Vancouver gets Hong Kong crime cinema-inspired pop-up The Fishy Business in August

Top Chef Canada Season 10 runner-up Chef Dez Lo is debuting a new culinary concept that pays homage to Hong Kong crime cinema, sustainable B.C. seafood, and the stories food can tell. The pop-up, called The Fishy Business, unfolds like a mini crime series and will debut August 8 to 9 as part of Hawkers Lane at the Light Up Chinatown! Festival.

The team behind the concept—Dez Lo, EatFish, and Holy Duck Chili—created three original trailers released on Instagram before the pop-up weekend. The menu consists of three seafood creations: Typhoon Shelter Sum Sum Fish and Chips with Hong Kong curry tartar sauce (drawing from a culinary tradition associated with Hong Kong's fishing communities), Takoyaki with Chili Lava Salted Egg hoisin glaze and bonito, and B.C. Smoked Fish Cakes served with Spot Prawn Chili Oil spicy mayo.

The concept bridges Hong Kong's street food culture with cinema. In Hong Kong, street food stalls and dai pai dongs (open-air food courts)—where fishermen, office workers, detectives, taxi drivers, and gangsters all stopped for quick meals—became backdrops for the city's golden era of filmmaking. Directors like John Woo (Hard Boiled) and Andrew Lau and Alan Mak (Infernal Affairs, which inspired The Departed) captured that urban energy and tension.

"In Hong Kong, street food is never just about eating on the street," said Louise Pang, co-founder of Holy Duck Chili. "It is what you grab when you are late, broke, tired, hungry, alone, excited, heartbroken or just needing five minutes to yourself. It is fast, messy, comforting and completely yours. With The Fishy Business, we wanted to bring that emotional texture into Vancouver Chinatown through B.C. seafood, Hong Kong flavours and a little cinematic mischief."