Shrimp caught from fishing and heaps of sea salt yielded from salt farms: The Tanka folks in Tai O had mastered the art of making shrimp paste just out of the two ingredients. You will find the briny fermented aroma of this condiment following you whenever you go around Hong Kong’s watertown. It is always the classic souvenir you can bring back home – and try to appreciate it more if you can as its production is gradually becoming a history of the place.
The waters outside the fishing village offer the perfect ground for krill, which is a type of shrimp used for making the shrimp paste. Nowadays the villagers still produce the paste in town but are no longer using the ingredients found locally, ever since the trawling ban came into effect in 2013 where the fishermen are no longer permitted to catch crabs and shrimps now. Being left with no choice, they go outside the city’s boundaries for the shrimp hunting instead. The villagers usually trade the bulk of shrimps with the fishermen in the morning at 5, as they usually go trawling when it gets dark due to the nature of krill, so they swim closer to the water surface at night from the seabed to avoid predators.
The first step to make the shrimp paste is to ferment it covered with sea salt in barrels for at least 3 to 4 days. They then ground it with a stone mill to ensure a smooth texture and lastly sun-dry the paste for about a month. Its salty fragrance may not be everyone’s favorite but the locals love adding it into local dishes for an extra layer of flavors. You may wonder what you can cook with the shrimp paste if you want to take one home – it goes extremely well with steamed pork, stir-fry veggies and fried rice. It might even be better if you make your own recipe out of it.
But due to the outlawing of trawling, only two factories remain in Tai O – Cheng Cheung Hing Shrimp Paste Factory, and Sing Lee Shrimp Sauce & Paste Manufacturer. They even have to move the production to Guangdong regions in order to survive, which only leaves the final processing in place.
The real question is – should we still consider the shrimp paste as a “Made in Hong Kong” product, when no local ingredient is used and the early processing doesn’t take place in Tai O? Despite it being crowned as an official intangible cultural asset of Hong Kong, there is no sign from the government to protect the fishermen and shrimp paste makers to keep the culture thriving, but imposing the trawling ban to worsen their hardship. Development is inevitable for future sake but perhaps the urban planners could have done more to keep different needs and interests balanced, so that the vibrant cultures of this “fishing village” can be sustained?
Information of the two shrimp paste factories are as below:
Cheng Cheung Hing Shrimp Paste Factory (鄭祥興蝦醬廠)
Address: 17 Shek Tsai Po Street, Tai O
Opening hours:
MON 08:00 – 20:00
TUE 08:00 – 20:00
WED 08:00 – 20:00
THU 08:00 – 20:00
FRI 08:00 – 20:00
SAT 08:00 – 20:00
SUN 08:00 – 20:00
Recommended Time to Visit: Any opening hours
Sing Lee Shrimp Sauce & Paste Manufacturer (勝利香蝦廠)
Address: 10 Shek Tsai Po Street, Tai O
Opening hours:
MON 10:00 – 19:00
TUE 10:00 – 19:00
WED 10:00 – 19:00
THU 10:00 – 19:00
FRI 10:00 – 19:00
SAT 10:00 – 19:00
SUN 10:00 – 19:00
Recommended Time to Visit: Any opening hours
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