Mango Pomelo Sago Dessert 楊枝甘露

This yummilicious Chinese spoon dessert is just the thing to take advantage of the autumn pomelos that are flooding the market at the moment.  It's pomelo (and mango) time, folks!  

You'll find these kind of desserts in Hong Kong specialty dessert shops, 糖水鋪, which, if you haven't tried yet, you must cuz the desserts they serve are pretty fab!  These dessert shops are in every residential neighborhood, usually open later and into late night, and serve all kinds of traditional and newer types of Chinese desserts.  

This fabulous Mango Pamelo Sago Dessert 楊枝甘露, also known as 芒果柚子西米露,  is one of the newer HK desserts, a most delectable concoction of flavors and textures: chewy sago pearls, juicy pomelo sacs and deliciously sweet mango all tied together with lusciously creamy coconut cream.

Pineapple Buns 菠蘿包

This recipe is for our reader Raymond who asked for a recipe for Pineapple Buns with the real traditional crackle cookie tops.

I hope that this recipe is the one he was looking for, anyways this is the one that we know as the traditional Pineapple Bun, or 菠蘿包, a soft fluffy bun underneath and a crunchy crumbly crackled sweet cookie like crust on top, invented in Hong Kong in the sixties and still a standard at all Hong Kong traditional bakeries.

A taste sensation, the cookie crust crumbles delightfully in your mouth when you bite into the soft warm tender bun.  Pineapple Bun, named for the texture of the crackle crust that resembles the real pineapple, is a real special afternoon or breakfast treat and an absolutely unique Hong Kong style bake!

Chinese Salt Baked Quail Egg 鹽焗鵪鶉蛋

Cheep, cheep!  Presenting our interpretation of a 'natural' Easter: this year we bring together the idea of Easter eggs and the idea of street food culture in Hong Kong.  Our Easter nest is full of tiny naturally speckled eggs!  

Namely the delicate Chinese Salt Baked Quail Eggs, or 鹽焗鵪鶉蛋, usually found at your local street hawker, these roasty, just salty wee eggs come still piping hot in a paper bag.  There's nothing quite like it to have in your pocket on a windy day to warm your fingers with!  

Hong Kong Local Food Recommendations 香港美食推薦

Dear Hong Kong Cookery Readers - We've been asked every once in a while about specific recommends for Hong Kong food places and now one of our readers,  Michelle from Indiana, has written in to ask about where to find the best Hong Kong local eating places and food exploration places and I thought I should share our reply with all of you!  So here it is and Happy New Year to All!  (Special thanks to Michelle for the inspiration for this post!)

Hong Kong Style Mango Pudding 香港芒果布甸

One of the delights of the Hong Kong dim sum feast is the mango pudding.  Not just any old mango pudding, mind you, but the classic one developed by the ingenious chefs of dim sum who have been trained in the tradition of creating small, beautiful, delightful tasty treats that can be eaten as part of the buffet of tidbits that is the dim sum lunch.

While mango pudding has existed in many other permutations, this particular Hong Kong Style Mango Pudding, or 香港芒果布甸, is light as a feather, melting in the mouth, packed to the brim with the freshest mango taste and texture and creamy with an aromatic hint of dairy.  Now you don't need to come to Hong Kong for this dim sum treat, you can make it quite easily at home!

Chinese Cooking Stories from the Heart 煮食故事

Dear readers, I want to first of all thank all of you that wrote in to tell us your wonderful Chinese cooking stories for a chance at our cookbook giveaway!  We reviewed 'Chinese Feasts & Festivals: A Cookbook' and made the delicious Homemade Chinese Pork Jerky Bakkwa  自制猪肉干 from a recipe in the same cookbook.   For a chance to win a free copy of the cookbook we asked for your best Chinese cooking stories.

 Well, we have chosen our two favorite stories (the winner's cookbooks are on their way!) and we thought that you might enjoy reading the winning stories as much as we did.  I have to say, (excuse the cheesiness!) that it was wonderful to see how cooking really brings people together!

Fishing Hong Kong Style 港式釣魚

In Hong Kong we live on an island surrounded by the sea.  Hard to remember sometimes in this concrete jungle that is the city.  But really truly, yes, we all live by the sea.  Often times we will stroll by the ocean pier just to breath the fresh breeze and feel the freedom of the open skies. 

Recently in the depth of the winter the weather has been just lovely (read blue skies instead of grey) and we have been exploring our outdoor options more than usual.  Thus our inspiration for a Fishing Hong Kong Style expedition 港式釣魚, a frolic along the pier of our nearby sea, a first fishing experience for our little girl and a fun reminder of past fishing adventures for mom and dad.  (Not sure why the ocean was sloped that day but it sure felt gorgeous!)

Hong Kong Style Iced Lemon Tea 香港凍檸茶

In Hong Kong where summers are long, hot and exhausting, there is that one and only quintessential Hong Kong drink that can really quench that terrible summer thirst: Hong Kong Style Iced Lemon Tea, or  凍檸茶. You can order this refreshing drink at almost all local Hong Kong style diners, i.e. cha chaan tengs 茶餐廳. I love this deliciously icy drink enough to miss it terribly when I'm away from Hong Kong.

There's really nothing quite like walking into a cha chaan teng, feeling the blast of ice cold air conditioning, folding yourself into one of the tiny booths and slowly drinking up a Hong Kong Style Iced Lemon Tea.  The only thing that I don't like is that I know that they probably use high fructose corn syrup for sweetening the tea.  

Recently as it's been getting hotter and hotter in Hong Kong as the days swing into the long summer, we have been longing for something cool and refreshing to drink at home.  So we thought, why not try to make our favorite Hong Kong Style Iced Lemon Tea at home?

Hong Kong View of the Day

Dear readers, we want to introduce our new blog called Hong Kong View of the Day, something new and fun that we are trying out.  Living and cooking in Hong Kong as we do, we thought that all our fanatical chinese food fans might like a bit of a look into this crazy, weird, chaotic yet fascinating Chinese city.  So we are sharing our views and thoughts of Hong Kong with a new photo a day.  We will always post the latest photo of the day in the lower sidebar of The Hong Kong Cookery blog so be sure to check it out!  Let us know what you think!

Chinese New Year Celebration Traditions 香港新春節慶

We had so much fun this year celebrating the Chinese New Year festival in Hong Kong!  So we thought that before we leave it finally all behind and start in earnest on the new year that we would share some of our photos of Hong Kong celebrating the Chinese New Year, or 香港新春節慶, in it's own imitable style.

 Most important and dramatic of all, of course, is the majestic Chinese Dragon Dance, or 舞龍, a traditional performance that is believed to bring good luck that has been around since 200 BC!  We were lucky enough to catch a wonderful Dragon Dance performance in the mall the other day.  You would not believe how loud the drums and clashing cymbals were!  Could not hear a thing afterwards for an hour!