Hong Kong cuisine

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A dim sum breakfast in Hong Kong

Hong Kong cuisine is mainly influenced by

Shanghainese), as well as Japanese, Korean and Southeast Asian cuisines, due to Hong Kong's past as a British colony and a long history of being an international port of commerce. Complex combinations and international gourmet expertise have given Hong Kong the labels of "Gourmet Paradise" and "World's Fair of Food".[1]

Background

Tsim Sha Tsui, a major food district in Hong Kong

Modern Hong Kong has a predominantly service-based economy,[2] and restaurant businesses serve as a main economic contributor. With the fourth-densest population per square metre in the world and serving a population of 7 million,[3] Hong Kong is host to a restaurant industry with intense competition. Due to its small geographical size, Hong Kong contains a high number of restaurants per unit area.

With Cantonese ethnicity making up 94% of the resident population,[4][5] Cantonese cuisine is naturally served at home. A majority of Chinese in Hong Kong are Cantonese in addition to sizable numbers of Hakka, Teochew and Shanghainese peoples, and home dishes are Cantonese with occasional mixes of the other three types of cuisines. Rice is predominantly the main staple for home meals. Home ingredients are picked up from local grocery stores and independent produce shops, although supermarkets have become progressively more popular.

Hong Kong homes and kitchens tend to be small due to a high population density, and traditional Chinese cuisine often requires the freshest possible ingredients, so food shopping is undertaken frequently and in smaller quantities than is now usual in the West. Take-out and dining out is also very common, since people are often too busy to cook with an average 47-hour work week.[6]

History

19th century: Colonial origins

The cuisine of Hong Kong traces its origins to its founding as a

fishermen, and middle class Chinese merchants. The simple peasant cuisine was rudimentary compared to the cuisine of 19th century Canton (now commonly known as Guangzhou).[6]

As the colony developed, there arose a need for meals to entertain businessmen. Some Chinese restaurants were founded in the late 19th century and early 20th century as branches of renowned restaurants in Canton and offered elaborate meals consisting of traditional Chinese "eight main courses and eight entrees" (八大八小) types of banquets for 2 taels of silver, at the time equal to a clerk's monthly wage.[7] Before 1935 when prostitution was still legal in Hong Kong, female escorts often accompanied diners to restaurant meals, especially those of a business entertainment nature.[citation needed] Until the Second World War, opium was also offered. For the majority of Chinese who were not part of the merchant class, dining out in restaurants was non-existent and consisted of simple Cantonese country fares. Meat only appeared in festive occasions and celebrations such as birthdays were often done by catering services who prepared the meals at the celebrant's home. The restaurant scene for Europeans in Hong Kong remained separate from Chinese dining. Elaborate Western-style restaurants existed at the likes of Hongkong Hotel and subsequently Gloucester Hotel.[citation needed]

1920s: Cantonese influence

Hong Kong's dining lagged behind the then-leader of Chinese cuisine, Canton, for a long time and many Hong Kong chefs spent their formative years in Canton. Canton was renowned for its food, and there was a traditional saying of "The food is in Canton" (食在廣州).[8] Cantonese cuisine in Canton reached its peak during the 1920s and was renowned in the care in preparation even for peasant fares such as Char siu or boat congee. Dasanyuan [zh] was renowned for its braised shark fin dish that charged 60 silver yuan, equivalent to 6 months' wage for a working-class family.[9] The Guandong cooking style eventually trickled down to the culinary scene in Hong Kong.[10]

1949: Shanghainese and Western influences

The victory of

Yangtze River Delta, and introduced Shanghai cuisine to Hong Kong. On the other hand, most renowned chefs of Canton, now known as Guangzhou in pinyin romanisation, settled in Hong Kong to escape from Communist rule in mainland China.[11]

Prostitution and opium had by then long faded from the restaurant scene, and to survive, many restaurants started to tap into profitable new markets by offering yum cha and wedding banquets, which coincided with an increasing interest in Western fare by the Chinese in Hong Kong.[6]

Hong Kong-style milk tea soon became part of Hong Kong's food culture. It could be argued that the seeds of Hong Kong society as understood today were not sown until 1949, and the cuisine of Hong Kong has its direct roots in this period.[6]

1960s–1980s: Prosperity

By the 1960s, Hong Kong was past the worst of the economic depression, and there was a long and continuous period of relative calm and openness compared to the Communist rule in

game
in the 1970s.

This wave of prosperity also propelled Hong Kong Chinese's awareness of foreign food trends, and many were willing to try foreign ingredients such as

shark fin soup with rice" (Chinese: 魚翅撈飯; Cantonese Yale
: Yùhchi Lōufaahn).

