Weird things that actually happened on April Fools’ Day
Tomato and scrambled egg ice cream, and curry fishball tiramisu sound like a joke, but were not
This past April Fools’ Day had a few surprises – namely, that something appearing to be a joke turned out to be real.
The first was the news that Lin Heung Tea House, the historic dim sum parlour on Wellington Street, Central was set to open again on April 1. After a tumultuous few years that saw the restaurant close in 2019, reopen two days later, then close, seemingly for good, in 2022, it was resurrected once more on Easter Monday at 6am.
By Tuesday morning, it seemed this news had not got out. The teahouse was barely half full, but began filling up around 11am. The staff zipping about seemed happy to be back. “It’s the old boss,” one confirmed as she topped up our tea.
Currying favour
A few days ago, news started appearing about a curry fishball tiramisu. . Miss Tira, a Tsuen Wan-based speciality cake shop, celebrated the launch of its Causeway Bay pop-up store with the controversial flavour. So what does it taste like?
The curry fishball flavour is infused into the cream, which at first is not too odd – a little spiced, a little savoury, a little sweet – but quickly becomes cloying.
If Italians are insulted by Hawaiian pizza (which I adore), then they would do best to avoid the Sogo department store at all costs until April 9, when the pop-up ends.
The joke’s on me
In Hong Kong, the team behind the localised Ikea Instagram account are quick to jump on a trending topic with a cleverly placed ad for a product.
This time, supposedly, one of the account administrators “accidentally” posted a photo of their mother’s scrambled egg and tomato dish on the Ikea account. They issued an apology to their 249,000 followers, lamenting that they felt sorry that everyone “could see, but not eat” the dish.
On April 1, they announced they were launching “their mum’s” tomato and scrambled egg soft serve ice cream at all Ikea stores (apart from Sha Tin in the New Territories), available until April 3.
The colours mimic a rhubarb and custard sweet, and the ice cream has a pleasant soft-serve texture. The yellow “egg” part tastes just like a simple custard, as you might expect – no saltiness is detectable, either.
The red ice cream is tomato-forward – which, in theory, should not be too strange considering tomatoes are a fruit. Yet it was weirdly watery, but intensely tomatoey at the same time – like one of those insipid borscht soups at a cha chaan teng.
I conclude that some things are best left as abstract ideas and April Fools’ jokes, rather than becoming a reality.