Inside the cha chaan teng

The cha chaan teng appeared in the 1950s to serve Western-style food to Hong Kong Chinese who were not welcome in, or could not afford, the colonial restaurants. What emerged was a hybrid nobody planned.

Milk tea is the anchor: strong Ceylon blends strained repeatedly through a cloth sack, then cut with evaporated milk. The good ones are bitter enough to need the sweetness, and the sack is never washed with detergent.

The menu logic is speed. Macaroni in broth for breakfast, a set lunch with soup and a drink, pineapple buns that contain no pineapple, and French toast built from two slices, peanut butter, a deep fryer and a slab of butter.

Etiquette is brisk and not unfriendly. Share tables at peak, order in one sentence, and do not linger over the last of the tea when there is a queue at the door.

Numbers are falling as rents rise and the founding generation retires. The survivors are worth seeking out for a specific reason: they are one of the few places where a city's entire social range still eats the same lunch.