Even in the light rain there is a line down the block outside of Australia Dairy Company, one of the most famous cha chaan tengs in Hong Kong. Caleb Ng, a local restaurateur and my tour guide for the day, tells me not to worry. It’ll move fast—and indeed, we shuffle forward even as he speaks. Before long we’re inside, and I understand why the wait isn’t long. The restaurant is controlled chaos. Servers squeeze between crowded tables, scratch orders into paper pads, and drop glasses of lemon tea on white laminate tables. Diners sit down, stand up, film the pat of butter melting over their French toast, and finally line up to pay the cashier by the door. We’re sat unceremoniously side by side in a half-booth that faces a wall, and Ng orders us the classics: macaroni and ham soup, milk tea, and fluffy scrambled eggs with pillowy toasted white bread. It arrives in a miraculous four minutes, all scalding hot. Twenty-two minutes later we pay and stand back outside.…