui (go to) Yum Cha. The Cha (tea) is the largest element here. By the way, Yum Cha is primarily a Cantonese (southern China) culture.
The first thing after being seated is Hoi Cha (start a tea) or Hoi Wei (start a table), which means picking your favourite tea for the drinking bouts throughout the meal. The common choices are Jasmine and Po Lei. I said drinking bouts because time and again my overseas friends excused for not being able to take the frequently replenished tea anymore, which to the Chinese is what Yum Cha is very much about.
^An interesting sight is given by the contrast of the old teapot cabinet and the large Google Earth image printout saying "You Are Here". The contrast was the reason why I picked this scene to give viewers some reference about the picture, and hopefully a greater interest.
In an old restaurant like Lung Wah, serving tea is done in an old fashion way. On the corner of the dinning room next to the cashier which seated the friendly, middle-aged boss is an extensive cabinet where all the drinking utensils were placed. The bamboo food cases containing steaming hot dim sums were piled up at another corner adjacent to the staircase.
In the modern context, this setting speaks for untidiness and poor hygiene. The tea leaves were put in the teapots by the old waitress in bare hands. It is not uncommon for customers to go over to the cabinet and add tea leaves themselves in the tea pot though. Food was self-served by picking the bamboo food cases holding your favourite food.
^Two customers are chatting over their cups of tea. In case you wonder how, this photo was exposed by centre-metering the windows.
It doesn't matter whether you arrive at Lung Wah sooner or later because, first, they didn't seem to have lots of customers on the day of my visit and, second, there were only four choices of dim sums and you would not ever miss the better food which would sell out quicker.
Actually, the main purpose for a tourist going there is more of taking photos and admiring the quality of oldness to it, which is yet to be completed with the common sight of such restaurants in the old days: spittoons.
If you're in Hong Kong and fancy a trip to the like of Lung Wah, the Hong Kong equivalent should be Tak Yu Restaurant in Yaumatei, which probably still provides spittoons to customers; Lung Mun Restaurant in Wah Chai which is not as primitive; there is a mid-hill open-air Yum cha place in Tsuen Wah which you'll need a local to take you there.
Comments