Local restaurants are reviving classic dishes to cater for nostalgic customers

When food and travel writer Chan Chun-wai posted a photo of Tsuen Wan's Wat Yat Noodles on his Facebook page last year, it got a flurry of "likes". The clicks were mostly from former classmates, some of whom he is rarely in contact with.

"They reminisced about eating there, so it was like having a virtual reunion," he says. "I didn't realise how many people liked that place."

Chan has been a customer of the noodle shop since he was 12 years old and visited several times a week throughout his schooldays. He still dines at Wat Yat whenever he's in the area.

Chan's social media posting reminded his friends of the carefree days of their youth, and its popularity illustrates the powerful nostalgic hold food can have over us.

Tsui Hang Village restaurant chain, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, hopes to cash in on the nostalgia for the next few months by reintroducing dishes from its original dim sum menu, including barbecue pork and pork lard rice, steamed pork dumplings with quail egg and pork liver, and black sesame rolls, nicknamed because they look like a roll of film.

"Going out for dim sum used to be a big deal," head dim sum chef Lee Kam says, reminiscing about the restaurant's early days. "People were not as wealthy then so it was a big treat. And people didn't usually order dessert, either; if they ordered one, in particular the black sesame rolls, they savoured every bite. That's why people would unroll it into a long strip and then eat it slowly in sections."

Lee, 65, was lured out of retirement to help oversee dim sum operations at Miramar Group, which owns Tsui Hang Village.