Dai Pai Dongs

My mom felt very strongly that whatever country it is you're living and growing up in, you must be able to speak their language and appreciate their food. So every morning while I was in kindergarden she would take me to one of those alleyway dai pai dongs for breakfast. My little jok and cheung fun joint was at the entrance of this dingy, surely rat and cockroach infested alleyway on Tak Shing Street in Jordan. Sadly, I have had a difficult time locating this type of 'In Blatant Violation Of Health Code' dai pai dongs since moving back to Hong Kong from Korea. The photo above was a street woon jai chee place that I used to frequent A LOT..but it too died at the hands of Big Health.

During my mom's recent visit to HK she and I were having a bit to drink and were talking about those street dai pai dongs and the both of us got a craving for some jok..so off we went!

Yeah, it was nice..but when you see the dudes in the kitchen with their shirts on? It's just not the same. I'll even settle for wife-beaters. Well, what can you do eh?

What do you mean what can you do? Take them to Temple Street of course!

Look at that smile! I found it incredibly cute how happy she was haha.

I don't remember this, but apparently she used to take my brother my sister and me to Temple Street quite often when we were kids to eat. She took minimal hygiene precautions by bringing our own chopsticks and such..but we basically grew up on Temple Street dai pai dongs. That night was the first time in over 20 years that I went to a proper dai pai dong with my parents. It was great.

So if anyone reading this know of any good street dai pai dongs please let me know. I want to be a good son by taking my parents to the cheapest eateries I can find ha