Hong Kong’s food culture is the intersection of Eastern and Western cultures. It has developed a eating habit that combines Chinese food (mainly Cantonese food) and Western food, and is therefore known as a "food paradise." As a gathering point for people from all over the world, Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, Vietnamese, Thai and Indian restaurants are very common in Hong Kong. However, many foreigners point out that although you can taste delicacies from all over the world in Hong Kong, these delicacies have actually been altered to accommodate the eating habits of Hong Kong people, and thus become not authentic enough. From another perspective, these foreign food cultures have also enriched Hong Kong’s local food culture.

In the cultural development of Hong Kong, food plays an important and interesting part. The street food stalls such as Dai Pai Dong and Tai Da Di that accompanied the growth of Hong Kong people in those days, the time-honored restaurants and various types of authentic soy sauce, cakes and specialty foods have all become the collective memories of Hong Kong people.

The rapid economic and social development over the past hundred years has brought a new look to the food culture of Hong Kong people. Nowadays, food has evolved from the simple filling of the past to the pursuit of color, fragrance and beauty; restaurants have also evolved from simple and simple to those with gorgeous decorations; dishes have ranged from authentic tastes to gourmet delicacies from all over the world. Reflecting the changes in Hong Kong people’s eating attitudes and quality of life.

Local Cuisine

Most Hong Kong families regard Chinese cuisine as family cuisine. Most of them have retained their traditional ethnic food characteristics. Within the Chinese community, the majority are Cantonese, Hakka (especially the aboriginal residents of the New Territories), Chaoshan, and Shang people. Therefore, Cantonese cuisine, Hakka cuisine, Teochew cuisine, etc. are regarded as local dishes. Poon Choi is a traditional dish eaten by the aborigines of the New Territories during festivals. Sai Kung City, Lamma Island, Lau Fau Shan and Lei Yue Mun are famous for their seafood. Traditional restaurants can be found in ancient fishing villages such as Cheung Chau and Tai O.

Lin Heung House is located in Central and Sheung Wan. Before the Second World War, Chinese teahouses and restaurants serving dim sum and tea were dotted around Central and Sheung Wan in Hong Kong, such as Shek Tong Tsui to Sai Wan. In this area, there are San Yuan House, Yan Kung Lam, Kwun Nam Tea House, San Duo Tea House, Wan Lai Tea House [1], Ko Sheng Tea House, Ping Heung Tea House, De Nan Tea House, De Wan Tea House, Lin Heung Tea House and Lu Yu Teahouse, Dragon Gate in Wan Chai. Since almost all teahouse customers are men, the names of teahouses often use "duo men" and "get men" to imply the traditional idea of ??spending money and breaking up the business. In the early years, the teahouse was divided into the balcony and the ground hall. The scenery in the balcony was better, and the price of tea was Qili, the price of tea in the ground hall was 3.6 cents, and the price of tea in the Erli Pavilion was of course 2 cents. In the 1930s and 1940s, competition among teahouses intensified, and teahouses began to open singing rooms in the evenings for Cantonese opera performances. Later, there were more than thirty teahouses with attached singing circles, such as Ruyi, Fulong, Pingchun, Tiannan, Daguan, Lianxiang, Gaosheng and so on. [2] At that time, Gaosheng Teahouse hired actress Liang Ying to sing Cantonese opera and hired musicians to accompany her. At that time, in addition to teahouses, there were also Chinese-style restaurants that mainly held banquets, such as Xinghua House, Yongji Restaurant, Nanyuan, Xiyuan, Wenyuan, Dashanyuan, Yanqionglin, Juxin Building, Tanhua Building, Guanhai Building, Taoli garden. Xinghua House is the first restaurant in Hong Kong. It was opened in Shui Hang Hau, Sai Wan as early as 1846. In 1900, the number of restaurants had increased to more than 30. At that time, Taiwanese patriotic poet Qiu Fengjia also used to laugh and talk poetry and national affairs with his friends at Xinghua Tower. [3] Since Hong Kong people like to drink morning tea, Chinese teahouses serve snacks from about 5 a.m. to noon every day. After the war, Chinese restaurants also began to operate as teahouses, supplying many new snacks. In the 1980s when the economy took off, Hong Kong's nightlife became more and more prosperous. In the 1990s, some restaurants began to provide night tea service.

As for vegetarian dishes, general temples, such as Po Lin Temple, Yuan Xuan College, and Guanyin Temple, will provide formal vegetarian dishes. Due to the inconvenience of transportation in the early days, some businessmen began to operate vegetarian restaurants. The first vegetarian restaurant in Hong Kong was the Little Gion on Caine Road, Hong Kong Island, established in 1935. Vegetarian restaurants often sell Buddhist scriptures, beads, wooden fish and other Buddhist items. Vegetarian restaurants will serve some vegetarian dishes that imitate meat.

Hong Kong’s typhoon shelter flavor has become famous all over the world since "Suzie Wong’s World". Typhoon shelters were originally used as shelters for ships. Since a large number of Southeast Asian ingredients were imported here, some restaurants in Wan Chai took advantage of the opportunity to launch typhoon shelters with war-like flavors. Typhoon Shelter’s special side dishes are usually based on seafood, such as Typhoon Shelter Fried Crab. The spicy and rich flavor are the characteristics of Typhoon Shelter cuisine. In addition, Jumbo Kingdom located in Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter is also a very famous sea restaurant and has become one of Hong Kong's important tourist attractions. As Hong Kong's economy takes off and its dietary requirements become higher and higher, high-end restaurants focusing on seafood are also emerging, such as Ah Yat Abalone, Aweng Abalone, Sun Tung Lok and Haidu Seafood Restaurant.

