Family-run shop with handmade steamers
- 12 Western Street
- Mon-Fri 9am - 5pm
- +852 2548 8201
Factory-made steamers last just a month or two, while his steamers can put up with a full year of intensive use.
Handmade and sustainable
The Lam family has been making bamboo cooking products for five generations, stretching all the way back to the current owner’s great-great-grandfather, who travelled between village markets in Guangdong.
Counting down
Today’s, Tuck Chong Sum Kee is one of the last places in Hong Kong that makes bamboo steamers by hand. It takes three years to learn how to hand-make a steamer from a single piece of bamboo, a skill that is increasingly being replaced by low-quality mass production.
Premium quality
Lam Ying-hung, who runs the business, says factory-made steamers last just a month or two, while his steamers can put up with a full year of intensive use. That may be why his clients include famous restaurants such as Lin Heung and the Luk Yu Teahouse (Site #22).
Portraits of fading trades
Hong Kong’s conservancy Association for Heritage (CACHE) published an on-line archive of vanishing trades in the Sai Ying Pun area, featuring Mr. Lam’s bamboo shop and many more small businesses. Check online or pick up a copy of the book at CACHE.