Delish Giant Fishballs Sold By Hong Kong Hawker Who Only Serves Customers She Approves Of

As Singaporeans may have learnt lately, not all F&B owners believe in conventional hospitality. Like Lucky Plaza’s rudest nasi ayam goreng seller, who is unafraid of bouncing indecisive customers out of his lunchtime queue if they waver on ordering.

Another place where you shouldn’t faffle is Hong Kong, where food sellers have conditioned their customers — Pavlovian-style — to expect great food with quick service. (FYI, here is how to snap up one of the 500,000 free air tickets that HK is giving out as part of its Hello Hong Kong tourism campaign.)

Gan Yong Tai Yu Dan

On our recent trip to Hong Kong’s Cheung Chau, 8days.sg came across a formidable fishball seller. Holding court at her outdoor stall, she presided over piles of neatly-stacked fishball skewers, which are all made in-house.

Called 甘永泰魚蛋 Gan Yong Tai Yu Dan (yu dan is the locals’ name for fishball), her stall is one of the most popular snack stops on the island. To locate it, you have to take a 30-minute ferry ride from Hong Kong Island’s Central Pier and stroll along a scenic harbour till you see the shop’s bright red signboard. Another sign hung below the signboard boasted: “House-made fishballs. One and only shop.” 

Cheung Chau, known as ‘Long Island’ in Cantonese, is a quaint fishing village that is home to some 30,000 residents. It is most famous for its annual traditional Bun Snatching Festival, where competitors race to scale an 18m-tall structure lined with red bean paste buns and snatch the top bun for good luck. 

Another well-known Cheung Chau specialty is giant yu dan, made with fish that fishermen — the main industry there — caught from the sea. The island’s specialised trade also means that most eateries and shops there serve a selection of seafood.

Many different types of fishballs 

Sporting a nut brown tan and leopard print vest, Gan Yong Tai Yu Dan’s proprietress waited in her stall for customers to queue up. Faded laminated signs advertised her signature huge fishballs, a version wrapped with beancurd skin shredded to strings and fried to create a crispy lattice, curried fishballs, squid balls, cheesy salmon balls, pork balls and, interestingly, “Singapore-style white fishballs”.

“No! Not selling” 

Our Hong Kong guide handed the auntie two HK$50 (S$8.50) notes to buy some fishballs, but our large group was not ready to order.

Fishball Auntie eyeballed the lot of us gathered around the front of her stall. When our guide gave a tentative order, Auntie quickly prepared it and placed the fishball skewers on a metal plate. But as we continued to mill around restlessly, she abruptly barked: “No! Not selling!” Apparently, in Auntie’s world, indecisive customers get no fishballs until they get their act together.

Good behaviour fishballs 

“Please, we want fishballs,” pleaded our guide, a normally unflappable Aaron Kwok-lookalike who was now slightly flustered. “No no, take your money back,” Auntie insisted (a charmingly honourable move, in our opinion, as she would rather reject a customer’s money while waiting for them to make up their mind.) 

She holds out the cash to our guide, who reverently told her to hold on to it. Finally, our group was ready to eat. After casting another glance at us, Auntie took the cash and wordlessly pushed her plate towards us.

Unusual shape 

Instead of the round golf ball-sized fishballs we see at Old Chang Kee, Auntie’s fried yu dan comes with one pointed end. When skewered, the pointy ends of the fishballs are positioned to join up so that the slippery orbs will not slide down the wooden stick. Very clever.

Soft and bouncy 

These are some of the best fishballs we have had. Instead of using a shortcut like flour to make it springy, the fishballs are formed with fish paste that had been so finely blended, it became ethereally soft and bouncy.

A thin, fried crust coated the fishball, such that when we bit into the orb, it burst and revealed the juicy fish paste beneath. So good. 

Gan Yong Tai Yu Dan is at 89 Tung Wan Rd, Cheung Chau, Hong Kong. Open daily 7am-5pm.

This trip was supported by the Hong Kong Tourism Board.

Photos: Yip Jieying