Cheat Day

CHEAT DAY Because life’s too short to always order the salad

SPRING FLING Goodbye winter, so long stodgy stews! Spring has finally sprung, and with it comes a whole harvest of fresh, seasonal produce that we’ve been longing for all winter. Inspired by the flavours of spring, SoHo restaurant Kinship has crafted a seasonal menu that’s packed with fresh ingredients, lighter flavours, and an abundance of taste. Think roasted green asparagus with preserved lemon aioli, parmesan crumble and topped with poached egg; Hokkaido scallop ceviche with turmeric lime cream and Thai pomelo; or the sinfully smoky charred octopus, grilled to tender perfection with a garlicky romesco sauce and bacon vinaigrettedressed frisee salad. Light but complex, satisfying but not so substantial you’d wish you’d worn sweatpants. The spring menu is available for dinner (6-11pm) at Kinship until May. 3/F, 2-4 Shelley St., Central, 2520-0899, kinshiphk.com.

LET’S TAKE IT

SLOW

Dora Lam is the founder of Slowood, Kennedy Town’s 3,000-square-foot sustainable concept store. She talks to Liv about her journey to the zero waste life.

Q Tell us about how you started Slowood. I started with a concept store called Pimary when I worked as cabin crew. I would bring back secondhand finds and natural skincare brands whenever I traveled, and my customers would see my store as a kind of treasure trove. I eventually became more interested in natural skincare and sustainability, and we came up with the idea of a large space where customers can shop for everything healthy and sustainable in one place. There was nothing else like it in Hong Kong at the time.

Q What’s your mission? We want sustainable living to reach the mainstream. For us, Slowood is a concept store where we can show what zero-waste shopping looks like, encouraging more retail outlets to adopt this model. A large supermarket chain actually approached us to help set up some refill stations in their stores. This is exactly what we want - there’s no point if it’s only us doing zero-waste. We hope every store in Hong Kong can put more zero-waste measures in place soon. For us it’s also an ongoing process of learning how to be more sustainable. We want to learn and grow with our customers and our community.

Q How has the response been so far? It’s been great. First people came for the novelty factor, but they have slowly started to change their habits. We offer 5% off for anyone who brings their own container, so that incentivises people to come in and shop regularly.

Q What are some tips you can share with people looking to start shopping more sustainably? First, you need to look at your habits and see if you are “light green” or “deep green.” If you are light green you are just starting on your sustainability journey, so you might make some simple swaps to start with. For example, swap your standard cling wrap for our biodegradable cling wrap. Then you could move up to beeswax wraps or food containers. For women, you might swap your regular pads for our biodegradable brands. Then you might consider swapping those out for a menstrual cup. We are all abut offering different products to suit different needs.

Q What’s next for Slowood? We are opening a second store in Discovery Bay. It will be in a 2,500-square-foot space right next to the renovated bus station. There are so many beautiful trees there and so we are looking to bring the natural world into our space by introducing lots of plants.