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Steve Tauschke describes the melting pot of Hong Kong, focussing on its districts of Soho and Noho...

Soho/Noho, Hong Kong
Steve Tauschke

I realised Hong Kong’s multicultural melting pot was a reality when my first day in Admiralty on Hong Kong Island introduced me to a turban-toting Indian Sikh on a Japanese motorbike delivering Italian Pepperoni pizza to Americans paying in Chinese currency!

Forget the age-old wanton and isolationist policies of a bygone era, modern Honkers is a fast-paced, all-race solid neon spectacle of videoke, music phones (Ipods are old hat here), Disney pizzazz and a whopping 10,000 bankruptcies a year.

Of those poor unfortunate souls who’ve lost their grip - and dollars - on the Hang Seng rollercoaster, a select few can perhaps be found drowning their sorrows at Soho in the Central district, Hong Kong’s spiciest locale for quirky shops, ancient herb dealers and, of course, chic bars and restaurants.

If Hong Kong was indeed founded on gambling, piracy and Indian opium then Soho (and its smaller cousin Noho) were both built around the iconic Central escalator, the world’s longest and one that carves a steep winding path 800 metres all the way to the Mid Levels, home to well-heeled expats and their impossibly tall apartment high-rise towers. Many of Soho’s/Noho’s bars and restaurants have mushroomed up along this motorised, commuter-friendly ladder and it certainly makes for a handy navigational aid.

First shopping stop is one of Hong Kong’s most unique stores, Playground, in Noho. Crammed with kids-stuff-for-adults, this split level surprise boasts all the lava lamp grooviness you’d expect over and above a quirky array of oddities; patented potato clocks, Buddha desk organisers, acrylic works by an artist who paints using two hands plus a spiral staircase made of rusty plumbing pipes. Homewares for the weird! And far more imaginative than the tacky and over-priced Shanghai Tang chain store.

A short distance away is a store less contemporary but no less interesting, the Good Spring Company, a traditional corner store-cum-herbal dispensary straight out of old China, where time-honoured curative concoctions of seahorse, rare mushroom and gall bladder of various creatures are presented to ailing customers paper wrapped and accompanied by a cup of herbal tea. I ask the grumpy owner for a photo and surprisingly the answer is a stern NO!

Further up the hill, Central’s iconic Hollywood Road (which both divides and gives its names to Soho and Noho) is an attraction in itself, a bustling treasure trove of oriental antique stores, Tibetan rug dealers and peddlers of bric-a-brac and Mao curios. If a Tang Dynasty stone horse breaks your budget then try, as I did, Myo Myo, a fantastic Burmese antique showroom and gallery offering affordable purchases such as beautiful lacquer bowls and traditional longyis (sarongs).

On the food front, this part of the world continually throws up surprises. A week earlier on mainland China I was served Four Luck meatball with a glass of Great Wall white wine by a Mandarin-speaking waitress called Cow Cow who suggested I later try the house desert, Candy Go Tomato! Here in Soho however, a destination regularly sought out by Hong Kong’s foreign legion of colonial yuppies, dining is definitely a more modern/western experience. Still, the district has most gastronomical bases covered all the way from sea-slug depth to bird’s nest height.

Within a hundred-metre radius, it is possible to sample Japanese blowfish at Dozo, Mediterranean assortments at Olive, a mustard n’ ketchup drenched hot dog at Archie B’s, organic beetroot & brown rice salad at Life, Nachos Supremos at Icaramba or a sinus-clearing vindaloo at Ali Bab. It’s also feasible to sample Hong Kong restaurants for 27 years and never visit the same place twice.

Across intch the escalator crowd zoom by. This popular watering hole spills its Noho’s Gough and Gage streets, long established printing and pork butcher trades rub shoulders with dai pai dongs (street food stalls) and modern dining outlets to present a mix of cheap brisket contrasted with not-so-cheap French Roasted Game Hen with Gravy a la Maison. Serving up liquor diversity and an intimate ambience is the new Noho Cafe where menus come embedded in small beanbags. There’s a great Japanese set lunch on offer (try the Coloured Soba Noodles), a VIP bedchamber complete with DVD rack and continental-style dishes in the evening. The owners also run the upmarket Euro-style Lot 10 a few doors down.

A feature of Soho’s/Noho’s eateries is their flexibility, as many morph into bars after hours, a product of Hong Kong’s high rent rates. Endless happy hours help lure customers too, a ploy that drew me to Staunton’s Wine Bar in the late afternoon for a Riesling on the terrace to watch the escalator crowd zoom by. This popular watering hole spills its patronage onto the footpath sometimes right through until 2am.

Kicking on from here, I venture deeper into the district’s burgeoning bar scene, sipping a pint of Kilkenny at Dublin Jack where patrons huddle in booths cradling room-temperature Guinness. Soho may never rival nearby nightlife mecca Lan Kwai Fong for sheer numbers and decadence but there’s much to be said for its emerging vibrancy. Case in point is Dragon-i on Wyndham street in Soho, a club now developing a Jet Li-size cult following on Hong Kong island with it’s cool mix of sushi platters, beautiful people and late night R&B grooves.

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