Cuisine of Hong Kong
Encyclopedia
Hong Kong cuisine is influenced by Cantonese cuisine
and parts of non-Cantonese-speaking China (especially Chaozhou
, Dongjiang, Fujian
and the Yangtze River Delta
), Western world
, Japan
, and Southeast Asia
, due to Hong Kong
's past as a British colony and long history of being an international city of commerce. From the roadside stalls to the most upscale restaurants, Hong Kong provides an unlimited variety of food in every class. Complex combinations and international gourmet
expertise have given Hong Kong the reputable labels of "Gourmet Paradise" and "World's Fair of Food".
Modern Hong Kong has a predominantly service-based economy, and restaurant businesses serve as a main economic contributor. With the third-densest population per square meters in the world and serving a population of 7 million, Hong Kong is host to a restaurant industry with intense competition. Due to its small geographical size, Hong Kong contains a high number of restaurants per unit area.
With Chinese
ethnicity making up 98% of the resident population, Chinese cuisine
is naturally served at home. A majority of Chinese in Hong Kong are Cantonese
in addition to sizeable numbers of Hakka
, Teochew
and Shanghainese
people, and home dishes are Cantonese
with occasional mixes of the other three types of cuisines. Rice
is predominantly the main staple
for home meals. Home ingredients are picked up from local grocery stores and independent produce shops, although supermarkets have become progressively more popular.
Hong Kong homes and kitchens tend to be small due to a high population density, and traditional Chinese cuisine often requires the freshest possible ingredients, so food shopping is undertaken frequently and in smaller quantities than is now usual in the West. Take-out
and dining out is also very common, since people are often too busy to cook with an average 47-hour work week.
traces its origins to its founding as a British colonial outpost
in 1841. Soon after the colony was founded, many British
and other Western
merchant
s along with Chinese from nearby Guangzhou
flocked there to conduct business. Initially, much of Hong Kong society was segregated into expatriate
Westerners, a majority of working class Chinese coolie
s, Chinese farmer
s and fishermen, and Chinese merchants. The simple peasant
cuisine
was rudimentary compared to the cuisine of 19th century Canton
(now commonly known as Guangzhou).
As the colony developed, there arose a need for meals to entertain businessmen. Some Chinese restaurants were founded in the late 19th century and early 20th century as branches of renowned restaurants in Canton and offered elaborate meals consisting of traditional Chinese "eight main courses and eight entrees" (八大八小) types of banquet
s for 2 tael
s of silver
, at the time equal to a clerk's monthly wage. Before 1935 when prostitution
was still legal in Hong Kong, female escorts
often accompanied diners to restaurant meals, especially those of a business entertainment nature. Until World War II
, opium
was also offered. For the majority of Chinese who were not part of the merchant class, dining out in restaurants was non-existent and consisted of simple Cantonese country fares. Meat
only appeared in festive occasions and celebrations such as birthdays were often done by catering services who prepared the meals at the celebrant's home. The restaurant scene for Europeans in Hong Kong was segregated from Chinese dining. Elaborate colonial dining existed at the likes of Hongkong Hotel and subsequently Gloucester Hotel.
, for a long time and many Hong Kong chefs spent their formative years in Canton. Canton was renowned for its food, and there was a traditional saying of "Eat in Canton" (食在廣州, Shí Zài Guǎngzhōu). Cantonese cuisine in Canton reached its peak during the 1920s and was renowned in the care in preparation even for peasant fares such as char siu
or boat congee
. Dasanyuan was renowned for its braised shark fin
dish that charged 60 silver yuan, equivalent to 6 months' wage for a working class family. The Guandong cooking style eventually trickled down to the culinary scene in Hong Kong.
in 1949 created a wave of refugee
s into Hong Kong. A sizable number of refugees were from non-Cantonese speaking parts of China, including the Yangtze River Delta
, and introduced Shanghai cuisine
to Hong Kong. On the other hand, most renowned chefs of Canton, now known as Guangzhou
in pinyin romanization, settled in Hong Kong to escape from Communist rule in mainland China
.
Prostitution
and opium had by then long faded from the restaurant scene, and in order to survive, many restaurants started to tap into winning business from families by offering yum cha
and wedding banquets, while on the other hand, the end of strict colonial segregation by the British colonial government and expatriate Westerners after the Second World War opened up Western fare to the Chinese.
Egg tart
s and Hong Kong-style milk tea
soon became part of Hong Kong's food culture. It could be argued that the seeds of Hong Kong society as understood today were not sown until 1949, and the cuisine of Hong Kong has its direct roots in this period.
-era China and martial law isolation in Taiwan
. The Cantonese cuisine in Hong Kong had by then surpassed that of Guangzhou, which had witnessed a long period of decline after the Communists came to power. The rising prosperity from the mid 1960s had given birth to increasing demand for quality dining. Many of the chefs, who spent their formative years in pre-Communist Guangzhou and Shanghai, started to bring out the best of fine dining specialties from pre-1949 Guangzhou and Shanghai. Families had largely abandoned catering services and resorted to restaurants for celebratory meals. Seafood
started to become specialised delicacies in the 1960s, followed by games
in the 1970s.
This wave of prosperity also propelled Hong Kong Chinese's awareness of foreign food trends, and many are willing to try foreign ingredients such as asparagus
and crayfish
from Australia
. Foreign food styles such as Japanese
and Southeast Asian cuisine started to influence local food, and the pace of change accelerated during the late 1970s and early 1980s. This gave birth to nouvelle Cantonese cuisine that incorporated foreign dishes such as sashimi
into Cantonese banquets. For the first time, many Hong Kong Chinese started to have the economic means to visit many Western restaurants of the domain of mainly wealthy expatriate Westerners such as Gaddi's
of the Peninsula Hotel. During these years, there was great wealth growth from stock market investments, and one visible manifestation of the resultant nouveau riche
mentality in 1970s Hong Kong were sayings such as "mixing shark's fin soup with rice" (Chinese:魚翅撈飯, yúchì lāo fàn).
when Deng Xiaoping
came to power after Mao Zedong
died. The opening up of the country gave chefs from Hong Kong chances to reestablish links with chefs from mainland China severed in 1949 and opportunities to gain awareness of various regional Chinese cuisines. Many of these cuisines also contributed to nouvelle Cantonese cuisines in Hong Kong. The lift of martial law
in Taiwan
in 1987 jump-started Taiwanese links with mainland China and has caused a proliferation of eateries specializing in Taiwanese cuisine
in Hong Kong as Taiwanese tourists and businessmen used Hong Kong as a mid-point for visits to mainland China. From 1978 until 1997 there was no dispute Hong Kong was the epicenter of Chinese, not merely Cantonese, cuisine worldwide, with Chinese restaurants in mainland China and Taiwan, and among overseas Chinese communities, racing to employ chefs trained or worked in Hong Kong and emulating dishes improvised or invented in Hong Kong. Hong Kong-style Cantonese cuisine became a coinword for innovative Chinese cuisine during this period. It was even unofficially rumored the Chinese government had secretly consulted the head chef for the Peking Garden Restaurant of Hong Kong, part of the Maxim's restaurant and catering
conglomerate, to teach chefs back at the renowned Quanjude
restaurant in Beijing
how to make good Peking Duck
, Quanjude's signature dish, in the early 1980s as the skills to produce the dish were largely lost during the Cultural Revolution
.
and grouper
, and many celebratory dishes have become outrageously expensive that they are beyond the reach of even many upper-middle class Hong Kong families. At the same time, Hong Kong people's tastes have become cosmopolitan when compared with one generation ago. Many are now able to appreciate specific European
cuisines rather than one generic "Western cuisine", and appreciation of other Asian cuisines, especially Japanese cuisine
and Thai cuisine has been ever increasing. These has produced a proliferation of many specialist ethnic cuisine restaurants geared towards young middle class couples on one hand, and a consolidation of fine-dining Cantonese restaurants on the other.
As of the early 21st century Hong Kong, notwithstanding the partial recovery of Hong Kong's economy from the slump in 2003 due to the SARS epidemic, many pundits argue that contemporary Hong Kong's economy is heavily skewed towards real estate development
and financial services
. This provides prosperity to only a select few minority and an uncertain long-term economic fortune vis-a-vis more diversified mega-rich cities in China such as Shanghai
and Guangzhou
, and the territory therefore no longer possesses the economic base to support mass-level super fine-dining that is required to sustain an active dining culture. A common perception of Hong Kong's current culinary culture is one being in decline and resting on past laurels. For example, culinary magazines such as Eat and Travel Weekly report fewer fundamentally new dishes being invented in Hong Kong post-2000 than the 1980s heyday, and many restaurants tend to resort to popularise haute dishes invented in the 1980s. Modern Hong Kong's labor market has also disrupted the traditional ways of grooming Chinese chefs, which henceforth been trained in a very long and drawn one-to-one practical apprenticeships. Very few chefs are willing to sacrifice their time and effort to produce traditional cooking that discourages cutting corners, and emphasises techniques over ingredients' net economic worth. On the other hand, a minority of optimistic pundits argue Hong Kong may well develop a foodie culture similar to other developed economies and preserve the best of traditional cooking.
Historically Hong Kong's food source came from a combination of mini stores instead of supermarkets. Some of the stores included: rice dealers , serving as mini rice storage warehouses; wine shops (辦館, bànguǎn), which offered beverages; see-dor (士多, Cantonese rendering of "store"), which were single convenient stores, most notable for serving fresh baked bread. The main component was wet market
s (街市) - one of the first market gatherings in Hong Kong was Central Market
that began in the 1840s.
The idea of a single facility or supermarket that provided all food ingredients did not take place until the early 1970s
when Wellcome
, a local grocery chain, changed its format into a supermarket. Air-conditioned supermarkets did not become standardised until the 1980s. The early 21st century Western environmentalism
- or sustainability
-inspired food trends, such as natural food, organic food
, non-genetically modified food, local food
, and farmer's markets, have been ignored by a majority of Hong Kong's populations. The Western farmer's market share some similarities with the traditional Chinese wet markets, however support of wet markets is largely based on traditional Chinese cultural preference rather than sustainability, and wet markets contain many features that are condemned by modern Western environmentalists on the grounds of "animal cruelty" (live animals sold for food) and "high food miles" (fruits and seafood from another continent).
Most restaurant serving sizes are considerably small by international standards, especially in comparison to most Western nations like the United States
or Canada
. The main course
is usually accompanied by a generous portion of carbohydrates such as rice
or mein (noodles). People generally eat 5 times a day. Dinner is often accompanied with dessert. Snack time also fits anywhere in between meals.
As Hong Kong is Cantonese in origin and most Hong Kong Chinese are immigrants or descendants of immigrants from Cantonese-speaking parts of China, the food is a variant of Cantonese cuisine - almost all homecooking and much of the dine-out fares, from restaurant to bakery, are Cantonese or heavily Cantonese-influenced. Most of the celebrated food in Hong Kong
such as the wife cake, roast duck, dim sum
, herbal tea, shark's fin and abalone
cooking, poached chicken, and the mooncake
, and others, originated in Guangzhou
, and dai pai dong
was an institution adopted from the southern Chinese city. As in the parent cuisine, the Hong Kong Cantonese cuisine accepts a wide variety of ingredients, a lighted seasoned taste. Unlike Guangzhou, the uninterrupted contacts Hong Kong has with the West has made it more susceptible to Western influences, and has produced favorites such as egg tart
s and Hong Kong-style milk tea
.
In addition, other foreign styles of cuisines are also popular in the territory, although almost all offer one of generic Western (authentic, international, or Hong Kong-style), Italian, French, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, Malaysian and Singaporean cuisines.
{|class="wikitable"
! width=20% | Time of Day
! width=40% | Meal
|-
| morning || Breakfast
|-
| noon (12 pm) || Lunch
|-
| 3 pm || Afternoon Tea
|-
| evening || Dinner
|-
| 10 pm or later || Siu yeh
|-
and Thai, are consumed exclusively with chopsticks
. The more Western style cuisines favor cutlery
. Some meals are more suited for the use of hands. One notable trend in restaurants is the limited number of napkins provided during a meal. Most mid to low-tier restaurants operate under the assumption that customers bring their own napkins or tissue packs when dining. Standard Western
dining etiquettes are rarely observed even in upscale restaurants in Hong Kong.
{|
|valign=top|
|valign=top|
|valign=top|
|}
! Chinese and other Asian cuisines
! Style name
! Most popular
! Examples
|-
| Small Shops || Hawker || Snack
|| Fish ball
s on a stick, Stinky tofu
|-
| || Dai Pai Dong || Snack || Wonton noodle, Congee
|-
| || Specialty || Snack || Tofu pudding
, beef jerky
|-
| Informal || HK-Style Fast Food || Anytime || Cutlet
Porkchop, Vegetable
with Oyster sauce
|-
| Bakery || Chinese Pastry || Snack || Wife Cake, Egg tart
, Pineapple Bun
|-
| || Cantonese || Lunch, Dinner || Dim sum
(breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea only), Shark's fin, Char siu
|-
| || Buddhist || Lunch, Dinner || Buddha's delight
, Mantou
|-
| || Hakka || Lunch, Dinner || Poon Choi
|-
| || Beijing || Lunch, Dinner || Peking Duck
|-
| || Japanese || Lunch, Dinner || Sushi
, Sashimi
|-
| || Indian || Lunch, Dinner || Curry
Chicken
|-
| || Hot Pot || Dinner || Scallop
, Shrimp
|-
| Drinks || HK-Style Drinks || Anytime || milk tea
, Yuanyang
|-
| || Chinese Tea || Anytime || Chrysanthemum tea
|-
|}
! Western Category
! Style Name
! Most Popular
! Examples
|-
| Small Shops || HK-style western || Brunch
|| French Toast
, Instant noodles
|-
| Informal || Western Fast Food || Anytime || Big Mac
, Hotdog
|-
| Bakery || Western Bakery || Snack || Maxim
, Tiramisu
|-
| Cuisine || American || Lunch, Dinner || Sirloin steak
, Buffalo wings
|-
| || Italian || Lunch, Dinner || Spaghetti
with Vienna Sausage
, Beef
Brisket
, Pizza
|-
| || French || Lunch, Dinner || Quiche
, Lamb Mignon
|-
| Drinks || Western Drinks || Anytime || Horlicks
, Cola
|-
| || Western Coffee || Anytime || Espresso
, Iced coffee
, Siphon Coffee
|-
|}
{|class="wikitable"
! Category
! Style Name
! Most Popular
! Examples
|-
| Alcoholic || Beer || Lunch, Dinner || Tsingtao, Carlsberg, Heineken
|-
| || Wine || Lunch, Dinner || XO cognac
|-
| Fruits || Pacific Fruits || Anytime || Ya Pear
, Durian
, Lychee
|-
|}
These are basically streetside food stalls, operated by usually one or two people pushing a cart. The carts are usually very mobile, allowing the business freedom to sell snacks in whichever area is most populated at a particular point in time. While they have been popular in the 1970s and 1980s, tight health regulations and other forms of lease
versus license
d hawker restrictions have put a burden on this mobile food culture. The term Jau Gwei
became associated with the hawkers trying to avoid restrictions.
