A Journey Through Hong Kong Street Food

Hong Kong Street food is directly proportional to love. 

I mean come on, let’s confess that we love street food more than a highly-priced cuisine in a five-star restaurant. 

Hong Kong…known for its ultimate street food, has taken the pride of ‘Culinary Capital of Asia’. There truly is all that you can dream of ‘for food’. Hong Kong street food is world-class with specialties from all over the world. 

After strolling on the streets of Hong Kong with all bright lights, the busy crosswalks, and high buildings, all you need is to order spicy Cantonese food to warm up. 

So right up here, we are going to share the most liked HK street food for you to savor the whole day. 

Savory and Spicy 

• Gaa Lei Yu Dan – (Curry Fishballs) 

Celebrate this toothsome and economical food found everywhere in Hong Kong. It gives a mesmerizing taste when you pop a deep-fried golden ball of fish into your mouth. These are made with fish meat covered with flour and dipped into a thick curry before skewering into the bamboo sticks.  

Gaa Lei Yu Dan is sold at most of the street stalls. They can be consumed while walking through the Hong Kong Street Food market. These savory curry fish balls are best served with a glass of coconut juice. 

• Siu Mai (Steamed Dumpling) 

Siu Mai are the Chinese dumplings cooked as part of a dim sum brunches. It is made with many local flavorful variations, but the Cantonese is the most liked of all. Eating it with topping of sweet soy sauce enhances its taste.  

Whilst you can easily get these steamed dumplings in any food market, the popular places for this Hong Kong street food are Soy Street, Dundas Street, and Sai Yeung Choi Street South. 

• Cau Dou Fu (Stinky tofu) 

It’s a spicy, savory, and quite verbal street food. Having pungent rotten smell, this street snack seems like one to ignore, but do not judge so quickly. Although you’ll have to control your natural instinct to ignore its powerful smell, yet the taste of this snack will pull you back. 

For its delicious taste, Cau Dou Fu is a common choice of most Hong Kongers. This HK street food is prepared after a long process of fermentation. This crispy, as well as a creamy dish, is best served with chili sauce.  

• Roasted sweet potato and chestnuts  

Covered by a cloud of smoke, there are street vendors selling roasted sweet potatoes and chestnuts. These are likely to be healthiest street snacks that you can eat while walking around the city corners.  

Unlike other street food, these are not found in most of the places. You can see the hawkers selling chestnuts and sweet potato in Kowloon town or Hong Kong island. And if you don’t like the roasted snacks, there are options for fried ones too. So, roasted or fried, take what suits your tongue the most (and health too). 

• Ja Zu Da Cheung (Fried pig intestines) 

The most appealing (certainly not the name but the taste), tempting, and one of the best street foods in Hong Kong! Locals or tourists, everyone gets a constant lure to eat this deep-fried snack.  

After a time-taking process of cleaning, boiling, coating, drying, and frying, these pig intestines comes out to be worthy the time spend on them.  

Ja Zu Da Cheung is served skewered in sticks and needs to be chewed a bit. Sham Shui Po can be a good place to have the delicate taste of these fried intestines. 

Sweet 

If you have a sweet tooth, then here are some dishes that you might catch your interest! 

• Dan tat (Egg tart) 

The king of best street food in Hong Kong! These scrumptious egg tarts leave you wanting more when you try it for the first time. Each region of the country offers their own different kind of egg tarts, but the best version is available in Hong Kong Island. 

The cheesy egg and custard filling bounded with the golden crust makes you fall for its appearance and arise lure to taste it. These Dan tats, made of eggs, milk, flour, and sugar are baked perfectly making it soft from inside and crispy from outside. 

• • Put chai ko (Bowl pudding) 

Made with either brown or white sugar and rice flour, this pudding is small and soft and is decorated usually with red beans. Conventionally, these were skewered on sticks for serving. This is simple all-time street food to have. If you want to try this glutinous rice pudding, then head on to Sham Shui Po. 

• • Gai dan jai (Egg waffles

This is one of go to classic dishes that everyone should like. Known as Gai dan jai in Cantonese, this sweet snack is made with egg batter. It is cooked on a griddle pan to make it fluffy, soft internally, and crunchy from the outer side. One can evaluate the sweet taste of this dish with its tempting fragrance. 

Egg waffles are prepared with different flavors such as peanut butter and chocolate, so do try all those versions when you visit Hong Kong.  

• Bo Lo Bao (Pineapple Bun) 

Mostly found in bakeries, Bo Lo Bao is another most liked Hong Kong Street Food. Despite the name pineapple bun, this sweet dish does not contain pineapple. It has got this name for its appearance.  

It is just a simple sweet bun. But now, as per the name, some places started providing a variation with pineapple filling too.  

You might be thinking why this simple bun has been listed in the best street food in Hong Kong. This is because the government of Hong Kong has added this snack to the list of Hong Kong’s intangible heritage and is popular among the locals. 

Have you tried any of these Hong Kong Street Foods yet? If not, then what are you waiting for? Go and taste the best of HK street food.