Hong Kong Food: Cheap Street Food

Dai Pai Dong. 大牌檔. Wontons. 云吞. Hong Kong. I spent most of my time eating at places with few white faces and even fewer clean dishes.

But in Hong Kong, you rinse your own tableware before eating. I seriously thought the old dude at the table next to me was a crazy man, pouring tea all over the place. Turns out most places use copious amounts of bleach in the cleaning process.

Hong Kong suffers from an overkill of food guides. But when they all recommend a shop, hit up that shop.

Breakfast of dim sum out in Tai Po, north of the main city, for a few bucks. A few minutes later, out on the street, I saw a dude beating his girlfriend. Like full on domestic violence in the street.

A buck for wonton noodles at my housing estate. This was the first thing I ate in Hong Kong, mere minutes after arriving.

More noodles? Sure. How about some beef soup with beef parts.

Ramen!

Fresh juice stalls abound. Mango-coconut... delicious. Random green stuff... not so much.

Dai Pai Dong are fresh. They issued special licenses to operate these places back in the 70s, but the licenses aren't transferable upon death. And they never gave any new licenses. There are only about 20 left in the city. So these spots, where you'll pay like $9 for a ton of food and beer, are a dying tradition. The specialties are things like baked fish guts or ostrich stew. Eat there before they are gone.

Holy shit, I want to eat THAT! Sex sells. Homeboy is getting skeeted on with the muffin, and there is an arrow pointing into his mouth, and a heart in the bottom right.

Less rad than advertised.

I ate at Australian Dairy 4 times. For less than $3, you get macaroni and ham soup, scrambled eggs which I think have butter poured on them, and a drink.

Those eggs are hella rad.

Making tofu for a loooong time. Out on Lamma Island you can meet her, I guess she's famous.

I was having a shitty day, but yak cheese fritters turned it around. Also beer.

My host family hooked up the home cooked meal. Awesome, though I think they cooked safe food for me.

My buddy's mom wanted to cook for me too. For sure not safe food. Frog and celery stew. Maybe frog legs could be safe, but this was straight up frog carcass. We're talking spines and shit.

A couple bucks for all this fruit.

Voted best desert in Hong Kong. I felt weird being there, since I wasn't a teenage girl. The shop is very pink.

Mmmmm....

I mean, bleeehhhhhhh.... Even though the food on the flight home was shit, there were only a dozen people on the plane. So I guess the makeshift bed, aka row of empty seats, was worth it. ただいま！