Dah Wing Wah

The walled villages in the New Territories are traditionally homes to the Hakka, a roaming and hardworking people who moved to Hong Kong, among many other places, from the Central Plains of China. Their lifestyle spawned a unique cuisine featuring the liberal use of salt, preserved ingredients and fatty meat. Established in 1950, Dah Wing Wah is the most famous restaurant in Hong Kong for walled-village dishes. Its head chef and managing partner, Hugo Leung Man-to, is famous for his efforts at enhancing and preserving traditional dishes. Hugo sources local ingredients from small farms and food producers whenever possible, and complements them with his insightful experience and innovations in cooking. He thinks shrimps in Hong Kong, mostly farmed in mainland China, taste bland, so he boosts them with Baxter’s lobster bisque. His ideas work. People have been zooming into this far corner of town to line up for tables. Must-eats include lemon-steamed grey mullet, smoked oysters and Malay sponge cake. Hugo hosts TV food shows, designs gourmet tours and writes newspaper columns.