Red tape is slowly killing Hong Kong’s street food stalls

HONG KONG – At a street-side stall in a working-class neighbourhood in Hong Kong, a husband-and-wife team churns out orders of fried rice, toasted egg and spam sandwiches and milk tea against the roaring sound of an open-fire stove. Groups of diners hover around the stall’s seven tables, eager for something to warm their bodies on a cool fall day.

In Cantonese, dai pai dong refers to an eatery where both cooking and dining take place outdoors. Literally translating to “big-license-plate stall” – a reference to the physical size of the licences – the shops first emerged after World War II as an affordable dining option for the ranks of the city’s poor.

The lifting of the most severe Covid travel rules and social distancing restrictions in recent weeks will help dai pai dong recover to some extent, but the more entrenched challenge may be navigating the layers of red tape that keep operating the stalls difficult. “It’d be best if the licence could be easily transferable to the next generation,” said Ms Sandy Yau of Kan Kee in Sham Shui Po, which has been in business for over 50 years. Her husband is the third-generation operator, yet the family has difficulty registering him as the licensee as his grandfather, the current licensee, is still alive.

Mr Toby Choi, 31, helps run Dai Lee Dai Pai Dong, located in a municipal services building also in Sham Shui Po. He had been working as an accountant in the US before returning to help operate his father’s eatery, which shifted indoors in 1996. Choi said he hopes the government can issue new licences for outdoor dai pai dong, even if they have to be more stringent on health and safety issues.

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