Right up your street

Chinese restaurants light up the Hong Kong night with a kaleidoscope of coloured neon signs, a dazzling metaphor for the different regional cuisines they specialise in. Because although Cantonese may be the essential "home cooking" here, enthusiasts can take a gastronomic tour of all the great regional cuisines of China in the heart of Hong Kong.

Feel like seriously spicy Sichuan food? Then order the signature kung pao chicken, which is flash-fried in Szechuan peppercorns, fiery chilly oil, peanuts and shaoxing wine. For something more exotic, try a hearty suan cai hotpot of pork and sour cabbage from the northern Chinese region of Manchuria, or a typically rustic Hakka dish such as salt-baked chicken. The Hakka were originally rural people, from Guangdong in the south-east, but have migrated heavily, influencing cuisines as they go.

Although geographically nearby, Chiu Chow cooking uses altogether more subtle flavours, with little oil and a healthy emphasis on seafood and vegetables, while the small island province of Hainan is the origin of one of HongKong's favourite dishes, the simple but exquisite chicken rice.

Mr Lau Kin Wai is one of the stars of Hong Kong's gastronomy scene, with his jaunty leather trilby, sharply cut jacket and long silvery pony tail. Art critic, food writer and restaurateur, he has strong views on traditional Cantonese cooking. "For me, it is the taste of the primary product that is all important. That means dishes are not spicy or hot, but subtle. We simply don't add that many ingredients. You should never have the taste of ingredients and seasoning in a Cantonese dish, but rather the original flavour of the meat, fish or vegetable. So don't expect to savour chilli, sugar, vinegar or even too much soy."

While everyone has heard of Peking duck, nothing quite prepares you for the theatrical presentation of the dish here, and it is the perfect introduction to authentic Beijing cuisine. Dennis Tsui runs a gourmet restaurant specialising in both Peking and Shanghainese cooking, and explains the difference between the two. "Peking cuisine is essentially simple and very delicate in its flavours, such as chicken quickly fried with cashew nuts and a red bean paste. The chef will attempt to subtly build a combination of four key layers of taste: sour, sweet, salty and spicy. Shanghai cuisine is more concentrated in its flavours, creating intense-tasting dishes that are cooked longer and with a variety of different sauces, using wine, chilli, vinegar, soy sauce and sugar.

"While Peking cooking has a tradition going back centuries, there wasn't any real Shanghai cuisine 100 years ago, because the city itself had not yet developed. When it became an important port and trading city in the 1920s and 30s, chefs began to create what we call Shanghainese cuisine today, essentially by borrowing and adapting a mix of different styles and flavours from other cuisines around China."

To recreate all these flavours in your own kitchen, jump in a taxi to the corner of Shanghai Street and Waterloo Road in Kowloon, a foodie paradise of specialist shops stocking knives and Heath Robinson-looking cooking utensils, claypots and dim sum steamers, tea sets, cutlery and ornate chopsticks.

Cookery schools

Peninsula Academy
The Peninsula Hong Kong, Salisbury Rd, TST, Kowloon (tel 2311 7107)

This hotel has a history of pampering guests, and its cooking school offers dozens of courses, from dim sum to a gourmet dinner

Towngas Cooking Centre
Basement, 77 Leighton Rd, Causeway Bay, HK Island (2576 1716)

Intense two-hour lessons devoted to a single dish, eg lotus lead wrapped chicken or tofu with prawns

Wing Wah Cake Shop
Shop 4, G/F 35 Chatham Road South, TST, Kowloon (2316 7688)

Hong Kong's most famous bakery runs simple classes to make festive moon cakes, and other exotic delicacies like wife cakes

Tea Appreciation Class
G/F, KS Lo Gallery, Hong Kong Park, Admiralty, HK (2801 7177)

Discover the A-Z of Chinese teas and serving etiquette

Cookery.com.hk
Flat B, 1/F, 40-46 Argyle St, TST, Kowloon (2381 0132)

Learn all about Chinese "home cooking". Classes are hands-on and fun

Chinese cuisines

Sichuan Yellow, Door Kitchen,
6/F, 37 Cochrane Street, Central, HK (2858 6555)

Signature dish: Dan Dan noodles, with spicy sauce of red chilli oil, preserved vegetables, minced pork and Sichuan pepper

Shanghainese, Imperial Kitchen
5/F, The Lee Garden, 33 Hysan Ave, Causeway Bay, HK (2577 2018)

Thinly sliced eel, fried with vinegar, honey and soy sauce

Cantonese, Kin's Kitchen
1/F, Potek House, 9 Tsing Fung Street, Tin Hau, HK (2571 0913)

Whole chicken, smoked, then slowly braised in herb soup with rose petals

Pekingese, Peking Garden Restaurant
Star House, 3 Salisbury Road, TST, Kowloon (2735 8211)

Peking duck: crispy skin served first, wrapped in light flour roll with sweet hoisin sauce

Chiu Chow, Pak Lok Restaurant
23 Hysan Avenue, Causeway Bay, HK (2576 8886)

Steamed pomfret, with ginger, preserved plums, salted vegetables and shaoxing wine