Hong Kong Street Food

 by: Wong Yee Lee

If you have visited Hong Kong in the past, you should have tried the typical HK street food stalls and had a taste of the famous curry fish balls there. If you haven't, then you must make sure you will try it the next time you are there.

What is so special about it? Standing in front of a food stall like this, you will be able to see a wide selection of food choices. My favourite would be the curry fish balls and the pig intestines. Of course these may not sound mouth-watering to some of you but I am sure you will be able to find something which you fancy eating. Octopus balls, beef balls, minced pork balls, octopus, squids, chilli wrapped with fish meat, chicken wings or tips, fish balls and lettuce in soup, fake shark fin soup, cow tripe and many others are all available.

Just go to Mong Kok, you can easily find one at each street corner. Then of course, these types of stalls are everywhere in HK.

Most of these stalls do not provide seating but some do. With those few which provide seating, very often you will also find noodles available. When I was small, I used to enjoy a bowl of these noodles for lunch. At that time, it did not cost me more than HK$1 per bowl. These days, you will not be able to enjoy one bowl of such noodles for at least HK$15.

You can combine as many ingredients as possible in one of these bowls of noodles. The only difference is that the more ingredients the more expensive your bowl of noodles will be. There are already at least four types of noodles which you can choose from - greasy noodles, flat noodles, thin noodles or rice noodles. If you want you can have some vegetables. Apart from some Chinese noodles, you can also have the western choice of lettuce. Then there are the meat options. The most popular would be pig's intestines, pig's blood and pig's skin. However, if these sound revolting to you, then you can choose some more common ones such as fish balls, chicken wings, meat balls, pork belly meat, fish dumplings, pork dumplings etc.

There is one thing to remember. One may not find these places very hygienic. I am not saying that you should refrain from trying any of these places since it is one of the specialties in HK. The food on offer is generally very well cooked, so you should not have any problems. What you need to do is just to be careful. If you are already having difficulty acclimatizing to the new environment, then I would advise you to leave these eating places until another time.

Gather your courage and I am sure the food from such stalls will not disappoint you!