Includes:
These are small Chinese style casual outdoor dining restaurants, serving mostly Cantonese and Teochew peasant fares. The business is catered toward the locals with many menus exclusively in Chinese.
Includes:
Specialty stores are usually dedicated to selling a certain type of snack or dried goods. If the focus is on beef jerky
for example, the store will offer 10 to 20 different types of the highest grade and quality. During holiday times, specialty stores are sometimes the premiere place for purchasing food gift items. Sun-dried goods and Chinese candy are also common merchandise found.
Includes:
Hong Kong-style fast food is either served in fast-casual restaurants such as Café de Coral
, Maxim's
and Fairwood
or in food courts typically attached to malls or supermarkets such as CitySuper. The food offered is a mix of Canto-Western cuisine (see Hong Kong-style Western cuisine below), Cantonese fares, and increasingly Asian food from outside China.
Includes:
Hong Kong-style Chinese pastry offers a plethora of choices for the discerning taster. Depending on location, some shops may carry a wider selection than others, and some may bake goods on the premise while others have it delivered from an off-site bakery. Most bakeries carry standard fare such as pineapple bun
s and egg tart
s. During the Mid-Autumn Festival
, moon cakes are one of the hottest sellers. Pastries are baked fresh daily (and sometimes throughout the day), and it is said that Hong Kong people have taste buds so sophisticated that they can tell the difference between something baked one hour versus five hours ago.
Includes:
As the most predominant cultural group in Hong Kong
, Cantonese food forms the backbone of homecooking and dine-out scenes. Many early celebrated Cantonese restaurants, including Tai San Yuan, Luk Yu Tea House, were originally Hong Kong branches of the famed Guangzhou-based restaurants, and most chefs in Hong Kong until the 1970s had spent their formative years working in the restaurant industry in Guangzhou
. Most of the celebrated dishes in Hong Kong were introduced into the territory through Guangzhou, often refined with awareness of international tastes. Cantonese food prices perhaps cover the widest range, from the small business
es lou mei
to the most expensive abalone
delicacies, which involve abalone.
One well developed dish in Cantonese cuisine is dim sum
. Waiters cart around stacks of steamer baskets or small plates of food for customers to choose. Dim sum includes dishes based on meat, seafood, vegetables, as well as desserts and fruit. The term yum cha
(literally "drink tea") is synonymous with eating dim sum. It is customary for families to eat dim sum on weekends.
Includes:
This cuisine is essentially vegetarian specialties using tofu
, wheat gluten
, mushroom
and other non-animal sourced ingredients. Despite the name, the cuisine is enjoyed by many non-Buddhists. Hong Kong's vegetarian dishes, as part of the Cantonese branch of Chinese vegetarian cuisine, puts emphasis on meat analogue
substitutes to the point where it can taste and look identical to real meat, often by using deep-fried gluten and tofu to recreate meat-like textures, and heavy-flavored sauces are prepared for the dishes. Even committed meat-eaters enjoy the cuisine regularly. Unlike western countries, vegetarian diet in Hong Kong is not considered a commitment. This cuisine is also served in some temples and monasteries like the Po Lin Monastery
. The vegetarian cuisine served in some Taoist
temples or monasteries, such as the Yuen Yuen Institute
, can also be classified under this category.
Includes:
Non-Cantonese Chinese vegetarian cuisine is extremely rare in Hong Kong, although there are some isolated temples and restaurants offering Shanghaiese-style vegetarian cuisine. Compared with Cantonese-style vegetarian cuisine, dishes are less oily and some food items favored by non-Cantonese Chinese, such as bamboo shoot, picked vegetables, are often used. Meat analogues are prominently featured, albeit expressed in differently manners from Cantonese vegetarian cuisine.
This form of cooking style from the Hakka people
originally came from Guangdong
and Fujian
in southeastern China
. The style uses dried and preserved ingredients. Pork
is by far the most common meat in the style.
Includes:
This cuisine has one of the longest histories in terms of style development. The variety and complexity provide a glimpse of what imperial Chinese Emperors might have eaten at one time. Exotic dishes in this category often require a considerable wait time before it is served.
Includes:
Sushi
is the most common association made to Japanese cuisine in Hong Kong. From small cafe shops to conveyor belt sushi
restaurants to restaurants specializing in teppanyaki
, Japanese-style cooking is fairly popular. Depending on the locale, many sushi-centric restaurants are designed to mirror close to those in Japan
.
Includes:
. Unlike in the Indian subcontinent
, where food may separate into regional variants, the Chinese population in Hong Kong overwhelmingly identifies Indian cuisine with curry
spices. Because meat is always expected, it can also be said that South Asian cuisine in Hong Kong leans toward Northern Indian
and Pakistani styles.
Includes:
This hot pot cuisine, known as daa bin lou (打邊爐, dǎbiānlú) in Cantonese
, is unique in the sense that everyone is a chef
. A boiling pot of water (soup-based, and customers can choose their preferred soup taste), is placed in the center of the table, and essentially everyone boils their own ingredients in that pot. This is highly popular and is usually accompanied with a bottle of cold beer or soda. This style is common during frigid winter times, since people are essentially cuddled around a fire. This format is also considered entertaining.
Includes:
are served at restaurants of all classes, but most notably at Cha chaan teng
, a unique kind of restaurants in Hong Kong
. Since drink recipes are not franchise based, most drinks can vary depending on the restaurant. Rock sugar and syrup
are commonly used to add sweetness.
Some beverages that was originated in the tea culture
of Taiwan
, such as bubble tea
and honey green tea
, had been brought to Hong Kong and become part of Hong Kong's beverage culture.
Includes:
A large wide variety of tea leaves and combinations are used for Chinese tea. In the 1950s and 1960s, citizens would go to tea houses accompanied by their pet birds locked in a bird cage. Noon tea was an essential break in the middle of the day. Tea nowadays goes along with any meal.
Includes:
, but not classified into a particular country, belong in this category. Outside Hong Kong it is termed Hong Kong-style Western cuisine or Canto-Western cuisine. Small restaurants that offer Sai Chaan are usually cha chaan teng
at the popular end or "Sai Chaan Restaurants" at the more upscale range. Restaurants that have come to expect tourists will likely offer both east and west menus. Most dishes are localized with Chinese tastes and contain Chinese and specifically Cantonese influences, such as steak
marinated in soy sauce
, served in a soy sauce dominated gravy
, and with fried rice
as on the side, or wok-fried spaghetti with meat sauce.
Includes:
Western style fast food are essentially replicas of US or European franchised fast food restaurant models. McDonald's
is likely the most common. Others include Hardee's
(formerly), Pizza Hut
and many more.
Includes:
The general association made is that western pastries are much sweeter and richer in flavour than typical Chinese pastry. Some eastern-style pastries are similar to their western counterpart, while others are modified by reducing the amount of cheese
, cream
and other western ingredients. Chinese bakery
shops often sell both eastern and western goods. Maxim's
is one of the most popular franchises, found in nearly every MTR
subway stations. Délifrance
is another outlet offering western-style sandwiches.
Includes:
These are standard meals taken from the U.S., except with a significant reduction in usage of butter
. For example, an order of mashed potato
in Hong Kong will seem relatively plain and light compared to its U.S. counterpart. Popcorn
in Hong Kong is heavily sweetened, more resembling caramelised pre-packaged popcorn, such as Cracker Jacks. Steak can be classified as Sai Chaan (Western cuisine) or American food.
Includes:
This cuisine is usually considered up-scale, following a three-course antipasto
, primo and secondo format. Italian food in Hong Kong is generally considered more Modern Italian, instead of being authentic Traditional Italian (though if one wanted to find a restaurant serving a specific style (such as Venetian
), it is possible). Drinks and desserts are often mixed with Chinese options. The main course itself will lean closer to American-Italian. "Fat Angelos" is an example of a Hong Kong-style Italian restaurant.
Includes:
Common French dishes can be found in Hong Kong along with delicacies
. Many of the French desserts like crème brûlée
have been modified into some form of pudding (Chinese: 布甸, bùdiān) to be served with Chinese dishes. So aside from being a standalone style, influence of French cuisine in Asian dishes is apparent.
Includes:
Beverages from the West have been deeply integrated into the food culture. The line between Eastern and Western drinks are blurred to the point where many Westernised drinks can be found in Chinese style restaurants. Especially in cha chaan teng
, they have essentially become just another item on the menu. British
malt
drinks have become closely associated with breakfast in Hong Kong.
Coffee
from the west has become heavily franchised in recent years. The arrival of Pacific Coffee
and Starbucks
changed the landscape of Western style coffee in Hong Kong. UCC Ueshima Coffee Co.
and Pokka Cafe are among the first to introduce siphon coffee to Hong Kong. This brewing method has only become more familiar to the public after the establishment of Xen Coffee
, a siphon specialty coffee shop. While independent coffee shops do exist, franchise stores are often situated in favorable locations that cater to foreign workers.
, Kowloon City
, Lan Kwai Fong
, Tsim Sha Tsui
and Soho
. Stanley
, with its expatriate population, has many seaside pubs and European restaurants. Sai Kung, Lamma Island
, Lau Fau Shan
and Lei Yue Mun
serve seafood
. Old fishing towns such as Cheung Chau
and Tai O
also have many original restaurants.
Most pubs and bars are at Lan Kwai Fong, Lockhart Road
and Jaffe Road
of Wan Chai
; Canton Road
, Tsim Sha Tsui East; and around Prince Edward MTR station
in Mong Kok
. Since 1991, Oktoberfest has been held annually on Canton Road
.
Cantonese cuisine
Cantonese cuisine comes from Guangdong Province in southern China and is one of 8 superdivisions of Chinese cuisine. Its prominence outside China is due to the great numbers of early emigrants from Guangdong. Cantonese chefs are highly sought after throughout the country...
and parts of non-Cantonese-speaking China (especially Chaozhou
Chaozhou
Chaozhou is a city in eastern Guangdong province of the People's Republic of China. It borders Shantou to the south, Jieyang to the southwest, Meizhou to the northwest, the province of Fujian to the east, and the South China Sea to the southeast...
, Dongjiang, Fujian
Fujian
' , formerly romanised as Fukien or Huguing or Foukien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...
and the Yangtze River Delta
Yangtze River Delta
The Yangtze River Delta, Yangtze Delta or YRD, also called Yangzi, or Chang Jiang Delta, Rive Chang Delta Tai Lake Region or the Golden Triangle of the Yangtze, generally comprises the triangular-shaped territory of Wu-speaking Shanghai, southern Jiangsu province and northern Zhejiang province of...
), Western world
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, and Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
, due to Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
's past as a British colony and long history of being an international city of commerce. From the roadside stalls to the most upscale restaurants, Hong Kong provides an unlimited variety of food in every class. Complex combinations and international gourmet
Gourmet
Gourmet is a cultural ideal associated with the culinary arts of fine food and drink, or haute cuisine, which is characterised by elaborate preparations and presentations of large meals of small, often quite rich courses...
expertise have given Hong Kong the reputable labels of "Gourmet Paradise" and "World's Fair of Food".
Background
With Chinese
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
ethnicity making up 98% of the resident population, Chinese cuisine
Chinese cuisine
Chinese cuisine is any of several styles originating in the regions of China, some of which have become highly popular in other parts of the world – from Asia to the Americas, Australia, Western Europe and Southern Africa...
is naturally served at home. A majority of Chinese in Hong Kong are Cantonese
Cantonese people
The Cantonese people are Han people whose ancestral homes are in Guangdong, China. The term "Cantonese people" would then be synonymous with the Bun Dei sub-ethnic group, and is sometimes known as Gwong Fu Jan for this narrower definition...
in addition to sizeable numbers of Hakka
Hakka people
The Hakka , sometimes Hakka Han, are Han Chinese who speak the Hakka language and have links to the provincial areas of Guangdong, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan and Fujian in China....
, Teochew
Teochew people
The Chaozhou people are Han people, native to the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong province of China who speak the Teochew dialect. Today, most Teochew people live outside China in Southeast Asia especially in Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia. They can also be found almost anywhere in the...
and Shanghainese
Shanghainese people in Hong Kong
-Migration history:The flood of emigration from Shanghai to Hong Kong began in 1937 with the onset of the Second Sino-Japanese War, and grew as the Chinese Civil War resumed in 1936...
people, and home dishes are Cantonese
Cantonese cuisine
Cantonese cuisine comes from Guangdong Province in southern China and is one of 8 superdivisions of Chinese cuisine. Its prominence outside China is due to the great numbers of early emigrants from Guangdong. Cantonese chefs are highly sought after throughout the country...
with occasional mixes of the other three types of cuisines. Rice
Rice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...
is predominantly the main staple
Staple food
A staple food is one that is eaten regularly and in such quantities that it constitutes a dominant portion of a diet, and that supplies a high proportion of energy and nutrient needs. Most people live on a diet based on one or more staples...
for home meals. Home ingredients are picked up from local grocery stores and independent produce shops, although supermarkets have become progressively more popular.
