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  • [knife thuds] [food sizzling]

  • - We just got here early.

  • Sun still up.

  • People aren't quite here yet

  • but the kitchen just started cranking,

  • so let's see what they're cooking at Oi Man Sang

  • [Lucas speaking in foreign language]

  • This is what we call a Dai Pai Dong,

  • which literally translates

  • to big license stall. [text booming]

  • They make this thing we call Xiao Chao, small stir fries.

  • They specialize in fresh seafood, huge amount of seasoning,

  • big aromatics, high octane cooking.

  • Always absorbing new cultural influences

  • serving a huge amount of people.

  • So we're in the district,

  • a neighborhood called Sham Shui Po.

  • Sham Shui Po is known for a lot of manufacturing,

  • a lot of textiles...

  • And this type of eating was sort of blue collar

  • and democratic in all over the place.

  • Everyone from every sector of society all over Hong Kong,

  • will descend on places like this

  • because you're gonna drink cold beer,

  • eat hot food, all four seasons.

  • Because of the history, the push and pull.

  • There aren't that many Dai Pai Dongs left.

  • In Hong Kong, there are probably only around

  • about 20 of these guys left.

  • You'd read different stories.

  • Some people might say,

  • "There used to be 700, there used to be 2000,

  • there used to be 3000."

  • Point is as wonderful as this place is,

  • a little bit of a rare site.

  • These are really traditional

  • old school types of restaurants in Hong Kong

  • where government gave people licenses

  • to cook on this street.

  • Now, the government doesn't issue these licenses anymore

  • which means that the only way to keep cooking

  • at a place like this is to transfer that license

  • from a friend to a friend,

  • or from one generation to the next generation.

  • [Both speaking in foreign language]

  • So this license, they've held onto for 60 years.

  • As a result, these guys are guys who are operating it.

  • They're not the owners of the license,

  • but they're the operators of the restaurant.

  • The way it's set up is based on lines.

  • This chef's job here, what you might call a garde manger,

  • is to put together these little bowls of ingredients

  • that are then passed off to the wok station,

  • so that all the wok guys need to do, is cook it.

  • And then put it on top of a plate.

  • Whatever the chef needs for the dish,

  • that's the guy that's gonna put it all together.

  • On the right hand side, is the seafood butcher.

  • He's going to butcher, clean, and prepare

  • all the seafood to order. [scaler scrapping]

  • All the seafood,

  • fresh comes in every single day.

  • [knife chops]

  • These tanks are all live fish.

  • You get pomfret, you have [speaks in foreign language]

  • and crabs as well.

  • And that's what we're gonna ask chef to make.

  • This is crab that's known for its flesh.

  • It's killed to order.

  • Chopped up, split up, butchered.

  • [knife chops] Woo.

  • In the middle are two chefs each with their own woks.

  • They specialize in their own dishes.

  • Right hand side, tend to be the slightly more complicated,

  • oftentimes seafood dishes.

  • Left hand side, a lot more sauces and vegetables,

  • stir fries.

  • Everything they need is an exact arms reach.

  • They share a seasoning station in the middle

  • that has all the things they need.

  • Oyster sauce, salt, sugar, MSG, chili oil, chili paste.

  • The chefs don't even need to see the order.

  • Once they see the ingredient hit the table,

  • they know what dish they have to make.

  • All the chef needs to focus on is cooking.

  • [fire blazing] [food sizzling]

  • Flip, flip, flip, flip, flip.

  • Only needs a couple of tosses

  • to bring everything together.

  • Oh my God.

  • That was like four or five tosses, 15, 20 seconds.

  • No joke.

  • [text booming]

  • When you're stir frying, if you toss something into the air,

  • then, when it's in the air,

  • because of how hot that wok is, it stops cooking.

  • When it touches that wok again, it's hot again.

  • So it's cooking only by conduction.

  • So as it tosses, and tosses, and tosses,

  • it's like, [imitates food searing]

  • and just gets seared, and seared, and seared all over again.

