100 things blog challenge: 5 Hong Kong local street food I love

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Deuk Deuk Tong



Deuk Deuk Tong 啄啄糖 is a hard maltose candy, usually with sesame and ginger flavours. My memory of Deuk Deuk Tong is always connected with Ching Ming 清明, a traditional day for sweeping the grave. When I was very young, my family and me went to the cemetery where my grandparents were buried here. There was always an old lady who sold the candy by the street side and my parents would buy some mint favoured Deuk Deuk Tong for me. Despite the day's association with death, I was too young to feel morbid about this. In fact, my brother and I would play in the cemetery when we were young, and the cemetery was always associated with a certain kind of innocence of childhood. I don't remember seeing the candies sold elsewhere, and in fact I always connected it with death.

Deuk Deuk Tong on wikipedia

Hong Kong style waffle


Hong Kong style waffles are called grid cakes here. They 're round in shape and divided into four quarters. It is usually served as a snack. Butter, peanut butter and sugar are spread on one side of the cooked waffle, and then it is folded into a semicircle to eat. They are generally soft and not dense. Traditional Hong Kong style waffles are full of the flavor of yolk They used to be sold by street hawkers, and I always asked for a large amount of sugar, milk and peanut butter. Sometimes I ate it s a light lunch. But with the government's eradication of street hawkers, nowadays you usually go to shops to buy them.

Baked sweet potato



Baked sweet potatoes are always sold by street hawkers, without exception, in winter. The street hawkers put the sweet potatoes under coals to bake them with low heat, and place them in paper bag when the costumers but from them.

The first time I ate baked sweet potato though was in a barbecue and I felt in love with the sweet taste and the texture. It's more of a guilty pleasure because it still has an illegimate favour to buy baked sweet potatoes from hawkers and everytimd I buy one it feels like a small rebellion.

Stinky Tofu


Stinky tofu is a form of fermented tofu that has a strong odor. In Hong Kong, it 's extinguishing due to government prosecution. In Hong Kong we served it fried with sweet sauce. The outside is crispy while the inside is soft. You either love it or hjate it.

Put Chai Ko


Put Chai Ko is a kind of sweet rice pudding with a long history. It's made with ingredient such as sugar and rice power and traditionally baked in a tile bowl (Put Chai). The colour comes from the yellow sugar it's made with. Very delicious.