In Hong Kong today, apart from the mix and match between each of the main Chinese cuisines, the most common and popular cuisine is a fusion of Chinese, Japanese and Thai flavours. 

 

For a city that has been a crossroads of cultures since its inception, it is no wonder that Hong Kong’s kitchens fuse the flavours of different countries and regions. In the colonial period, people arrived in Hong Kong from all over China bringing their regional styles of cooking with them and later blending them together. Then Chinese chefs started adding soy sauce to European dishes, creating a new discipline known as Soy Sauce Western. From here the innovations multiplied and created the culinary capital of Asia, where you can taste fusion flavours everywhere from street market stalls to the molecular cuisine of creative chefs.

 What to order?
Fusion cuisine is found high and low in Hong Kong – even places that don’t specialise in fusion will blend styles in some of their dishes. Here are some hot picks!
 

Stir-fried Noodles with Beef in Swiss Sauce
The ‘Swiss’ sauce refers to a sweetened soy sauce. It is believed that a language mix-up resulted in a customer hearing ‘sweet’ as ‘Swiss’ and somehow the name has stuck, despite the sauce having no connection with Switzerland whatsoever.

 

Baked Cheese Cake with Egg White and Milk
This dessert has two inspirations — Western cheese cake and local double-layer egg pudding. It has a creamy texture and rich milky flavours.

 

Seared Garoupa Fillet Stuffed with Fish Maw in Truffle Sauce and Layered Custard
The bottom layer is a soup of pure egg whites, while the middle and top layers of egg whites are mixed with Chinese amaranth and carrot juice.