Food Culture of Hong Kong Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Food Culture of Hong Kong - Essay Example Other than a short period when the island was under the hands of the Japanese, it has been under the British rule and has grown from its first state to become a great industrial and manufacturing center with many foreign firms relocating to the island. The people of Hong Kong attach great importance to food and express these in many places, including websites and even on Facebook and Twitter. The city has been aptly referred to as the culinary capital of Asia due to the diversities of foods and dishes that are found on restaurant and family tables of Hong Kong. The food culture is one that they attach great importance to what they eat, and take great care in picking it (Anderson, 2005). For example, iced lemon tea is a very common drink in restaurants and it comes in different prices pertaining to the amount of ice or sugar the customer would like, many taking into consideration that a great amount of sugar will make one fat or that more ice will have the customer drinking more water than the lemon tea. The people of Hong Kong are very meticulous in their food display and arrangement, attaching great detail to each food category. A certain type of food arrangement can even be some smaller divisions derived from the main division but have some changes in the ingredients. A type of dish called the ‘Shao Mai’, for example, is made of pork and shrimp wrapped in a thin white layer of flour and displayed in a steamer basket, but however, there are smaller dishes of the same made of purple rice or a very traditional dish of ‘Shao Mai’ made of quail’s eggs as the wrappings (DeWolf et al, 2010). This latter dish has existed through the ages but is becoming outdated, becoming replaced by the other two. The people of Hong Kong generally have no fixed time for eating and, thus, will be found eating very early or very late. The working culture due to industrialization and manufacturing makes them very hard working people who put in