Have you ever found yourself at a music festival where your melomania is followed by a Hank Marvin–style hunger? Perhaps at this year’s Clockenflap – now only two weeks away – you may want to consider matching your music with your meals to prevent a potential Typhoon Hangry.
Now, what cuisine goes best with Jarvis Cocker’s craggy Brit-Pop crooning? Perhaps a burger is in order to gorge on as he bellows on about Fat Children? Or, while taking in the avant-garde hum of chanteuse CIFIKA, can we foresee a matching up of her majestic voice and poignant lyrics with a tender bite of tteokbokki? And for a bite of animalistic enjoyment during Cigarettes After Sex’s performance, maybe a taste of Chef Max Levy’s new Sausage Commitment, launching at the Flap?
Have we gone too far down the rabbit hole there? No? If you’re still with us, read on for a full rundown of the deets on the eats so that you can fill your belly while filling your ears at Hong Kong’s best (we think) music fest.
Photo credit: @f102a
Sausage Commitment
Starting with the new, the team at Okra will use the power of music to launch their latest project, Sausage Commitment, at Clockenflap. Focusing on house-made smoked sausage (without fillers and using only natural pork casings) with Asian flavours, they’re looking to change the way Hong Kongers think about sausage (and judging by the pic below, the buns too).
Beef & Liberty
Always a festival favourite, B&L will be serving up their classic bacon cheeseburger (and the Impossible Thai burger too if you want to try out the hot non-meat meat that bleeds). Go ahead and scoff an Impossible veggie burger while listening to the post-punk rage of Shame, because you will be feeling none.
Lazydays
Western-style Chinese food was made for music festivals – or to be eaten straight from the fridge after them. Read your ominous fortune cookie after revelling in a box of crispy shredded beef and fried rice with prawn crackers by Lazydays. We’re thinking that heading over to hear electro-house duo Peking Duk would be a harmonious tie-in here – as it’s two white Aussie dudes with a nod-to-China band handle.
Little Mario’s Pizzeria
Pizza! And pizza by Little Mario’s makes us think of retro video games that are now cool again. It’s perfect festival fare that, just like a LBD, pretty much goes with everything.
Bubba Gump Shrimp Co
A bit of the deep-fried American indulgences from Bubba Gump probably calls for a stopover at the kids’ amphitheatre. We hear there is a pretty sharp three-year-old by the name of DJ Archie hitting the decks, and he just might provide the perfect accompaniment to our guilty pleasures of tater tots and Cajun shrimp. We wonder if they’ll have their light-up cocktail cups at the fest too…
SSAL BORI SSAL
We mentioned tteokbokki above – SSAL BORI SSAL is where to get it.
Honbo
Cool-cat burger shop Honbo supports local farms and bakers to create their unique version of the world’s favourite fast-food sandwich (using a potato-and-milk bun). Why not chow down in support of homegrown companies while taking in the indie musical stylings of GDJYB, the Hong Kong all-female four-piece band that’s named after Cantonese comfort food gai dan jane yuk bang – steamed pork meatloaf with egg – as no one is serving that up at the fest as of yet. 
Soupa
If it’s cold and rainy (which it won’t be – it just won’t – let’s all do the sun dance together), Soupa will fare very well at ridding the chill in the air. Also, their soup is great for soothing those swollen throats after a particularly enjoyable stage session. We’re imagining that the pure rock ‘n’ roll emanating from The Vaccines will induce some sore tonsils (ours), and Soupa post-Vaccines has a nice all-round medicinal ring to it.
The Salted Pig
The Salted Pig will be serving up their slow-cooked pulled pork sandwich, which could be a good bite to go with a dose of HK’s The Low Mays, a local bad-boy hip-hop group with a band name that can be loosely translated as either delicious food or go f*ck yourself. We’ll probably enjoy the sammie either way.
Hotshot
Here are more dogs – American ones this time. Perhaps head to Hotshot to nourish yourself while taking in the seminal tunes of New York’s Interpol? But, if you do, take caution if eating while moshing during The Heinrich Maneuver – you wouldn’t want it to lead to the need for the Heimlich manoeuvre…
Long Feng Hao
Long-time fans of Taiwanese street food will be spending some serious chew time at this chow shop. Last year, we loved discovering the Taiwanese alt-indie band Hello Nico, so we are definitely going to check out this year’s singer-songwriter anpu to see if we catch some new Taiwanese sounds to pair with our fave street eats from Long Feng Hao.
MANA!
When your day at the fest is a wrap, you should probably also get a wrap to go. Where better than the earth-loving, flatbread-making gurus at MANA! to fill you up on your journey home with a fully promised exclamation point while your head is swimming with tunes and your taste buds are swimming with sweet veggie flavours.
If you want to plan your own beats and treats (we won’t be offended if you didn’t dig our suggestions – to each his/her own), here’s the music line-up for this year’s Flap, so you can chart your own jam and tang course.
READ MORE: Food at the Flap 2017
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