A Little Food Adventure in Sham Shui Po
All photos taken by Kay Dulay
Hong Kong is a major tourist destination for Filipinos. I remember that my mother also used to frequent it when I was younger. She had visited interesting places, such as Sham Shui Po, which is famous as an area of cultural significance. For my part, Kay and I made our first visit to Hong Kong for an ice skating competition. We also found ourselves staying around the Sham Shui Po area. Only recently I had discovered that there is a Hong Kong food tour centering on the district, so I thought I would take the opportunity to learn more.
What the tour lacked in the creativity of its name (it’s simply called “Eating Adventures”), it made up for its expansive scope and well-curated stops. The tour offers various locations in both China and Hong Kong. In Hong Kong alone, it runs tours in Mongkok and Central. But those two are already known for their foodie finds and I wanted to try something different, so off to Sham Shui Po I went!
Starting the adventure
Our meeting place was across the C2 exit of Sham Shui Po, under the Computer Arcade. Our tour guide Yen met us with a huge smile. As we were herded off to our first stop, she talked about the living conditions in the area to give us a bit of context.
Sham Shui Po is known as one of the wholesale neighborhoods of Hong Kong, but it fell a bit on the unfortunate side when it comes to living conditions. In recent times, however, it has received attention from the Hong Kong Tourism Board to promote it as the “other side of Central”. Unlike the more touristy atmosphere of Central, the vibes here are very local. There’s a lot of street art in the area, and of course, good food!
Something familiar : Push Cart Noodles in the Hong Kong Food Tour
Our first two stops are fairly familiar to the Filipino palate. We first went for some pushcart noodles at Mankee, where they make the ingredients every day at 6AM! This makes for some really fresh noodles. The only caveat is that the menu is all in Chinese.
There are chori noodles and beef brisket, rice noodles and daikon (radish)! We were given whole huge portions of the noodles and most of us finished it. It was really delicious! I was worried about not having enough appetite for the rest of the tour, but this one is just too good to pass up.
For the second one we had fried tofu partnered with soy drink. Soy much? Really, no one minded since it was good. The drink tasted good even with reduced sugar, as Yen said the Chinese was conscious about a lot of sugar in their diet.
Eating Adventures Food Tour Stops
The third stop is a Taiwanese one that featured oh-so-tender beef! The group was kinda split here — half of us don’t like spicy, while another half did. Fortunately the beef came in both variants, and everybody ended up with happy tummies.
In the same shop we also had garlic in cucumber, and really tender spicy duck! This one isn’t as spicy as the beef, so everyone loved it.
Up next was my favorite stuff! We had fried pork Xiao long bao, and though I’m more used to having it steamed I still found it really amazing! There were also truffles on the menu, and we ordered some just to try it. We stumbled upon a must-have! Kay and I agreed this is the perfect stop.
The next stop featured some unusual herb drinks, and really tasty plum juice. We also saw some street art as we moved towards Prince Edward’s Street which is lined with cafes and shops selling everything from cars to clothes.There was also Cedar Street which is equally interesting!
We ended up near Prince Edward Station, after eating in a fancy resto that featured traditional Chinese food like chicken feet, shrimp dumplings, char siu bao, rice rolls, barbecue, and hakao! Curiously we still had enough room in our tummies to stuff these last bits of delectable food.
And like any good tour, Eating Adventures also left us with some food for thought. I loved the part where part of the tour’s proceeds goes to the Little Angels community, like some sort social responsibility initiative to help Sham Shui Po. Who would not want to enjoy good food, discover new culture, have fun, and help the community all at the same time? At Eating Adventures, we had all that and more. This is hong kong food tour we could really recommend if you set foot in this section of Hong Kong.
Details : Eating Adventure Food Tour
Website : https://www.eatingadventures.com/
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[…] Hong Kong Eating Adventures is another noteworthy walking tour in Hong Kong. These are led by locals in the area who know all about the food you’re going to try. You can even request customized and private tours. They have tours at three different locations with different cuisines to try at each one: […]