Magazine Template_V4

CUSINE
FOOD
SHUI
THE ART OF FOOD IN HONG KONG
H
ong Kong cuisine is mainly influenced by Cantonese cuisine, British Cuisine,
other Western Cuisines, non-Cantonese Chinese cuisine (especially Teochew,
and Hakka, Hokkien and the Jiangsu & Zhejiang), Japan, and Southeast Asia,
due to Hong Kong’s past as a British colony and long history of being an
international port 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”
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 favourites such as egg tarts and Hong
Kong-style milk tea.
14 Journey’s End - HONG KONG EDITION - June 2017