Slow boat to sheer bliss!

The humble flat-bottomed country boats afloat on Hong Kong's waters are playing host to promotional events and heritage tours, noodle lunch included. Faye Bradley reports on the sampan's second coming.

This past summer, cookbook author Simran Savlani was looking for an innovative way to promote her handmade condiments brand - A Spark of Madness. That's when she hit upon the idea of hosting the promotional events on a sampan - small, flat-bottomed wooden country boat used for fishing or short trips across the watery expanses surrounding Hong Kong.

Sampans, and particularly the on-board restaurants, are mostly run by women, or "sampan aunties", as they are fondly called. Many of them are descendants of the Tanka people - a Sinicized ethnic group whose members have resided in South China, including Hong Kong, for generations together. Savlani decided to approach the sampan aunties for help with hosting her event.

It took her a while to convince the aunties about going all-vegetarian for the event. The suggestion was met with outright rejection, as the aunties had never served vegetarian food to their guests before. But Savlani was persistent. At one point the aunties told her, via the translator app they used to communicate with each other, "Stop insulting us; we are a seafood restaurant." Then, just as Savlani was ready to give up, one night, at 2 am, the aunties got back to her with a revised menu.

Called "Sparked on a Sampan", the eight dinners they hosted, with 45 to 50 guests attending each, was a sellout. Savlani served an eight-course Cantonese vegetarian meal, with wines and a selection of Spark sauces. The aunties had worked out a vegetarian version of an out-and-out seafood-based menu. For example, the crab in the typhoon shelter crab dish was substituted with eggplant and paired with noodles tossed in soy sauce.