On Filming A Travel Show in Hong Kong with Jon Hamm, aka THE Don Draper.
“What was it like to film with Jon Hamm?”
That’s the question I get asked the most in 2018. I was invited to take Jon Hamm and Richard Ayoade, the host of Travel Man from Channel 4, on an exotic eats adventure in Hong Kong last fall. The Christmas special, Travel Man 48 Hours in Hong Kong, was aired on TV on Boxing Day in the UK (you can watch my session on YouTube, just look up Travel Man Hong Kong and click on the second video on the list). Here are some contexts on what I do. I run a local experience company called Hong Kong Food Crawlers, where I take curious travellers for local eats at hole-in-the-walls and places they wouldn’t be able to discover on their own. The researcher of the show told me they liked my brand, the headline “Eat Like Bourdain” on my website and a record of 5-star reviews, and the rest was history.
While most people expect me to tell them that Jon Hamm was nothing but as charming as his character Don Draper in Mad Men, I hate to disappoint. Hamm was quiet on set when the camera wasn’t rolling, and he seemed content scrolling through his phone in between takes. However, the one thing that imprinted in my memory the most was him asking Ayoade “do you really expect me to finish this?”, as he held a skewer of offals in his hands, looking as sceptical as ever. To be more precise, I got Ayoade and Hamm the best-seller combo at the street food shop that’s known for their offal delicacy. It was an assortment of chicken kidneys, squid tentacles, pig’s reproductive tract, duck tongues (an extra skewer added on the side, as requested by the producer), topped with sweet sauce, mustard and plenty of soy sauce.
Look, I get it. Offals aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. I certainly didn’t expect Ayoade and Hamm to like the food that I was going to feed them. After all, most westerners would frown, or their face turns simply sour when words like “offals” or “stinky tofu” come up. I’m used to that kind of reactions, but to hear someone commenting on the food you grew up with, with a sort of disdain/disgust/whatever-you-call-it in their voice, certainly caused an effect on me more than I expected. I knew the food would be too peculiar for their palates, but I was taken back when Hamm made such a comment. “Can’t you say that when I’m not around?” was probably what was circling on my mind as I stood like a baffled idiot next to these two men.
What I’ve also learned from filming with Richard Ayoade and Jon Hamm on Travel Man was that filming television is not as glamorous as one thinks. It was apparent that the two of them were exhausted from travelling and filming outside all day, and they didn’t fare too well under the heat and humidity in Hong Kong. They were both very polite and had small talks with me, and asked me various questions such as “when did you start running food tours?”, “which school did you go to?”, “Oh, you went to McGill? No wonder you have a Canadian accent”. I’m a huge fan of Richard Ayoade’s role in the British comedy IT Crowd and was surprised to find him very much an introvert, who would read his book at the corner of the street in between takes. That also explained why Hamm and Ayoade barely talked to each other while the camera was not rolling (sorry to disappoint all the YouTubers who commented how well the two get along). Oh, and Jon Hamm had an extra bite of stinky tofu and said it actually wasn’t that bad off camera. So don’t believe whatever they put on the show!
Being on TV with these two stars definitely helps me gain credibility for my food tours at Hong Kong Food Crawlers, but one thing I wish I could see more on travel shows in the future is more representations of the wide variety of food we have in Hong Kong. Offal skewers, stinky tofu and snake soup are traditional Hong Kong food, but there’s way more than exotic eats that my hometown has to offer. I was shocked when I saw bull’s testicles on the list of things the producer requested. Balls are definitely a Mainland Chinese delicacy and I ended up convincing the producer to take it off the agenda as this dish wasn’t a Hong Kong staple (I would also hate to make Jon Hamm eat balls on TV the first time I meet him). So next time you’re in Hong Kong, besides having dim sum and noodles, try going to a wet market and buy your own seafood, then take them to a restaurant (dai pai dong) and have them cooked it for you. Or visit a Cantonese diner that’s been opened in the 60s and enjoy a hearty stir-fry beef rice noodles. Then hop to the family bakery next door and savour some freshly baked egg tarts (my favourites are the flaky crust) and red bean sticky rice cakes.
I filmed with another travel show a few months after the special episode of Travel Man was aired on TV. The show is called “Painting The Town with Eric Dowdle”, a much smaller production from the States. I was given the opportunity to be creative and come up with a list of places that I love taking my guests on my food and cultural tours. I had an incredible time filming with the host and the crew, and I even lined up an interview for them at a Chinese qipao tailor, which is considered as a dying breed in Hong Kong. While this show isn’t as well known as Travel Man, I’m glad to have the voice to show audience in the West another side of Hong Kong from my perspective as a local. We didn’t do any stinky tofu this time, but I made the host try durian for the very first time and challenged him to finish a piece on camera. We even learned how to kill, gut and take off the scales of a fresh fish from my favourite seafood vendor at the market.
P.S. Don’t be shy like me and just go for that selfie with Jon Hamm and Richard Ayoade next time. I waited too long and ended up taking a bad quality photo outside of the snake soup restaurant (our last stop for the shoot), while I could have got a selfie with better lighting with the two of them.
