Put on your suit jacket and grab a coffee...it's morning

Hong Kong

I actually don't know what I mean when I say "Culture of Hong Kong"...I don't really understand it myself. Hong Kong's so international, it doesn't seem right to say Hong Kong's culture is like the Chinese culture...because in some aspects it is...(we celebrate Chinese New Year, we do a lot of the Chinese traditional stuff) but in other ways...it's so different. Sometimes, when I tell people I'm from Hong Kong and they ask me "So...how's China?" it feels weird...and I have no idea what to say. Hong Kong is part of China but somehow...Hong Kong is so different from China. OK, enough of all that crap I just wrote...here's just some stuff that best describes Hong Kong's culture. I can only think about culture in terms of food. I know there's other stuff as well but the food culture is the only thing I know I can write hahaha.

Food culture > Mister Softee

It sounds weird I know but what is Hong Kong without Mister Softee? Mister Softee practically grew up with most people living in Hong Kong and it's part of Hong Kong. Not only are the Mister Softee vans super retro and funki...Mister Softee ice cream is also so much better than the McDonald's ones (OK, corny I know). Mister Softee vans are much harder to find now than they were a few years back. However, even though they're not as common now, everyone in Hong Kong still knows it and loves it. The Mister Softee Ice Cream van song is still familiar to everyone. I found a Mister Softee spot next to Silvercord and everyone knows the Mister Softee spot just right outside the Hong Kong Space Museum in Tsim Sha Tsui. The Mister Softee van in the picture on the left was in Tsim Sha Tsui's ferry pier when I took the photo. I found a website that has a timetable of the Mister Softee vans...but I lost the site. Clever I know.

--I Love Mister Softee--

Food Culture > Street side

Another thing most people in Hong Kong grew up with are the street side food vendors in Hong Kong. There's not a lot of them around nowadays which is real unfunki. There's my favourite favourite favourite street side food > Chestnuts and Quail eggs...they are sooooo good! I know there's a stall under the train station in Mong Kok...and there's one every now and then next to the Apple Mall in Causeway Bay. A real Hong Kong person would know that there's probably nothing better than eating sweet potato from the street side stalls in the winter. Yep, during the winter time in Hong Kong, the sweet potato stalls come back out again. They come in 2 kinds > Yellow centre and Purple centre...YELLOW IS THE BESSSSSSST!!!! Sure, it looks kinda weird and is supposed to make you fart or something like that but who cares? Good food is good food...and if you've been to Hong Kong and actually HAVEN'T tried the street side sweet potatoes (in winter)...you are officially weird and stupid at the same time. Then we have the sweet stuff. Ok, I don't know how to translate these names. There's this stuff called "Long So Tong" which means Dragon Beard candy...okay, I know that sounds nasty but it's real nice. It's this white ball of stuff and it really looks like dragon hairs. It's just thin strands of white stuff wrapped around this candy centre. Then there's the "Muk Ah Tong"...I've only tried this twice and don' really remember it but it's this syrupy thing (called "Muk Ah Tong" that's where the name comes from) in between two pieces of soda cracker and it's on a stick. I don't even remember if I liked it or not but it's apparently one of my dad's favourite snacks when he was small. "Ding Ding Tong" which means "Ding Ding Candy" gay name I know...is this really hard candy (the sound it makes is more like "Plock" than "Ding") and it comes in little packets. They come in a few different flavours: mint, chocolate, mango (I think) and ginger (which is surprisingly good). There's this snack that I don't remember the name of but is REALLY good. It's sugar, coconut shreds and a piece of something (I have no idea what it is) wrapped in a tortilla like wrap (but thinner) and they usually come in small brown paper bags. It's not originally from Hong Kong but still...it's part of our culture. "Pwut Jai Go" or "Bowl cakes" are more frequent in Hong Kong than most other traditional snacks. It's a sticky pudding type cake shaped like a bowl (the mould) and has red beans in it. There's a brown type and a white type and recently, I found a purple one as well which I'm assuming is something like Taro or something. Another snack that's still very much around today is "Gey Dan Jai". A battar of eggs, milk and some other stuff is poured into this real retro looking waffle maker type machine. It shapes the snack into small circles which look like small eggs. You can get it almost anywhere these days and most places now have chocolate or strawberry flavoured ones. Still, the original is still the best. Here's one thing I can't forget to mention: "Chou Dou Fu" which means stinky ToFu. What it is is ToFu that stinks. I don't mind the smell but most people can't stand it but it's supposed to be REALLY REALLY REALLY good. I tried it once and was kinda disappointed because I was expecting something REALLY awesome but it just tasted like normal tofu to me...maybe it's just me. It's really hard to find stalls selling stinky tofu now in Hong Kong. I know one stall in Mong Kok. If you walk out from the Prince Edward MTR Station (Exit D1 I think...The one near "Allied Plaza") and walk to your left to the street which sells all this fishies, there's a stall around the corner of the fish shop street. You should be able to smell it.

Food Culture > Cha Chan Tang

Cha Chan Tang or Hong Kong style coffee shops are another funki aspect of Hong Kong. They usually are dirty and small but I think people exaggerate too much...especially people who don't go to Cha Chan Tangs. Helloooooooo it's not that gross! Hong Kong's most famous bread: "Bo Luo Bao" or "Pineapple Bun". There's no pineapple in it and it doesn't taste anything like pineapple so I have no idea why it's called that...it doesn't even look like a pineapple. You haven't been to Hong Kong if you've never tried a "Bo Luo Bao" and the ones they sell at "Maxim's Cake Shop" or "St Honour's" don't count. It's the Cha Chan Tang ones that are REALLY Hong Kong. Du-uh...there's "Dan Tat" which means Egg Tart...easy enough. It's just a tart with this custard thing in it. Real nice...love it...must try. There's a famous shop (it's not a Cha Chan Tang...it's a Chinese Bakery) which has REALLY nice egg tarts. Check the address from my shop list!

Food Culture > Yum Cha

Yum Cha literally translates into "drink tea" but that's not what you do (Du-UH!!!!)...it means going to a chinese restaurant and eating dim sum (no, not just sitting there and drinking tea). Stupid non-Chinese stereotypical views of Yum Cha include weirdo dim sum that I've never heard of before (stuff like "Catfish Eyeball") makes Chinese people seem like freaks...so annoying...and people actually think we walk around eating monkey brains? Maybe a few hundred years ago...and it's not like the Americans don't eat liver. OK, anyways...back to Yum Cha. The most common dim sum is "Ha Gao" (Shrimp dumpling) and "Sui Mai" (Dunno what it exactly is). Special mention to Ronak's favourite "Jun Ju Gai" which is sticky rice wrapped in a giant leaf.

Food Culture > Vitasoy

Like Mister Softee, what's Hong Kong without Vitasoy? LOVE VITASOY!! Especially when they come in those funki Coco-cola type glass bottles. So sexi looking. There's the soya bean milk vitasoy and the malted vitasoy (the brown one) and some other random ones. I like the soya bean one more but the malted one is veeeery nice as well...love that too.