1980–1990s: links with mainland China and Taiwan

China initiated

Maxim's restaurant and catering conglomerate, to teach chefs back at the renowned Quanjude restaurant in Beijing how to make good Peking duck, Quanjude's signature dish, in the early 1980s as the skills to produce the dish were largely lost during the Cultural Revolution.[citation needed
]

Post-1997

After Hong Kong was

Western cuisine", and appreciation of other Asian cuisines, especially Japanese cuisine and Thai cuisine has been ever increasing.[citation needed] These have produced a proliferation of many specialist ethnic cuisine restaurants geared towards young middle class couples on one hand, and a consolidation of fine-dining Cantonese restaurants on the other.[citation needed
]

As of the early 21st century Hong Kong, notwithstanding the partial recovery of Hong Kong's economy from the slump in 2003 due to the SARS epidemic, many pundits argue that contemporary Hong Kong's economy is heavily skewed towards real estate development and financial services. This provides prosperity to only a select few minority and an uncertain long-term economic fortune vis-a-vis more diversified mega-rich cities in China such as Shanghai and Guangzhou, and the territory therefore no longer possesses the economic base to support mass-level super fine-dining that is required to sustain an active dining culture. A common perception of Hong Kong's current culinary culture is one being in decline and resting on past laurels. For example, culinary magazines such as Eat and Travel Weekly report fewer fundamentally new dishes being invented in Hong Kong post-2000 than the 1980s heyday, and many restaurants tend to resort to popularise haute dishes invented in the 1980s.[citation needed] Modern Hong Kong's labour market has also disrupted the traditional ways of grooming Chinese chefs, which henceforth been trained in a very long and drawn one-to-one practical apprenticeships. Very few chefs are willing to sacrifice their time and effort to produce traditional cooking that discourages cutting corners, and emphasises techniques over ingredients' net economic worth.[16] On the other hand, a minority of optimistic pundits argue Hong Kong may well develop a foodie culture similar to other developed economies and preserve the best of traditional cooking.

Historically, Hong Kong's food source came from a combination of mini stores instead of supermarkets. Some of the stores included: rice dealers (Chinese: 米舖; Cantonese Yale: Máihpou), serving as mini rice storage warehouses; wine shops (Chinese: 辦館; Cantonese Yale: Baahn gún), which offered beverages; convenient stores (Chinese: 士多; Cantonese Yale: Sidō, Cantonese rendering of "store"), which were single convenient stores, most notable for serving fresh baked bread. The main component was wet markets (Chinese: 街市; Cantonese Yale: Gāaisíh) – one of the first market gatherings in Hong Kong was Central Market that began in the 1840s.

The idea of a single facility or supermarket that provided all food ingredients did not take place until the early

farmer's market share some similarities with the traditional Chinese wet markets, however support of wet markets is largely based on traditional Chinese cultural preference rather than sustainability, and wet markets contain many features that are condemned by modern Western environmentalists on the grounds of "animal cruelty" (live animals sold for food) and "high food miles" (fruits and seafood from another continent).[citation needed
]

Eating habits

People enjoying a meal

Most restaurant serving sizes are considerably small by international standards, especially in comparison to most Western nations like the

mein (noodles). People generally eat 5 times a day.[1]

Ingredients

Similar to Cantonese cuisine elsewhere, Hong Kong's cooking uses a wide variety of ingredients and the common ones include:

Chinese and other Asian styles

Hawker

Hawker selling roasted chestnuts

These are basically streetside food stalls, operated by usually one or two people pushing a cart. The carts are usually very mobile, allowing the business freedom to sell snacks in whichever area is most populated at a particular point in time. While they have been popular in the 1970s and 1980s, tight health regulations and other forms of

Jau Gwei
became associated with the hawkers trying to avoid restrictions.

Includes:

Cantonese cuisine

Dim sum

As the most predominant cultural group in Hong Kong, Cantonese food forms the backbone of home cooking and dine-out scenes. Many early celebrated Cantonese restaurants, including Tai San Yuan, Luk Yu Tea House, were originally Hong Kong branches of the famed Guangzhou-based restaurants, and most chefs in Hong Kong until the 1970s had spent their formative years working in the restaurant industry in Guangzhou.[18] Most of the celebrated dishes in Hong Kong were introduced into the territory through Guangzhou, often refined with awareness of international tastes. Cantonese food prices perhaps cover the widest range, from the small businesses lou mei to the most expensive abalone delicacies.

One well developed dish in Cantonese cuisine is dim sum. Waiters cart around stacks of steamer baskets or small plates of food for customers to choose. Dim sum includes dishes based on meat, seafood, vegetables, as well as desserts and fruit. The term yum cha (literally "drink tea") is synonymous with eating dim sum for Hong Kong people. It is customary for families to eat dim sum on weekends. Most foods are steamed, traditionally.

