The Hong Kong Chef Who Brought Cantonese Food To Houston

If you find your shumai in Houston, Texas especially authentic, you have Hoi Fung to thank. He is the first chef who brought authentic Cantonese cuisine to the city in 1982 after moving from Hong Kong. Now, his own daughter is carrying on the family’s legacy of cooks, with her own spin on Chinese food.
Shop address: 7320 Southwest Fwy APT 115, Houston, TX 77074, United States
This is the fourth episode of our latest “Mean Street Gourmet” series about mom-and-pop stores across the Chinese diaspora. In the next episode, Up next, we take you to Paris to meet a xiaolongbao maker who was inspired by her French and Chinese roots.
00:00 Houston’s first Cantonese restaurant
00:36 How it started
01:06 Father and daughter
01:30 Daughter’s specialty
02:21 Why carry on the legacy
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Producer: Dolly Li
Script: Lyn Yang
Videographer: Joy Jihyun Jeong
Editor: Cliff Man
Mastering: Victor Peña
#yourasianstory #food #travel

[@kalea808AB]

Great to see Chef Fong's daughter carry on the legacy for Cantonese cuisine. Here in Honolulu, so many kids won't take that step and ultimately, the restaurant close. May his daughter never lose that passion to continue, especially during these trying times.

[@wed3k]

A lot of parents wish to see their kids to be more prosperous than just working in a restaurant. Chinese immigrants (and also other ethnic groups) came to the USA not having education and only had cooking skills to bring to the table. My mom is Chinese from Mexico and they also have one of the longest standing restaurants in tapachula.

[@jw6451]

i think one difference between this family and others, is that he's an award winning chef that has the time and patience to teach. many of the smaller places, the family is already so tired from running the shop day to day, they definitely don't have the free time to hand hold their kids to take over.

[@thomaskho7773]

5 generations of chefs! Thats so cool. All this knowledge being passed down to future generations.

[@MrZeituhr]

Why such a short video? I feel like there would be much more to this.

[@LV_fromhtx]

Houston proud, my sister wedding reception was there.

[@TL-ms6lp]

I'm in Houston, Cantonese and planning on going here now. So many of these restaurants are closing back where I am from in LA. It's nice to see that it looks like Fung's will be around for the next generation.

[@jw6451]

LA's cantonese scene is still thriving, what are you on about?

[@kumbackquatsta]

that's a quality daughter

[@eliasmicheal262]

Really love how Goldthread is featuring Houston! First Mein and now Fung’s Kitchen!! I grew up eating at Fung’s at least twice a month. It was all my mom craved when she was pregnant with me 🥰

[@maggiechan33]

Your Mom AND you, have good taste.

[@crushivintage]

All of these dishes are astonishing and wonderful! Thank you Goldthread for creating, making and sharing. Your channel rules!

[@threengcircus]

It's so common to see the next generation run from their parent's line of work and follow a different path. This was refreshing to see. Your food looks wonderful and I wish you continued success!

[@StevenD215]

I think one big difference between the other stories we hear about and this one is that the dad is passionate about cooking and didn't just do it as a means for providing to the family. I think the latter is more common and not a lot want their kids to continue the legacy because it's such hard work.

[@jw6451]

i would not say the next gen "run" from the parents field, usually it's the parents actively discouraging their kids from being in the same line of work. some even going as far as to not teach them a single then in hopes that they will pursue some white collar field. it's a bit of shortsightedness from the parents

[@Vablonsky]

It's nice to see a video about the Chinese food scene in Houston. It has a lot of good Chinese restaurants and a large Asian community; and, these facts aren't widely known. People think of the the Bay Area, the LA Area, and New York City when they think of Chinese food in the United States.

[@ggchiu7400]

Holy snap pushcart service, you rarely even get that in HK anymore dang respect

[@cfenerd]

I like that she loves her dad.

[@thihal123]

Please do more of these kinds of videos, tracing the history of Chinese food in the US

[@AsianPoshDorene]

What a wonderful family!

[@benderbendingrofriguez3300]

Could you make a longer video about Hong Kong milk tea?

[@MultiEquations]

4 minutes is too short! This should have been a 10 minute video.

