Wing Flex: Eating in Hong Kong

I have been to Hong Kong many times to visit family. Each time I go it is a marathon of eating delicious foods. The city is a smorgasbord of food. It is impossible to list everything that you can eat because Hong Kong is such an international city. Here is a compilation of my favorites that I try to go to every time.

Zooming down Babington Path

Sing Heung Yuen

Hong Kong used to have many street food vendors and restaurants (dai pai dong). Due to sanitation efforts many of these have closed down. How much do you trust that old lady on the little stool washing dishes in a bucket of water that all the other dishes are going through? But there is a lot to be said about eating outside with the hustle and bustle of the city around you. Sing Heung Yuen in the SOHO district is one of the few dai pai dong that still exists. My favorite dish is their tomato soup flavored ramen. It is admittedly packaged ramen noodles (they tell you when you order) but still delicious. Another favorite is the condensed milk toast with some Hong Kong style milk tea. Unbeatable.

Sing Heung Yuen menu

Hong Kong style milk tea

Tomato soup ramen

Condensed milk toast

Di King Heen

No stop to Hong Kong is complete without dim sum. This particular restaurant is located inside the Royal Plaza Hotel in Kowloon. Di King Heen has top quality dim sum. Expect to pay more than usual for it. There are a lot of cheaper dim sum restaurants in Hong Kong but the quality and flavors will not be the same.

Dim Sum is a must have!

Kwan Kee

Clay pot rice. Fill your clay pot up with some rice. Top it off some fatty Chinese sausage or chicken or whatever meats you choose and vegetables as an afterthought. Cook it over a fire with the cover on to seal in all of the flavor together. This popular restaurant also has seating outside on the side of the road complete with cars and trucks occasionally passing by to complete your experience! Be sure to get to the rice that has been caked onto the sides of the clay pot. The crunchy rice has been slightly burned with all the juices and flavors fried in. Scraping the pot with a spoon to finish off your meal is a total workout and tradition for this meal.

Chinese sausages

Kwan Kee outdoor seating

Clay pot rice

Clay pot rice with some side dishes

The Hong Kong Breakfast

Breakfast in Hong Kong for me usually includes plain congee, Chinese donut, rice noodle roll (chee cheong fun), or my personal fav zhaliang! You can also purchase some of the oily breads to go.

These places can be found all over Hong Kong and it is super cheap to eat. Cheaper than McDonald's and so much more delicious. How healthy it is in comparison to McDonald's is debatable though.

Breakfast

The Hong Kong equivalent to the morning bakery stop

Pineapple Bun

It's cheap (less than $1 USD) and it is delicious bread. Hong Kong bakeries have a way of being able to waft their scents down the block. Freshly baked bread is just so enticing.

I grew up on these and their sweet flaky crusts.

Find them in any Hong Kong bakery. Go for the ones that at warm from the oven!

Pineapple bun on the streets of HK

Bee Cheng Hiang Pork Jerky

Hong Kong isn't the only place that has Bee Cheng Hiang. Nonetheless I always ask my mom to buy me a few lbs (!!) of it as a snack. My sister and I love it. I have also known some of my friends to eat pounds of it in one sitting. You know who you are.

They have all sorts of jerky but my favorite is their pork jerky. Mmm.

Try this one. Only this one.

Pure Veggie House

I love vegetarian Chinese food in Hong Kong. It is absolutely delicious. I really wonder how they make the flavor in their mushroom congee. They also have spicy and sour noodles and various dim sum dishes.

Here's the openrice.com (Hong Kong's Yelp) link: See how much I like this place??

I don't even have any good photos of the food from this last trip because I was gobbling it down too fast to get good photos.

Pure Veggie House dining room

Here are some photos from my 2010 trip.

Starter platter

Sour and spicy glass noodles. A must get!

Meals at Grandma's

For all of the eating out in Hong Kong that you can do - or anywhere for that matter- there is nothing that beats home cooking. My grandmother's place in Hong Kong has served countless family meals throughout the years. She is a genius when it comes to home cooking and cooking traditional Teo Chow dishes. And being from Teo Chow, there is always a fish dish. My grandfather used to boast to his friends about how good her dishes were.

Today my grandmother is too old to cook but she did manage to have her domestic helper, Sien, learn all of her dishes. Sien is phenomenal in her own right. She once made my sister and I the most delicious wok of home cooked pancit.

I can only let the pictures do the talking here. Home cooking truly comes from the heart and isn't something that money can buy.