Hong Kong homes and kitchens tend to be small due to a high population density, and traditional Chinese cuisine often requires the freshest possible ingredients, so food shopping is undertaken frequently and in smaller quantities than is now usual in the West. Take-out
Take-out
Take-out or takeout , carry-out , take-away , parcel , or tapau , is food purchased at a...
and dining out is also very common, since people are often too busy to cook with an average 47-hour work week.
19th century: Colonial origins
The cuisine of Hong KongHong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
traces its origins to its founding as a British colonial outpost
Colonial Hong Kong
In the 19th century the British, Dutch, French, Indians and Americans saw Imperial China as the world's largest untapped market. In 1840 the British Empire launched their first and one of the most aggressive expeditionary forces to claim the territory that would later be known as Hong Kong.In a few...
in 1841. Soon after the colony was founded, many British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and other Western
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
merchant
Merchant
A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be one of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
s along with Chinese from nearby Guangzhou
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
flocked there to conduct business. Initially, much of Hong Kong society was segregated into expatriate
Expatriate
An expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing...
Westerners, a majority of working class Chinese coolie
Coolie
Historically, a coolie was a manual labourer or slave from Asia, particularly China, India, and the Phillipines during the 19th century and early 20th century...
s, Chinese farmer
Farmer
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...
s and fishermen, and Chinese merchants. The simple peasant
Peasant
A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...
cuisine
Cuisine
Cuisine is a characteristic style of cooking practices and traditions, often associated with a specific culture. Cuisines are often named after the geographic areas or regions that they originate from...
was rudimentary compared to the cuisine of 19th century Canton
Guangdong
Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
(now commonly known as Guangzhou).
As the colony developed, there arose a need for meals to entertain businessmen. Some Chinese restaurants were founded in the late 19th century and early 20th century as branches of renowned restaurants in Canton and offered elaborate meals consisting of traditional Chinese "eight main courses and eight entrees" (八大八小) types of banquet
Banquet
A banquet is a large meal or feast, complete with main courses and desserts. It usually serves a purpose such as a charitable gathering, a ceremony, or a celebration, and is often preceded or followed by speeches in honour of someone....
s for 2 tael
Tael
Tael can refer to any one of several weight measures of the Far East. Most commonly, it refers to the Chinese tael, a part of the Chinese system of weights and currency....
s of silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
, at the time equal to a clerk's monthly wage. Before 1935 when prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
was still legal in Hong Kong, female escorts
Call girl
A call girl or female escort is a sex worker who is not visible to the general public; nor does she usually work in an institution like a brothel, although she may be employed by an escort agency...
often accompanied diners to restaurant meals, especially those of a business entertainment nature. Until World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, opium
Opium
Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...
was also offered. For the majority of Chinese who were not part of the merchant class, dining out in restaurants was non-existent and consisted of simple Cantonese country fares. Meat
Meat
Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...
only appeared in festive occasions and celebrations such as birthdays were often done by catering services who prepared the meals at the celebrant's home. The restaurant scene for Europeans in Hong Kong was segregated from Chinese dining. Elaborate colonial dining existed at the likes of Hongkong Hotel and subsequently Gloucester Hotel.
1920s: Canton's influence
Hong Kong's dining lagged behind the then-leader of Chinese cuisine, CantonGuangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
, for a long time and many Hong Kong chefs spent their formative years in Canton. Canton was renowned for its food, and there was a traditional saying of "Eat in Canton" (食在廣州, Shí Zài Guǎngzhōu). Cantonese cuisine in Canton reached its peak during the 1920s and was renowned in the care in preparation even for peasant fares such as char siu
Char siu
Char siu , otherwise known as barbecued meat in China or Chinese-flavored barbecued meat outside China, is a popular way to flavor and prepare pork in Cantonese cuisine. It is classified as a type of siu mei, Cantonese roasted meat...
or boat congee
Congee
Congee is a type of rice porridge popular in many Asian countries. It can be eaten alone or served with a side dish. Names for congee are as varied as the style of its preparation...
. Dasanyuan was renowned for its braised shark fin
Shark Fin
Shark Fin is the peak which has the triangular shape of a shark fin when viewed from the south....
dish that charged 60 silver yuan, equivalent to 6 months' wage for a working class family. The Guandong cooking style eventually trickled down to the culinary scene in Hong Kong.
1949: Shanghainese and Western influences
The victory of Chinese Communists in the Chinese Civil WarChinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was a civil war fought between the Kuomintang , the governing party of the Republic of China, and the Communist Party of China , for the control of China which eventually led to China's division into two Chinas, Republic of China and People's Republic of...
in 1949 created a wave of refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
s into Hong Kong. A sizable number of refugees were from non-Cantonese speaking parts of China, including the Yangtze River Delta
Yangtze River Delta
The Yangtze River Delta, Yangtze Delta or YRD, also called Yangzi, or Chang Jiang Delta, Rive Chang Delta Tai Lake Region or the Golden Triangle of the Yangtze, generally comprises the triangular-shaped territory of Wu-speaking Shanghai, southern Jiangsu province and northern Zhejiang province of...
, and introduced Shanghai cuisine
Shanghai cuisine
Shanghai cuisine , also known as Hu cai is a popular style of Chinese cuisine. The city of Shanghai itself does not have a separate and unique cuisine of its own, but modifies those of the surrounding provinces, is Jiangsu and Zhejiang coastal provinces. What can be called Shanghai cuisine is...
to Hong Kong. On the other hand, most renowned chefs of Canton, now known as Guangzhou
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
in pinyin romanization, settled in Hong Kong to escape from Communist rule in mainland China
Mainland China
Mainland China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term that refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China . According to the Taipei-based Mainland Affairs Council, the term excludes the PRC Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and...
.
Prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
and opium had by then long faded from the restaurant scene, and in order to survive, many restaurants started to tap into winning business from families by offering yum cha
Yum cha
Yum cha , also known as Ban ming , is a Chinese style morning or afternoon tea, which involves drinking Chinese tea and eating dim sum dishes...
and wedding banquets, while on the other hand, the end of strict colonial segregation by the British colonial government and expatriate Westerners after the Second World War opened up Western fare to the Chinese.
Egg tart
Egg tart
The egg tart or egg custard tart is a kind of custard tart pastry commonly found in Hong Kong and other Asian countries, which consists of an outer pastry crust that is filled with egg custard and baked...
s and Hong Kong-style milk tea
Hong Kong-style milk tea
Hong Kong-style milk tea is a beverage originating from Hong Kong consisting of black tea with evaporated milk or condensed milk. It is usually part of lunch in Hong Kong tea culture...
soon became part of Hong Kong's food culture. It could be argued that the seeds of Hong Kong society as understood today were not sown until 1949, and the cuisine of Hong Kong has its direct roots in this period.
1960s-80s: prosperity
By the 1960s Hong Kong was past the worst of the economic depression, and there was a long and continuous period of relative calm and openness compared to the Communist rule in Mao ZedongMao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
-era China and martial law isolation in Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
. The Cantonese cuisine in Hong Kong had by then surpassed that of Guangzhou, which had witnessed a long period of decline after the Communists came to power. The rising prosperity from the mid 1960s had given birth to increasing demand for quality dining. Many of the chefs, who spent their formative years in pre-Communist Guangzhou and Shanghai, started to bring out the best of fine dining specialties from pre-1949 Guangzhou and Shanghai. Families had largely abandoned catering services and resorted to restaurants for celebratory meals. Seafood
Seafood
Seafood is any form of marine life regarded as food by humans. Seafoods include fish, molluscs , crustaceans , echinoderms . Edible sea plants, such as some seaweeds and microalgae, are also seafood, and are widely eaten around the world, especially in Asia...
started to become specialised delicacies in the 1960s, followed by games
Game (food)
Game is any animal hunted for food or not normally domesticated. Game animals are also hunted for sport.The type and range of animals hunted for food varies in different parts of the world. This will be influenced by climate, animal diversity, local taste and locally accepted view about what can or...
in the 1970s.
This wave of prosperity also propelled Hong Kong Chinese's awareness of foreign food trends, and many are willing to try foreign ingredients such as asparagus
Asparagus
Asparagus officinalis is a spring vegetable, a flowering perennialplant species in the genus Asparagus. It was once classified in the lily family, like its Allium cousins, onions and garlic, but the Liliaceae have been split and the onion-like plants are now in the family Amaryllidaceae and...
and crayfish
Crayfish
Crayfish, crawfish, or crawdads – members of the superfamilies Astacoidea and Parastacoidea – are freshwater crustaceans resembling small lobsters, to which they are related...
from Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Foreign food styles such as Japanese
Japanese cuisine
Japanese cuisine has developed over the centuries as a result of many political and social changes throughout Japan. The cuisine eventually changed with the advent of the Medieval age which ushered in a shedding of elitism with the age of shogun rule...
and Southeast Asian cuisine started to influence local food, and the pace of change accelerated during the late 1970s and early 1980s. This gave birth to nouvelle Cantonese cuisine that incorporated foreign dishes such as sashimi
Sashimi
Sashimi is a Japanese delicacy. It consists of very fresh raw meat, most commonly fish, sliced into thin pieces.-Origin:The word sashimi means "pierced body", i.e...
into Cantonese banquets. For the first time, many Hong Kong Chinese started to have the economic means to visit many Western restaurants of the domain of mainly wealthy expatriate Westerners such as Gaddi's
Gaddi's
Gaddi's is a French haute cuisine restaurant situated in The Peninsula Hong Kong hotel. It was opened in 1953 and named after a former general manager of The Peninsula, Leo Gaddi. The current executive chef is Britain's David Goodridge. The former executive chef was Philip Sedgwick, the first...
of the Peninsula Hotel. During these years, there was great wealth growth from stock market investments, and one visible manifestation of the resultant nouveau riche
Nouveau riche
The nouveau riche , or new money, comprise those who have acquired considerable wealth within their own generation...
mentality in 1970s Hong Kong were sayings such as "mixing shark's fin soup with rice" (Chinese:魚翅撈飯, yúchì lāo fàn).
1980-90s: links with mainland China and Taiwan
China initiated economic reformsChinese economic reform
The Chinese economic reform refers to the program of economic reforms called "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" in the People's Republic of China that were started in December 1978 by reformists within the Communist Party of China led by Deng Xiaoping.China had one of the world's largest...
when Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping was a Chinese politician, statesman, and diplomat. As leader of the Communist Party of China, Deng was a reformer who led China towards a market economy...
came to power after Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
died. The opening up of the country gave chefs from Hong Kong chances to reestablish links with chefs from mainland China severed in 1949 and opportunities to gain awareness of various regional Chinese cuisines. Many of these cuisines also contributed to nouvelle Cantonese cuisines in Hong Kong. The lift of martial law
Martial law
Martial law is the imposition of military rule by military authorities over designated regions on an emergency basis— only temporary—when the civilian government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively , when there are extensive riots and protests, or when the disobedience of the law...
in Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
in 1987 jump-started Taiwanese links with mainland China and has caused a proliferation of eateries specializing in Taiwanese cuisine
Taiwanese cuisine
Taiwanese cuisine has several variations. In addition to the following representative dishes from the people of Hoklo ethnicity , there are also Aboriginal, Hakka, and local derivatives of Chinese cuisines .Taiwanese cuisine itself is often associated with influences from mid to southern...
in Hong Kong as Taiwanese tourists and businessmen used Hong Kong as a mid-point for visits to mainland China. From 1978 until 1997 there was no dispute Hong Kong was the epicenter of Chinese, not merely Cantonese, cuisine worldwide, with Chinese restaurants in mainland China and Taiwan, and among overseas Chinese communities, racing to employ chefs trained or worked in Hong Kong and emulating dishes improvised or invented in Hong Kong. Hong Kong-style Cantonese cuisine became a coinword for innovative Chinese cuisine during this period. It was even unofficially rumored the Chinese government had secretly consulted the head chef for the Peking Garden Restaurant of Hong Kong, part of the Maxim's restaurant and catering
Maxim's Catering
Maxim's is Hong Kong's largest food & beverage corporation and restaurant chain. Founded in 1956 by Dr James Tak Wu and his brother S.T...
conglomerate, to teach chefs back at the renowned Quanjude
Quanjude
Quanjude is a famous Chinese restaurant known for its trademark Quanjude Peking Roast Duck and its longstanding culinary heritage since its establishment in 1864 in Beijing, China.- Company profile and branches:...
restaurant in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
how to make good Peking Duck
Peking Duck
Peking Duck, or Peking Roast Duck is a famous duck dish from Beijing that has been prepared since the imperial era, and is now considered one of China's national foods....
, Quanjude's signature dish, in the early 1980s as the skills to produce the dish were largely lost during the Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
.
Post-1997
After Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997, the Asian financial crisis and SARS epidemic led to a decade-long depression. The boom in Hong Kong culinary scene came to a halt and many restaurants were shuttered, including a number of renowned eateries such as Sun Tung Lok. It is argued that the catch up in prosperity among populations from coastal regions of China, particularly the nouveau riche (derogatory Chinese: dàkuǎn 大款) and corrupted officials (derogatory Chinese: dàyé 大爺), has driven up the demand of many delicacies such as abaloneAbalone
Abalone , from aulón, are small to very large-sized edible sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Haliotidae and the genus Haliotis...
and grouper
Grouper
Groupers are fish of any of a number of genera in the subfamily Epinephelinae of the family Serranidae, in the order Perciformes.Not all serranids are called groupers; the family also includes the sea basses. The common name grouper is usually given to fish in one of two large genera: Epinephelus...
, and many celebratory dishes have become outrageously expensive that they are beyond the reach of even many upper-middle class Hong Kong families. At the same time, Hong Kong people's tastes have become cosmopolitan when compared with one generation ago. Many are now able to appreciate specific European
European cuisine
European cuisine, or alternatively Western cuisine, is a generalised term collectively referring to the cuisines of Europe and other Western countries...
cuisines rather than one generic "Western cuisine", and appreciation of other Asian cuisines, especially Japanese cuisine
Japanese cuisine
Japanese cuisine has developed over the centuries as a result of many political and social changes throughout Japan. The cuisine eventually changed with the advent of the Medieval age which ushered in a shedding of elitism with the age of shogun rule...
and Thai cuisine has been ever increasing. These has produced a proliferation of many specialist ethnic cuisine restaurants geared towards young middle class couples on one hand, and a consolidation of fine-dining Cantonese restaurants on the other.