[@jotk5978]

Love the tee shirt 🙂

[@crushivintage]

Beef Chow Fun! Steamed fish with ginger scallion, Lazy Susan, Chow Mai Fun?, Five spice crab?,

[@maggiechan33]

Love the Cantonese; love even more the Gnorn Chow Gnau Hor @ 0.53.

[@jw6451]

u can type "ng" at the beginning of the word beef to make the "nng" sound. so maybe type "gohn chow ngau hor" typing "gnorn" for dry doesn't make sense verbally in english and definitely does not sound like cantonese or chinese when vocalized

[@maggiechan33]

@@jw6451 Your life must so boring + meaningless, for you to maliciously + pedantically nitpick about my Cantonese.

[@Goneout2eat]

Gold thread , 4mins to tell 5 generation story of chefs....at least 10-15mins. 2 min less its just a KZbin short

[@jephh]

Finally a video where they don't say 'the younger generation doesn't like hard work'

[@sin7wu]

lol I know his son Gilbert.

[@wagnerwei]

👍🍻

[@midcenturymoldy]

I love Fung’s Kitchen, but I was eating Cantonese at Sun Deluxe Café in Houston’s original Chinatown near Downtown in the mid-seventies.

[@josephinelok90]

Kinda sad that's it's been closed for over a year and a half due to a major fire. Hopefully they'll reopen....

[@JackieChan-mh2gw]

Thank you for your words of prayer, I hope you enjoyed watching the cooking?

[@karebu2]

What’s chop suey?

[@jw6451]

way way back when cantonese chefs were cooking, chop suey somewhat literally means leftovers, or random bits. they basically took all the leftover/random bits of meats/veggies and stir fried it with some starchy sauce and served it mainly to westerners. no chinese or cantonese will willingly order something like that

[@bw2082]

Why are they sub titling he daughter who speaks perfect English?

[@Erhnam_Djinn]

Deaf viewers?

[@bw2082]

@@Erhnam_Djinn that’s what the optional cc is for

[@DocPetron]

Totally untrue. Cantonese food arrived in Houston around 1971 to 1972. It was at a restaurant called Sun Deluxe on the corner of Rusk and Chartres. Sun Deluxe was a popular place for the Chinese community particularly among the nearby University of Houston's foreign students from Hong Kong since it was a place that they could get Cantonese food. Sun Deluxe also sold Cantonese roast duck, roast pig, and char sui from the kitchen on weekends. The chef was known around the Cantonese community merely as "The Chef" and was train as traditional way apprentice in Hong Kong and got to be a banquet chef in his own right in Hong Kong before immigrating to the US. Banquet chefs were a specialty in HK at the time and he worked when there was a party of 30 or more. In Houston, he did the meals for the gambling halls (all the gamblers were old time Cantones, specifically Toisan) as well as the annual On Leong New Year's banquet which had around 600 guests spread out over 2 days. It was split in 2 days. One day for "Americans" and ABCs. The second was for the old timers who obviously prefered traditional Cantonese dishes. How do I know this? The chef was my dad.

[@anthonyszeto5508]

are they open? I decided to go there two months ago and they were closed.

[@loongseng]

Currently undergoing renovation. U can follow them on Insta for the latest updates.

[@ck5404]

if authentic and traditional they should use bamboo steamers not metal steamers for the dim sum

[@zZiL341yRj736]

Why did she cry, did he pass away or something?

[@Obscurai]

Familial honor and pride to be carrying on the family tradition. She may also feel a sense of duty.

[@AznAfroMan513]

cuz asian parents never say "i'm proud of you" lololol

[@fghyjhku]

They ignore you at this restaurant. They only serve the big tables.

[@AznAfroMan513]

chinese restaurants with bad service typically have the best food tho 😂

[@jw6451]

you just described 90% of chinese restaurants everywhere including in asia. surely this isn't the first chinese place you've been to?

[@jasonreviews]

Can we stop saying chinese already this is cantonese channel.

[@dlatohk]

When he proudly said : some sources are more sweet, some are more spicy. I specially created those sources. I got it that his recipes are no longer authentic nor traditional. Yes, I disliked.

[@jw6451]

that's very narrow minded. sometimes the local population is not majority cantonese so they cannot be sustained only by customers ordering traditional types. It's likely he has original methods + methods and sauces made for the texas market. he is 5 generations deep, been cooking for 40+ years even in hk, and won numerous awards, what is your qualification?