HONG KONG (AP) — A Hong Kong culinary institution is acknowledging that changing times bring changing tastes and has found a hit in adding American pistachios to the range of flavors in its famed dumplings.
The Kwan Hong Bakery last year began offering the new flavor alongside the traditional peanut and red bean fillings that are the heart of the sweet, deep-fried pastry, which is hand-filled and folded like the wide range of sweet and savory dumplings known in the local dialect as “kok zai.”
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Customers enjoy pistachio crispy pastry dumplings outside Kwan Hong Bakery in Hong Kong, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
Customers wait outside Kwan Hong Bakery to purchase New Year food in Hong Kong, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
Staff members pack pistachio crispy pastry dumplings at a bakery in Hong Kong, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
Staff members prepare pistachio crispy pastry dumplings in the kitchen of Kwan Hong Bakery in Hong Kong, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
A cat owned by Kwan Hong Bakery is seen in the kitchen of the bakery in Hong Kong, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
Staff members prepare pistachio crispy pastry dumplings in the kitchen of Kwan Hong Bakery in Hong Kong, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
A staff member conducts a quality check on roasted pistachios in the kitchen of Kwan Hong Bakery in Hong Kong, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
Staff members prepare pistachio crispy pastry dumplings in the kitchen of a bakery in Hong Kong, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
Ng Kwan-ping, founder and owner of Kwan Hong Bakery, transfers a tray of pistachios in the kitchen of the bakery in Hong Kong, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
Customers wait in line outside Kwan Hong Bakery in Hong Kong, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
Demand is especially strong around the Lunar New Year, which fell on Wednesday, with long lines outside the 46-year-old family-owned business in the city’s Sham Shui Po district.
“We hope that bringing more new flavors to customers would bring in more business,” says Ho Yuet-yin, wife of the bakery’s founder.
The older generation still go for the traditional flavors, but “now the younger people are more picky and we think the pistachio is an excellent new flavor,” Ho says.
Walnuts and macadamia nuts were also considered but ultimately “pistachio is the one which works out well,” said Charles Ng, Kwan Hong’s manager.
Customers enjoy pistachio crispy pastry dumplings outside Kwan Hong Bakery in Hong Kong, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
Customers wait outside Kwan Hong Bakery to purchase New Year food in Hong Kong, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
Staff members pack pistachio crispy pastry dumplings at a bakery in Hong Kong, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
Staff members prepare pistachio crispy pastry dumplings in the kitchen of Kwan Hong Bakery in Hong Kong, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
A cat owned by Kwan Hong Bakery is seen in the kitchen of the bakery in Hong Kong, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
Staff members prepare pistachio crispy pastry dumplings in the kitchen of Kwan Hong Bakery in Hong Kong, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
A staff member conducts a quality check on roasted pistachios in the kitchen of Kwan Hong Bakery in Hong Kong, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
Staff members prepare pistachio crispy pastry dumplings in the kitchen of a bakery in Hong Kong, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
Ng Kwan-ping, founder and owner of Kwan Hong Bakery, transfers a tray of pistachios in the kitchen of the bakery in Hong Kong, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
Customers wait in line outside Kwan Hong Bakery in Hong Kong, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
NEW YORK (AP) — Justice Department lawyers and New York City Mayor Eric Adams are set to face a federal judge who is signaling that he is unlikely to rubber-stamp their request to drop the mayor's corruption charges weeks before an April trial.
Judge Dale E. Ho, who was nominated by Democratic President Joe Biden, scheduled the Wednesday afternoon hearing after three Trump administration lawyers from Washington made the dismissal request on Friday. Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor resigned after she refused an order to do so.
The judge already has indicated that the hearing probably would not settle the matter, writing in an order Tuesday that one subject on the agenda will be a discussion of “procedure for resolution of the motion.”
Also set for discussion are the reasons for the request to dismiss the indictment that charges the first-term Democrat with accepting more than $100,000 in illegal campaign contributions and lavish travel perks from a Turkish official and business leaders seeking to buy Adams' influence while he was Brooklyn borough president. Adams has pleaded not guilty. He faces multiple challengers in the Democratic primary in June.
Closely watching the judicial proceedings is Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul as she considers whether to remove Adams from office amid concerns that he reached a deal to have the case dropped in exchange for the mayor's political fealty to Republican President Donald Trump.
Early last week, Deputy U.S. Attorney General Emil Bove told prosecutors in New York to drop the charges because the prosecution “has unduly restricted Mayor Adams’ ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime.” Bove said charges could be reinstated after November's mayoral election.
Two days later, then-interim U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon told Attorney General Pam Bondi in a letter that dismissing the charges in return for Adams' assistance in enforcing federal immigration laws would betray Bondi's own words that she "will not tolerate abuses of the criminal justice process, coercive behavior, or other forms of misconduct.”
“Dismissal of the indictment for no other reason than to influence Adams’s mayoral decision-making would be all three,” said Sassoon, a Republican. She said it amounted to a “quid pro quo” deal and disclosed that prosecutors were about to bring additional obstruction of justice charges against Adams.
Bove, in accepting Sassoon's resignation, accused her of “pursuing a politically motivated prosecution despite an express instruction to dismiss the case.” He informed her that two prosecutors assigned to the case were being suspended with pay and that an investigation would determine if they would keep their jobs.
One prosecutor, Hagan Scotten quit the following day, writing in a resignation letter that he supported Sassoon's actions. Scotten told Bove that it would take a “fool” or a “coward” to meet Bove's demand to drop the charges, “but it was never going to be me.”
In all, seven prosecutors, including five high-ranking prosecutors at the Justice Department had resigned by Friday.
Sassoon and her colleagues have found support for their stand from a small army of former prosecutors.
On Friday, seven former U.S. attorneys in Manhattan, including James Comey, Geoffrey S. Berman and Mary Jo White, issued a statement lauding Sassoon’s “commitment to integrity and the rule of law.”
On Monday, three former U.S. attorneys from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut submitted papers to Ho suggesting that he appoint a special prosecutor if he finds the Justice Department acted improperly or that he order all evidence be made available to state and local prosecutors.
A former Watergate prosecutor filed papers separately, telling the judge to reject the government's request and consider assigning a special counsel to explore the legal issues and ultimately consider appointing an independent special prosecutor to try the case.
Also Monday, Justice Connection, an organization advocating for Justice Department employees, released a letter signed by over 900 former federal prosecutors to career federal prosecutors that said they have “watched with alarm” as values “foundational to a fair and justice legal system” have been tested.
On Tuesday, Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Adams, said in a letter to the judge that “there was no quid pro quo. Period.”
New York City mayor Eric Adams arrives to a news conference in New York, Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
New York City mayor Eric Adams attends a news conference regarding a police officer that was shot in New York, Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)