How Hong Kong restaurants embraced casual street food classics – from beef brisket noodles to French toast, homely cha chaan teng favourites are now on the menu at fine dining hotels
- Hongkongers love nothing more than munching on basic, hearty soul food at traditional dai pai dongs – but the city’s upmarket restaurants have typically disparaged everyday home-grown favourites
- Now nostalgia for a lost golden era is seeing local classics like barbecued pork belly, wonton soup and egg tarts served at the five-star Rosewood hotel and Island Shangri-La – and mainland tourists can’t get enough
A look back at 2023 shows a city gazing inward at its own past. One of the most notable culinary trends of the year in Hong Kong has been the taste for all things nostalgic, with diners and chefs showing renewed interest in traditional Cantonese dishes and cha chaan teng culture.
Love for the city’s dai pai dongs and casual cafes is nothing new – Hongkongers have long enjoyed their relaxed atmosphere, lively shared tables and fast, affordable dishes such as fried eggs and spam in macaroni soup or baked pork chop rice.
What is new, however, is the upsurge of appreciation for these homely staples expressed by some of the city’s most upscale dining establishments. Elevated versions of cafe classics such as beef brisket noodles, and Hong Kong-style French toast with condensed milk, have been finding their way onto menus at an increasing number of high-end eateries.
Across the territory, restaurants at all levels of lavishness are delving into Hong Kong’s culinary past, giving classic dishes a fresh spin – but always maintaining the link with the city’s heritage.
Professor Sidney Cheung Chin-hung, an anthropologist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, points out in his book Hong Kong Foodways (2002) that a nostalgia for “tradition, remembrance of the past and an imagination of the ‘good old days’” first developed during the pre-handover period in the 1990s: “Hong Kong residents puzzled over how they wanted to position themselves vis-à-vis their identity and their engagement with the mainland. Were they Chinese or Hongkongese?”
This led to increased interest in the traditional cuisine of New Territories’ villages and dishes considered comfort food such as claypot rice, as well as a rise in private kitchens offering “homestyle” cooking.
Over the past few years, with the city battered by social unrest and the Covid-19 pandemic, Hongkongers have once more reflected on what it means to be from Hong Kong, and this has been in evidence amid the city’s nostalgic turn.
While disruptions to supply chains during the pandemic compelled chefs to look for more ingredients locally, showcasing what the SAR has to offer has also become a matter of pride, with restaurants helping to foster a sense of Hong Kong’s distinct identity through offering what people have traditionally liked to eat.
This can even be seen in the city’s bar scene, with Argo at the Four Seasons Hotel, for example, having a cocktail menu inspired by six key Hong Kong ingredients, including black vinegar, XO sauce and apricot kernels. Artisan Lounge K11 Musea, which offers all-day high tea and cocktails, recently released mini pineapple bun biscuits as culinary souvenirs for visitors to take home.
