Kee Wah Bakery - Pei Ho Street [1962-????]

Kee Wah Bakery,  189-191 Pei Ho Street, Sham Shui Po, Kowloon, Hong Kong

A local newspaper dated  January 11, 1962 reported on the grand opening of this Kee Wah Bakery shop on that day.  Brief news translation .....

"This is the company's third shop, the other two already operating are on Shanghai Street at addresses 320 and 480.  The occasion  marks the company's 25th anniversary.  For its first three days, it offers special prices for customers, and the same to be repeated later in the month at the other two shops.....

In addition to wedding cakes, it specializes in mooncakes.  Because of this additional shop, it is going to handle the coming year's mooncake group purchases 月餅團購會 (or simply 月餅會 as used in those days), to the tune of 2,000 portions each at $5HK.  (portions I guess refer to the number of boxes or in 10's of boxes, and $5HK likely the monthly contribution for the next 8 months).  This offer is limited to, and is to be handled by this Sham Shui Po shop."

As this shop was near our home, my grandmother joined in the group purchase.  The practice was  common in the 1950s and 60s, but I don't know whether it is still the case.

Mooncakes are never cheap to buy, so the group purchase is designed to spread out the financial burden of buyers and to give the shop/restaurant advance knowledge of how much ingredients they  need to buy.  My grandfather was an accountant for an import-export company and his tools were an abacus and a good old fashion Chinese ink brush pen, and he neatly recorded all transactions related to their client companies.  One day, he told me the profit a restaurant made selling mooncakes was enough to pay for all the tea leaves for an entire year.

The Mid-Autumn Festival (this year October 4) is approaching near, and so is the good taste of a double-yoke in lotus seed paste with a cup of hot tea.

About Mid-Autumn Festival - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Autumn_Festival