Hong Kong Food

Hong Kong Food

Hong Kong is a shopping heaven. Since my trip wasn’t for shopping, I avoided those fancy shopping malls, instead I went straight to the markets. There are many night markets listed in the Lonely Planet travel guide. As usual, food is everywhere in Chinese cultural. Being disadvantage of traveling alone, I can only try one dish at a time without wasting them. Fresh seafood are displaced on the table, so that they can cook your order on the spot (Pic 1).

I went to another market near Nu Ren Jie (Woman’s Street) during the day. I saw the food I have been craving for a long time: Toad (Pic 2). Since Chinese call them frog, sometimes is misleading. I sometimes buy frozen frog meat in Toronto’s China town, of course the frozen ones are not as good as when they are alive. Those toads look ugly but meats are tender and skins are fatty. You could say it taste like chicken, but fattier. My mother simply stirs fry them with green pepper, wine, salt and grounded pepper. They are considered as Ying food (the food have cold characteristic, such as snake, crab (Pic 6); in the contrary, Yang represents Hot food, such as goat, deer, etc. Ying Yang is also related with traditional Chinese medicines).

I believe turtle is Ying food, but I never tried them (Pic 3). They supposed to be really good for your health that is what Chinese always says. I remember once some rich kid told me that when she was preparing exams, his father will cook one turtle soup every week, just for her. Turtles are commonly used in Traditional Chinese Medicine also. I found an interesting article about turtle imports to China. Sadly, turtle species are declining because this Chinese appetite. http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/environment/24216

Snake is a Ying food. Hong Kong is famous for snake soup which I have been longing to try for a long time. Luckily, there are one snake specialty restaurant just right across the place I stayed. It was a tiny cheap restaurant but full of people at night. One bowl of snake clear soup costs 5 HKD. Snake meat soup is a bit more, cooked with mushrooms (Pic 5). At the corner, there are clear glass jars filled up with dead snakes and alcohol (Pic 4). Both soups are so good that the next day I had them again for lunch. In the market I discovered a “snake-skin fruit” (pic 8). The name comes from its’ appearance obviously. I regret that I didn’t try it.

I didn’t get a chance to try Geoduck clam either (Pic 7). In Chinese it is called “elephant trunk clam” and they are expensive (about $ 30 /lb). I will love to try it someday: both Chinese hot pot style and Japanese sashimi style. It is interesting that geoduck clam is native to Canada, however I never see them in Toronto. There are more details if you want to read about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoduck

It was my first time to see pig snout alone for sell (Pic 9). I couldn’t imagine how would you cook it. I was also surprised when my friend Jerome told me his grandfather (French) cooked the pig snout, with potato and salad around it. It is visually interesting dish, but according to Jerome, the taste was not so good.