The Food in Hong Kong

I recently received an email from a friend back home, asking me what the food in Hong Kong is like. I should have posted something about this earlier, because I had no idea what to expect, and I am sure many of you are wondering what I eat over here!

Well, first let me tell you about the food on campus. There are 7 restaurants on campus. One of them is McDonald's. I hardly ever eat there (although, it is really cheap...about $3 CAD including taxes for a Big Mac Meal or something like that). Ray Kroc would be happy to hear that it looks and tastes exactly the same as it does at home.

There are three cafeteria-style restaurants, that serve a bunch of different types of foods, and the offerings change daily. You can get Western food, Chinese food, Thai food, Japanese food...and so much more. The menu is posted on a wall, and there are no pictures...so it was a bit of an adventure in the beginning. Sometimes, I would order something and receive something completely different and unexpected. There is one item that they serve there that I am happy I never ordered by mistake: Chicken Feet.

A typical meal at these restaurants is Tomato Minced Beef with Egg and Rice. It is basically a big bowl of rice with minced beef in tomato sauce, with a fried egg on top. WHY is that egg there? I don't know. It is weird. But pretty good.

Meals in these restaurants usually cost about HK$20, or $3.22 CAD. This includes tax.

There is also the Western Cafe. This restaurant serves totally Western meals - sandwiches, pizza, baked potatoes, paninis...it is pretty good, and definitely your best bet if you want to order something that you will recognize. Sandwiches here cost HK$12, or $1.93, including tax.

Finally, there are two "nicer" restaurants on campus. The first is Western-style, called The Bistro. It serves meals that you will find at a typical restaurant in Canada - toasted BLT sandwiches, potato skins, pasta, etc. It is more expensive, though...maybe $8-$12 CAD per meal. It is connected to the Uni-Bar, our on-campus bar. I have only been there once, though, for the first exchange student event of the year.

The last "nice" restaurant is the Dim Sum restaurant. I only go there on weekdays after 2:30, because it is half-price. Dim Sum is a Hong Kong specialty, and it is basically a bunch of steamed snacks (dumplings, buns, etc.) that are served in bamboo containers. Four dumplings costs HK$9, or $1.45 CAD, and two or three orders would easily be enough to fill you up.

Off campus, there are a LOT more options. No matter what kind of food you are looking for in Hong Kong, you can find it. And for the most part, it is pretty inexpensive.

Sure, there are scary-looking places that have raw chunks of mean and skinned ducks prominently displayed in the window...but there are also regular restaurants, just like you would find in any city back home. One of the most popular places to eat is SoHo. SoHo is accessed via the Mid-Level Escalators, which take you up a hill in the middle of the Central district of Hong Kong. As you climb, you can look on both sides for a restaurant that looks good. I have had some great meals there.

I also enjoyed heading to the harbour a few weeks ago, where there are tons of restaurants serving the freshest seafood I have ever had. So fresh, in fact, that you can choose your fist RIGHT THEN AND THERE, and the restaurant will cook it up for you. It was great.

Another cool food experience I had was to a "Korean Barbecue" restaurant. This is a buffet, but other than salads and sushi and things like that, the only thing served is raw meat. You fill your plate with raw meat, and bring it back to your table, where you have your own personal grill. You grill your food, and eat it! The place we went was all-you-can-eat for about $20 CAD.

Here's a photo of my Korean Barbecue experience:

Finally, there is my favourite Hong Kong restaurant - Sushi One. I only go after 10 pm, when sushi is half-price. In fact, Chelsie and I have made friends with the staff at Sushi One in TST. They get very excited every time we come in! The minimum order is $10 CAD, but this gets you lots of food. The best part? Beer is half-price, too.

The moral of the story is that there are tons of food options in Hong Kong. I have definitely had some surprises, though, both good and bad. But in general...the food here is delicious!