Cantonese Cuisines
Most Hong Kong residents originate from the neighboring province of Guangdong, where Guangzhou, or Canton, is located. Hence, Cantonese cuisine is the staple of Hong Kong. This is the style of food which people around the world generally know as “Chinese Food”, and there is nowhere better than Hong Kong to sample its endless range of taste and excellent quality. Having said that, you're in for a big shock if you're expecting the Westernized Cantonese food found outside of Canton itself.
Cantonese food is fresh to the point of obsessiveness. The amount of time that has elapsed between a fish swimming in the tank and being on the plate is generally minimal. This type of food is oilier than most regional Chinese cuisines, although much emphasis is also placed on natural flavors, steaming and light stir-frying.
Popular Cantonese dishes are too nuermous to mention but include steamed fish with light soy sauce and ginger, stir-fried vegetables, roast goose or roast suckling pig and sweet-and-sour spare ribs.
Dim Sum is an extremely popular form of Cantonese food consumed only in the morning and afternoon-don't embarrass yourself or your hosts by asking for dim sum in the evening. It is a series of delicious little snacks which often come in baskets. In traditional Dim Sum Restaurants, waiters and waitresses trundle around trolleys laden with dim sum and you pick the ones you want from the selection.
In more upmarket restaurants, you are given dim sum order forms and tick off the required items. The most popular dim sum items are:
Ha Gau (shrimp dumpling)
Siu Mai (Prawn and pork dumpling)
Pai Gwat (Steamed spareribs)
Chun Guen (Spring Rolls)
Cha Siu Bao (Steamed Barbecued Pork Buns)
Cheung Fun (steamed rice flour rolls with barbecue pork, beef or shrimp)