Here’s how Hong Kong density works: at Lin Heung dimsum restaurant, its “forms of doing” integrate perfectly with its “form of being” (see Atelier Bow Bow) toward having the least number of staff to serve the most number of customers within the quickest time in the smallest amount of physical space possible:

- you wait next to tables for others to finish and make way for your party

- you share round tables with other groups of diners eating shoulder to shoulder, elbows by sides

- you can squeeze more people in round tables, pack more tables in a given space, and you can move easily around one

- your tea is filled and refilled by nimble waiters waltzing from table to table

- freshly made dim sum are trolleyed directly from the kitchen to leftover spaces between tables by waitresses

- you ferry the little baskets of dim sum from these trolleys to your table

- the waitress records your order by stamping on your little white card in columns marked “large”, “medium”, “small”, etc.

- your white card is slotted below the glass top of your table to minimise space

- you give other groups of diners at your table a wide berth by not staring at them or their food or eavesdropping on their private talk; you imagine that you’re all eating at separate tables

- when you’re done, you bring your little white card to the cashier next to the entrance to pay

- almost everyone leaves thoroughly satisfied: high density is tolerable with careful civility and the right state of mind