When my ex-husband and I first started coming here 10 years ago, he referred to Lin Heung as the place where old people go to die. We used to come here really early in the morning because both of us are high-strung about queueing at restaurants. His family is from Hong Kong, but they never had a granny who they could send over to queue for them at dimsum places. (Something you might notice at the more popular dimsum places is the large number of elderly who have been sent ahead like ninjas to grab seating tickets for their families. That's why a lot of places have set up chairs and mahjong tables. Those aren't for you, those are for the old ones.) So that meant that my ex-husband's family usually had to troop off early in order to secure a table, and that got him into the habit of rushing to restaurants really early.
By the way, I know I've referred to my ex-husband quite a few times already and that's because he's still one of the most decent and funniest guys I've ever met. Things didn't work out between us, obviously, but even though we don't stay in touch, I still think of him positively.
Lin Heung is at 162 Wellington Street in Central, right around the wet market.
Their bakery is also famous for its mooncakes, which are made in a really old-fashioned style -- thick skin, very dense lotus paste and heart attack-inducing double egg yolks. They also have the other types of mooncakes with bean paste, etc. but I don't fuck with those.
My friend and I went on a weekday before lunch, so it was relatively uncrowded. The waiter was super nice and seated us with a pair of Taiwanese tourist chicks. This is one of those places where you will definitely have to share tables with strangers.
The cashier where you pay. At dimsum places, you're given a piece of paper that is stamped each time you get a dish. At the cashier, you give the paper to the lady and then she calculates the number of stamps. Incidentally, Lin Heung is pretty cheap. Meals for two are usually about HKD150 if you eat a lot. My friend and I ended up only spending HKD88.
As soon as you're shown your table, the waiter will ask you what kind of tea you want. It's usually a choice between heung pin (茉莉花) or jasmine tea, sau mei (壽眉) or peony tea, and bo lei (普洱) or dirty water used to clean rust from trucks.
Seriously, though, I only ever order heung pin because sau mei makes me too thirsty and bo lei is disgusting. It's pu'er tea, but often a really shitty version of it.
At Lin Heung, they give you a bowl of hot water to wash your utensils and bowls in. You can see our paper with the numbers for stamps underneath the bowl.
Our first dish was radish cake. My friend was kind of shocked at how big it was. Lin Heung's food is quite old-fashioned, so it's usually surprising to people who eat at the more modern dimsum places.
Radish cake close up.
Char siu bao or steamed roasted pork bun. I love Lin Heung's version. Very hearty and the bread tastes wonderful.
Look, it's bo lei tea being prepared!
Cheung fan. I asked the lady for extra sauce. We got the one with shrimp. My brother and I got the beef one before and it wasn't good.
Lin Heung is one of the few places that still use a cart system for dimsum. You can see the mad scramble every time an auntie comes out with a cart of food. It's quite scary wading in. If you want to know what it feels like to be a celebrity mobbed by crazed fans, you should try getting a job at Lin Heung.
I'm not fond of siu mei, and this was merely acceptable, I thought.
That poor cart lady!
This was just lovely! This was siu mei but with quail egg.
The kindly uncle who sat at our table after the Taiwanese chicks left was sooo sweet! He told us: "Kids, I can't finish this all by myself, so why don't you share it with me?"
Yes, you can order off the menu, as well, at Lin Heung. I should do that next time I'm there. He got fried egg and steamed pork rice.
Oh, I love egg yolk on rice. Whenever I'm feeling poor and need to economize, I survive on fried egg and rice, topped with soy sauce. Bliss.
Anyway, as you can see, we didn't order too many things to eat because the radish cake really slowed us down, and we're not used to eating so early in the morning. However, I'll be back at Lin Heung when a friend comes in from out of town, and I'll do a part 2.
