Hong Kong Day 1: Australia Dairy Co.

I had an inkling that the menu below with bigger prices showed their set menu bestsellers. So we just pointed at the numbers. However, our waiter seemed to be still asking us questions and we guessed that our orders still needed us to make further choices. My travel companion even tried to apply his Mandarin studies but since we couldn’t understand and speak Cantonese, we were getting nowhere!

Good thing we remembered to ask for an English menu (and for places as popular as Australia Dairy Co., they usually have one but you have to ask) and ended up ordering the fast food set (HK$26) and the tea time set (HK$30), which we know from our research were among their bestsellers .

-The food was superb! And it was served super fast! 

Australia Dairy Co.’s tea time set

 

Australia Dairy Co. is known for its legendary scrambled eggs. As proclaimed by bloggers and online reviews many times over, their scrambled eggs are the best and the fluffiest. And it’s so true!!  

 

The fast food set is actually just white bread, scrambled eggs (or sunny side up), and a slice of ham plus a choice of hot/cold milk tea or milk. The tea time set is made up of eggs, bread, milk tea/milk, and a bowl of macaroni with ham. The food is actually more for breakfast but we didn’t care since we were already very hungry and the food was really good—comfort food in a Cantonese setting 🙂 

Their milk tea and pasteurized milk were served cold and were really refreshing. 

 – In a place like Australia Dairy Co., I really got the sense that people didn’t waste time, even when it comes to their food and how they eat it.  

From the time we sat down, to the waiters getting our orders, to their serving our food, and how they cleared the dishes—it was fast, fast, fast all the way. In fact,  we weren’t completely finished yet with one plate and one waiter already cleared it up. They were rushing us up since as usual, a queue was already forming outside and they needed our table already.  

I remember a  friend who’s of Cantonese ancestry, telling us that the fast way the Chinese eat their food is somewhat tied to their work ethic and their shop culture—one has to eat fast to outrun the competition. If you eat slower than your competitor, then he’s already finished eating and already doing business in his shop and earning money while you’re still eating. When one looks at it that way, I guess it does make sense. 

But I have to admit that I really felt quite disoriented to be rushed up that way while eating and I had a bit of a culture shock (especially since it was my first meal in Hong Kong!). There was no time to pore over the menu and ask the waiters what the bestsellers are (as I usually do at home in Manila).  While in the Philippines, it would be actually be seen as rude if a waiter gives customers the bill when customers are not yet finished eating, in a Hong Kong cha chaan teng and dimsum eateries, it’s pretty normal. They place the bill on your table then when you’re finished, you proceed to the cashier to pay. Nothing out of the ordinary or ungracious about it, perfectly normal.