"This is our new home": The pub in Altrincham with the best prawn toast in the city
25.02.2023 - 15:23
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
What Priscilla So and Brian Hung don’t know about beer probably isn’t worth knowing. So Priscilla has exactly the beer in mind to go with the Hong Kong-style french toast they serve at Harcourt, their new pub in Altrincham.
It’s an imperial stout from the Wander Beyond brewery, found under the arches at Piccadilly, and it weighs in at a robust 12.5%. It fits perfectly and tastes like coffee beans and chocolate, though for God’s sake don’t order a pint. You won’t be able to stand afterwards.
Harcourt is named after the Harcourt Road in Hong Kong, which is in turn named after Sir Cecil Harcourt, the governor of Hong Kong, after it was reclaimed from Japan at the end of the Second World War. It was also the staging ground for the ‘Umbrella Revolution’ in 2014, where protesters began standing up against government electoral reforms.
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It was also the place where Priscilla, Brian and many of their friends were tear gassed and pepper sprayed by authorities in 2019, while protesting the increasingly alarming stranglehold of the Chinese government over the former British colony.
Brian worked as a brewer and Priscilla in a craft beer bottle shop before they left Hong Kong, in the most recent wave of migration. It saw 76,000 people from Hong Kong move to the UK in 2022 alone.
They join others bringing the distinct flavours of Hong Kong to Manchester in recent months, along with the likes of Hong Kong Choi in Salford and the always-sold-out Pop Chop Curry House in Eccles.
“It felt