Wartime Cooking Area C, above Quarry Bay [????- ]
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If you walk Stage 2 of the Wilson Trail, you'll see this set of wartime cooking stoves.
I finally got to visit them for the first time this week, and take a closer look. They follow the same layout as the area E we've seen before, but are in slightly better condition.
Apart from the regular blocks of 8 stoves (4 large, 4 small on each), there's one much larger stove which I hadn't noticed before. The surround is higher, and there are steps for the cook to climb up to reach the wok. You can see it in the middle foreground of this photo:
When I looked more carefully at area E, there was one there too. The extra height should allow for extra fuel, and a hotter temperature? What would they cook on these special stoves?
The concrete at the bottom of the larger stoves still shows the marks where a metal grill used to stand, stopping the firewood from falling through:
Finally, in each of the two far corners was a concrete pillar:
Any ideas what they were for?
Photos that show this place
 2010 |
 2010 |
 2010 |
Comments
Quarry Bay Cooking Areas
I think the answer will depend on which troops were being fed by these field kitchens; Bangers & Mash for the Brits, Hamburgers for the Canadians, Curry for the Indians, Noodles for the HK Regiment....
Roof supports?
Don Ady has a suggestion about the pillars:
For roofs, maybe? Tarpaulin? If the area is too big maybe they had some other pole supports. How would they cook in a monsoon with no roof? For smoke to escape open walls and a sea breeze might work with just an overhead tarpaulin.
That's possible, I hadn't thought about keeping the rain off.
GP, no bangers & mash here!! The stoves were for refugees, so I think the menu would likely have been something-with-rice cooked in a big wok.