I’ve been in Hong Kong this week, most of which has been spent stuffing my face with extremely good food.
In the absence of any mental capacity left for processing original thought, I’d like to share some findings in the hopes that, whether or not you’re able to visit Hong Kong, you’ll get the chance to sample one of the most interesting cuisines in the world.
the ubiquity of dim sum (點心)
When you think of Cantonese food, the first thing that comes to mind is probably dim sum. A wide selection of small dishes, many of which are served in round bamboo steamers, are shared around the table.
The two most common dishes are shrimp dumplings (蝦餃/ha gao) and pork-mushroom-shrimp dumplings (燒賣/siu mai). Most dim sum offerings also include steamed buns, rice noodles, and various braised meats.
Dim sum can be eaten with or as any meal (breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner).
My personal favorite dim sum dishes are:
-
Pork buns (叉燒包/cha siu bao)
-
Custard buns (奶黃包/lai wong bao)
-
Rice noodle rolls (腸粉/cheung fun)
-
Sesame balls with red bean paste (煎堆/jin dui)
the archetypes
Outside of eateries in malls (which work exactly the same as in American malls), most establishments fall in one or more of a few categories. Of course, there are hundreds of regional specialties and unique signature dishes, but nearly all of them will offer staples from this list.
cafe (茶餐廳/cha chaan teng)
Hong Kong style cafes are small, modest, and cheap, offering simple meals for $30-60 HKD (around $4-8 USD). The most popular items are rice noodles (粉/fun) and dumplings (餃子/gao ji).
Of course, there are still Western-style cafes, which serve the expected range of coffee and pastries. However, these are generally pretty expensive (the typical cappuccino costs as much as an entire meal at a HK cafe!).
Fun fact: The default topping/filling for soup noodles, dumplings, and wontons is 菜肉/choi yuk, cabbage and pork. Colloquially, people will omit the “菜肉” prefix when ordering a dish that includes it in its name.
bakery
Chinese bakeries serve a wide variety of baked goods. Most of them are milk-bread based, soft and sweet with a wide range of toppings.
One of the most popular bakery items is the egg tart (蛋挞/dan tat). Bakeries also offer savory items like hot dog buns, cheese bread, and green onion rolls.
Fun fact: Pineapple buns (菠蘿包, bo luo bao ) are not actually pineapple-flavored. Its sugary, crumbly topping just makes it look like a pineapple.
roasted meat (燒臘/siu mei)
Cantonese food wouldn’t be complete without roast goose (燒鵝/siu ngo), roast duck (燒鴨/siu ap), barbeque pork (叉燒/cha siu), and crispy roasted pork belly (燒肉/siu yuk).
Stores specializing in roasted meats are very obvious when viewed from the street, as they’ll display their offerings from the main shop window. You can typically choose to buy either a whole (全隻/chuun zhek) or half (半隻/buun zhek) duck or goose, and the chef will chop up your selected portion into bite-sized pieces topped with crispy skin.
Meat isn’t the only part that’s valued. Pork lung soup (豬肺湯/juu fai tong), braised cow stomach (牛雜/ngou zhap), and goose feet (鵝掌/ngo jeung) are also served in many restaurants.
Fun fact: Kam’s Roast Goose ↗ has a Michelin star while still being extremely affordable, if you need a starting point for your food tour. There are 60 restaurants in Hong Kong with a Michelin star at the the time of writing.
tea (茶/cha)
I hope you like tea! There is a lot of it and many people practically drink it nonstop here.
There are three main types: hot tea (served at restaurants), milk tea (typically at boba shops or cafes), and lemon tea (served at lemon tea stands).
Fun fact: yum cha (粵茶, literally “tea drinking”) is a social activity where you go to a restaurant in a large group to chat over tea and eat dim sum. It’s typically done during brunch time (around 10am-1pm) or during afternoon tea (2-6pm).
vegetarian food (齋/zhaai)
Since nearly every dish involves some kind of meat or meat-based broth, it’s fairly difficult to navigate the food scene if you’re vegetarian or vegan. Luckily, there are a lot of restaurants that specialize in vegetarian food and make it very clear that they do (either in their name, or with a large “vegetarian” sign in the storefront).
Some vegetarian dishes are simply recreations of popular dim sum options (like mushroom siu mai), while others are specialty tofu, vegetable, or mushroom-based creations that can stand against meat dishes on their own.
Fun fact: The Tian Tan Buddha statue (大佛/dai fut) is located on Lantau Island. It’s 34m tall, and you can buy meal tickets for the temple’s vegetarian cafe at its base.
street vendors
Street food may be cheap, but it’s the same quality (if not better) compared to their dishes’ restaurant counterparts.
All of the food I mentioned above— noodles, dumplings, meats, can be found in literal hole-in-the-wall back alley shops, with one or two folding tables stationed outside if you’re lucky.
Fun fact: In the street markets, vendors also sell fruits, dried meats, nuts, and snacks alongside clothes, souvenirs, and cell phones.
fast food (快餐/faai chaan)
Like pretty much any other major city, Hong Kong has a big fast food and convenience store culture. McDonald’s (麥當勞/mak don lou), Five Guys, Starbucks, and Japanese style 7-11’s (七仔/chut jai) illuminate the city with their bright, recognizable colors.
Don’t expect a unique experience or a huge discount: apart from a few regional menu additions, the prices, food, and atmosphere will be exactly the same as their American counterparts, just in a smaller and cleaner space.
Fun fact: KFC (i.e. Kentucky Fried Chicken) has pretty good egg tarts.
banquet halls (酒樓/jau lou)
Huge restaurants hide within fancy tall skyscrapers.
Tucked away in the upper floors of commercial skyscrapers are Hong Kong’s many traditional restaurants. Colloquially called 酒樓 (literally “wine floor”), they offer elaborate set menus (套餐/tou chaan) for 4, 6, 8, or 12 people.
Regardless of if you go for yum cha in the morning/early afternoon or for a formal dinner, unlimited teapots with tea and hot water are always served (for a mandatory per-person entry fee). Dinners are additionally enjoyed with soft drinks (coke, sprite, cream soda), orange juice, beer, or wine.
Banquet menus are very seafood-heavy, and typically include:
-
a small side dish of pickled vegetables or peanuts
-
roasted meat (often an entire pig, duck, or goose)
-
soup (湯/tong)
-
a shrimp dish (蝦/haa)
-
a scallop dish (帶子/daai ji)
-
a whole steamed fish in soy sauce (清蒸魚/qing zheng yu)
-
a noodle dish (伊面/yi mian)
-
a vegetable dish (菜/choi)
-
a fried rice dish (炒飯/chao fan)
-
various other seafood (abalone, lobster, crab, oyster, sea cucumber, etc.)
-
desserts (甜品/tiem bun)
Fun fact: Restaurants often have a pretty ridiculous looking set of extra charges on the last page of their menu, which remind me of the rapid-fire disclaimers at the end a drug commercial.
Whether you’re at the most expensive restaurant in the world, or at home with just one person, I hope you live a life full of wonderful meals.
