Hungry City

With residents who often eat five meals a day, it’s no wonder Hong Kong is the world’s gastronomic capital.

- Christopher Dewolf

It’s 3:00 at Sun Hing, a raucous dim sum parlour in Kennedy Town, the westernmost section of Hong Kong Island, and a crowd of tipsy night owls are competing for table space with early-bird old-timers. This is a true neighbourhood joint, the kind of place where menus in Chinese characters are posted on the wall and there’s not much table service. When fresh baskets of quail-egg dumplings and black-sugar cake leave the kitchen, it’s up to you to grab some before they’re gone.

By the time Sun Hing readies to close for the day, 13 hours later, the crowd has shifted to university students and construction workers. There’s never a bad time to eat in Hong Kong, because people are always eating. For many people, five meals a day is par for the course: breakfast, lunch, teatime, dinner, and siu yeh—midnight snack.

No wonder this is considered one of the gastronomic capitals of the world: You can eat well for ₹300 at a hole-in-the-wall noodle shop or splurge on a ₹30,000 meal at one of the six restaurants with three Michelin stars, including Lung King Heen in the Four Seasons Hotel and L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon in the Landmark Atrium. Another 55 restaurants have one or two stars. In a city with so much quality food at so many price points, it can be hard to make a mark.

The New Generation