As part of our series celebrating the vibrancy and community within Hong Kong’s dining scene, we spoke to several of the industry’s leading lights about why they love the city’s unique food culture. Here, Lam Yuk Ming—Chinese cuisine executive chef at Spring Moon, The Peninsula Hong Kong’s renowned Cantonese restaurant—reminisces about his first experience of yum cha and why his last meal in Hong Kong would be at a dai pai dong. Tell us about some of your favourite Hong Kong food memories. I had my first yum cha experience when I was eight years old—my mom brought me to a local Chinese teahouse and I tried my very first taste of har gow (shrimp dumplings), siu mai (steamed pork and shrimp dumplings) and fun guo (pork and shrimp dumplings) in soup. I was fascinated by the environment and the food—servers walking around with pushcarts loaded with a variety of dim sum in bamboo steamers, the décor of the restaurant, the crowd, and the buzzing noise of people gossiping and chatting.