HeSheng Chinese Restaurant
Words: Dan Charles
This might be a bit embarrassing to admit but, almost every single time I have ever had to move into a new apartment, my mother has always insisted on flying all the way down from Ballito to Cape Town to help me pack up all of my things. To be clear, it is not her insistence that is embarrassing to me but rather my own sense of incompetence with regards to systematically assembling boxes and organising all of my possessions into them. Whenever I have attempted to undertake a move on my own, I have tended to approach them with the same sense of tact and strategy as the kids who scrambled to fit as many toys into their shopping trolleys as they could in under 60 seconds on the 1990’s KTV show Reggie’s Rush (by which I mean I would only haphazardly start packing my belongings about an hour before the moving van I had hired would be scheduled to arrive). As someone who is old enough to actually remember watching a show like Reggie’s Rush while it was still airing, I am entirely aware that that is a borderline-lethal display of weaponised incompetence that I have inflicted on those who have offered to help me in those very dire moments - particularly my dear mother. Suffice to say, her caring insistence on assisting me is always received with humility and immense gratitude.
In my defence, there are some aspects of the packing process that I have proven to be more than proficient in - one most notably being picking a restaurant for a restorative meal to indulge in at the end of the day. A few years ago, after helping me with yet another particularly gruelling move, I took my mother out to an inconspicuous looking Chinese restaurant nestled within the heart of Sea Point where we had one of the most memorable meals of our lives - HeSheng. We sat down for an early dinner and were welcomed (though that might be the right word) by the owner at the time, Mei, who had been busy hand-rolling an array of delicious-looking dumplings when we arrived. I’m uncertain about the phrase “welcomed” because you could tell that Mei was the type of older Chinese woman who did not suffer fools lightly and ran this establishment tighter and with more precision than the dumplings she rolled. With little to no pleasantries exchanged, she asked for - or rather commanded - our order and so my mother and I haphazardly rattled off our order with great haste, terrified of possibly being caught on the receiving end of this woman’s potentially devastating disapproval by wasting her time. In our haste, we ended up accidentally ordering more food than two people alone could possibly ingest - the caveat of this accidental feast being the arrival of two very generously large portions of steamed dumplings that we blissfully gorged ourselves on before our entrees arrived. We did our best to eat as much as we possibly could and we damn near almost finished everything on our plates - which is a testament to both how delicious the food was and how much we did not want to possibly insult the restaurant’s seemingly curmudgeonly owner - but, gosh, I have never been so full in my life! After we had paid and walked out of the door, my mother and I had to walk almost the entirety of Sea Point Main Road to aid the digestion of that banquet we had just consumed. It was a good, long walk on warm Spring evening and we spent it chatting and laughing about “the grumpy lady” and the whole ordeal. It was a delightful walk after a particularly wonderful meal.
I do not want to give you the wrong idea and lead you to believe that Mei’s particularly blunt approach to restaurant hospitality was at all off-putting - if anything, it actually added to the charm of the whole evening. You could also tell that she really was not a mean-spirited person at all by the amount of care and tenderness that she put into the process of rolling the rows and rows and rows of Xiao Long Bao (soup dumplings) that you could witness if you arrived early enough. Sometimes language itself fails us in expressing our love and care, sometimes it is more clearly felt in the ways that we best show up for each other - when helping someone move house or simply making a dinner reservation for someone perhaps. There is clearly an immense love and care in the way those dumplings are prepared. There is an immense love in preserving and honouring and then sharing one’s heritage and traditions - a piece of one’s self, really - with people who are, quite literally, hungry and eager to receive that love.
The new owners of HeSheng who took over from Mei after her 11 years of owning and operating the restaurant (she opted to retire once her daughter had given birth to her grandchild which, I think, is a very sweet thing to think about - the affectionately titled “grumpy lady” is now enjoying her life as a full-time granny!) are as committed to honouring and extending the now 20 year-long legacy of HeSheng and it’s distinct offering of Northern Chinese cuisine - although their approach is a bit more personable than Mei’s was. Speaking with Shaun Sun - who took over the restaurant last year with his business partner Jacky Zhao and their wives Ling Bai and Erica Zhou - he tells me that he wants to be friends with his customers: "I want to talk to them, to know them, and they get to know me as well."
Shaun used to eat at HeSheng 20 years ago when it first opened so he understands the significance of the restaurant’s legacy. He also grew up in the same region of China as Mei did (the Liaoning province) so this style of cooking is as much a part of him as it was a part of her - it’s his hometown flavour. However, despite his many years of working as a professional chef, this was his first time professionally engaging with the tastes and techniques of his heritage and so taking on this position was daunting to him.
"There's always a risk to take," he admits, reflecting on the transition from the previous owner to his own stewardship. "You never know if the people, the customers, will recognise you.”
Today, I believe it is safe to say that Shaun’s worries can be put to rest. Night after night, the restaurant continues to be flooded with patrons who are either local or from afar. In the year since he took over, Shaun and his team have not only continues to win over the restaurant's loyal patrons, but has also continued to attracted growing number of international patrons - particularly Chinese tourists seeking an authentic taste of their homeland. His unwavering commitment to quality, coupled with a genuine desire to foster a sense of community, has only deepened Hesheng’s reputation as a beloved institution in the city of Cape Town. On any given night, you can find Shaun personally presenting table after table with steaming dishes of delicious food - treating each guest with as much care and gentleness as it takes to roll their famous dumpling - a task now passed on from Mei to Shaun and his partner’s wives. And if you would care to know any more about any of the dishes being served, Shaun would be delighted to reciprocate that care in telling you all about them.
HESHENG
021 433 0739
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