HONG KONG: The unmistakable aromas of yummy pastries, freshly baked bread and other delights waft down Fau Choi Street, whetting appetites of strollers, walking near the Tai Ton Road Cooked Food Market in Yuen Long.

A moment's exploration reveals Tai Tung Bakery, the source of the appetizing smell. The bakery is packed with shoppers, all of whom have come for the same purpose, to buy traditional festive Chinese snacks for the Lunar New Year.

At the entrance to the shop are two packs of fried melon in red and black, packs of deep fried dumplings with peanuts and sesame, fried sesame balls, candied melon, deep fried sweet egg pastry, candied lotus seed, lunar New Year sticking cake, steamed turnip cake and fried red bean dumplings. Shucked seed shells everywhere, customers sample the melon seeds, carefully selecting and planning out just what will be required for a great family festival. Staff hustle about to keep up with the crowd. It's lively, full of energy and holiday spirit.

It's what remains of a holiday tradition. People used to make many of these festive foods at home. There were grandmas, always busy at this time of year baking Lin Gao - mixing flour with brown sugar. Then they'd steam the mixture for at least three hours. The skills are simple but the procedure is complicated and time consuming. People in Hong Kong are too busy these days. It's easier to go to the shop and stand in line at shops like the Tai Tung Bakery.

"I have no energy to make Lin Gao myself now," said a 70-year-old lady surnamed Liu, standing with her husband, waiting for her order of Lin Gao and fried dumplings. "I used to make it myself but I'm too old for that now. My daughters and sons won't make it. They are too busy now," she said.

Most of the people waiting in line are regular customers. Some have come a long way to Yuen Long, from central parts of the city, to buy festive Chinese food which has become something of a rarity in the markets. The sad reality is that the secrets of the traditional foods are not being passed down to new generations.

Tai Tung Bakery started baking Chinese snacks in 1943. Over the years it has become renowned for its wife cake that the shop is baking in the most traditional way so quality can be maintained. The owner of the shop, Tse Ching-yuen, however, is positive about passing the family business and the traditional way of baking to the next generation. Tse, who is now 76, inherited the business from his father. He has been working in the industry since he was 13. He is about to pass the family business to his son.

The bakery has a team of bakery masters making traditional Chinese food at a factory in Tuen Mun. "It takes a lot of time and effort to make a cake," Tse said. "Like Lin Gao, you have to steam it for at least three hours using a huge wok of at least two feet long, which is seldom used in the market now."

Tse insists on using only natural ingredients. "The taste is the priority," he said. "We want to make it plain so people can taste the original flavor of turnip."

Bakery master Yeung Lo-tai is one of those upon whom Tse relies.

Yeung, about 30, has been working as a bakery master at Tai Tung for about 12 years. He observes that the traditional bakery sticks to its own methods to prepare its baked products.

"If it (the skill)'s gone, it's gone," Yeung said. "After all, when we are passing the skills to the younger generation, they may not be able to learn every single step. Even for us, what we have learned may not be the most traditional ways of making the snacks but at least we have seen the skills with our bare eyes."

Yeung said nowadays not many bakeries use traditional ways to make Chinese snacks but the quality does not match those of products prepared in the old way.

Wife cake is a traditional Chinese pastry that has minced mixture of winter melon, almond paste and sesame wrapped in a flaky and thin skin. Generally the wife cakes available in the market are a bit too sweet and have a solid texture, but the wife cakes made in a traditional way by Tai Tung are soft and crispy.

"I'm sure that food made by a human is different from that made by machine," Yeung said. "The most obvious difference is the texture."

What keeps the tradition going is that customers keep coming back.

"That would be a pity if these kinds of traditional foods no longer exist," said a customer surnamed Tso, buying festive traditional Chinese food with his wife at Shanghai Food in Causeway Bay. "I have been a regular customer of this shop since my childhood," he said.

Shanghai Food, started by the Szeto family and famous for its sour preserved plum, has been selling traditional Chinese food since 1959.

"You have to be polite and treat the customers with a sincere heart," said Chu Sung-mui, who operates the shop with her son, Ivan Szeto. Located in the center of Causeway Bay they produce festive Chinese foods such as taro balls, fried dumplings and sesame balls. Chu was feverishly at work - but business isn't as good as last year, she noted. "I'm worried about it but what I can do is to continue the business and do my best," she said.

The relationship she has established with the shop and her customers has been a business mainstay. Her sons are also her motivation to continue the business.

"I have to pass on the business from grandpa and I don't want to ruin the name of the brand," Ivan said. "I'll follow what grandpa has done to maintain the quality of food."

(HK Edition 02/12/2010 page1)