Dai pai dong

Dai pai dong
Man Yuen Noodles, a former dai pai dong on Elgin Street, Central. The Democratic Party banner calls for preservation of the stall.
Traditional Chinese
Simplified Chinese
Literal meaning	Big Plate Stalls
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin dà pái dàng Yue: Cantonese Jyutping daai6 paai4 dong3
Cooked-food stalls
Traditional Chinese
Simplified Chinese
Literal meaning	large-row stalls
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin dà pái dàng Yue: Cantonese Jyutping daai6 paai4 dong3

Dai pai dong (from Cantonese 大 排 檔) is a type of open-air food stall in Hong Kong. The government registration name in Hong Kong is "cooked-food stalls", but dai pai dong literally means "restaurant with a big license plate", referring to its size of license which is bigger than other licensed street vendors.According to the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, there are only 25 dai pai dong remaining in Hong Kong.

A dai pai dong is characterised by its green-painted steel kitchen, untidy atmosphere, the lack of air conditioning, as well as a variety of low priced great-wok hei dishes. Regarded by some as part of the collective memory of Hong Kong people, official dai pai dong are scarce today, numbering only 28, situated in Central (10), Sham Shui Po (14), Wan Chai (1), Tai Hang (2), and Tai O (1).

Although the term dai pai dong is often used generically to refer to any food stall operating on the roadside with foldable tables, chairs and no air-conditioning (like those on Temple Street), legally speaking the term can only refer to those 28 stalls which possess the "big licenses".

Unlicensed food stalls, which provide cheap everyday food such as congee, rice and noodles to the general public of humble income, appeared as early as the late 19th century in Hong Kong. The stalls could be found not only in Central, but also in Wan Chai and the peripheries of Happy Valley Racecourse around Wong Nai Chung Road. In fact, the fire at the racecourse in 1918 was caused by food stalls set beside the podium. There were also stalls assembled by wharf piers, which formed the so-called Waisik Matau (為食碼頭 lit. "Gluttonous Pier"), to serve ferry passengers.

After World War II came to an end in 1945, the colonial Hong Kong government issued ad hoc licenses to families of deceased and injured civil servants, allowing them to operate food stalls in public and thereby earn a living. This type of license was physically considerably larger than the ones normally issued, as a photograph of the licensee was required to appear on them. The license, therefore, was jocularly called "dai pai" (big license) by the locals. From then on, the "big license stalls" began to flourish on every busy street and lane in Hong Kong.