My Hong Kong | Is Hong Kong’s ‘2-dish-rice’ phenomenon a dark sign that the city is returning to widespread poverty?
- A spike in eateries selling two- and three-dish-rice boxes is reminiscent of the 1950s when open-air food stalls helped Hong Kong’s poor survive
- And yet, increasingly side by side we have people with deep pockets shelling out eye-watering sums for bespoke culinary experiences
“The proof of the pudding is in the eating,” as the old saying goes. In this case, there can be no doubt that Hong Kong people love the affordable two- and three-dish-rice boxes they have been filling their stomachs with over the past three years of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This unglamorous, everyday meal box has helped bind people together through difficult times, as well as feed the soul, and the stomach, of the city.
Love and gratefulness aside, however, alarm bells ought to be ringing at the mushrooming number of eateries selling these fast and convenient meals.
Once the staple diet for the working classes, these humble US$5 meals have been quietly spreading across Hong Kong’s Central business district, and have even breached the stylish perimeter of the Pacific Place mall in Admiralty.
This posh commercial enclave, long associated with top-end brands, does not embrace just any merchant. Even so, one can now find à la carte options – modelled on the two- and three-dish-rice stalls – in its food court.
