South Wall Road
There’s no need to catch a flight to Bangkok for fresh lemongrass, mango sticky rice and fruit you’ve never seen before. South Wall Road, which runs for just two blocks between Prince Edward Road and Kowloon Walled City Park, is the pulsing heart of Hong Kong’s Thai community, packed with restaurants, grocery stores and beauty salons.
Sweet and spicy and sour
Follow your nose and listen to the growling of your stomach: this is a place to eat. Your first stop should be the takeaway restaurant at the corner of South Wall Road and Nga Tsin Wai Road, where you can grab typical Thai street meat. Insist on having the spices and herbs in your dish ground up with the large wooden penis that sits on the counter.
A Thai dessert shop and a handful of sit-down joints round out South Wall Road’s restaurant offerings. But it’s the half-dozen grocery stores that really make this street worth visiting. Under the watchful stare of Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej, browse around for chilis, curry powders, fresh herbs and imported food. In the back of one shop, there’s even a sofa and a giant TV. Sit down with some fluorescent-coloured Thai sweets and watch a cheesy soap opera.
Blend your cultures
Next to the Thai flags, king’s portraits and Thai Buddhist shrines that festoon the shops on South Wall Road are the same Chinese ancestral altars you find in many Hong Kong homes and businesses. From the 17th to the 20th centuries, generations of Chinese workers settled in Thailand, where many adopted Thai names and assimilated into Thai culture. In more recent decades, however, some of those Thai-Chinese have moved to Hong Kong.
How to get there
It’s all about the buses. If you’re coming from the island, take any one of these cross-harbour lines: 101, 103, 109, 111, 113 and 182. From Kowloon, hop on the number 1 or 1A bus on Nathan Road, the 25M minibus at Kowloon Tong MTR or the number 21 bus at Choi Hung MTR.
Another version of this article was originally published in Time Out Hong Kong’s Streetwise column.
Tags: Exploring the City, Hong Kong, Kowloon, Streetwise
Ellen says:
It’s so interesting to contemplate the idea of immigrating, absorbing another culture and then moving back. It reminds us of how malleable the bonds of culture really are.
February 15th, 2009 at 8:20 pm