Hong Kong Breakfast goes global

[huja]

"I went for a sandwich of corned beef and egg ($4), which was made on bread with the crusts excised, really quite wonderful..."

Wonderful compared to what? Dirt? That pic is one of the most boring and visually unappetizing dishes ever. "Most fun places to eat breakfast" Poor sod.

Novelty, I guess.

[tf19]

New Yorkers go ga ga for ethnic food - it's an endearing trait if not a little bit innocent.

I love the fact that New Yorkers will get super excited for regional Chinese cuisine - in 2017-18 if I recall correctly, it was Yunnan style Chinese that was all the rage. Before that in 2013-15ish it was Xi'an style food made popular by Anthony Bourdain.

When I first moved to New York in 2006, it was 3 hour queues for Ippudo in the East Village. Sometime in 2010ish it was 2 hour lines for the first freaking Jollibee in Queens.

But even before all of that, my friends and I would flock to truly low quality, bland as hell, shit service dim sum in New York Chinatown dives such as Golden Unicorn or Golden Bridge and pay out the nose for garbage food compared to what we might get in Guangzhou or Shanghai. But I'll say the least, folks in New York are way more open minded then folks elsewhere.

[huja]

New Yorkers go ga ga for ethnic food - it's an endearing trait if not a little bit innocent.

I love the fact that New Yorkers will get super excited for regional Chinese cuisine - in 2017-18 if I recall correctly, it was Yunnan style Chinese that was all the rage. Before that in 2013-15ish it was Xi'an style food made popular by Anthony Bourdain.

When I first moved to New York in 2006, it was 3 hour queues for Ippudo in the East Village. Sometime in 2010ish it was 2 hour lines for the first freaking Jollibee in Queens.

But even before all of that, my friends and I would flock to truly low quality, bland as hell, shit service dim sum in New York Chinatown dives such as Golden Unicorn or Golden Bridge and pay out the nose for garbage food compared to what we might get in Guangzhou or Shanghai. But I'll say the least, folks in New York are way more open minded then folks elsewhere.

Thirty-something years ago when I would go to NYC regularly for work Cuban-Chinese fusion was all the rage.

[Skyhook]

The interesting thing about the Hong Kong breakfast as served at a Cha Chaan Teng are some of the regular favourites must have originated during WW2 when food ration pack air drops were a thing. HONG Kong being Hong Kong they made it more palatable by adding extra flavouring to make those items taste more interesting. Things like the macaroni tomato, instant noodles with soup, tinned spam and thick toast French toast with peanut butter and syrup.

Hawaii likes the tinned breakfast spam thing too, likely from similar origins.

Funny, my grandfather fought in WW2 and totally refused to eat bread post War, because that's what they mostly ate in war ravage towns in Europe.

Hong Kong made this ration pack based breakfast an identity where as Europeans would have been happy to never have touched those items again if they had a choice.

Just one of those funny cultural difference things that we will never understand.

[SirNotAppearing]

Nothing wrong with a side of rice, black beans and plantains to go with an sesame chicken. Just couldn't eat like that today.

[kungpaochicken]

The interesting thing about the Hong Kong breakfast as served at a Cha Chaan Teng are some of the regular favourites must have originated during WW2 when food ration pack air drops were a thing. HONG Kong being Hong Kong they made it more palatable by adding extra flavouring to make those items taste more interesting. Things like the macaroni tomato, instant noodles with soup, tinned spam and thick toast French toast with peanut butter and syrup.

Hawaii likes the tinned breakfast spam thing too, likely from similar origins.

Funny, my grandfather fought in WW2 and totally refused to eat bread post War, because that's what they mostly ate in war ravage towns in Europe.

Hong Kong made this ration pack based breakfast an identity where as Europeans would have been happy to never have touched those items again if they had a choice.

Just one of those funny cultural difference things that we will never understand.

Maybe it's like how the Koreans embraced budae-jjigae (army base stew) as part of who they are. This dish actually came about right after the Korean War when they started using leftover processed and canned foods from the US military bases.

[HKthe]

Hong kong style breakfast. I feel nauseous just thinking about it. Have you ever had breakfast in say, Vietnam? Now that is good quality food.

[chobochobo]

Weird reactions. No one is forcing you to eat 'HK breakfasts'. I like a 'full English' with good bacon and sausage, I also like a 'local' breakfast too - I haven't been for a while but my go-to would be Nissin noodles with spicy pork cubes and sunny side up egg ('ding dan ding'). Or Shin Ramyun (Nongshim) with sunny side egg and chicken 'steak'.

[huja]

I will admit that I would enjoy a pineapple bun now and then.