Lei Yue Mun

We were looking forward to eating at the famous Lei Yue Mun fishing village on the Kowloon mainland coast diagonally across the harbour from where we live. There are dozens of fishing boats that operate from the village and there are many fishmonger shops where they stock fresh seafood in tanks of seawater.

The usual deal is that you visit one of these shops, select your fish, crab or whatever, pay for it and the fishmonger will then deliver it to your chosen restaurant where they will cook it for you (for a small fee) and you can order rice, noodles and other dishes to accompany your seafood from the restaurant. That way your seafood dinner could hardly be fresher.

Sure enough, the village was as I remembered it, with narrow lanes and a couple of dozen or more fishmongers with tanks of fish of various sizes; shrimps, prawns, lobsters, clams, geoducks, abalone, mussels, scallops, oysters, crabs, whelks and many more that I failed to recognise. In most tanks the water was clear, the oxygen inlets bubbling away (but in a couple the water looked green and scummy).

As always, the stallholders beckoned us to buy, pointing out the freshness and cheapness of their products. However, like much else in Hong Kong, prices have risen over the last few years and prices, certainly for lobsters, are cheaper back in Brighton, England. (Although I'm not sure about the current price for sharks...).

Still and all, it might be worth paying a bit extra for the undoubted freshness and the novelty of eating a do-it-yourself dinner by the very side of the ocean. 

...Except there was one slightly disturbing factor. We were almost the only visitors in Lei Yue Mun. No wonder the fishmongers tried to attract us. As we passed the restaurants we could see that they also had no customers, owners and waiters lurking by the doors trying to entice us in.

It dawned on us that Lei Yue Mun was in trouble. A perfect storm of much reduced numbers of mainland tourists due to the crack-down on corruption; the increased attraction of tourism in Japan due to a falling Yen; rising prices, plus competition from the new yuppie favourite of Sai Kung on the New Territories coast with its al fresco dining, attracting Hong Kong's wealthy and hip diners.

There was another unspoken concern. With little turnover of stock, would the fishmongers be tempted to sell us a healthy fish but deliver a less healthy or even dead one to the restaurant? Would the restaurant load the margins due to lack of customers? Wise heads prevailed and we decided to eat elsewhere.

Outside, on the promenade we saw plenty of amateur anglers going about the serious business of catching their own suppers, perched on every vantage point.

A final sight brought a smile...just outside Yau Tong MTR station is a group of six ceramic sculptures created ten years ago by local artist Rosanna Wei Han Li. She says she was inspired by the people she saw hanging about the station, chilling out. The only thing that slightly dates the sculpture is the fact that only one person is on a mobile phone – today that would be five out of the six! The other nice things is how the passer by who sat down by the sculpture fits in so well!

Goodbye Lei Yue Mun, I hope things improve for you,

Lie Yue Mun waterfront, the hills and skyscrapers of Hong Kong Island in the background