Boiling Offal Pots
Eating in Hong Kong is hard work if you don’t eat meat. I’m not a vegetarian but I’m not a fan of offal, which is what most of what the street food in Hong Kong seems to be when I am hungry and looking for something fast.
[Pots of boiling offal]
For a city that was once a jewel of the British Empire it is surprising how little English is spoken on the the street. This makes for ordering food a challenge.
I found a place serving some sort of meat product skewered on a stick, which was most tasty. I then moved on to the next tray, and pointed to these frying balls of something. The lady said “spicy”! I nodded. She said again, “spicy”!! I said “OK, I like spicy”, then she repeated again, “SPICY”!!!
“OK OK give me spicy”.
She gave me a container with 10 of them. They were excruciatingly spicy, and I like spicy. I forced the third one down before surrendering and running off to the nearest 7/11 to put out the fire.
[Hong Kong Street Food]
Know where your food comes from
Eating in Asia you get a better sense of where your food comes from. In the west we only have to see our meat as prime cuts neatly packaged in a styrofoam container at the supermarket. You can walk around markets and see live chickens waiting to be slaughtered and live fish carved up before your eyes, still gasping for breath.
[Live Chickens]
Live crabs can be bought in shops on the street as well. These crabs aren’t in a water tank though. They are bound with bamboo and stacked neatly on top of each other as if they were boxes.
[Live Crabs]
Eating Vegetarian
Eating for vegetarians can be hard going here, even if you go to a “vegetarian restaurant”. I looked at some menus of vegetarian restaurants and found that every item had meat in it. I presume vegetarian means they happen to serve vegetables as well.
[Pretend Vegetarian Restaurant]
Sometimes vegetarian options at restaurants include prawns and bits of pork.
The safest option for a vegetarian is to go to an Indian restaurant. If they say it is vegetarian you know that it will be. When in Hong Kong I like to visit Branto on Lock Road, which my vegetarian sister put me onto.
There are plenty of other vegetarian restaurants in Hong Kong as well.
[Masala Dosa - Branto]
Sweet Things
The egg tart is a cheap and tasty snack that can be found all over Hong Kong.
[Hong Kong Egg Tart]
Also on Lock Road I frequent this juice bar daily. They have a variety of fresh juices, as well as a sweet mango or coconut drink with tapioca balls, which I struggle to limit myself to two a day.
[Juice Bar]