Hong Kong’s gone nuts for organic grub over the past few months. There’s been a spate of veggie, green and locally sourcing restaurants and cafés popping up across town. But hardly any of them can boast that they get their food from their own farm in our fair city.
Organic 21 really is taking the concept of ‘local’ to new heights. The just-opened Staunton Street café is run by the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups as a social enterprise, allowing youths to gain business experience. And the organic produce is brought in from Hong Kong’s only USDA certified organic farm, the HKFYG Organic Farm in Yuen Long. This is all about self sustainability and, of course, nature’s finest on our doorstep.
There are two menus at Organic 21. One runs Monday to Friday, with breakfast options, salads, pastas and snacks. The other, for Saturdays and Sundays, focuses on brunches. We visit the light and airy venue, which sports some intriguing artwork and a TV show extolling the virtues of the enterprise, twice. On our Saturday venture, after checking the Organic 21 retail store next door (well-stocked and nutritious), we go for the Long Island ($88). And long it is. A toasted French baguette with a sausage, bacon, fried eggs, baked beans, a grilled tomato and mushrooms arranged artistically in sections on the top, this is a beast of a brunch. The baquette may be tricky to eat but it’s worth it – particularly the sausage which tastes so fresh it must have been cut fresh from the pig...
Our return visit for midweek lunch sees us tucking into the soup of the day – mushroom ($38). It’s super-creamy, with dried fungus on the top. The omelette, complete with mushrooms, onions and chunky pieces of ham ($48), is light, fluffy and buttery. The smoothie of the day ($35) – banana and strawberry in our case – is also worth a try.
Organic 21 is welcome in Hong Kong. It should make those other places in town who don’t source locally go pretty green with envy. Matt Fleming
60 Staunton St, Central, 3104 9134. Mon-Fri 10am-10pm, Sat & Sun 12midday-9pm. Meal for two: around $180.