ViRtuaL POP CulTs: Good Eats: Cha Chan Tang, a Hong Kong-Style Cafe

Bao Ong, contributing food writer

French toast drizzled with golden syrup. Ham and macaroni soup with buttered bread. Baked beef steak with tomato sauce. Yes, Cha Chan Tan is a Chinese restaurant.

If you want to get technical, it’s a Hong Kong-style eatery with an extensive menu that includes an eclectic range of more traditional dishes, like shark fin soup, to Western-influenced creations such as the popular pork chop with tomato sauce over spaghetti.

But first a quick history lesson to the somewhat zany choices here: Hong Kong, with its strong colonial connection to England and other European countries, was full of upscale Western restaurants. Most locals couldn’t afford to dine at such establishments, though, so they came up with their own creations, often merging typical ingredients in Italian or English cuisine with a touch of local flavor.

Take any of the noodle dishes as an example. You can find a variety on traditional kinds of spaghetti or fried noodles using the ubiquitous egg noodles found in packaged ramen. At Cha Chan Tang you could eat the noodles fried and topped with slices of barbecue pork or with spareribs and shreds of bitter melon.

As one my of my dining companions put it, the food isn’t meant to be upscale (he described it as “street” or “home”-style cuisine). But that doesn’t mean it lacks in flavor. In fact, I’d describe it as comfort food at affordable prices (the most expensive item on the menu is $7). The portion sizes are decent, too.

On a recent visit, we ordered baked spaghetti with pork chop. This dish included a generous amount of noodles topped with sweet tomato sauce with fried and breaded pork cut up in thin slices. It was a marriage of sweet and salty carbs and proteins, both fried and baked. On a lighter note, we couldn’t pass on the French toast with a side of maltose, a common sweetner in Asian cooking. But my favorite was a cold Hong Kong style tea. This black tea with evaporated milk came in a glass bottle in a bucket of ice so the drink would stay cold but would not become watered down.

Part of Cha Chan Tang’s appeal is its young and more hip vibe than many other Chinatown eateries. There’s the requisite exposed break wall but fun light bulbs sit in hanging Vita Soy bottles above the white formica tables give it a modern touch. There are flat screen monitors on the walls looping images of Hong Kong street corners.