Restaurants can be found in any city, from any city.  Italian restaurants in Los Angeles, Mexican restaurants in Edinburgh, and Korean restaurants in Paris.  And there are some very fine restaurants indeed, but there is something about eating Italian food in Italy, Mexican food in Mexico, and Korean food in Korea.  So eating at the Dai Pai Dongs in Hong Kong is a treat, not only in the culinary sense, but also in the cultural sense. Dai Pai Dongs are open air kitchens serving street food, much in the way that the hot dog stands are for the city of New York.

Street food is a cultural tradition, known to be extremely inexpensive, and they move around from time to time.  Some of the street food is extremely hard to find, so it is sometimes best to ask for help from the staff of your boutique hotel.  Hong Kong owners of these eating establishments often times hang no signs, or move the location of their kitchens, and sometimes various kitchens join together to create one larger venue. Pai Dai Dongs however, do have permanent locations, making the quest for this side of the culture of Hong Kong easy to locate.

One of the best of them is on Graham Street.  This is in the center of the city, and consists of a collection of stalls, like a Pai Dai Dong market place.  The food is known to be some of the best in the city, so be prepared to wait in line.  The wait will be well worth it however.  Some others that are known to be extremely incredible are located by the Temple Street Markets.  Both the market and the food stalls are best experienced at time, when the locals hang out drinking Tsing Tao beer and diving into plates of the freshest of seafood.  Some other locations to find these food stalls are at the Mongkok Ladies Market, the Causeway Bay, and on Hau Fook  and Haiphong Streets.  This will be one of the best meals of your life, the food of Hong Kong, eaten with the people of Hong Kong, in the city of Hong Kong…perfect.

Related posts:

  1. When to visit Hong Kong
  2. Dinner in a Hong Kong Restaurant and Symphony of Lights Makes a Romantic Evening
  3. History and Food in Manila
  4. New York Food Museum
  5. Hawker Food and Fun in Singapore

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