Hong Kong Food and Drink

Hong Kong is one of the great centres for international cooking. Chinese regional variations on food include Cantonese, Northern (Peking), Chiu Chow (Swatow), Shanghai, Sichuan and Hakka. Apart from Chinese food, which is superb, there are also many Indian, Vietnamese, Filipino, Singapore/Malaysian and Thai restaurants.

Hong Kong Food has a variety of authentic Chinese cuisine from all the regions of China. Chinese food may be sampled on a small sampan in Causeway Bay, on a floating restaurant at Aberdeen, in a Kowloon restaurant, in a street market or at a deluxe hotel.

Hotels serve European and Chinese food but there are also restaurants serving every type of local cuisine.

Hong Kong's Chinese Food

Chinese cuisine has a very long history and is renowned all over the world. Cantonese (the style the majority of Westerners are most familiar with) is only one regional style of Chinese cooking.

There are eight major schools of Chinese cuisine, named after the places where they were conceived: Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Hunan, Jiangsu, Shandong, Sichuan and Zhejian.

For a brief appreciation of the cuisine, it is possible to break it down into four major regional categories:

Northern Cuisine

The emphasis in Northern food is on bread and noodles, deep-frying and spicy sauces. Specialities include Peking duck and hotpot dishes.

Beijing, which has developed from the Shandong school, is famous for Peking Duck, which is roasted in a special way, and eaten in a thin pancake with cucumber and a sweet plum sauce.

Another speciality of the North of China is Mongolian Hotpot, which is a Chinese version of fondue. It is eaten in a communal style and consists of a central simmering soup in a special large round pot into which is dipped a variety of uncooked meats and vegetables, which are cooked on the spot.

A cheap and delicious local dish is shuijiao, which is pasta-like dough wrapped round pork meat, chives and onions, similar in idea to Italian ravioli. These can be bought by the jin (pound) in street markets and small eating houses, and are a good filler if you are out all day and do not feel like a large restaurant dinner.

It should, however, be noted that in the interests of hygiene, it is best to take your own chopsticks.

Southern Cuisine

Guangdong (Cantonese) food is famous for being the most exotic in China. The food markets in Guangzhou are a testimony to this, and the Western visitor is often shocked by the enormous variety of rare and exotic animals that are used in the cuisine, including snake, dog, turtle and wildcat.

Cantonese is based on parboiling, steaming and quick stir-frying to retain natural juices and flavours. The food is not salty or greasy and seafoods are prepared especially well, usually served with steamed rice.

Specialities include Dim Sum (savoury snacks, usually steamed and served in bamboo baskets on trolleys). These include Cha siu bao (barbecue pork bun), Har gau (steamed shrimp dumplings) and Shiu mai (steamed and minced pork with shrimp).

Eastern Cuisine

Shanghai and Zhejiang cooking is rich and sweet, often pickled.

Shanghainese food is diced or shredded, stewed in soya or fried in sesame oil with pots of peppers and garlic. Noted for seafood, hot and sour soup, noodles and vegetables.

Western Cuisine

Sichuan and Hunan food is spicy, often sour and peppery, with plenty of chillies.

Specialities include barbecued meat, diced chicken stirred with soy sauce and peanuts, and spicy doufu (beancurd).

Chiu Chow is served with rich sauces and Hakka food is generally simple in style with baked chicken in salt among the best dishes.

Hong Kong Breakfast

All people in the world know the importance of eating breakfast and every country has their traditional breakfast for its people. English people have their fried eggs, beans, bacon and mushrooms. Pakistan people have their chapattis. Chinese people have their noodles or congee.

Hong Kong Drinks

The Chinese do not usually order a drink before dinner. Popular Chinese wines and spirits are Zhian Jing (a rice wine served hot like sake), Liang hua pei (potent plum brandy), Kaolian (a whisky) and Mao toi.

One of the best-known national drinks is maotai, a fiery spirit distilled from rice wine. Local beers are of good quality, notably Qingdao, which is similar to German lager. There are now some decent wines, which are produced mainly for tourists and export.

Popular beers are the locally brewed San Miguel and Tsingtao (from China), with imported beverages widely available.

 

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