Learn to cook like a local in Hong Kong
Learn how to make a traditional vegetarian meal in Hong Kong / Supplied Source: Supplied
WHICHEVER way you looked at it, my penguin was looking rather sick and sorry.
Beside me, chef Jackie Lau of the Super Star Seafood Restaurant was making pert penguin-shaped shrimp dumplings with rice-flour cases and a yummy filling also flavoured with mushroom, abalone and water chestnut.
His bird had a neat coat of pastry coloured black with squid ink and beady orange bean-paste eyes.
My little chap was lumpy and pummelled and looked to be nursing a hangover. Chef Lau assured me this wasn't too bad for a first try.
The amiable 34-year-old from Kowloon had taken time off from his hectic job as senior dim sum chef at Super Star's 10th floor restaurant at Causeway Bay to provide a quick introduction to Cantonese cuisine.
An experienced chef can turn out up to 3000 tasty dim sum snacks a day, from shrimp dumplings (ha gau) and fluffy barbecue pork buns (char siu baan) to deep-fried spring rolls.The dining experience is called yum cha, or "drink tea", with families gathering to select from dozens of steamed or fried treats.
Dim sum, which translates as "touch the heart", is a staple of Hong Kong life. Eating dim sum is a crash course in Cantonese culture, and you can go one step further by learning how to make them in a cooking class.
This is a boom industry these days and Hong Kong - a livewire international city that hums day and night - is a good place to improve your kitchen skills.
There are some things you might not want to try at home. Super Star's specialty is stone (puffer) fish and these are deadly if not prepared right.
Squeamish eaters might also want to avoid the steamed chicken feet and ox stomach.
Mind you, there is a whole lot more to Hong Kong than exotic Cantonese.
Thanks to its cosmopolitan population and free trade, the region is South-East Asia's premier food and wine destination. The boom has been helped by the abolition of duties on imported wine in 2008.
The international auction house Sotheby's now says that Hong Kong rates ahead of London and New York in fine wine sales.
There is also a Michelin guide to Hong Kong and Macau to help the eager gourmet through a maze of restaurants. These range from the famous Mak's Noodle House in Wellington Road - try the chutney pork - to the very elegant Lung King Heen, the only Chinese restaurant in the world to receive a Michelin rating of 3 stars.
The guidebook praises this establishment, which offers a sweeping view of Victoria Harbour, for its impeccably fresh seafood.
Lung King Heen's braised whole fresh abalone in supreme oyster sauce is as good as it gets.
We also enjoyed the 2-star Summer Palace in the swank Island Shangri-la Hotel, a restaurant admired for authentic Cantonese cuisine. Also check out the hotel's 16-storey silk painting The Great Motherland of China, the largest of its type in the world.
An Aussie touch
Australian food and wine is also starting to make a splash in Hong Kong's very sophisticated food scene.
A Jacob's Creek sparkling rose was judged the best wine with abalone at a Hong Kong International Wine and Spirit competition.
A vibrant Aussie-style eatery, Coast, is now making waves in the trendy Soho district.
Chef David Kan serves up hearty kangaroo and pork pies and "bottomless bowls" of fresh South Australian Boston Bay mussels.
Australian and Kiwi expats head to Coast to watch rugby games.
The writer travelled as a guest of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government.WHICHEVER way you looked at it, my penguin was looking rather sick and sorry.
Beside me, chef Jackie Lau of the Super Star Seafood Restaurant was making pert penguin-shaped shrimp dumplings with rice-flour cases and a yummy filling also flavoured with mushroom, abalone and water chestnut.
His bird had a neat coat of pastry coloured black with squid ink and beady orange bean-paste eyes.
My little chap was lumpy and pummelled and looked to be nursing a hangover. Chef Lau assured me this wasn't too bad for a first try.
The amiable 34-year-old from Kowloon had taken time off from his hectic job as senior dim sum chef at Super Star's 10th floor restaurant at Causeway Bay to provide a quick introduction to Cantonese cuisine.
An experienced chef can turn out up to 3000 tasty dim sum snacks a day, from shrimp dumplings (ha gau) and fluffy barbecue pork buns (char siu baan) to deep-fried spring rolls.
The dining experience is called yum cha, or "drink tea", with families gathering to select from dozens of steamed or fried treats.
Dim sum, which translates as "touch the heart", is a staple of Hong Kong life. Eating dim sum is a crash course in Cantonese culture, and you can go one step further by learning how to make them in a cooking class.
This is a boom industry these days and Hong Kong - a livewire international city that hums day and night - is a good place to improve your kitchen skills.
There are some things you might not want to try at home. Super Star's specialty is stone (puffer) fish and these are deadly if not prepared right.
Squeamish eaters might also want to avoid the steamed chicken feet and ox stomach.
Mind you, there is a whole lot more to Hong Kong than exotic Cantonese.
Thanks to its cosmopolitan population and free trade, the region is South-East Asia's premier food and wine destination. The boom has been helped by the abolition of duties on imported wine in 2008.
The international auction house Sotheby's now says that Hong Kong rates ahead of London and New York in fine wine sales.
There is also a Michelin guide to Hong Kong and Macau to help the eager gourmet through a maze of restaurants. These range from the famous Mak's Noodle House in Wellington Road - try the chutney pork - to the very elegant Lung King Heen, the only Chinese restaurant in the world to receive a Michelin rating of 3 stars.
The guidebook praises this establishment, which offers a sweeping view of Victoria Harbour, for its impeccably fresh seafood.
Lung King Heen's braised whole fresh abalone in supreme oyster sauce is as good as it gets.
We also enjoyed the 2-star Summer Palace in the swank Island Shangri-la Hotel, a restaurant admired for authentic Cantonese cuisine. Also check out the hotel's 16-storey silk painting The Great Motherland of China, the largest of its type in the world.
An Aussie touch
Australian food and wine is also starting to make a splash in Hong Kong's very sophisticated food scene.
A Jacob's Creek sparkling rose was judged the best wine with abalone at a Hong Kong International Wine and Spirit competition.
A vibrant Aussie-style eatery, Coast, is now making waves in the trendy Soho district.
Chef David Kan serves up hearty kangaroo and pork pies and "bottomless bowls" of fresh South Australian Boston Bay mussels.
Australian and Kiwi expats head to Coast to watch rugby games.
The writer travelled as a guest of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government.