{"id":18017,"date":"2025-12-09T07:30:36","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T23:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=18017"},"modified":"2025-12-09T07:30:36","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T23:30:36","slug":"hong-kong-style-cafe-receives-top-recognition-its-owner-has-been-to-the-city-just-once","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=18017","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong-style cafe receives top recognition. Its owner has been to the city just once"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Gongfu Cafe & Bao in Ottawa, Canada, is a cosy diner with a menu featuring twists on Hong Kong-style snacks \u2013 such as French toast with rhubarb pur\u00e9e \u2013 along with hand-pulled milk tea and pineapple buns.<\/p>\n

The space is inspired by the no-frills, open kitchens of Hong Kong\u2019s traditional cha chaan teng<\/em><\/span> cafes.<\/div>\n

But the chef and owner is not from Hong Kong. He is not even Chinese.<\/p>\n

Tarek Hassan is a 46-year-old Egyptian-Canadian who has only visited Hong Kong once, but fell in love with Cantonese food and culture after watching John Woo\u2019s 1989 hit The Killer<\/em> in his early teens.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn many ways, [the film] is a love letter to Hong Kong, exploring different settings and locations and the scenes of Hong Kong,\u201d Hassan says. \u201cIt really made me fall in love with the place.\u201d<\/p>\n

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French toast with rhubarb pur\u00e9e and hand-pulled milk tea at Gongfu Cafe & Bao. Photo: Gongfu Cafe & Bao<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

His passion for Cantonese food and, in particular, cha chaan tengs<\/em> helped land his cafe on the Chinese Restaurant Awards\u2019 Elite 30 Canada 2025 Top 50 Honorees list, which was unveiled in late October.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Gongfu Cafe & Bao in Ottawa, Canada, is a cosy diner with a menu featuring twists on Hong Kong-style snacks \u2013 such as French toast…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[94,540,3569,12198,2248,9932,3617,75],"class_list":["post-18017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-cafe","tag-city","tag-hong","tag-kongstyle","tag-owner","tag-receives","tag-recognition","tag-top","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18017\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}