Eating In Hong Kong

For those of you who know me, you will know that much of my life is about food! Whether it’s the baking of it, or shopping for it, or reading BBC good food magazine, watching it being cooked (Saturday kitchen, em, I miss you) or indeed eating it! I am a devoted foodie. Having been lucky enough to have been always treated to amazing home cooking while I was growing up, I have wanted to continue the process when I moved away from home in St Andrews, being subjected to hall food, and so have subsequently taken a big interest in it and have loved being able to do lots of cooking with friends where we have undertaken many a supper party and baked some amazing cakes! (crème egg brownies, faye…?!!)

However, I am fast realising the days of humous, beetroot, couscous, wholewheat bread are gone! Even the days of knowing what goes in to your food…gone! I am strangely disconcerted by the blank looks when I point at some Chinese thing and ask what’s in it, or ingredients, recipe…even though they can usually converse in English, they mainly come up blank on the ingredients front which worries me slightly! As does, when was this baked, at the bakery on my road, - the lady looked at me as though I had asked her something really bizarre..i just gave up and paid for it. However, having moved in to my flat, I am able to cook for myself! For the very first time in almost three weeks, I am able to know every ingredient and what was in everything. I made (for those who are interested!) tofu which I steamed (Julia murray!) and had it with onions, chopped tomatoes, (which they don’t use here so I just chopped my own, - Waitrose seems the only brand!) peppers and brocolli and kidney beans! and had it with buckwheat noodles – sounds strange to most, but it was just the best supper ever. I have also found porridge so I am on my way back to normality! Especially when I arrived home from the supermarket last night having gone to get tupperwares with a $31 kettle! (about £2.50 maybe?!) let’s see how long that one lasts!

However, Chinese apartments just don’t have ovens. It does not appear to be part of their culture which is very much based on cooking over a hob or a stove and either frying or steaming things so that means no baking! I think I may have to invest in a toaster oven…! Although interestingly, they do make a sort of sponge cake here which they steam which I had at dim sum lat week which was very good however, probably not something to be tried at home just yet!

However, I am extremely keen to try out some of the local food and experience the food available here. Although we are lucky enough to be able to but pretty much anything, the western food is all extremely expensive, and not what I came here to do. Much of the trouble I have had has been the lack of any sort of kitchen or indeed cooking facilities in the guest house where we stayed which necessitated eating out or buying take away food or having something cold. And because we are all on a budget, and have not started to work yet, it all gets quite expensive. But, that can all change while we are in our flat! I will write more, about the food, when I have managed to work it out further!

I was lucky enough to be taken for dim sum, when I went to visit my school in City One and over a dim sum lunch in the biggest restaurant I have been in. (we arrived and walked for about 5 minutes through the restaurant, it consisted of a labyrinth of corridors, and side rooms, and then different floors!) I took the opportunity to able to quiz Cecily, my lovely teacher in charge all about the food as it came out and was put in to the centre of the table. Although, when they see you are western, the teachers on my table ordered all the fried food – they seem to know we like spring rolls, but they call them Western spring rolls which is highly ironic since we eat them as they are supposed to be Chinese! Everything about this style of food is different, the textures, and shapes and sizes and way of eating is completely different from the usual one person one dish at home. Many of the dishes came covered in a kind of gelatinous rice paste, which is translucent and wrapped around things like vegetables or meat. Or sometimes it is fried. Also, a lot of the food, comes in tall bamboo steamers which they stack and deliver. It’s a great way to experience lots of different types of Chinese food. There are also egg custard tarts here as dessert (Michael, they are everywhere here!)

The style and customs of eating are wonderful here. The Chinese love their food. Instead of having three set meals, food seems to be a big part of their culture. There are so many street stalls cooking food early in the morning and late in to the night, and people queue up for it everywhere. Also, the manner of eating is all about sharing which I love as well. All the food comes and is placed in the centre and you take what you want. It is quite common to have people place stuff in your bowls off one of the dishes for you. The customs are also completely different, burping, slurping, etc, are all deemed acceptable and even good. In fact, anything that shows you are enjoying your food is good. Which actually makes a lot of sense really when you think about it and the slurping is also highly useful when a lot of their food comes in bowls of soup, with noodles in and all you have are chopsticks and a shallow spoon to eat it with!


There is an incredible food and street market called the Bowrington Street market about 2 minutes from my flat which is amazing and sells an array of fruit, vegetables beancurd, meat and fish that are still alive practically when you buy them, not for the faint hearted! They place them on a white tray on their side and they jump up and down sporadically while the stall owner washes them with sufficient water so they survive…just! Yesterday when I went down there, there was a fish lying in the road in front of one such stall which was the size of a not so small child, it was about 4 or 5 foot – I think from the interest their stall was getting, it was a successful marketing tool but to a vegetarian it was anything but!