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All Hong Kong Kowloon Soy Co. Ltd.
AO Edited Gastro Obscura

Kowloon Soy Co. Ltd.

One of the last soy sauce-makers in Hong Kong has been in the artisanal condiment business since 1917.

Hong Kong

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Austin Bush
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Kowloon Soy Co. Ltd. has been making condiments for more than a century.   Austin Bush for Gastro Obscura
Kowloon Soy Co. Ltd. has been making condiments for more than a century.   Austin Bush for Gastro Obscura
Chinese-style pickles are also for sale at the shop.   Austin Bush for Gastro Obscura
The third-generation owner of Kowloon Soy Co. Ltd. holds a bottle of soy sauce.   Austin Bush for Gastro Obscura
These soy sauces are as savory as they are salty.   Austin Bush for Gastro Obscura
The condiments here are made the old-fashioned way.   Austin Bush for Gastro Obscura
This is one of the last producers of soy sauce based in Hong Kong.   Austin Bush for Gastro Obscura
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Stroll along Queen’s Road Central, in Hong Kong, a wide avenue of modern skyscrapers, hotels, restaurants and malls, turn into Graham Street, and you may feel like you’ve time-travelled. The narrow, sloping street smells like drying fish, and is home to an open-air produce stall and a shopfront that’s changed little since the ‘70s. The latter is the remaining commercial outlet of Kowloon Soy Co. Ltd.

The company was founded in 1917 by the grandfather of the current owner. After a brief pause during WWII, Kowloon Soy Co. Ltd. eventually came to span five shops across the territory (but oddly enough, never in Kowloon) that sold its soy sauces and other condiments and seasonings. Today, as supermarkets have taken over, the tiny outlet on Graham Street is the only one remaining. 

Kowloon’s soy sauce was made in Hong Kong until the ‘90s, when high costs and lack of labor made it necessary to move across the border to mainland China. Today, the brand’s highest quality soy sauce, which is only available in Hong Kong, is made the old-school way, via fermenting in clay jars for three months. 

A bottle costs HK$126—around US$16—“Ten times as much as the soy sauce sold at a supermarket,” explains Kenneth Wong, the owner. It contains just two ingredients—salt and soybeans—and is as savory as it is salty, with a rich mouthfeel.

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Kowloon Soy Co. Ltd. also sells hoisin sauce, fermented soybeans, oyster sauce, and a variety of Chinese-style pickles.

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Austin Bush

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April 11, 2025

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Kowloon Soy Co. Ltd.
9 Graham St.
Hong Kong
22.283847, 114.135831

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