Joanna James
Hong Kong should be named the food capital of the world thanks to having the highest density of restaurants in the world, a whopping 15,000! It's where you want to go if you want to eat the most delicious and often highly affordable Cantonese cuisine. Here are the top 5!
A unique type of baked item you can find in Cha Chaan Tengs, pineapple buns are sweet and crumbly and made in a soft rolled blanket of pastry. There's such a burst of textures when you bite one, from a caramelised sugar crust and an almost warm delicious bread. The fun fact is that there is absolutely no pineapple involved. The bread is named so because of the distinct shape of the pastry top that resembles a pineapple.
Zhu Cheung Fun which is locally better known as Cheung Fun are thinly steamed rice rolls seasoned with soy, chilli and sesame sauces and filled with eggs, meats, lettuce, shrimp and anything else you'd like to have on them. They are a staple street food dish and can be found in street stalls as well as 4 star hotels in Hong Kong that serve dim sum.
No matter how many cups of milk tea you may have drunk you should definitely order a Hong Kong-style milk tea and see how it tastes. It's on a pedestal all on its own. Evaporated milk is added to black tea and often strained through silk stockings for a truly smooth texture. The effort and time that goes into making the tea are what really brings out the aroma and the flavours. You must add it to your food list.
The Tofu dessert is very popular among locals in Hong Kong. You can find it at hotels the likes of Park Hotel Hong Kong or in hole-in-the-wall dim sum places. It is a tofu pudding made with the consistency of a panna cotta topped with light syrup and red sugar. It is a versatile dish that you can have either really warm in the winter or really cold in the summer bringing you a sort of respite regardless of the weather. It is recommended you have at the end of your dim sum meal to top it all off and leave feeling utterly satisfied.
Everybody in Hong Kong eats dim sum. Some dim sum places are open 24 hours a day making it so that you can sit there literally all day and eat dim sum as the carts are wheeled by you. Originating in Guangdong dim sum has come far from when it used to be accompaniments in teahouses. There are numerous varieties of dim sum such as shumai, chasiu bao and translucent spring rolls. Almost all of these little accompaniments are wrapped in tofu skin or a thin rice flour blanket. The menu is diverse and quite extensive and Hong Kong dim sum culture is so that you have to chase down the auntie with the cart and grab whatever you can off the towering wooden dishes. It's not just a meal, it is an experience.
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A travel writer who has a passion for fashion and a deep interest in admiring new and exotic attractions around the world.
