When the Australian Michelle Garnaut first set foot in Hong Kong in 1984 she loathed the city. Garnaut, then in her mid-twenties, had just spent three months travelling around Thailand. She was young and hungry for adventure. But compared with the pristine beaches of her previous travels, Hong Kong felt overcrowded and chaotic. Most deplorable for the foodie was the lack of good independent dining. “It was a desert!” says Garnaut, referring to the nascent food scene.
Today, Garnaut’s initial dislike for the city has transformed to deep affection. She divides her time between Hong Kong, Melbourne, Shanghai and Beijing – where she is currently, drinking passion fruit lemonade on the terrace of her restaurant Capital M, which is situated just south of Tiananmen Square with views stretching to the Forbidden City. Typically, Garnaut spends no more than two weeks in each city. “Home really is China now,” she says. “I left Australia when I was 21. I’m now 55. What can I miss [there]?”
The Hong Kong of 1984 was vastly different from the Hong Kong of today. Lan Kwai Fong, now a thronging expat bar area, consisted of just a handful of businesses including a nightclub, a hat shop and a small Italian store selling wine and salami. “It had been a street of undertakers,” Garnaut remembers. “It was very grimy. Hong Kong was still a colony and the agreement to hand it back had really just come into effect. It was quite a nervy place – the last days of the empire in many ways.”