After 66 years, Kau Kee’s first shop offers fish balls ‘every Hongkonger has eaten’

Anita Lee Yan-kwan grew up around a traditional business that supplied fish balls to Hong Kong’s street food stalls and eateries. But for decades, Kau Kee Food Factory’s signature product was known only among industry operators until Lee, a second-generation owner, opened the company’s first retail store late last year.Kau Kee has operated as a silent giant in the food industry for 66 years, supplying its fish balls to nearly 1,000 eateries and snack stalls across the city. But it finally opened its first bricks-and-mortar shop in Mong Kok last December.“Before opening the retail shop, if you were to ask people about Kau Kee on the street, they would probably not know about it,” Lee said. “Yet it’s likely almost every Hongkonger has eaten our fish balls.”