  • That temperature reaches 400 plus degrees.

  • It goes through the Maillard reaction

  • and all those sugars inside of those ingredients

  • starts to caramelize.

  • There's a sweetness, umami...

  • All of that starts to be expressed.

  • The wok cooks will finish the cook in a matter of minutes,

  • if not seconds. [text booming]

  • Once that hot food is done,

  • it's gonna come out right in the middle

  • where the servers will pick those plates up

  • and bust 'em directly to the tables.

  • [Both speaking in foreign language]

  • Oooh.

  • Now, because this is a Dai Pai Dong,

  • this is not a regular Chinese restaurant inside.

  • The government gives him a license

  • that's been grandfathered in to cook with kerosene.

  • Kerosene.

  • Oh my God.

  • Okay.

  • That's a secret.

  • Kerosene makes this extra, extra, extra hot.

  • You can't get stove tops this hot in Hong Kong anymore.

  • [fire blazing]

  • [Both speaking in foreign language]

  • In Hong Kong, restaurants don't really take tips.

  • So if you were a restaurateur, you ran restaurants,

  • and you wanted to make a little bit more money,

  • the key is to serve more people.

  • That's where this essence of speed comes in.

  • It's all about a brutalist sort of efficiency, right?

  • The tables here span the entire block.

  • And honestly, there's a type of freedom

  • and do whatever you want spirit.

  • The number of tables that are in this restaurant

  • that they can serve,

  • is depending on where the cars are parked.

  • Today, unfortunately for them, as you can see,

  • somebody else parked their car

  • right where these folding tables,

  • and these plastic stools are supposed to be.

  • So sat down for dinner, a bunch of friends came with us.

  • We're gonna get some Dai Pai Dong food.

  • [group speaking in foreign language]

  • - That's a lot...

  • [Lucas and server speaks in foreign language]

  • That lady said,

  • I think they do at least three or four turns here at night.

  • The funny thing is she has no idea

  • how many people she serves a night,

  • which I'm sure she knows how much money she's making.

  • [speaks in foreign language] This is my favorite dish.

  • This is the dish you ordered

  • to test the wok technique of the chef.

  • Very familiar clay pot. Oh, my goodness we can't stop.

  • [text booming]

  • When you get to describe food in studio,

  • they can talk through all the ingredients if you have time,

  • but here, everything happens so fast.

  • It's like sports casting,

  • you have to like- - 'Cause everything

  • is served fast.

  • - And you have to like, [laughs]

  • Okay, Typhoon Shelter Crab.

  • Look at this. Are you joking? - Whoa.

  • - Are you joking? That's a whole claw.

  • No joke. [slurping] It's so hot.

  • You want those like earthy,

  • almost burnt chili crisp tones right at the end.

  • But at the top, you want that bright sparks

  • of that small, dried birds eye chili.

  • And then the fresh pepper, don't really taste it that much

  • but that's mostly there for color.

  • I think so much about Dai Pai Dong cooking is about style.

  • And here, chef is trying to address

  • all those layers of heat.

  • I'm just sitting here

  • and for the next two minutes I'm gonna be tasting that crab.

  • - He's got all the- - Yeah.

  • [all laughing] - Like, he's so good.

  • - [Lucas] The first time I came to Oi Man Sang

  • was seeing chef off in the distance.

  • When you walk into this restaurant space,

  • you walk down the middle of the road...

  • And in this kitchen, all you see

  • are his bright yellow shorts flapping in the wind.

  • Chef has forearms of a wok God, nothing stops him.

  • No heat, no fire, no injury,

  • because he's the coolest dude in all of Hong Kong.

  • [fire blazing] [Chef laughs]

  • Cheers. Thank you for coming. - Cheers.

  • - Thanks for having us. [glass clanks]

  • [Lucas speaks in foreign language]

  • [glass thuds] - Okay, let's get out of here.

  • Ciao. [chair clattering]

  • I should pay, I should pay.

  • I'll pay. [all laughing]

[knife thuds] [food sizzling]

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