As of the early 21st century Hong Kong, notwithstanding the partial recovery of Hong Kong's economy from the slump in 2003 due to the SARS epidemic, many pundits argue that contemporary Hong Kong's economy is heavily skewed towards real estate development
Real estate development
Real estate development, or Property Development, is a multifaceted business, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of improved land or parcels to others...
and financial services
Financial services
Financial services refer to services provided by the finance industry. The finance industry encompasses a broad range of organizations that deal with the management of money. Among these organizations are credit unions, banks, credit card companies, insurance companies, consumer finance companies,...
. This provides prosperity to only a select few minority and an uncertain long-term economic fortune vis-a-vis more diversified mega-rich cities in China such as Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
and Guangzhou
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
, and the territory therefore no longer possesses the economic base to support mass-level super fine-dining that is required to sustain an active dining culture. A common perception of Hong Kong's current culinary culture is one being in decline and resting on past laurels. For example, culinary magazines such as Eat and Travel Weekly report fewer fundamentally new dishes being invented in Hong Kong post-2000 than the 1980s heyday, and many restaurants tend to resort to popularise haute dishes invented in the 1980s. Modern Hong Kong's labor market has also disrupted the traditional ways of grooming Chinese chefs, which henceforth been trained in a very long and drawn one-to-one practical apprenticeships. Very few chefs are willing to sacrifice their time and effort to produce traditional cooking that discourages cutting corners, and emphasises techniques over ingredients' net economic worth. On the other hand, a minority of optimistic pundits argue Hong Kong may well develop a foodie culture similar to other developed economies and preserve the best of traditional cooking.
Historically Hong Kong's food source came from a combination of mini stores instead of supermarkets. Some of the stores included: rice dealers , serving as mini rice storage warehouses; wine shops (辦館, bànguǎn), which offered beverages; see-dor (士多, Cantonese rendering of "store"), which were single convenient stores, most notable for serving fresh baked bread. The main component was wet market
Wet market
A wet market is generally an open food market. Some of the common names include "Cultural Markets", "traditional markets", "Gaai Si", "Gaai See".-Terminology:...
s (街市) - one of the first market gatherings in Hong Kong was Central Market
Central Market
Central Market was a fresh food market in Central, Hong Kong. Located between Jubilee Street, Queen Victoria Street, Queen's Road Central and Des Voeux Road Central, it was the first wet market in Hong Kong. By its side is the first public female toilet and first above-ground toilets in Hong Kong...
that began in the 1840s.
The idea of a single facility or supermarket that provided all food ingredients did not take place until the early 1970s
1970s in Hong Kong
1970s in Hong Kong underwent many changes that shaped its future. Economically, it reinvented itself from a manufacturing base into a financial centre. The market also began leaning toward corporations and franchises.-Background:...
when Wellcome
Wellcome
Wellcome is a supermarket chain owned by Jardine Matheson Holdings via its Dairy Farm subsidiary. The Wellcome supermarket chain is one of the two largest supermarket chains in Hong Kong, the other being PARKnSHOP. Wellcome also operates supermarkets in Taiwan under the Wellcome name...
, a local grocery chain, changed its format into a supermarket. Air-conditioned supermarkets did not become standardised until the 1980s. The early 21st century Western environmentalism
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
- or sustainability
Sustainability
Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...
-inspired food trends, such as natural food, organic food
Organic food
Organic foods are foods that are produced using methods that do not involve modern synthetic inputs such as synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers, do not contain genetically modified organisms, and are not processed using irradiation, industrial solvents, or chemical food additives.For the...
, non-genetically modified food, local food
Local food
Local food or the local food movement is a "collaborative effort to build more locally based, self-reliant food economies - one in which sustainable food production, processing, distribution, and consumption is integrated to enhance the economic, environmental and social health of a particular...
, and farmer's markets, have been ignored by a majority of Hong Kong's populations. The Western farmer's market share some similarities with the traditional Chinese wet markets, however support of wet markets is largely based on traditional Chinese cultural preference rather than sustainability, and wet markets contain many features that are condemned by modern Western environmentalists on the grounds of "animal cruelty" (live animals sold for food) and "high food miles" (fruits and seafood from another continent).
Eating habits
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
or Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. The main course
Main course
A main dish is the featured or primary dish in a meal consisting of several courses. It usually follows the entrée course, and the salad course. In North American usage it may in fact be called the "entree"....
is usually accompanied by a generous portion of carbohydrates such as rice
Rice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...
or mein (noodles). People generally eat 5 times a day. Dinner is often accompanied with dessert. Snack time also fits anywhere in between meals.
As Hong Kong is Cantonese in origin and most Hong Kong Chinese are immigrants or descendants of immigrants from Cantonese-speaking parts of China, the food is a variant of Cantonese cuisine - almost all homecooking and much of the dine-out fares, from restaurant to bakery, are Cantonese or heavily Cantonese-influenced. Most of the celebrated food in Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
such as the wife cake, roast duck, dim sum
Dim sum
Dim sum refers to a style of Chinese food prepared as small bite-sized or individual portions of food traditionally served in small steamer baskets or on small plates...
, herbal tea, shark's fin and abalone
Abalone
Abalone , from aulón, are small to very large-sized edible sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Haliotidae and the genus Haliotis...
cooking, poached chicken, and the mooncake
Mooncake
Mooncake is a Chinese bakery product traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival / Zhongqiu Festival. The festival is for lunar worship and moon watching; mooncakes are regarded as an indispensable delicacy on this occasion. Mooncakes are offered between friends or on family gatherings...
, and others, originated in Guangzhou
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
, and dai pai dong
Dai pai dong
Dai pai dong is a type of open-air food stall once very popular in Hong Kong. The government registration name in Hong Kong is "cooked-food stalls", but dai pai dong literally means "restaurant with a big license plate", referring to its size of license which is bigger than other licensed street...
was an institution adopted from the southern Chinese city. As in the parent cuisine, the Hong Kong Cantonese cuisine accepts a wide variety of ingredients, a lighted seasoned taste. Unlike Guangzhou, the uninterrupted contacts Hong Kong has with the West has made it more susceptible to Western influences, and has produced favorites such as egg tart
Egg tart
The egg tart or egg custard tart is a kind of custard tart pastry commonly found in Hong Kong and other Asian countries, which consists of an outer pastry crust that is filled with egg custard and baked...
s and Hong Kong-style milk tea
Hong Kong-style milk tea
Hong Kong-style milk tea is a beverage originating from Hong Kong consisting of black tea with evaporated milk or condensed milk. It is usually part of lunch in Hong Kong tea culture...
.
In addition, other foreign styles of cuisines are also popular in the territory, although almost all offer one of generic Western (authentic, international, or Hong Kong-style), Italian, French, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, Malaysian and Singaporean cuisines.
{|class="wikitable"
! width=20% | Time of Day
! width=40% | Meal
|-
| morning || Breakfast
Breakfast
Breakfast is the first meal taken after rising from a night's sleep, most often eaten in the early morning before undertaking the day's work...
|-
| noon (12 pm) || Lunch
|-
| 3 pm || Afternoon Tea
Tea (meal)
Tea can refer to any of several different meals or mealtimes, depending on a country's customs and its history of drinking tea. However, in those countries where the term's use is common, the influences are generally those of the former British Empire...
|-
| evening || Dinner
Dinner
Dinner is usually the name of the main meal of the day. Depending upon culture, dinner may be the second, third or fourth meal of the day. Originally, though, it referred to the first meal of the day, eaten around noon, and is still occasionally used for a noontime meal, if it is a large or main...
|-
| 10 pm or later || Siu yeh
Siu yeh
Siu yeh is a late night meal in the food culture of Hong Kong. It comes after dinner, and is similar to supper. Mealtime may start from about 9pm onwards until 4am, which would be early morning yum cha time. It can range anywhere from a snack to a full-fledged meal. For people working late night...
|-
Eating etiquette
Most East Asian cuisines, with the exception of fusionFusion cuisine
Fusion cuisine combines elements of various culinary traditions while not being categorized per any one particular cuisine style, and can pertain to innovations in many contemporary restaurant cuisines since the 1970s.-Categories and types:...
and Thai, are consumed exclusively with chopsticks
Chopsticks
Chopsticks are small, often tapered, sticks used in pairs of equal length as the traditional eating utensils of China and its diaspora, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Northern provinces of Laos, Thailand and Burma. Generally believed to have originated in ancient China, they can also be found in some...
. The more Western style cuisines favor cutlery
Cutlery
Cutlery refers to any hand implement used in preparing, serving, and especially eating food in the Western world. It is more usually known as silverware or flatware in the United States, where cutlery can have the more specific meaning of knives and other cutting instruments. This is probably the...
. Some meals are more suited for the use of hands. One notable trend in restaurants is the limited number of napkins provided during a meal. Most mid to low-tier restaurants operate under the assumption that customers bring their own napkins or tissue packs when dining. Standard Western
Western culture
Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization or European civilization, refers to cultures of European origin and is used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts and...
dining etiquettes are rarely observed even in upscale restaurants in Hong Kong.
Ingredients
Similar to Cantonese cuisine elsewhere, Hong Kong's cooking uses a wide variety of ingredients and the common ones include:{|
|valign=top|
- Century eggCentury eggCentury egg or pidan , also known as preserved egg, hundred-year egg, thousand-year egg, thousand-year-old egg, and millennium egg, is a Chinese cuisine ingredient made by preserving duck, chicken or quail eggs in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, lime, and rice hulls for several weeks to several...
- Salted duck eggSalted duck eggA salted duck egg is a Chinese preserved food product made by soaking duck eggs in brine, or packing each egg in damp, salted charcoal. In Asian supermarkets, these eggs are sometimes sold covered in a thick layer of salted charcoal paste. The eggs may also be sold with the salted paste removed,...
- Chinese cabbageChinese cabbageChinese cabbage can refer to two distinct varieties of Chinese leaf vegetables used often in Chinese cuisine. These vegetables are both related to the Western cabbage, and are of the same species as the common turnip...
- ShiitakeShiitakeThe Shiitake is an edible mushroom native to East Asia, which is cultivated and consumed in many Asian countries, as well as being dried and exported to many countries around the world. It is a feature of many Asian cuisines including Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Thai...
|valign=top|
- Kai-lanKai-lanKai-lan, also known as Chinese broccoli, is a leaf vegetable featuring thick, flat, glossy blue-green leaves with thick stems and a small number of tiny, almost vestigial flower heads similar to those of broccoli. Broccoli and kai-lan belong to the same species Brassica oleracea, but kai-lan is in...
- Red BeanAzuki beanThe is an annual vine, Vigna angularis, widely grown throughout East Asia and the Himalayas for its small bean. The cultivars most familiar in north-east Asia have a uniform red color, but white, black, gray and variously mottled varieties are also known. Scientists presume Vigna angularis var...
- Hoisin SauceHoisin sauceHoisin sauce, or haixian sauce, is a Chinese dipping sauce. The word hoisin is a romanization of the Chinese word for seafood "" as pronounced in Cantonese.-Ingredients:...
- Chinese sausageChinese sausageChinese sausage is a generic term referring to the many different types of sausages originating in China. It is commonly known by its Cantonese name "Lap Cheong" or "Lap Chong" .-Varieties:...
|valign=top|
- Dried shrimpDried shrimpDried shrimp are shrimp that have been sun dried and shrunk to a thumbnail size. They are used in many Asian cuisines, imparting a unique umami taste. A handful of shrimp is generally used for dishes...
- Dried ScallopConpoyConpoy or dried scallop is a type of dried seafood product made from the adductor muscle of scallops. The smell of conpoy is marine, pungent, and reminiscent of certain salt-cured meats. Its taste is rich and umami due to its high content of various free amino acids, such as glycine, alanine, and...
- JujubeJujubeZiziphus zizyphus , commonly called jujube , red date, Chinese date, Korean date, or Indian date is a species of Ziziphus in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae, used primarily as a fruiting shade tree.-Distribution:Its precise natural distribution is uncertain due to extensive cultivation,...
- Lotus seedLotus seedLotus seeds or lotus nuts are the seeds of plants in the genus Nelumbo, particularly the species Nelumbo nucifera. The seeds are of great importance to East Asian cuisine and are used extensively in traditional Chinese medicine and in Chinese desserts. The seeds are most commonly sold in the...
|}
Chinese and other Asian
{|class="wikitable"! Chinese and other Asian cuisines
! Style name
! Most popular
! Examples
|-
| Small Shops || Hawker || Snack
Snack
A snack is a small portion of food eaten between meals. The food might be snack food—items like potato chips or baby carrots—but could also simply be a smaller amount of any food item.-Snacks and health:...
|| Fish ball
Fish ball
Fish balls are a common food in southern China and overseas Chinese communities made from surimi . They are also common in Scandinavia, where they are usually made from cod or haddock.-Terminology:...
s on a stick, Stinky tofu
Stinky tofu
Stinky tofu or chòu dòufu is a form of fermented tofu that has a strong odor. It is a popular snack in East and Southeast Asia, particularly mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong and in East Asian enclaves elsewhere where it is usually found homemade, at night markets or roadside stands, or as a...
|-
| || Dai Pai Dong || Snack || Wonton noodle, Congee
Congee
Congee is a type of rice porridge popular in many Asian countries. It can be eaten alone or served with a side dish. Names for congee are as varied as the style of its preparation...
|-
| || Specialty || Snack || Tofu pudding
Douhua
Douhua or doufuhua is a Chinese dessert made with very soft tofu. It is also referred to as tofu pudding and soybean pudding.-History:...
, beef jerky
Jerky (food)
Jerky is lean meat that has been trimmed of fat, cut into strips, and then been dried to prevent spoilage. Normally, this drying includes the addition of salt, to prevent bacteria from developing on the meat before sufficient moisture has been removed. The word "jerky" is a bastardization of the...
|-
| Informal || HK-Style Fast Food || Anytime || Cutlet
Cutlet
Cutlet refers to:# a thin slice of meat from the leg or ribs of veal, pork, or mutton # a fried cutlet# a croquette made of minced meat...
