Hong Kong street foodSince the 19th century, Hong Kong has started to have roadside stalls. They all appeared in order to maintain their livelihood and cater for the dietary needs of the lower class in society. As for street food stalls, they were in the 1950s and 1960s. The initial development was the most prosperous. The wide variety of snacks sold at low prices made them very popular. Later, they were gradually driven out by the government due to health problems. These roadside stalls began to enter the shops to maintain their operations, although they were no longer on the roadside. "Car", but the food sold is still snacks sold on the street, so it is extremely popular.
There are many types of street snacks in Hong Kong, such as egg waffles, bowls of fins, stinky tofu, lettuce and fish broth, fish eggs, porridge cakes, beef offal, checkered biscuits, fried squid silk, skewers, siu mai, fried three treasures, etc. They are all of this type. Most of them are contained in paper bags or styrofoam boxes, and eaten with bamboo sticks or plastic spoons. They are bought and eaten immediately without any dining table or other equipment. From the characteristics and development of street snacks in Hong Kong, we can see the unique characteristics of Hong Kong food culture. In addition to the fast pace of life and fast work, Hong Kong people can also show their fast-paced mentality in eating and drinking. Not only do they eat fast, but they also need to make food fast in order to survive in society. Street snacks just show that Out of this feature. According to a report in the "Apple Daily" on August 8, 2002, Hong Kong people eat 55 tons of fish balls every day, about 3.75 million pieces of fish balls, which is a staggering number, which shows Hong Kong people's love for street food.
History development
Street snacks first appeared at street stalls at first. The development of street stalls can be said to have a long history. As early as the 1880s, there were street stalls. They were doing business around the clock. At that time, there were also big-name stalls. The big-name stalls were also sold on the street and were owned by the government. Licensed and has a larger area of hawking area than hawkers. It has similar places with hawkers. Later, "for food street" appeared. The so-called "for food street" refers to some cooked food hawkers concentrated in one place to sell Food is served to the low-class citizens, and the earliest "Food Street" is located at the junction of Stanley Street and Graham Street in Central. There are many shops selling breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper, sweet water (sweet soup) in the street. In the 1950s and 1960s, a large number of hawkers began to sell street food. After the handover in 1997, the government vigorously cracked down on these unlicensed hawkers due to sanitary problems caused by roadside food hawking, and the number of street hawkers dropped suddenly. In recent years, the number of hawkers has dropped significantly, but street snacks are no longer confined to the "street". They have begun to occupy shops and continue to operate. In addition to the government's vigorous crackdown on them, they cannot continue to survive on the streets. Because of the Asian financial turmoil and financial turmoil in Hong Kong in 1997, shop rents dropped sharply, allowing hawkers to afford shop rents, so they started to operate in shops, and they became more and more popular. Shops opened more and more, and most of them were concentrated in one place. For example, Fa Yuen Street in Mong Kok and Temple Street in Yau Ma Tei have a lot of street food for sale. Today, Hong Kong people want to eat street snacks, and most of them buy instant food at these shops.
Features
- Just buy it and eat it, and the food can be prepared immediately, which caters to Hong Kong people who are fast, convenient and time-saving. Food is generally eaten in paper bags and bamboo skewers, which are discarded after eating.
- Many are not healthy. Street snacks popular in old Hong Kong, such as deep-fried rice dumplings and deep-fried pastry boxes (that is, a cartridge-shaped oil container with shredded radish inside) contain a lot of fat. And "airplane olives" (that is, some packets containing three or four pieces of licorice or capsicum), etc., use a lot of sugar or salt in the pickling process. Although Hong Kong has promoted healthy eating in recent years, you can also see all kinds of fried foods on the streets of Mong Kok, (such as fried stuffed sambal, fried squid, etc.) or high-sugar snacks (such as egg waffles, checkered cakes, etc.). Hong Kong people’s culture is based on food.
- The production speed is fast, and it is cheaper and less time-consuming than other fast food and other meals.