The Protest Restaurants of Hong Kong

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oh

amber foods is a little hole in the wall

restaurant that opened on an

infamous day in the history of hong

kong's pro-democracy movement

the anniversary of the first big police

crackdown

sounds good

okay really good it's very

creamy like um kind of sweet and what

that's honest

oh okay very light and airy and the

cheese

adds a nice bit of umami everyone who

works here is a protester

including mandy she's a chef in training

and didn't even know how to cook before

she started here

so it's gone

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foreign

in hong kong yellow is the chosen color

of the pro-democracy movement

last year protesters hoisted yellow

umbrellas and don yellow hard hats to

protect themselves against pepper spray

and tear gas gels

yellow has now become shorthand for

whether an individual establishment

supports the protests

blue stands for the other side the

police who crack down

and of course china which passed a

national security law this year that

basically criminalized dissent

between kova 19 and the sweeping new law

street protests have become

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scarce

the drink name in english is stan with

hong kong

the cayo literally means add oil

but in cantonese it's sort of this cheer

that is very commonly heard and

throughout the protest

it's become a rallying cry by having a

drink called that

they're giving people the excuse to

actually say it

multiple times a day amber foods isn't

the only protest restaurant

it's part of the so-called yellow

economic circle

a network of businesses that consider

every bite and every dollar spent

an opportunity to resist growing the

yellow economy

is all about linking up yellow customers

with yellow shops

that's where matt lau steps in the picky

dot hk app lets customers order from

yellow restaurants in other districts of

the city

lao delivers for free complete that one

later

on website

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lao's business is his former protest and

he's betting that other hong kongers

will help it grow

but for now his service is helping

yellow restaurants more than his own

bottom line

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oh

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chinese government would prefer

businesses care about profits

the city's in a historic recession and

china's accused yellow businesses of

trying to

quote kidnap its economy but hong kong

relies on china for its food

ninety percent of hong kong's food is

imported and most of that comes from the

mainland

less than five percent of the territory

is devoted to farming

one of the few farms is run by wong

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demand for wong's organic produce has

gone through the roof since the protests

and a pandemic that's raised the price

of food from china

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hong kong

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tourists from the city even come help

out on saturdays when the other workers

get a day off

pretty clever having your paying

customers do your weeding for you

i must say

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um

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though his small organic farm may seem

removed from the city and its problems

to him it's all connected

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foreign

you