Porkchop, Vegetable
Vegetable
The noun vegetable usually means an edible plant or part of a plant other than a sweet fruit or seed. This typically means the leaf, stem, or root of a plant....
with Oyster sauce
Oyster sauce
Oyster sauce describes a number of sauces made by cooking oysters. The most common in modern use is a viscous dark brown condiment made from sugar, salt and water thickened with cornstarch, flavoured with a little oyster essence or extract and some versions may be darkened with caramel, though high...
|-
| Bakery || Chinese Pastry || Snack || Wife Cake, Egg tart
Egg tart
The egg tart or egg custard tart is a kind of custard tart pastry commonly found in Hong Kong and other Asian countries, which consists of an outer pastry crust that is filled with egg custard and baked...
, Pineapple Bun
Pineapple bun
A pineapple bun is a kind of sweet pastry popular in Hong Kong, Macau, some other areas in southern China, and in various Chinese communities around the world. They can also be found in bakeries in Taiwan or Toronto. It is known in Cantonese as bo lo baau, in which "bo lo" means "pineapple", and...
|-
| || Cantonese || Lunch, Dinner || Dim sum
Dim sum
Dim sum refers to a style of Chinese food prepared as small bite-sized or individual portions of food traditionally served in small steamer baskets or on small plates...
(breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea only), Shark's fin, Char siu
Char siu
Char siu , otherwise known as barbecued meat in China or Chinese-flavored barbecued meat outside China, is a popular way to flavor and prepare pork in Cantonese cuisine. It is classified as a type of siu mei, Cantonese roasted meat...
|-
| || Buddhist || Lunch, Dinner || Buddha's delight
Buddha's delight
Buddha's delight, often transliterated as Luóhàn zhāi, lo han jai, or lo hon jai, is a vegetarian dish well known in Chinese and Buddhist cuisine...
, Mantou
Mantou
Mantou, often referred to as Chinese steamed bun/bread, is a kind of steamed bun originating in China. They are typically eaten as a staple in northern parts of China where wheat, rather than rice, is grown. They are made with milled wheat flour, water and leavening agents...
|-
| || Hakka || Lunch, Dinner || Poon Choi
Poon choi
Poon Choi , also known as pun choi or Big Bowl Feast, is a traditional type of dish originating from Hong Kong village cuisine. It may also be found in different parts of Hong Kong. It is served in wooden, porcelain or metal basins.-Origin:...
|-
| || Beijing || Lunch, Dinner || Peking Duck
Peking Duck
Peking Duck, or Peking Roast Duck is a famous duck dish from Beijing that has been prepared since the imperial era, and is now considered one of China's national foods....
|-
| || Japanese || Lunch, Dinner || Sushi
Sushi
is a Japanese food consisting of cooked vinegared rice combined with other ingredients . Neta and forms of sushi presentation vary, but the ingredient which all sushi have in common is shari...
, Sashimi
Sashimi
Sashimi is a Japanese delicacy. It consists of very fresh raw meat, most commonly fish, sliced into thin pieces.-Origin:The word sashimi means "pierced body", i.e...
|-
| || Indian || Lunch, Dinner || Curry
Curry
Curry is a generic description used throughout Western culture to describe a variety of dishes from Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Thai or other Southeast Asian cuisines...
Chicken
Chicken
The chicken is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird...
|-
| || Hot Pot || Dinner || Scallop
Scallop
A scallop is a marine bivalve mollusk of the family Pectinidae. Scallops are a cosmopolitan family, found in all of the world's oceans. Many scallops are highly prized as a food source...
, Shrimp
Shrimp
Shrimp are swimming, decapod crustaceans classified in the infraorder Caridea, found widely around the world in both fresh and salt water. Adult shrimp are filter feeding benthic animals living close to the bottom. They can live in schools and can swim rapidly backwards. Shrimp are an important...
|-
| Drinks || HK-Style Drinks || Anytime || milk tea
Hong Kong-style milk tea
Hong Kong-style milk tea is a beverage originating from Hong Kong consisting of black tea with evaporated milk or condensed milk. It is usually part of lunch in Hong Kong tea culture...
, Yuanyang
Yuanyang (drink)
Yuanyang or Coffee with tea is a popular beverage in Hong Kong, made of a mixture of coffee and Hong Kong-style milk tea...
|-
| || Chinese Tea || Anytime || Chrysanthemum tea
Chrysanthemum tea
Chrysanthemum tea is a flower-based tisane made from chrysanthemum flowers of the species Chrysanthemum morifolium or Chrysanthemum indicum, which are most popular in East Asia...
|-
|}
Western
{|class="wikitable"! Western Category
! Style Name
! Most Popular
! Examples
|-
| Small Shops || HK-style western || Brunch
Brunch
Brunch is a meal eaten between breakfast and lunch. The word is a portmanteau of breakfast and lunch.-Origin of the word:The 1896 supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary cites Punch magazine which wrote that the term was coined in Britain in 1895 to describe a Sunday meal for "Saturday-night...
|| French Toast
French toast
French toast or Eggy Bread, is a food made with bread and eggs. It is a Christmas time dessert in Portugal and Brazil.Where French toast is served as a sweet dish, milk, sugar, or cinnamon are also commonly added before frying, and it may be then topped with sugar, butter, fruit, syrup, or other...
, Instant noodles
Instant noodles
Instant noodles are dried or precooked noodles and are often sold with packets of flavoring including seasoning oil. Dried noodles are usually eaten after being cooked or soaked in boiling water for 2 to 5 minutes, while precooked noodles can be reheated or eaten straight from the packet...
|-
| Informal || Western Fast Food || Anytime || Big Mac
Big Mac
The Big Mac is a hamburger sold by McDonald's, an international fast food restaurant chain. It is one of the company's signature products...
, Hotdog
HotDog
HotDog is the name of the HTML web editing tool developed by Sausage Software in the mid-1990s. At the time of its development, there were only a small number of HTML editors available on the market and HotDog gathered significant interest from web users due to its ease of use and "What you see...
|-
| Bakery || Western Bakery || Snack || Maxim
Maxim's Catering
Maxim's is Hong Kong's largest food & beverage corporation and restaurant chain. Founded in 1956 by Dr James Tak Wu and his brother S.T...
, Tiramisu
Tiramisu
Tiramisu, , , literally "pick me up", is an Italian cake and dessert.It is made of ladyfingers dipped in coffee, layered with a whipped mixture of egg yolks and mascarpone, and flavored with liquor and cocoa...
|-
| Cuisine || American || Lunch, Dinner || Sirloin steak
Sirloin steak
The sirloin steak is a steak cut from the rear back portion of the animal, continuing off the short loin from which T-bone, porterhouse, and club steaks are cut....
, Buffalo wings
Buffalo wings
A Buffalo wing, hot wing or wing is a chicken wing section that is traditionally fried unbreaded and then coated in sauce...
|-
| || Italian || Lunch, Dinner || Spaghetti
Spaghetti
Spaghetti is a long, thin, cylindrical pasta of Italian origin. Spaghetti is made of semolina or flour and water. Italian dried spaghetti is made from durum wheat semolina, but outside of Italy it may be made with other kinds of flour...
with Vienna Sausage
Vienna sausage
A Vienna sausage is a kind of hot dog...
, Beef
Beef
Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle. Beef can be harvested from cows, bulls, heifers or steers. It is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of the Middle East , Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Europe and the United States, and is also important in...
Brisket
Brisket
Brisket is a cut of meat from the breast or lower chest of beef or veal. The beef brisket is one of the eight beef primal cuts. The brisket muscles include the superficial and deep pectorals. As cattle do not have collar bones, these muscles support about 60% of the body weight of standing/moving...
, Pizza
Pizza
Pizza is an oven-baked, flat, disc-shaped bread typically topped with a tomato sauce, cheese and various toppings.Originating in Italy, from the Neapolitan cuisine, the dish has become popular in many parts of the world. An establishment that makes and sells pizzas is called a "pizzeria"...
|-
| || French || Lunch, Dinner || Quiche
Quiche
Quiche is a savory, open-faced pie of vegetables, cheese, or meat in custard, baked in a pastry crust.The quiche is sometimes regarded as the savoury equivalent ofegg custard tart.- Etymology:...
, Lamb Mignon
|-
| Drinks || Western Drinks || Anytime || Horlicks
Horlicks
Horlicks is the name of a company and of a malted milk hot drink. It is manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline in the United Kingdom, South Africa, New Zealand, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Jamaica, and under licence in the Philippines and Malaysia....
, Cola
Cola
Cola is a carbonated beverage that was typically flavored by the kola nut as well as vanilla and other flavorings, however, some colas are now flavored artificially. It became popular worldwide after druggist John Pemberton invented Coca-Cola in 1886...
|-
| || Western Coffee || Anytime || Espresso
Espresso
Espresso is a concentrated beverage brewed by forcing a small amount of nearly boiling water under pressure through finely ground coffee. Espresso is widely known throughout the world....
, Iced coffee
Iced coffee
Iced coffee is a cold variant of the beverage coffee.-Preparation:There are several ways of preparing iced coffee. Ordinary hot-brewed coffee can be served cold, although this may result in a bitter-tasting product. Cold brewing relies on time, rather than heat, to transfer the coffee flavor to the...
, Siphon Coffee
|-
|}
Non-service-based
Non-service-based items are food that do not require cooking or any chef services. They are usually imported, cultivated or produced. It is identical if served outside of Hong Kong.{|class="wikitable"
! Category
! Style Name
! Most Popular
! Examples
|-
| Alcoholic || Beer || Lunch, Dinner || Tsingtao, Carlsberg, Heineken
Heineken
Heineken is a Dutch beer which has been brewed by Heineken International since 1873. It is available in a 4.6% alcohol variety in countries such as Ireland. It is the flagship product of the Heineken company and is made of purified water, malted barley, hops, and yeast. In 1886 H...
|-
| || Wine || Lunch, Dinner || XO cognac
Cognac (drink)
Cognac , named after the town of Cognac in France, is a variety of brandy. It is produced in the wine-growing region surrounding the town from which it takes its name, in the French Departements of Charente and Charente-Maritime....
|-
| Fruits || Pacific Fruits || Anytime || Ya Pear
Ya pear
Pyrus ×bretschneideri, the Chinese White Pear , is an interspecific hybrid species of pear native to northern China, where it is widely grown for its edible fruit. Recent molecular genetic evidence confirms some relationship to the Siberian pear , but it can also be classified as a subspecies of...
, Durian
Durian
The durian is the fruit of several tree species belonging to the genus Durio and the Malvaceae family . Widely known and revered in southeast Asia as the "king of fruits", the durian is distinctive for its large size, unique odour, and formidable thorn-covered husk...
, Lychee
Lychee
The lychee is the sole member of the genus Litchi in the soapberry family, Sapindaceae. It is a tropical and subtropical fruit tree native to Southern China and Southeast Asia, and now cultivated in many parts of the world...
|-
|}
Hawker
These are basically streetside food stalls, operated by usually one or two people pushing a cart. The carts are usually very mobile, allowing the business freedom to sell snacks in whichever area is most populated at a particular point in time. While they have been popular in the 1970s and 1980s, tight health regulations and other forms of lease
Lease
A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the lessee to pay the lessor for use of an asset. A rental agreement is a lease in which the asset is tangible property...
versus license
License
The verb license or grant licence means to give permission. The noun license or licence refers to that permission as well as to the document recording that permission.A license may be granted by a party to another party as an element of an agreement...
d hawker restrictions have put a burden on this mobile food culture. The term Jau Gwei
Jau Gwei
Jau Gwei refers to the sudden abandonment of roadside vendor stalls in Hong Kong, when the squads of the Hawker Control Team are coming and the vendors are either operating a stall illegally or selling prohibited goods.Gwei refers to the Gweilo, as the hawker control officers...
became associated with the hawkers trying to avoid restrictions.
Includes:
- Fishball
- Butzaigo
- Roasted chestnuts
Dai pai dong
These are small Chinese style casual outdoor dining restaurants, serving mostly Cantonese and Teochew peasant fares. The business is catered toward the locals with many menus exclusively in Chinese.
Includes:
- CongeeCongeeCongee is a type of rice porridge popular in many Asian countries. It can be eaten alone or served with a side dish. Names for congee are as varied as the style of its preparation...
and Youtiao - Sweetened condensed milkCondensed milkCondensed milk, also known as sweetened condensed milk, is cow's milk from which water has been removed and to which sugar has been added, yielding a very thick, sweet product which when canned can last for years without refrigeration if unopened. The two terms, condensed milk and sweetened...
Toast - Wonton noodle
Specialty shops
Jerky (food)
Jerky is lean meat that has been trimmed of fat, cut into strips, and then been dried to prevent spoilage. Normally, this drying includes the addition of salt, to prevent bacteria from developing on the meat before sufficient moisture has been removed. The word "jerky" is a bastardization of the...
for example, the store will offer 10 to 20 different types of the highest grade and quality. During holiday times, specialty stores are sometimes the premiere place for purchasing food gift items. Sun-dried goods and Chinese candy are also common merchandise found.
Includes:
- Beef jerkyJerky (food)Jerky is lean meat that has been trimmed of fat, cut into strips, and then been dried to prevent spoilage. Normally, this drying includes the addition of salt, to prevent bacteria from developing on the meat before sufficient moisture has been removed. The word "jerky" is a bastardization of the...
- Almond biscuitAlmond biscuitAlmond biscuit is a type of Chinese pastry. The biscuit is one of the most standard pastries in Hong Kong, and can also be found in some Chinatown bakery shops overseas. Most that are sold overseas are imported from Macau. The biscuits are small with no filling by default...
- Dried shredded squidDried shredded squidDried shredded squid is a dried, seasoned, seafood product commonly found in coastal Asian countries and Hawai'i, made from squid or cuttlefish. The snack is also referred to as shredded squid, dried seasoned squid, prepared rolled squid or sun dried squid, and dried shredded cuttlefish...
Hong Kong-style fast food
Café de Coral
Café de Coral is a fast food restaurant group which owns and operates fast food chains and restaurants including Café de Coral, The Spaghetti House, Manchu Wok, Oliver's Super Sandwiches, Ah Yee Leng Tong and others. Founded in 1968, the Café de Coral group opened its first Café de Coral...
