Cuisine in Hong Kong

Hong Kong’s eclectic cuisine includes a taste from many parts of the world. A gastronomical tour of Asia without a visit to Hong Kong would be incomplete. Hong Kong is a food lover's paradise and for aficionados of Cantonese, Chiu Chow, Hunan, Szechuan, Peking or Shanghai cuisine, there really is no finer place to indulge your taste buds, also a place which offers superb cuisine ranging from Italian, French, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese to Indian, Malaysian and Singaporean cuisines. You will find an infinite choice of restaurants. Yum cha ('drinking tea') is an integral part of Hong Kong's culinary culture. A cup of steaming fresh tea is the perfect complement to many sumptuous dishes or dim sum. As any tea lover will tell you, the traditional drink, whether Chinese, Indian, English or Hong Kong-style - sends forth its unique, delicate fragrances to help shape daily life in Hong Kong. There are many tea houses in Hong Kong. All-time favourites are congee, noodles and rice dishes, Chinese BBQ, dim sum and hotpot.

If you are on a tour of Hong Kong, never fail to bite into Dim Sum, the tasty collection of delicacies served in bamboo steamers, or crisp Peking Duck carved at your table. Be sure to try Jumbo Restaurant, counted among the world's most luxurious floating restaurant. You can also try Ocean City Restaurant and Night Club, which seats more than 4800 people.

Dim Sum
Dim Sum is the most famous in the list of dishes in a Hong Kong meal. Impressively shaped, bite-size portions of dumplings with lightly seasoned fillings of meat and fish, fluffy buns with various fillings and glutinous rice - all deliciously steamed. It is a Cantonese dish and in Cantonese going for Dim Sum means going to “drink tea”. Dim sum which literally means "touching your heart", is served for lunch and breakfast in most local teahouses as well as restaurants. Dim Sum is now a staple of Chinese dining culture, specially in Hong Kong. 

 

Hot Pot

Hong Kong locals are a little obsessed with hot pot restaurants, a series of food outlets that let you cook your own food in a huge steaming bowl of liquid placed in the center of your table. Hot Pot is best savoured with a pot of tea. Served in little bamboo steamers or pretty plates, dim sum is light in content. It is a favourite dish of the Chinese. There are few better ways to pass time than eating some bites of Hot Pot accompaniments and drinking the soup. Hot Pot is usually eaten in winter.

 

Chinese
Hong Kong is best known for Chinese menu, specially Cantonese style of cuisine. Canton was always renowned for its food and many Hong Kong chefs have spent their formative years in Canton. Cantonese people give a lot of attention to the freshness of their food. This cooking is lighter to some extent than most regional Chinese cuisine. Preparation methods usually involve stir-frying in shallow water or oil in a wok. Flavors and nutrition of the food is preserved as cooking time is short. Much oil is not consumed for steaming vegetable and fish. Ingredients like ginger, garlic, onion, vinegar, and sugar are used for preparing sauces.

Indian
Brought along by the British when they colonized Hong Kong, the Indians have been successful in establishing a thriving food business in Hong Kong since then. To find authentic Indian cuisine is not tough in Hongkong. Restaurants serving dishes like 'tandoori chicken' and 'naan' abound in the island. Meals in these restaurants is affordable and satisfying. A conventional method of Indian cooking is the roasting of meats and poultry in a clay oven. Apart from the creamy rich north Indian style of cooking, you get other popular varities of Indian food also in Hong Kong, including Thali and South Indian.

 

Japanese

Japanese food is abundant and popular in Hong Kong. Standard menus comprise of tempura, yakitori, sushi, soba noodles, sashimi and other more colourful dishes. As some may not acquire the taste for raw food, Teppanyaki, which is cooked on a heated table top right in front of diners, is served. Chefs display an act of skillful knife tossing and swift cooking methods that is not only a visual, but also a culinary experience to remember.

Southeast Asian
Cuisine connected to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Singapore is known as Southeast Asian food. Flavor of all Southeast Asian foods is to less or more extent similar. There are minor differences in the spices and and the way they are used. Southeast Asian foods are a mix of all the four senses: salty, sour, sweet, and bitter. The availability of spicy and non-spicy dishes depends on which region you are in. Indonesian and Malaysian food are rich in sauces and spices, whereas Thai food is hot and spicy with extensive use of coriander in their cooking. Singaporean food, like any other Chinese food, features various noodles cooked in different styles. Vietnamese food also emphasizes the pungent flavour of coriander leaves and features a lot of beef dishes. Although these foods may not be as authentic when eaten in Hong Kong, it is still tasteful.

Western
Western style of food is particulary popular in the young generation of Hong Kong. Number of restaurants prepare mouth-watering Western cuisine. Fast food joints are abundant in Hong Kong. Brands like McDonald's, KFC and Burger King are present in every corner of Hong Kong.

 

Hawker Food
Hawkers register their presence in every Asian country and they are there in Hong Kong too. Visitors can savour varieties of hawker food along the streets and night markets. In fact, while you roam the streets of Hong Kong, the aromas assault your senses. Popular dishes sold by these hawkers are wantan noodle, beef noodle, soy bean curd and fishballs on sticks.