How ‘2-dish-rice’ meals went from Hong Kong workers’ staple to culinary classic amid tough economy, pandemic
- Two-dish-rice shops, also known as ‘this-this, rice’ stores, are booming despite rest of catering industry struggling as local patrons dine across the border
- Food culture academic says dining restrictions amid pandemic helped to normalise shops offering affordable choice of Cantonese favourites as an option for everyone
03:50
Bargain bite: how ‘two-dish-rice’ has steadily become more popular in Hong Kong
Along a street full of closed storefronts in a Hong Kong residential neighbourhood on a weekday evening, dozens of hungry customers have formed a long queue outside one of the few surviving eateries in the area.
It offers customers two pre-cooked main dishes of their choice and a generous serving of rice for HK$39 (US$4.99), with such no-frills meals serving as a regular staple of Hong Kong labourers.
The two-dish-rice shops offer cheap lunchboxes and are even opening in some of Hong Kong’s most expensive neighbourhoods at a time when other businesses are closing amid a slow post-pandemic recovery.
Iris Li, an accountant in her 30s, was heading home from Exquisite This This Rice with two lunchboxes and two bowls of soup for her and her husband, for around HK$80.
