Yeung Hon Yuen

Around 1955, Yuen Gor’s father opened the Ning Po Restaurant on Ning Po Street. It offered rice with roasted goose and a la carte dishes served on plates depicting the words ‘Ning Po Restaurant’ at the bottom. Around 1958 to 1960, the stall was moved to Ning Po Street at a location near Canton Road; it was renamed Fat Kee Roasted Goose Restaurant. Ning Po Restaurant was the neighbor of Chung Kee  Dai Pai Dong, later both were moved to a location near a firewood shop towards the opening of Canton Road. Situated behind Fat Kee was Man Kee Café. Fat Kee specialized in rice with roasted goose, it stood side by side with Chung Kee Chaozhou-style Food Stall and Yan Yan Wonton Noodles.

Fat Kee employed 7 or 8 workers who had clear-cut duties. Besides the chef, there was a worker solely responsible to cut ingredients, a waiter who took orders from customers, and several odd-job workers who washed vegetables, dishes and the floor respectively while Yuen Gor’s father roasted the geese. But, a  Dai Pai Dong differed from a shop in that proficient discharge of duties was required of staff in all posts. Yuen Gor estimates that 70-80% of the  Dai Pai Dongs were operated by the natives of Chaozhou. In the old days, Yau Ma Tei was known as ‘a place for making money’ for being a night life hub and hangout of bad elements. Operating in the evening, Ning Po Restaurant mainly served the customers of nightclubs and nightlife establishments. The dance parlours nearby included the Seven Skies, Wah Kok and a number of brothels. The Buckingham Restaurant was also found at the junction of Ning Po Street and Nathan Road.

The Yeung family opened their third Dai Pai Dong in 1963 when the water rationing measure was implemented. It was the ‘Lai Heung Yuen’ coffee stall at the junction of Pak Hoi Street and Canton Road. Yeung Hon Yuen was in the first year of his secondary education. Unable to handle school and stall work at the same time and due to the lack of leisure time, he quitted school that year end and started his apprenticeship at the coffee stall. He learned coffee brewing from the master and did odd jobs such as takeaways delivery and bread slicing. The Lai Heung Yuen stall accommodated 9 to 10 tables. They were distributed about the back alley, street corner, the road and beside the stall, the number depended on the number of customers or police patrol schedule. Due to light traffic on Pak Hoi Street, setting tables on the road had posed no problems.

Lai Heung Yuen mainly served the coolies who travelled to work via the typhoon shelter. Other customers included workers of the marine police training school (marine police dock), market hawkers and teachers & students of the kindergartens on Pak Hoi Street. A pick-up & drop-off location was provided at the typhoon shelter at the coastal end of Pak Hoi Street, the coolies used to take a boat there for their offshore workplace. The marine police training school has now been redeveloped into a CLP power station. It used to be the repair dock for government vessels including the marine crafts as well as the transport workers’ hangout. Lai Heung Yuen operated the morning and afternoon sessions serving milk tea, coffee, sandwich and toast. It was the days when no cafes or restaurants were available for breakfast. In 1965, Yeung Hon Yuen became a qualified coffee master. He started to manage the coffee stall, but the accounts were still kept by his mother as he was still young. Lai Heung Yuen operated daily from 6:30am to 5:30pm without a break but closed for 3 days during the year. Yeung Hon Yuen started to train his own apprentices after taking over the stall. Today, many of his apprentices run their own stalls in other districts. Most Dai Pai Dong operators stayed at their stalls after business as a precaution against thieves. They set a bed with planks and stayed the night even in cold winter.

In the mid-1970s, the Urban Council arranged removal of the Dai Pai Dongs to a number of concentration camps (cooked food markets) in the district. It was done to keep Yau Ma Tei tidy and out of consideration that the stalls were undesirable both hygienically and aesthetically. Any owner who refused to move in shall have his or her licence recalled and received a compansation of $60,000. The first concentration camp was provided in the municipal services building adjacent to the King George V Memorial Park. Later, more concentration camps were provided at Portland Street, Temple Street and Reclamation Street. The Yeung family gradually withdrew from the stall business in the mid-1970s. Fat Kee, Yeung Choy Fat and Lai Heung Yuen faced different fates.

The licence owner of Fat Kee recalled his licence from Yuen Gor’s parents and applied for government compensation. Yuen Gor’s mother leased the Yeung Choy Fat licence which she owned in 1975. When she died in 1995, the licence was inherited by Yuen Gor’s father. When Yuen Gor’s father died in 2000, it was inherited by Yuen Gor’s younger sister. In August 1975, Lai Heung Yuen’s licence owner recalled the licence and renamed the stall ‘Leung Kee’. It was moved to the Temple Street concentration camp (behind Wing On Department Store) for continuous operation. After Lai Heung Yuen was closed, Yuen Gor had worked as a taxi driver and Post Office temporary worker. In March 1976, he resumed his catering career by opening the Lai Heung Yuen Café at a shop premise he purchased on Reclamation Street. Today, he is still operating the Café.

Yuen Gor delivered takeaways to the policemen in the district. In those days, it was the policemen’s habit to order food at street-side stalls for delivery to a designated place. It was an unwritten rule that the policemen shall eat free. Yuen Gor delivered the takeaways to the Yau Ma Tei Police Station on a bicycle. He would see policemen watching television in the arrest room (the lounge). On one occasion, he noticed more than 100 bottles of white liquor in the police station. Sometimes, the stall workers would be discontent with the picky and wasteful policemen, but they dared not utter a word. Instead, they played tricks on them by cooking their food with a mixture of drainage and corn starch. It was common for the Yau Ma Tei police to shun work and eat at bakeries in the evening. The takeaways were delivered to various ‘dodgers’ hangouts’. They included the Leung Kin Kee Pastry at 12-14 Battery Street, Ma Po Shan on Temple Street, and Lucky Bakery at 529-531 Canton Road.

Looking back on the years when the Yeung family operated the catering business, Yuen Gor likens the operation of a Dai Pai Dong to ‘selling oneself as a slave’ for the long working hours. Besides, the work is so hard that no time is available for rest or entertainment, let alone private time or pursuit of ideals. Fortitude is thus all an operator needs. In the early 1970s, he attended a night school after Lai Heung Yuen closed for the day. Dealing with both had exhausted him to the extent that he would bend over the table for a nap in the afternoon when customers were sparse. Lai Heung Yuen operated as usual in times of typhoon. (The anti-typhoon precaution was securing the stall from top to bottom with a hemp rope). Regular customers patronized even when the no. 8, 9 or 10 signal was hoisted.

Work might be hard, but it gave Yuen Gor a lot of good memories. He derived his greatest satisfaction from the Lai Heung Yuen coffee stall, which had good business under efficient management. He gave all the money earned to his parents and became the bread earner of the family. At the time, his parents still operated Fat Kee and Yeung Choy Fat. Businesses were good at the beginning, but profits were hardly earned later due to occasional embezzlements by employees who took advantage of his aging parents’ poor management. Besides, the Yeung family had many children. In 1975, Lai Heung Yuen’s licence holder recalled the licence and put the stall under management of his own son. In 1976, Yuen Gor purchased a shop premise on Reclamation Street and opened a cafe under the same old name ‘Lai Heung Yuen’. He opened it with the money saved during operation of the coffee stall. Yuen Gor is always proud of it.