A Selection of Popular Hong Kong Dishes

1. Wontons are added to a clear soup along  other ingredients and are sometimes deep-fried. Several shapes are common, depending on the region and cooking methods.

The most famous are called Sichuan-style wontons, a celebrated snack in Chengdu. They are famous for their thin skin and rich meat filling as well as their soup, made of chicken, duck, and pork simmered for a long time.

2. Its Chinese name is "dragon and phoenix balls". Dragon refers to the shrimps, and phoenix refers to the chicken.

Firstly, shrimp and chicken meat are chopped finely and kneaded into balls, then they are deep fried with bread crumbs. The balls are crispy and tender. Salad sauce is often used to provide a sweet and sour taste.

3. Roast Goose is a traditional specialty of  cuisine: It is a whole goose roasted with supposedly secret ingredients, cut into small pieces, each piece with skin, meat and soft bone, and eaten with plum sauce.

4. Beef brisket noodles is a typical Hong Kong dish. As its name suggests, the main ingredient is beef brisket (belly beef), which is braised or stewed and served on top of wheat noodles.

5. Steamed  rice in a clay pot  is a traditional Cantonese dish. It looks like a simple creation with white rice and a choice of toppings cooked on a traditional charcoal fire in a clay pot. However, the combination of slightly smoky steamed rice, carved pork, smoked sausage, chicken, or beef, with fresh shallots and a special sauce has long been a winning one.

6. Steamed Rice Rolls: Steamed rice rolls are classic dim sum in Hong Kong. They are made of steamed rice sheets, rolled and filled with beef, shrimp, or char siu (barbequed pork) with vegetables and sauces. Rice rolls are made on the spot and you can order them according to your palate.

7. Noodles and Congee
Specialists in noodles and congee (rice porridge) often serve both under the same roof with the lighter versions of congee enjoyed for breakfast. Today, noodles and congee come with a variety of toppings and ingredients, but don’t leave Hong Kong without trying the classics such as: wonton noodle soup, beef curry noodle, hor fun (stir-fried beef noodles) and congee with century egg and pork.

8. Roast Meats

A highlight of Cantonese cuisine, traditional roast or barbecued meats also known as siu mei comes in a variety of styles ranging from cheap one plate lunchtime specials served with rice to whole animals. Don’t leave Hong Kong without trying char siu (red barbeque pork), roast goose or duck and siu yuk (crispy skinned barbeque pork).

9. Seafood
Eating seafood in Hong Kong is a delicious experience but a messy one, as the Cantonese serve their seafood with bones in and shell on. Don’t leave Hong Kong without trying white boiled shrimp, lobster or crab with ginger and scallion served on a bed of al dente egg noodles or steamed fish with soy sauce, scallions and ginger.

10. Roast Goose is a traditional specialty of Cantonese cuisine: It is a whole goose roasted with secret ingredients, cut into small pieces, each piece with skin, meat and soft bone, and eaten with plum sauce.

11. Wind Sand Chicken
This famous dish originated from Guangdong, and become well-loved by Hong Kong people. A whole chicken is flavored and put into the oven for about 20 minutes until the chicken's skin turns brown.
What makes it so unique is that garlic pieces are added and it looks like wind-blown sand. The chicken is roasted and crispy on the outside and very smooth and tender inside.

12. Fish Balls
Fish balls are a typical Hong Kong snack, made of fish meat and can be divided into two varieties.
One is the well-known cooked food sold by street venders. Its history can be tracked back to the 1950s. This type of fish balls are made of fried fish meat. Food stalls often sell them with spicy or sweet sauces.

13. Rickshaw Noodles
The so-called Rickshaw Noodles are a kind of fast food, really good value for money, and popular with the Hong Kong people since the 1960's.
They are instant noodles with a variety of other ingredients such as hogskin, fish balls, sirloin, and carrots, with soup and sauces. Due to the variety of ingredients, they come in many flavours.

14. Macaroni Soup or tung fan

If you’ve ever walked by a cha chaan teng in the morning, you’ve almost certainly spotted this local favourite. Simple yet delicious, this breakfast staple consists of elbow pasta that’s submerged in a clear and (very) salty chicken broth, garnished with thin strips of crispy fried luncheon meat or ham, and served with either a side of fried eggs and toast or one of Hong Kong’s uber-popular scrambled egg sandwiches.

15. Congee or jook

When you’re feeling a little under the weather, there’s nothing more comforting than a soothing, warm bowl of congee. Simply put, congee or jook is a type of rice porridge that’s typically served for breakfast or as a healing food for the sick, young and elderly. It can be eaten plain or dressed up with a variety of savoury toppings such as pickled radish, pork floss, salted egg, fermented bean curd, and char siu, and is often accompanied with yau ja gwai (Chinese fried dough sticks).

16. Chicken Feet or ‘Phoenix Claws’ or fung jaau 

In Hong Kong and throughout China, chicken feet are considered to be quite the delicacy and can be found on all dim sum menus, usually smothered in black bean sauce. First fried and then simmered for several hours until the meat and skin are tender and flavour-packed, this collagen-rich snack offers numerous health benefits that make it worth getting over that initial mental hurdle.

17. Poached Soy Sauce Chicken or si yao gai

Though not technically barbecued, this siu mei dish is another popular lunchtime option thanks to its ultra-tender meat and deep, savoury flavour. Traditionally slow-braised in a stew of aromatic Chinese spices and – you guessed it! – soy sauce, this famous chicken dish is as popular in restaurants as it is at home. A popular alternative to this dish is baat cit gai, a plain steamed chicken typically served with minced garlic and scallion.

18. Roast Goose or siu ngoh

It would be an understatement to say that Hong Kongers love their goose. Characterised by its crispy reddish skin, tender meat and flavorful layer of fat, Hong Kong Roast Goose is traditionally marinated with soy sauce, red wine and oyster sauce and can be seen dangling in restaurant front windows across Hong Kong. Gamey in flavour and dripping with juiciness, it’s become a hallmark dish in Hong Kong’s traditional cuisine – and with good reason.

19. Birds Nest Soup

An expensive delicacy that’s believed to enhance the immune system, improve the libido, and aid digestion, bird’s nest soup is made from a combination of chicken soup and the dissolved nests of swiftlets, a small bird native to Southeast Asia (and these nests – wait for it – are made from bird’s saliva). It is known by many as ‘the caviar of the East’.

--Raja Mitra