Cuisine of Kindness

DB residents Luna Lolita Tetsu and Quincy Lui are digging deep and aiming high to lend a hand to Hong Kong’s underprivileged.

Elizabeth Kerr

reports

PHOTOS BY

Baljit Gidwani - www.evoqueportraits.com & courtesy of Luna Lolita Tetsu The rabbit warren of streets around Austin Station are dotted with tiny shops once you get off the main road. The residents live on top of each other in blocky tenements that are slowly getting squeezed out by the shiny towers of West Kowloon. But they’re not all gone yet, and this is where you’ll find Luna Lolita Tetsu and her partner Quincy Lui when they’re not at home in Discovery Bay. To be more specific, you’ll find them at their vegetarian, socially focused café Jazz Bird. “I wasn’t really a ‘charitable’ kid. My family was very normal. Studying art in university wasn’t really a thing they understood. They just wanted me to get a decent government job,” opens Luna with a laugh. “Then I studied Buddhism and decided it was time to give more to others. It’s good for me, for my family, for the soul.” Admittedly Luna is almost a perfect fit in this corner of Hong Kong. Lingering in the doorway of the tiny Jazz Bird Café, the blue and pink streaks in her hair complement the white combat-style boots and shorts combo she’s sporting today. She looks like an artsy musician; what she doesn’t look like is a millennial (she’s 33) who’s devoted to her community. And that’s on us, not Luna.

GIVING BACK

Luna’s time to “give back” started about five years ago when she was helping out various charitable organisations, while odd-jobbing – working in construction management for a while (she didn’t like it) and insurance (better, given its flexibility to work from home). Time spent with refugees, disadvantaged kids and the mentally disabled, quickly taught her an important lesson: “They do not want you to give them anything. They want understanding, and independence and acceptance.” As it turns out, the arrival of COVID-19 in 2020 presented Luna with an opportunity. What she could do turned into Jazz Bird. The self-financed storefront at 27A Man Ying Street, Yau Ma Tei initially served as a depot of sorts, storing all manner of food, personal care items and eventually hard-to-get COVID-19 rapid antigen tests to be delivered across Hong Kong to disadvantaged children, the disabled and the elderly. The café opened in April. A smattering of Hong Kong celebrities including Penny Chan Kwok Fung, Xenia Chong and Raymond Young Lap-moon showed up on the day. “The café is new. We’ve been working in volunteer services for a while and we opened the space to keep all our stuff in, and to have a place to meet with all the volunteers. It’s a tiny warehouse, and our landlord is generous enough to rent it out under flexible terms at a reasonable price,” Luna says. “Hopefully we won’t need to work in the pandemic area soon, but there’s always going to be elderly, sick and disadvantaged people,” she adds. “We’re going to try and keep it up.”

EATING RIGHT

As Luna and I chat, Quincy (a teacher by trade) is parked at a table with the new chef, who’ll be adding pizza to the café’s menu. Jazz Bird is first and foremost a vegetarian burger joint, though it has one beef dish (which Quincy pleaded for). The plant-based patties are based on traditional burgers and cheeseburgers, with accents like yuzu, onion rings and portobello mushroom. Luna’s personal favourite is the Filet No-fish burger; the guilt-free avocado carbonara is popular, and there’s a spin on poutine without the gravy. This day’s dessert special is a lemon tart made with almond milk, and the drink selection includes the No Ugly series of wellness tonics, and coffee by socially conscious roasters Square Mile. Jazz Bird is on Deliveroo – handy if you work in ICC – and you can find them on Facebook and Instagram. “We urge everyone to visit our self-sustained café or order on Deliveroo to support our cause and enjoy the vegetarian, low-carb menu,” Luna says. Luna and Quincy work alongside a group of like-minded volunteers and all the money from café sales goes to Jazz Bird’s community efforts and to the charities it partners with. In collaboration with charity group Lifewire (serving sick kids) and social enterprise 1 Roof, Jazz Birds delivers meals and other items across Hong Kong to those that need them. Jazz Birds also works with MercyHK to pass items donated by Henderson Land Development’s COVID Relief Fund to the homeless, elderly and disabled.

SHARING THE LOVE

If that’s not enough, all the Joe Cocker and John Lennon references on the café’s walls are there for good reason: Jazz Bird, which takes its name from the great Charlie Parker, has live music on Friday nights. “We’re just trying to share music, and get some kids to perform. We slide the tables away and set up the stage in front of the coffee machine,” says Luna, who is also a vocalist, a creative outlet that dried up when bars and clubs closed. “We serve drinks, people can sit and chill. That’s gone well so far,” she adds. “A lot of young people live around here because rent is reasonable and this way, they don’t have to go to TST or Wanchai for live music.” Luna and Quincy have broader ambitions for Jazz Bird. Aside from delivering food to those in need, the café employs at-risk youth, ethnic minorities and middle- aged women who are often denied opportunities, and teaches them something about running a business or simply working in the real world. Coffee is a major element of Jazz Bird, (the duo have plans to do some fair trade coffee work in India), and Luna would love to see her charges dabbling in the café scene on their own one day. “Hong Kong has a great coffee culture now. They can use those skills,” she says. “I want to share all the stuff I know – give it away. What am I going to do with it when I die? Luna and Quincy are well aware that their ambitions are lofty, but they’re also realistic enough to recognise there’s plenty of space, sadly, in the so-called market for them. “We’re not better than any other charity, and there is no ‘number one,’ so to speak. There are a lot of people who need help and we can’t help them all. The more of us there are the better,” Luna says. “If someone tries our service and doesn’t really like it, they have other choices, but we’re here for someone who does like us.” And really, who doesn’t want a burger that actually does some good?