Hong Kong street food

Hong Kong street food is characterised as the ready-to-eat snacks and drinks sold by hawkers or vendors at food stalls, including egg tarts, egg waffles and stinky tofu, according to the definition provided by the Food and Agriculture Organization. They can be found throughout the city, especially around Mong Kok, Causeway Bay, Yuen Long, Tsuen Wan, and Kwun Tong.

Street food is ready to be taken away and eaten elsewhere instantly. Generally, the customers are served snacks, which are contained in polystyrene boxes, with disposable bamboo sticks or plastic utensils. Street food needs to be sold along the street, even though nowadays the junkers have transformed into shops without providing seats, but the sales are still being done along the street. Food can easily be taken away via small plastic bags, paper bags or bowls. Besides, people can simply taste the street food using the disposable tableware like plastic spoons or bamboo sticks provided by the shops.

The nutritionists proves that, comparing to other food, street food sold is often cooked in greater portion of oil such as fried squid legs and hawkers usually add much sugar or salt for seasoning.

According to travel websites- Timeout.com and About.com in 2013, the snacks prices averaged between $1 to $25 and were found to be most acceptable to Hongkongers.

Cultural research suggests that food stalls supply a variety of snacks, including both local and international, ranging from red-bean pudding from Guangdong to Thai prawn cutlets.

According to Tang Zhiyan (Chinese: 唐摭言, "selected words from the Tang"), hawkers had sold cold food on the streets to get relief during summer heat as early as the Tang dynasty. Then, during Qing dynasty, the street-side snack stalls gradually developed into street markets. As highlighted in a feature article namely 'Finding the Dining Habit of the Unemployed' (Chinese: 尋找地踎飲食), the scene of hawkers carrying wood barrels, traditional wares and stoves has become part of the history of local street snacks.

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Wikipedia