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Family-run shop with handmade steamers
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- 12 Western Street
- Mon-Fri 9am - 5pm
- +852 2548 8201
Factory-made steamers last just a month or two, while his steamers can put up with a full year of intensive use.
Handmade and sustainable
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The Lam family has been making bamboo cooking products for five generations, stretching all the way back to the current owner’s great-great-grandfather, who travelled between village markets in Guangdong.
Counting down
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Today’s, Tuck Chong Sum Kee is one of the last places in Hong Kong that makes bamboo steamers by hand. It takes three years to learn how to hand-make a steamer from a single piece of bamboo, a skill that is increasingly being replaced by low-quality mass production.
Premium quality
Lam Ying-hung, who runs the business, says factory-made steamers last just a month or two, while his steamers can put up with a full year of intensive use. That may be why his clients include famous restaurants such as Lin Heung and the Luk Yu Teahouse (Site #22).
Portraits of fading trades
Hong Kong’s conservancy Association for Heritage (CACHE) published an on-line archive of vanishing trades in the Sai Ying Pun area, featuring Mr. Lam’s bamboo shop and many more small businesses. Check online or pick up a copy of the book at CACHE.