, Maxim's
Maxim's Catering
Maxim's is Hong Kong's largest food & beverage corporation and restaurant chain. Founded in 1956 by Dr James Tak Wu and his brother S.T...
and Fairwood
Fairwood (restaurant)
Fairwood is a fast food chain offering Chinese and Western food at affordable prices. Founded in December 1972 in the Tsuen Wan district of Hong Kong, its current headquarters are located in North Point...
or in food courts typically attached to malls or supermarkets such as CitySuper. The food offered is a mix of Canto-Western cuisine (see Hong Kong-style Western cuisine below), Cantonese fares, and increasingly Asian food from outside China.
Includes:
- Pork cutletTonkatsuTonkatsu , invented in the late 19th century, is a popular dish in Japan. It consists of a breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet one to two centimeters thick and sliced into bite-sized pieces, generally served with shredded cabbage and/or miso soup...
- Japanese inspired - Chinese broccoli with Oyster sauceOyster sauceOyster sauce describes a number of sauces made by cooking oysters. The most common in modern use is a viscous dark brown condiment made from sugar, salt and water thickened with cornstarch, flavoured with a little oyster essence or extract and some versions may be darkened with caramel, though high...
- Cantonese - baked pork chop rice - Western (specifically British) inspired
Chinese pastry
Hong Kong-style Chinese pastry offers a plethora of choices for the discerning taster. Depending on location, some shops may carry a wider selection than others, and some may bake goods on the premise while others have it delivered from an off-site bakery. Most bakeries carry standard fare such as pineapple bun
Pineapple bun
A pineapple bun is a kind of sweet pastry popular in Hong Kong, Macau, some other areas in southern China, and in various Chinese communities around the world. They can also be found in bakeries in Taiwan or Toronto. It is known in Cantonese as bo lo baau, in which "bo lo" means "pineapple", and...
s and egg tart
Egg tart
The egg tart or egg custard tart is a kind of custard tart pastry commonly found in Hong Kong and other Asian countries, which consists of an outer pastry crust that is filled with egg custard and baked...
s. During the Mid-Autumn Festival
Mid-Autumn Festival
The Mid-Autumn Festival , also known as the Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival or Zhongqiu Festival, is a popular lunar harvest festival celebrated by Chinese and Vietnamese people. A description of the festival first appeared in Rites of Zhou, a written collection of rituals of the Western Zhou...
, moon cakes are one of the hottest sellers. Pastries are baked fresh daily (and sometimes throughout the day), and it is said that Hong Kong people have taste buds so sophisticated that they can tell the difference between something baked one hour versus five hours ago.
Includes:
- Wife cake
- Jin deuiJin deuiJian dui is a type of fried Chinese pastry made from glutinous rice flour. The pastry is coated with sesame seeds on the outside and is crisp and chewy. Inside the pastry is a large hollow, caused by the expansion of the dough...
- Cream bunCream bunCream bun is a type of Chinese pastry. It is one of the most standard pastries in Hong Kong. It can also be found in most Chinatown bakery shops overseas. The bun has either butter cream or whipped cream filling down the middle with coconut sprinkles on the outside...
Cuisine: Cantonese
As the most predominant cultural group in Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, Cantonese food forms the backbone of homecooking and dine-out scenes. Many early celebrated Cantonese restaurants, including Tai San Yuan, Luk Yu Tea House, were originally Hong Kong branches of the famed Guangzhou-based restaurants, and most chefs in Hong Kong until the 1970s had spent their formative years working in the restaurant industry in Guangzhou
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
. Most of the celebrated dishes in Hong Kong were introduced into the territory through Guangzhou, often refined with awareness of international tastes. Cantonese food prices perhaps cover the widest range, from the small business
Small business
A small business is a business that is privately owned and operated, with a small number of employees and relatively low volume of sales. Small businesses are normally privately owned corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships...
es lou mei
Lou mei
Lou wei is the name given to dishes made by simmering in a sauce known as lou . Lou is a soy-based sauce flavored with spices. Like barbecue sauce in the US, there are many local varieties with different spices added to it. It is not unusual for ingredients to a lou sauce be a closely guarded...
to the most expensive abalone
Abalone
Abalone , from aulón, are small to very large-sized edible sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Haliotidae and the genus Haliotis...
delicacies, which involve abalone.
One well developed dish in Cantonese cuisine is dim sum
Dim sum
Dim sum refers to a style of Chinese food prepared as small bite-sized or individual portions of food traditionally served in small steamer baskets or on small plates...
. Waiters cart around stacks of steamer baskets or small plates of food for customers to choose. Dim sum includes dishes based on meat, seafood, vegetables, as well as desserts and fruit. The term yum cha
Yum cha
Yum cha , also known as Ban ming , is a Chinese style morning or afternoon tea, which involves drinking Chinese tea and eating dim sum dishes...
(literally "drink tea") is synonymous with eating dim sum. It is customary for families to eat dim sum on weekends.
Includes:
- Cart noodleCart noodleCart noodle is a kind of à la carte noodle which became popular in Hong Kong in the 1950s through independent street vendors operating on roadsides and in public housing estates in low-income districts, using carts...
- Siu meiSiu meiSiu mei is the generic name, in Cantonese cuisine, given to meats roasted on spits over an open fire or a huge wood burning rotisserie oven. It creates a unique, deep barbecue flavor that is usually enhanced by a flavorful sauce . Shops selling these meats are commonly found in Chinese-speaking...
- Cha siu baauCha siu baauCha siu bao or char siu bao is a Cantonese barbecue-pork-filled bun . The buns are filled with barbecue-flavored cha siu pork. They are served as a type of dim sum during yum cha and are sometimes sold in Chinese bakeries.-Variety:...
- ShaomaiShaomaiShumai, also called pork dumplings, is a traditional Chinese dumpling served in dim sum.-Popular Chinese varieties:In the Qing Dynasty, the fillings varied by season: spring- garlic chives, summer- mutton and pumpkin, autumn- crab meat, winter- mixed seafood.Many varieties have been created as the...
- Har gauHar gauHar gow or Xiā jiǎo is a traditional Chinese dumpling served in dim sum. It is listed at number 34 on World's 50 most delicious foods readers' poll complied by CNN Go in 2011.-Name:...
- Crispy fried chickenCrispy fried chickenCrispy fried chicken is a standard dish in the Cantonese cuisine of southern China and Hong Kong. The chicken is fried in such a way that the skin is extremely crunchy, but the white meat is relatively soft....
- Seafood birdsnestSeafood birdsnestSeafood birdsnest is a common Chinese cuisine dish found in Hong Kong, China and most overseas Chinatown restaurants. It is also found within Cantonese cuisine. It is usually classified as a mid to high-end dish depending on the seafood offered.-Basket:...
Cuisine: Buddhist
This cuisine is essentially vegetarian specialties using tofu
Tofu
is a food made by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into soft white blocks. It is part of East Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Vietnamese, and others. There are many different varieties of tofu, including fresh tofu and tofu...
, wheat gluten
Wheat gluten (food)
Wheat gluten, also called seitan , wheat meat, mock duck, gluten meat, or simply gluten, is a food made from the gluten of wheat...
, mushroom
Mushroom
A mushroom is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. The standard for the name "mushroom" is the cultivated white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus; hence the word "mushroom" is most often applied to those fungi that...
and other non-animal sourced ingredients. Despite the name, the cuisine is enjoyed by many non-Buddhists. Hong Kong's vegetarian dishes, as part of the Cantonese branch of Chinese vegetarian cuisine, puts emphasis on meat analogue
Meat analogue
A meat analogue, also called a meat substitute, mock meat, faux meat, or imitation meat, approximates the aesthetic qualities and/or chemical characteristics of specific types of meat...
substitutes to the point where it can taste and look identical to real meat, often by using deep-fried gluten and tofu to recreate meat-like textures, and heavy-flavored sauces are prepared for the dishes. Even committed meat-eaters enjoy the cuisine regularly. Unlike western countries, vegetarian diet in Hong Kong is not considered a commitment. This cuisine is also served in some temples and monasteries like the Po Lin Monastery
Po Lin Monastery
Po Lin Monastery is a Buddhist monastery, located on Ngong Ping Plateau, on Lantau Island, Hong Kong.The monastery was founded in 1906 by three monks visiting from Jiangsu and was initially known simply as "The Big Hut" . It was renamed to its present name in 1924...
. The vegetarian cuisine served in some Taoist
Taoism
Taoism refers to a philosophical or religious tradition in which the basic concept is to establish harmony with the Tao , which is the mechanism of everything that exists...
temples or monasteries, such as the Yuen Yuen Institute
Yuen Yuen Institute
The Yuen Yuen Institute was established in Hong Kong in 1950 by monks from Sanyuan Gong in Guangzhou, which in turn traces its lineage to the Longmen sect of Quanzhen Taoism....
, can also be classified under this category.
Includes:
- MantouMantouMantou, often referred to as Chinese steamed bun/bread, is a kind of steamed bun originating in China. They are typically eaten as a staple in northern parts of China where wheat, rather than rice, is grown. They are made with milled wheat flour, water and leavening agents...
- Buddha's delightBuddha's delightBuddha's delight, often transliterated as Luóhàn zhāi, lo han jai, or lo hon jai, is a vegetarian dish well known in Chinese and Buddhist cuisine...
Non-Cantonese Chinese vegetarian cuisine is extremely rare in Hong Kong, although there are some isolated temples and restaurants offering Shanghaiese-style vegetarian cuisine. Compared with Cantonese-style vegetarian cuisine, dishes are less oily and some food items favored by non-Cantonese Chinese, such as bamboo shoot, picked vegetables, are often used. Meat analogues are prominently featured, albeit expressed in differently manners from Cantonese vegetarian cuisine.
Cuisine: Hakka
This form of cooking style from the Hakka people
Hakka people
The Hakka , sometimes Hakka Han, are Han Chinese who speak the Hakka language and have links to the provincial areas of Guangdong, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan and Fujian in China....
originally came from Guangdong
Guangdong
Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
and Fujian
Fujian
' , formerly romanised as Fukien or Huguing or Foukien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...
in southeastern China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. The style uses dried and preserved ingredients. Pork
Pork
Pork is the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig , which is eaten in many countries. It is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BC....
is by far the most common meat in the style.
Includes:
- Poon choiPoon choiPoon Choi , also known as pun choi or Big Bowl Feast, is a traditional type of dish originating from Hong Kong village cuisine. It may also be found in different parts of Hong Kong. It is served in wooden, porcelain or metal basins.-Origin:...
- Salt baked chicken
Cuisine: Beijing
Includes:
- Peking duckPeking DuckPeking Duck, or Peking Roast Duck is a famous duck dish from Beijing that has been prepared since the imperial era, and is now considered one of China's national foods....
- Hot and sour soupHot and sour soupHot and sour soup can refer to soups from several Asian culinary traditions. In all cases the soup contains ingredients to make it both spicy and sour.-United States:Soup preparation may use chicken or pork broth, or may be meat-free...
Cuisine: Japanese
Sushi
Sushi
is a Japanese food consisting of cooked vinegared rice combined with other ingredients . Neta and forms of sushi presentation vary, but the ingredient which all sushi have in common is shari...
is the most common association made to Japanese cuisine in Hong Kong. From small cafe shops to conveyor belt sushi
Conveyor belt sushi
is the popular English translation for Japanese fast-food sushi. In Australia, it is also known as sushi train...
restaurants to restaurants specializing in teppanyaki
Teppanyaki
is a style of Japanese cuisine that uses an iron griddle to cook food. The word teppanyaki is derived from teppan , which means iron plate, and yaki , which means grilled, broiled or pan-fried...
, Japanese-style cooking is fairly popular. Depending on the locale, many sushi-centric restaurants are designed to mirror close to those in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
Includes:
- SushiSushiis a Japanese food consisting of cooked vinegared rice combined with other ingredients . Neta and forms of sushi presentation vary, but the ingredient which all sushi have in common is shari...
with wasabiWasabi, also known as Japanese horseradish, is a member of the Brassicaceae family, which includes cabbages, horseradish, and mustard. Its root is used as a condiment and has an extremely strong flavor. Its hotness is more akin to that of a hot mustard rather than the capsaicin in a chili pepper,... - Okinawa sobaOkinawa sobais a type of noodle soup eaten in Okinawa. In Okinawa, it is sometimes simply called soba or suba, although it is different from buckwheat noodles known as soba in the rest of Japan...
Cuisine: Indian and Pakistani
Hong Kong has a sizeable South Asian communitySouth Asians in Hong Kong
Hong Kong has a long-established South Asian population. As of the 2006 by-census, there were at least 44,744 persons of South Asian descent in Hong Kong. Many trace their roots in Hong Kong as far back as when most of the Indian subcontinent was still under British colonial rule, and as a legacy...
. Unlike in the Indian subcontinent
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
, where food may separate into regional variants, the Chinese population in Hong Kong overwhelmingly identifies Indian cuisine with curry
Curry
Curry is a generic description used throughout Western culture to describe a variety of dishes from Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Thai or other Southeast Asian cuisines...
spices. Because meat is always expected, it can also be said that South Asian cuisine in Hong Kong leans toward Northern Indian
North Indian cuisine
North Indian cuisine , part of Indian cuisine, is a term used to refer to the cuisines found in Northern India which includes the Indian states: Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and West-Central Uttar Pradesh...
and Pakistani styles.
Includes:
- CurryCurryCurry is a generic description used throughout Western culture to describe a variety of dishes from Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Thai or other Southeast Asian cuisines...
chicken with biryaniBiryaniBiryani, biriani, or beriani is a set of rice-based foods made with spices, rice and meat, fish, eggs or vegetables. The name is derived from the Persian word beryā which means "fried" or "roasted".... - CurryCurryCurry is a generic description used throughout Western culture to describe a variety of dishes from Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Thai or other Southeast Asian cuisines...
beef with naanNaanNaan is a leavened, oven-baked flatbread. It is typical of and popular in South and Central Asia, in Iran, and in South Asian restaurants abroad. Influenced by the large influx of South Asian labour, naan has also become popular in Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states.Originally, naan is a...