In terms of breakfast, Hong Kong people in the city prefer to drink morning tea. But for those who have to sell their labor, rice is the main food for every meal. Their breakfast mainly consists of white porridge, fried ghost and Hong Kong's unique fried rice.

The Chinese custom of eating game in autumn and winter was also very popular in Hong Kong. Snake soup (especially Taishi Five Snake Soup), civet, pangolin, and sparrow were once common game foods. Later, a lot of game was protected by law, and many people who wanted to eat game went to mainland China to eat it.

Waijiang Cuisine

With the Second World War and the Kuomintang Civil War, many immigrants from mainland China provinces poured into Hong Kong. Many of them are from Shanghai and Ningbo. These Shanghai cuisine, Ningbo cuisine, and Anhui cuisine are collectively called Waijiang cuisine.

As Shanghainese promoted Hong Kong's industry, Shanghainese dishes have gradually become popular, such as rice with rice, soy milk, Shanghainese stir-fried, hairy crabs, racing crabs, ants climbing trees, high-strength bean paste and so on. Famous Shanghai restaurants include Lao Zhengxing and 369 Shanghai Restaurant.

Hong Kong Sichuan cuisine is characterized by spicy food. Although the use of chili peppers has been influenced by Asian countries, new cooking methods have been added to make the aroma even more intense. Many Sichuan restaurants now display the spiciness of their dishes on their menu boards to identify them.

Dai Pai Dong

In the past, Dai Pai Dong was a very common restaurant. However, due to strict health regulations and the government no longer issuing relevant business licenses (permits) to the public , Dai Pai Dong has faced the fate of extinction in Hong Kong. Dai Pai Dong slowly moved the tea stall indoors, and combined it with the ice room featuring pineapple ice, mixed fruit ice and red bean ice, gradually turning into today's tea restaurant. Tea restaurants mainly provide cheap food such as instant noodles, wonton noodles, rice noodles, fried eggs, rice dumplings and porridge, but some large tea restaurants will provide fried noodles, such as dry-fried beef river, Fujian fried rice, and Xingzhou fried rice. Some such as Tai Hing Siu Mei Tea Restaurant also operate the Siu Mei business. When Japanese cuisine became popular in Hong Kong, tea restaurants also began to serve some Japanese cooked dishes. For breakfast, butter bread, toast, eggs, sausages, coffee, milk tea, etc. are provided. Although the names of these foods are the same in every tea restaurant, the actual finished products may vary slightly from one tea restaurant to another.

Stockings Milk Tea

During the colonial period, Hong Kong slowly absorbed the British food culture. British-style afternoon tea was gradually localized and became an important part of tea restaurants. The most famous one is "Stockings Milk Tea". "Silk Stocking Milk Tea" is brewed with a variety of tea leaves, filtered through a silky mesh, and then added with evaporated milk. It is a charming cultural fusion. "Yuanyang" is another specialty drink in Hong Kong - made from a mixture of evaporated milk, black tea and coffee. Egg tarts and pineapple buns, two Hong Kong specialty foods that are a mixture of Chinese and Western cultures, can be found in bakeries and tea restaurants. Later, there were more innovative drinks, such as lemon coffee and lemon beer.

Street snacks

Street snacks are also part of Hong Kong’s food culture, such as fish eggs, egg waffles, rice rolls, bowls of wings, bowl cakes, paparazzi noodles, jelly, and pig red noodles. , beef offal, saqima, dragon beard candy, crispy twists, and egg powder are all very popular street snacks. Most street food is from Guangdong, but there are also a few from other provinces. For example, Saqima is a Manchurian snack. Other salty and sweet snacks in Hong Kong are also full of traditional flavors, and some are unique to Hong Kong. Yuen Long’s wife cakes and husband cakes are also very famous. Hakka tea cakes are more popular in outlying island areas.

Che Tsai Noodles appeared in the 1950s. Due to the influx of refugees from mainland China into Hong Kong, it was difficult to make a living, so mobile vendors emerged. For the convenience of transportation, mobile vendors put all the kitchen utensils and food on small wooden trolleys, hence the name cart noodles. Because customers can choose noodles, toppings, and soups at will, and the prices are affordable, it is popular among the public.

Hong Kong-style desserts

There are also many choices for Hong Kong-style desserts. Traditional ones include red bean paste, mung bean paste, sesame paste, almond paste, stewed milk, etc. Western-style ones include mango pudding. , cheese cake, etc., as well as the sago pudding that combines Chinese and Western styles, and the most innovative poplar nectar, sago ladle, etc., each has its own characteristics.

Herbal tea

Due to the hot and humid weather in Hong Kong, herbal tea, which can relieve summer heat and disinfect, has become a commonly used Chinese herbal drink among the people. For example: twenty-four flavors and five-flower tea. As for preserved fruits, there are Jiayingzi, hawthorn cake, plum, tangerine peel plum, airplane olive and so on.

Private Kitchen

After the financial crisis in Hong Kong, the economy declined, and many people found a new path in the catering industry. That's private cooking. China's private dishes were originally special dishes that focused on the owner's taste due to the constant pursuit of food by dignitaries after their lives became stable. Hong Kong people have transplanted private kitchens from various provinces to Hong Kong and run them in a relatively hidden upstairs shop style, with locations all over Hong Kong and Kowloon. For example: famous private kitchens, banquets, lively and fragrant dishes, etc. Later, in addition to Sichuan private cuisine, Chaozhou private cuisine, and Shunde private cuisine, there were also French private cuisine, Italian private cuisine, Japanese private cuisine, vegetarian private cuisine, and so on.