Includes:

Hot pot

Hot Pot

This hot pot cuisine, known as daa bin lou (

Cantonese, is unique in the sense that everyone is a chef
. A boiling pot of water (soup-based, and customers can choose their preferred soup taste), is placed in the center of the table, and essentially everyone boils their own ingredients in that pot. This is highly popular and is usually accompanied with a bottle of cold beer or soda. This style is common during frigid winter times, since people are essentially huddled around a fire. This format is also considered entertaining.

Includes:

Hong Kong–style drinks

Non-alcoholic beverages are particularly associated with Cha chaan teng, a unique kind of restaurants in Hong Kong. Since drink recipes are not franchise based, most drinks can vary depending on the restaurant. Rock sugar and syrup
are commonly used to add sweetness.

Some beverages that originated in the tea culture of Taiwan, such as bubble tea and honey green tea, had been brought to Hong Kong and become part of Hong Kong's beverage culture.

Includes:

Chinese tea

Chinese Tea

A large wide variety of tea leaves and combinations are used for Chinese tea. In the 1950s and 1960s, citizens would go to tea houses accompanied by their pet birds locked in a bird cage.[

Noon tea
was an essential break in the middle of the day. Tea nowadays goes along with any meal.

Includes:

Western styles

Hong Kong–style French toast

Hong Kong–style Western cuisine

Dishes derived from cuisines of the Western world, but not classified into a particular country, belong in this category. Outside Hong Kong, it is termed Hong Kong–style Western cuisine or Canto-Western cuisine. Small restaurants that offer Sai Chaan (西餐) are usually cha chaan teng (茶餐廳) at the popular end or "Sai Chaan Restaurants" (西餐廳) at the more upscale range. Restaurants that have come to expect tourists will likely offer both east and west menus. Most dishes are localised with Chinese tastes[19] and contain Chinese and specifically Cantonese influences, such as steak marinated in soy sauce, served in a soy sauce dominated gravy, and with fried rice as on the side, or pasta.[20]

Includes:

See also

References

  1. ^ .
  2. ^ Hong Kong census. "Census labour data pdf Archived 9 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine." Labor. Retrieved on 14 March 2007.
  3. ^ HK Census. "HK Census Archived 27 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine." Statistical Table of population. Retrieved on 16 March 2007.
  4. ^ HK Census. Hong Kong Census Archived 27 September 2013 at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ^ HK Census. HK Census Archived 8 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine. Statistical Table. Retrieved on 8 March 2007.
  6. ^
  7. ^ pg 11–12, Famous Cuisine in Hong Kong (香港名菜精選), Wan Li Publishings, Hong Kong, October 1988
  8. ^ buddhistdoor.com Chinese lifestyle quote Archived 17 August 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ pg 39–41, Special Test Editor (Chan Mun-yan) (特級校對(陳夢因), Tèjí Jiàoduì (Chén Mèngyīn)), History of Cantonese Dishes (粵菜溯源錄), Food and Drink World Publishing Limited, Hong Kong, May 1988
  10. ^ pg 31, Special Test Editor (Chan Mun-yan), Ibid
  11. ^ pg 40–41, Special Test Editor (Chan Mun-yan), Ibid
  12. ^ pg 13–14, Famous Cuisine in Hong Kong (Chinese: 香港名菜精選; Cantonese Yale: Hēunggóng Sānpaai Jūngchoi Jīngwàh)
  13. ^ pg 11–13, New-Style Chinese Cooking From Hong Kong (Chinese: 香港新派中菜精華; Cantonese Yale: Hēunggóng Sānpaai Jūngchoi Jīngwàh), Wan Li Publishings, Hong Kong, October 1987
  14. ^ pg 10–11, New-Style Chinese Cooking From Hong Kong (香港新派中菜精華)
  15. ^ pg14, Famous Cuisine in Hong Kong (Chinese: 香港名菜精選; Cantonese Yale: Hēunggóng Sānpaai Jūngchoi Jīngwàh)
  16. ^ pg15, Famous Cuisine in Hong Kong (Chinese: 香港名菜精選; Cantonese Yale: Hēunggóng Mìhngchoi Jīngsyún)
  17. ^ Cheuk Choi (蔡焯, Cài Chāo), pg 4, Preface to Famous Cuisine in Hong Kong (香港名菜精選, Xiānggǎng Míngcài Jīngxuǎn)
  18. ^ pg 149, World Food Hong Kong, Richard Sterling and Elizabeth Chong, Lonely Planet, Melbourne, 2002
  19. ^ AP, Explore the world of Canto-Western cuisine, 8 January 2007 http://www.nbcnews.com/id/16440507 Archived 12 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine
  20. ^ "Hong Kong's Egg Tarts: A Sweet Spin-Off On English Custard Tart". Slurrp. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
  21. ^ "Baked pork chop rice: the history of a defining Hong Kong comfort food". South China Morning Post. 7 February 2023. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
  22. ^ "Steeped in history: how Hong Kong-style milk tea became a staple". South China Morning Post. 9 November 2017. Retrieved 22 February 2023.

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