Hot Pot
This hot pot cuisine, known as daa bin lou (打邊爐, dǎbiānlú) in Cantonese
Standard Cantonese
Cantonese, or Standard Cantonese, is a language that originated in the vicinity of Canton in southern China, and is often regarded as the prestige dialect of Yue Chinese....
, is unique in the sense that everyone is a chef
Chef
A chef is a person who cooks professionally for other people. Although over time the term has come to describe any person who cooks for a living, traditionally it refers to a highly skilled professional who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation.-Etymology:The word "chef" is borrowed ...
. A boiling pot of water (soup-based, and customers can choose their preferred soup taste), is placed in the center of the table, and essentially everyone boils their own ingredients in that pot. This is highly popular and is usually accompanied with a bottle of cold beer or soda. This style is common during frigid winter times, since people are essentially cuddled around a fire. This format is also considered entertaining.
Includes:
- BeefBeefBeef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle. Beef can be harvested from cows, bulls, heifers or steers. It is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of the Middle East , Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Europe and the United States, and is also important in...
, porkPorkPork is the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig , which is eaten in many countries. It is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BC....
, chickenChickenThe chicken is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird... - CrabCrabTrue crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" , or where the reduced abdomen is entirely hidden under the thorax...
, prawns, and clamClamThe word "clam" can be applied to freshwater mussels, and other freshwater bivalves, as well as marine bivalves.In the United States, "clam" can be used in several different ways: one, as a general term covering all bivalve molluscs...
s - Chinese cabbageChinese cabbageChinese cabbage can refer to two distinct varieties of Chinese leaf vegetables used often in Chinese cuisine. These vegetables are both related to the Western cabbage, and are of the same species as the common turnip...
, carrots and lettuceLettuceLettuce is a temperate annual or biennial plant of the daisy family Asteraceae. It is most often grown as a leaf vegetable. It is eaten either raw, notably in salads, sandwiches, hamburgers, tacos, and many other dishes, or cooked, as in Chinese cuisine in which the stem becomes just as important... - Fish ballFish ballFish balls are a common food in southern China and overseas Chinese communities made from surimi . They are also common in Scandinavia, where they are usually made from cod or haddock.-Terminology:...
s and beef ballBeef ballBeef ball is a commonly cooked food in southern China and overseas Chinese communities. As the name suggests, the ball is made of beef that has been finely pulverized. They are easily distinguishable from fish balls due to the beef balls' darker color...
s - TofuTofuis a food made by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into soft white blocks. It is part of East Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Vietnamese, and others. There are many different varieties of tofu, including fresh tofu and tofu...
Hong Kong-style drinks
Non-alcoholic beveragesNon-alcoholic beverages
A non-alcoholic beverage is a beverage that contains less than 0.5% alcohol by volume. See §7.71, paragraphs and . Non-alcoholic versions of some alcoholic beverages, such as non-alcoholic beer and...
are served at restaurants of all classes, but most notably at Cha chaan teng
Cha chaan teng
A cha chaan teng means tea diner, also called Chinese diner, is commonly found in Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan, known for its Chinese food, eclectic and affordable menus, which include many dishes from Hong Kong cuisine and Hong Kong-style Western cuisine. Cha chaan tengs are also popular in Macau...
, a unique kind of restaurants in Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
. Since drink recipes are not franchise based, most drinks can vary depending on the restaurant. Rock sugar and syrup
Syrup
In cooking, a syrup is a thick, viscous liquid consisting primarily of a solution of sugar in water, containing a large amount of dissolved sugars but showing little tendency to deposit crystals...
are commonly used to add sweetness.
Some beverages that was originated in the tea culture
Taiwanese tea culture
Taiwanese tea culture, include tea arts, tea ceremony, and a very social way of enjoying tea. While the most common teas are oolongs especially Taiwanese oolongs such as Iron Goddess and Alpine Oolong; Puers, black teas and green teas are also popular. Many of the classical arts can be seen in...
of Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, such as bubble tea
Bubble tea
Bubble tea is the name for pearl milk tea and other similar tea and juice beverages that originated in tea shops in Taichung, Taiwan during the 1980s. Drink recipes may vary, but most bubble teas contain a tea base mixed with fruit and/or milk...
and honey green tea
Green tea
Green tea is made solely from the leaves of Camellia sinensis that have undergone minimal oxidation during processing. Green tea originates from China and has become associated with many cultures throughout Asia. It has recently become more widespread in the West, where black tea is traditionally...
, had been brought to Hong Kong and become part of Hong Kong's beverage culture.
Includes:
- Hong Kong-style milk teaHong Kong-style milk teaHong Kong-style milk tea is a beverage originating from Hong Kong consisting of black tea with evaporated milk or condensed milk. It is usually part of lunch in Hong Kong tea culture...
- Red bean iceRed bean iceRed bean ice is a drink commonly found in Hong Kong. It is usually served in restaurants like cha chaan teng . The standard ingredients include azuki beans, light rock sugar syrup, and milk. It is often topped with ice cream to become a dessert.-Origin:...
- Soy milkSoy milkSoy milk and sometimes referred to as soy drink/beverage is a beverage made from soybeans. A stable emulsion of oil, water, and protein, it is produced by soaking dry soybeans and grinding them with water...
- Sugarcane juiceSugarcane juiceSugarcane juice is the juice extracted from pressed sugarcane. It is consumed as a beverage worldwide, and especially in regions where sugarcane is commercially grown such as Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Latin America....
Chinese tea
A large wide variety of tea leaves and combinations are used for Chinese tea. In the 1950s and 1960s, citizens would go to tea houses accompanied by their pet birds locked in a bird cage. Noon tea was an essential break in the middle of the day. Tea nowadays goes along with any meal.
Includes:
- Chrysanthemum teaChrysanthemum teaChrysanthemum tea is a flower-based tisane made from chrysanthemum flowers of the species Chrysanthemum morifolium or Chrysanthemum indicum, which are most popular in East Asia...
- BolayPu-erh teaPu'er, Pu-erh, Puer, also Po Lei or Bolay is a variety of post-fermented tea produced in Yunnan province, China. Post-fermentation is a tea production style in which the tea leaves undergo a microbial fermentation process after they are dried and rolled. This is a Chinese specialty and is sometimes...
- 24 flavors24 flavors24 flavors or 24 mei is the name given to a variety of Cantonese herbal tea, drunk for medicinal purposes. Its name refers to the fact that it is a mixture of up to 24 different ingredients...
Hong Kong-style Western cuisine
Dishes derived from cuisines of the Western worldWestern world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
, but not classified into a particular country, belong in this category. Outside Hong Kong it is termed Hong Kong-style Western cuisine or Canto-Western cuisine. Small restaurants that offer Sai Chaan are usually cha chaan teng
Cha chaan teng
A cha chaan teng means tea diner, also called Chinese diner, is commonly found in Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan, known for its Chinese food, eclectic and affordable menus, which include many dishes from Hong Kong cuisine and Hong Kong-style Western cuisine. Cha chaan tengs are also popular in Macau...
at the popular end or "Sai Chaan Restaurants" at the more upscale range. Restaurants that have come to expect tourists will likely offer both east and west menus. Most dishes are localized with Chinese tastes and contain Chinese and specifically Cantonese influences, such as steak
Steak
A steak is a cut of meat . Most are cut perpendicular to the muscle fibers, improving the perceived tenderness of the meat. In North America, steaks are typically served grilled, pan-fried, or broiled. The more tender cuts from the loin and rib are cooked quickly, using dry heat, and served whole...
marinated in soy sauce
Soy sauce
Soy sauce is a condiment produced by fermenting soybeans with Aspergillus oryzae or Aspergillus sojae molds, along with water and salt...
, served in a soy sauce dominated gravy
Gravy
Gravy is a sauce made often from the juices that run naturally from meat or vegetables during cooking. In North America the term can refer to a wider variety of sauces and gravy is often thicker than in Britain...
, and with fried rice
Fried rice
Fried rice is a popular component of Asian cuisine, especially Chinese food. It is made from steamed rice stir-fried in a wok, often with other ingredients such as eggs, vegetables, and meat. It is sometimes served as the penultimate dish in Chinese banquets...
as on the side, or wok-fried spaghetti with meat sauce.
Includes:
- MacaroniMacaroniMacaroni is a variety of moderately extended, machine-made, dry pasta made with durum wheat. Macaroni noodles do not contain eggs, and are normally cut in short, hollow shapes; however, the term refers not to the shape of the pasta, but to the kind of dough from which the noodle is made...
in broth with fried eggFried eggA fried egg is a food made from an egg fried whole with minimal accompaniment. They are traditionally eaten for breakfast in western countries, but may be eaten at other times of the day.-China:...
and sausageSausageA sausage is a food usually made from ground meat , mixed with salt, herbs, and other spices, although vegetarian sausages are available. The word sausage is derived from Old French saussiche, from the Latin word salsus, meaning salted.Typically, a sausage is formed in a casing traditionally made... - Fried chicken wings
- Swiss sauce chicken wings
- Instant noodlesInstant noodlesInstant noodles are dried or precooked noodles and are often sold with packets of flavoring including seasoning oil. Dried noodles are usually eaten after being cooked or soaked in boiling water for 2 to 5 minutes, while precooked noodles can be reheated or eaten straight from the packet...
with sausages - French toastFrench toastFrench toast or Eggy Bread, is a food made with bread and eggs. It is a Christmas time dessert in Portugal and Brazil.Where French toast is served as a sweet dish, milk, sugar, or cinnamon are also commonly added before frying, and it may be then topped with sugar, butter, fruit, syrup, or other...
, called "Western Toast" (西多士 xīduōshì, shortened from 法蘭西多士 Fǎlánxī duōshì, transliteration of French toast) in Chinese
Western fast food
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
is likely the most common. Others include Hardee's
Hardee's
Hardee's is a restaurant chain, located mostly in the Southeast and Midwestern regions of the United States. It has evolved through several corporate ownerships since its establishment in 1960. It is currently owned and operated by CKE Restaurants. Along with its sibling restaurant chain, Carl's...
(formerly), Pizza Hut
Pizza Hut
Pizza Hut is an American restaurant chain and international franchise that offers different styles of pizza along with side dishes including pasta, buffalo wings, breadsticks, and garlic bread....
and many more.
Includes:
- Big MacBig MacThe Big Mac is a hamburger sold by McDonald's, an international fast food restaurant chain. It is one of the company's signature products...
- Hot dogHot dogA hot dog is a sausage served in a sliced bun. It is very often garnished with mustard, ketchup, onions, mayonnaise, relish and/or sauerkraut.-History:...
- PizzaPizzaPizza is an oven-baked, flat, disc-shaped bread typically topped with a tomato sauce, cheese and various toppings.Originating in Italy, from the Neapolitan cuisine, the dish has become popular in many parts of the world. An establishment that makes and sells pizzas is called a "pizzeria"...
Western pastry
Cheese
Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....
, cream
Cream
Cream is a dairy product that is composed of the higher-butterfat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, over time, the lighter fat rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream this process is accelerated by using centrifuges called "separators"...
and other western ingredients. Chinese bakery
Chinese bakery
Chinese bakery products consists of pastries, cakes, snacks, and desserts of largely Chinese origin, though some are derived from Western baked goods. Some of the most common Chinese bakery products include mooncakes, sun cakes, egg tarts, and wife cakes....
shops often sell both eastern and western goods. Maxim's
Maxim's
Maxim's refers to several commercial enterprises:*Maxim's Paris - a restaurant and brand owned by Pierre Cardin*Maxim's Catering - a restaurant and bakery chain based in Hong Kong...
is one of the most popular franchises, found in nearly every MTR
MTR
Mass Transit Railway is the rapid transit railway system in Hong Kong. Originally opened in 1979, the system now includes 211.6 km of rail with 155 stations, including 86 railway stations and 69 light rail stops...
subway stations. Délifrance
Délifrance
Délifrance is a bakery company that serves "French style" bakery products in over 50 countries on five continents. It has been in operation for more than 25 years....
is another outlet offering western-style sandwiches.
Includes:
- DonutDONUTDONUT was an experiment at Fermilab dedicated to the search for tau neutrino interactions. Even though the detector operated only during a few months in the summer of 1997, it was largely successful. By detecting the tau neutrino, it confirmed the existence of the last lepton predicted by the...
- Fruit tart
- CroissantCroissantA croissant is a buttery flaky pastry named for its distinctive crescent shape. It is also sometimes called a crescent, from the French word for "crescent". Croissants are made of a leavened variant of puff pastry...
Cuisine: American
Butter
Butter is a dairy product made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk. It is generally used as a spread and a condiment, as well as in cooking applications, such as baking, sauce making, and pan frying...
. For example, an order of mashed potato
Mashed potato
Mashed potato is made by mashing freshly boiled potatoes with a ricer, fork, potato masher, food mill, or whipping them with a hand beater. Dehydrated and frozen mashed potatoes are available in many places...
in Hong Kong will seem relatively plain and light compared to its U.S. counterpart. Popcorn
Popcorn
Popcorn, or popping corn, is corn which expands from the kernel and puffs up when heated. Corn is able to pop because, like sorghum, quinoa and millet, its kernels have a hard moisture-sealed hull and a dense starchy interior. This allows pressure to build inside the kernel until an explosive...
in Hong Kong is heavily sweetened, more resembling caramelised pre-packaged popcorn, such as Cracker Jacks. Steak can be classified as Sai Chaan (Western cuisine) or American food.
Includes:
- Sirloin steakSirloin steakThe sirloin steak is a steak cut from the rear back portion of the animal, continuing off the short loin from which T-bone, porterhouse, and club steaks are cut....
- Buffalo wingsBuffalo wingsA Buffalo wing, hot wing or wing is a chicken wing section that is traditionally fried unbreaded and then coated in sauce...
- Clam chowderClam chowderClam chowder is any of several chowders containing clams and broth. Along with the clams, diced potato is common, as are onions, which are occasionally sauteed in the drippings from salt pork or bacon. Celery is frequently used. Other vegetables are uncommon, but small carrot strips might...
Cuisine: Italian
Italian cuisine
Italian cuisine has developed through centuries of social and political changes, with roots as far back as the 4th century BCE. Italian cuisine in itself takes heavy influences, including Etruscan, ancient Greek, ancient Roman, Byzantine, Jewish and Arab cuisines...
, primo and secondo format. Italian food in Hong Kong is generally considered more Modern Italian, instead of being authentic Traditional Italian (though if one wanted to find a restaurant serving a specific style (such as Venetian
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
), it is possible). Drinks and desserts are often mixed with Chinese options. The main course itself will lean closer to American-Italian. "Fat Angelos" is an example of a Hong Kong-style Italian restaurant.
Includes:
- PastaPastaPasta is a staple food of traditional Italian cuisine, now of worldwide renown. It takes the form of unleavened dough, made in Italy, mostly of durum wheat , water and sometimes eggs. Pasta comes in a variety of different shapes that serve for both decoration and to act as a carrier for the...
with beef brisket, vealVealVeal is the meat of young cattle , as opposed to meat from older cattle. Though veal can be produced from a calf of either sex and any breed, most veal comes from male calves of dairy cattle breeds... - Saltimbocca alla Romana
- RisottoRisottoRisotto is a class of Italian dishes of rice cooked in broth to a creamy consistency. The broth may be meat-, fish-, or vegetable-based; many kinds include Parmesan cheese, butter, and onion...
Cuisine: French
Delicacy
A delicacy is a food item that is considered highly desirable in certain cultures. Often this is because of unusual flavors or characteristics or because it is rare....
. Many of the French desserts like crème brûlée
Crème brûlée
Crème brûlée , also known as burnt cream, crema catalana, or Trinity cream is a dessert consisting of a rich custard base topped with a contrasting layer of hard caramel...
have been modified into some form of pudding (Chinese: 布甸, bùdiān) to be served with Chinese dishes. So aside from being a standalone style, influence of French cuisine in Asian dishes is apparent.
Includes:
- Lamb fillet
- Pan fried duck breast
Western Drinks
Cha chaan teng
A cha chaan teng means tea diner, also called Chinese diner, is commonly found in Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan, known for its Chinese food, eclectic and affordable menus, which include many dishes from Hong Kong cuisine and Hong Kong-style Western cuisine. Cha chaan tengs are also popular in Macau...
, they have essentially become just another item on the menu. British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
malt
Malt
Malt is germinated cereal grains that have been dried in a process known as "malting". The grains are made to germinate by soaking in water, and are then halted from germinating further by drying with hot air...
drinks have become closely associated with breakfast in Hong Kong.
- OvaltineOvaltineOvaltine is a brand of milk flavoring product made with malt extract , sugar , cocoa, and whey...
- HorlicksHorlicksHorlicks is the name of a company and of a malted milk hot drink. It is manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline in the United Kingdom, South Africa, New Zealand, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Jamaica, and under licence in the Philippines and Malaysia....
- ColaColaCola is a carbonated beverage that was typically flavored by the kola nut as well as vanilla and other flavorings, however, some colas are now flavored artificially. It became popular worldwide after druggist John Pemberton invented Coca-Cola in 1886...
- Hong Kong-style milk teaHong Kong-style milk teaHong Kong-style milk tea is a beverage originating from Hong Kong consisting of black tea with evaporated milk or condensed milk. It is usually part of lunch in Hong Kong tea culture...
Western coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
from the west has become heavily franchised in recent years. The arrival of Pacific Coffee
Pacific Coffee Company
Pacific Coffee Company is a Pacific Northwest U.S.-style coffee shop group originating from Hong Kong, with a few outlets in China, Singapore and Malaysia. The group is owned by computer distributor Chevalier Pacific, formerly Chevalier iTech...
and Starbucks
Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...
changed the landscape of Western style coffee in Hong Kong. UCC Ueshima Coffee Co.
UCC Ueshima Coffee Co.
is a manufacturer of coffee and tea products in Kobe, Hyōgo. "UCC" stands for "Ueshima Coffee Company".Note that the official English corporate name is fully capitalized: UCC UESHIMA COFFEE CO., LTD.It owns Kona coffee farm on the island of Hawaii....
and Pokka Cafe are among the first to introduce siphon coffee to Hong Kong. This brewing method has only become more familiar to the public after the establishment of Xen Coffee
Xen Coffee
Xen Coffee is an independent siphon coffee bar in Hong Kong. Xen Coffee's first coffee shop was in Quarry Bay. Xen Coffee serves highly selective coffee varieties from Africa, Indonesia, Central and South Americas...
, a siphon specialty coffee shop. While independent coffee shops do exist, franchise stores are often situated in favorable locations that cater to foreign workers.
- EspressoEspressoEspresso is a concentrated beverage brewed by forcing a small amount of nearly boiling water under pressure through finely ground coffee. Espresso is widely known throughout the world....
- Iced coffeeIced coffeeIced coffee is a cold variant of the beverage coffee.-Preparation:There are several ways of preparing iced coffee. Ordinary hot-brewed coffee can be served cold, although this may result in a bitter-tasting product. Cold brewing relies on time, rather than heat, to transfer the coffee flavor to the...
- FrappuccinoFrappuccinoFrappuccino is a trademarked line of blended coffee beverages sold by Starbucks. It consists of coffee blended with ice and various other ingredients, usually topped with whipped cream. Frappuccinos are also sold as bottled coffee beverages in stores and from vending machines.-History:Frappuccino...
- Siphon coffee
Oyster & Wine
Oyster & Wine bars have been blooming in recent years. Most of those shops are located in Happy Valley and Tsim Sha Tsui.Locales
Major food districts are Causeway BayCauseway Bay
Causeway Bay is a heavily built-up area of Hong Kong, People's Republic of China, located on the Hong Kong Island, and covering parts of Wan Chai and Eastern districts. The Chinese name is also romanized as Tung Lo Wan as in Tung Lo Wan Road...
, Kowloon City
Kowloon City
Kowloon City is an area in Kowloon, Hong Kong. It is named after the Kowloon Walled City, and is administratively part of Kowloon City District....
, Lan Kwai Fong
Lan Kwai Fong
Lan Kwai Fong is a small square of streets in Central, Hong Kong. The area was dedicated to hawkers before the Second World War, but underwent a renaissance in the mid 1980s. It is now a popular expatriate haunt in Hong Kong for drinking, clubbing and dining...
, Tsim Sha Tsui
Tsim Sha Tsui
Tsim Sha Tsui , often abbreviated as TST, is an urbanized area in southern Kowloon, Hong Kong. The area is administratively part of the Yau Tsim Mong District. Tsim Sha Tsui East is a piece of land reclaimed from the Hung Hom Bay now east of Tsim Sha Tsui...
and Soho
Soho, Hong Kong
The Soho district in Hong Kong is an entertainment zone located in Central and bordering Sheung Wan, within Central...
. Stanley
Stanley, Hong Kong
Stanley is a town and a tourist attraction in Hong Kong. It located on a peninsula on the southeastern part of Hong Kong Island. It is east of Repulse Bay and west of Shek O, adjacent to Chung Hom Kok...
, with its expatriate population, has many seaside pubs and European restaurants. Sai Kung, Lamma Island
Lamma Island
Lamma Island , also known as Pok Liu Chau or simply Pok Liu , is the third largest island in Hong Kong. Administratively, it is part of the Islands District.-Name:...
, Lau Fau Shan
Lau Fau Shan
Lau Fau Shan is an area in the New Territories of Hong Kong. It is at the shore of Deep Bay, near Tin Shui Wai and facing Shekou in Shenzhen, China. It is traditionally famous for fresh oysters. About 100 tons were harvested every year, some for consumption in Hong Kong restaurants and some for...
and Lei Yue Mun
Lei Yue Mun
Lei Yue Mun is a short channel in Hong Kong, between Junk Bay and Victoria Harbour, separating Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. The channel is an important passage in the South China Sea. It is the east gate of Victoria Harbour.The lands around the channel are also called Lei Yue Mun...
serve seafood
Seafood
Seafood is any form of marine life regarded as food by humans. Seafoods include fish, molluscs , crustaceans , echinoderms . Edible sea plants, such as some seaweeds and microalgae, are also seafood, and are widely eaten around the world, especially in Asia...
. Old fishing towns such as Cheung Chau
Cheung Chau
Cheung Chau is a small island 10 km southwest of Hong Kong Island, is nicknamed as the 'dumbbell island' for its shape. It has been inhabited for longer than most other places in the territory of Hong Kong, with a population of about 23,000 up to 2006...
and Tai O
Tai O
Tai O is a fishing town, partly located on an island of the same name, on the western side of Lantau Island in Hong Kong.-Geography:On the main part of Lantau Island, a river splits to the north and west and at this fork lies the island referred to as Tai O. Two pedestrian bridges cross the river...
also have many original restaurants.
Most pubs and bars are at Lan Kwai Fong, Lockhart Road
Lockhart Road
Lockhart Road is a road spanning the whole length of Wan Chai from east to west on the Hong Kong Island of Hong Kong. It begins at Arsenal Street in the west and ends in East Point Road in East Point.- History :...
and Jaffe Road
Jaffe Road
Jaffe Road is a long street in Hong Kong that runs between and parallel to Gloucester Road and Lockhart Road. At both the Wanchai and Causeway Bay ends of the street there are many bars and restaurants....
of Wan Chai
Wan Chai
Wan Chai is a metropolitan area situated at the western part of the Wan Chai District on the northern shore of Hong Kong Island, in Hong Kong. Its other boundaries are Canal Road to the east, Arsenal Street to the west and Bowen Road to the south. The area north of Gloucester Road is often called...
; Canton Road
Canton Road
Canton Road is a road in Hong Kong, linking the former west reclamation shore in Tsim Sha Tsui, Jordan, Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok on the Kowloon Peninsula. The road runs mostly parallel and west to Nathan Road. It starts from the junction with Salisbury Road in the south and ends in the north at the...
, Tsim Sha Tsui East; and around Prince Edward MTR station
Prince Edward (MTR)
Prince Edward is a station of the MTR rapid transit system in Hong Kong. It is located in Northern Mong Kok, Kowloon, under the intersection of Nathan Road and Prince Edward Road West. The station is named after this road...
in Mong Kok
Mong Kok
Mong Kok , less often known as Argyle , is an area in the Yau Tsim Mong District on Kowloon Peninsula, Hong Kong...
. Since 1991, Oktoberfest has been held annually on Canton Road
Canton Road
Canton Road is a road in Hong Kong, linking the former west reclamation shore in Tsim Sha Tsui, Jordan, Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok on the Kowloon Peninsula. The road runs mostly parallel and west to Nathan Road. It starts from the junction with Salisbury Road in the south and ends in the north at the...
.
Famous chefs
Hong Kong diners are willing to pay top dollar for the best food and service, this helps to attract many celebrity and star chefs to open restaurants in Hong Kong, including:- PierrePierre (restaurant)Pierre is a French cuisine restaurant situated on the 25th floor of the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Hong Kong which opened in October 2006 after a major renovation to the hotel. It is owned by Chef Pierre Gagnaire...
(Mandarin Oriental HotelMandarin Oriental, Hong KongMandarin Oriental, Hong Kong is a five-star hotel, located on Connaught Road in Central, Hong Kong, owned and managed by Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group. The hotel opened its doors in 1963 as “The Mandarin”, and quickly drew recognition for its service and elegance...
) - Pierre GagnairePierre GagnairePierre Gagnaire is a well known French chef, and is the Head Chef and owner of the eponymous Pierre Gagnaire restaurant at 6 rue Balzac in Paris . Gagnaire is an iconoclastic chef at the forefront of the fusion cuisine movement. Beginning his career in St... - AmberAmber (restaurant)Amber is The Landmark Mandarin Oriental's modern French restaurant. Richard Ekkebus is the current executive chef.-Awards:Amber was awarded two stars by the Hong Kong and Macau edition of the Michelin Guide in 2008.Amber was placed 37th in S...
(The Landmark Mandarin Oriental Hotel) - Richard EkkebusRichard EkkebusRichard Ekkebus is the executive chef of Mandarin Oriental Landmark Hotel in Hong Kong and its fine dining restaurant, Amber. December 2008 chef Ekkebus was awarded two Michelin Stars.-Biography:... - Nobu MatsuhisaNobu MatsuhisaNobuyuki "Nobu" Matsuhisa is a celebrity chef and restaurateur known for his fusion cuisine blending traditional Japanese dishes with South American ingredients. His signature dish is black cod in miso.-Biography:Nobu was born in Saitama, Japan...
opened Nobu Hong Kong at the InterContinental HotelInterContinental Hong KongInterContinental Hong Kong is an InterContinental hotel in Hong Kong. It is located in 18 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. It was the site of Holt's Wharf.- History :...
in late 2006. - Pearl on the Peak, operated by Australian chef Geoff Lindsay, operator of Pearl Restaurant in Australia.
See also
- Barbecue in Hong Kong
- Cantonese cuisineCantonese cuisineCantonese cuisine comes from Guangdong Province in southern China and is one of 8 superdivisions of Chinese cuisine. Its prominence outside China is due to the great numbers of early emigrants from Guangdong. Cantonese chefs are highly sought after throughout the country...
- Culture of Hong KongCulture of Hong KongThe culture of Hong Kong can best be described as a foundation that began with China, and became more influenced by British colonialism. Despite the 1997 transfer of sovereignty to the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong continues to hold an identity of its own.-People in the culture:Most Hong...
- List of Chinese dishes
- Private kitchenPrivate kitchenPrivate kitchen , also known as a speakeasy, is a term in referring to an unlicensed, restaurant-like establishment, most common in Hong Kong...
External links
- Hong Kong Food Blog
- Top Ten Weird Hong Kong Foods
- Eat Drink Hong Kong - Restaurant directory and reviews
- Hong Kong Restaurant Reviews (Chinese)
- Gourmet Paradise - Hong Kong Tourism Board
- OpenRice - Hong Kong Restaurant Reviews (Traditional Chinese)
- FoodPara - Hong Kong Restaurant and Food Index and Search Engine (Traditional Chinese)
- DiningCity Hong Kong - Restaurant directory including photos and reviews
- Harmful Soup
- French food delivery online
- List of Hong Kong Restaurants with Cuisine, Area & Other filters