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Cha chaan teng culture and history

Cha chaan teng culture and history
Discover the unique history and culture of Hong Kong’s cha chaan tengs, local diners where delicious food and drinks with international influences thrive.
last updated:
9 September, 2024
A source says another cha chaan teng will also be featured at the coming Art Basel Miami Beach from December 6 to 8. Photo: Tourism Board
Hong Kong tourism

Hong Kong cha chaan teng delights Paris during Art Basel show

Pop-up part of Tourism Board’s three-year deal with Art Basel to showcase Hong Kong culture.

Food and Drinks

A little bit of Hong Kong in Canada: the origin story of Ho Yuen Cafe

Hong Kong economy

Opinion | How to boost Hong Kong tourism: vouchers now, and a vision for the long term

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Food and Drinks

Sydney cafe an ode to old Hong Kong with milk tea, fish balls and Cantopop

Since 2016, Sydney’s Hong Kong Bing Sutt has been serving dishes such as claypot rice and fish ball noodles. To migrants from the city it offers a reminder of home, to others a slice of its culture.

A fully loaded bowl of fish ball noodles is one of many classic Hong Kong dishes on the menu a Hong Kong Bing Sutt in Burwood, Sydney which offers milk tea, pineapple buns, and fish ball noodles to Sydneysiders and homesick Hongkongers living in Australia. Photo: Hong Kong Bing Sutt
Hong Kong society

Not just about secret recipes: Hong Kong restaurant wins fans with a personal touch

Ngan Lung Cafe in Lei Yue Mun Fishing Village boasts signature local fare, and owner knows most by name, tailoring dishes to suit customers.

Food and Drinks

‘Not just food, it’s feeling’: Sydney’s Hong Kong cafes offer taste of home

Hong Kong-style tea cafes in Australia, with their neon, shop signs, even a replica minibus and tram, and above all their food and drinks, offer comfort to homesick migrants – and something different for the locals.

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Hong Kong

Opinion | To boost nightlife tourism, why not promote Hong Kong’s dai pai dong?

In a city that never sleeps, instead of looking to organise new nightlife attractions, it makes more sense to highlight the ones that already exist as recognisable parts of local culture.

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Dai pai dong cooks in Sham Shui Po on May 1. Increasingly, tourists prefer grit to glitter, turning away from modern, large-scale, planned events to seek out small, colourful, organic pockets of local history and culture. Photo: Llewellyn Cheung
Food and Drinks

It’s a love letter to Hong Kong: diner food and tea served in a London cafe

With its Hong Kong diner menu, including silky milk tea, and details such as orange wheat pattern takeaway cups, Hoko Cafe, in East London, is a place for exiles and others to connect with the Chinese city’s culture.

Food and Drinks

The mystery of the takeaway paper cup that became a Hong Kong icon

If you order takeaway milk tea in Hong Kong, you will probably get it in the ubiquitous ‘wheat pattern’ paper cup. The design has inspired artists and homesick Hongkongers, but where did it originate?

Food and Drinks

‘Essential to the culture’: why Hong Kong’s cha chaan teng are worth saving

The cha chaan teng, or Hong Kong-style cafe, is a definitive food experience in the city. In the wake of the pandemic, we look at the cafes that didn’t make it, and others that are determined to keep on serving.

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The exterior of Sun Wah Cafe, in Cheung Sha Wan, Hong Kong. Photo: Edmond So
Food and Drinks

‘I’ve been going there for 50 years’: where a hotelier eats in Hong Kong

Maria Lee, the founder of The Rosedale Hotel Group, shares her favourite Hong Kong restaurants – including a cha chaan teng she has frequented for 50 years and a place that serves her favourite congee.

Chiu Chow dishes at Shung Hing Chiu Chow Restaurant in Hong Kong. Photo: Instagram/@scrumptious.foodie
Hong Kong economy

End of an era? 5 Hong Kong food and beverage icons that have bowed out

From Happy Cake Shop to Jumbo Floating Restaurant, a number of classic food outlets have buckled under pressure amid the pandemic.

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Food and Drinks

Dismay at sudden closure of one of Hong Kong’s oldest traditional cafes

Mido Cafe, a 72-year-old cha chaan teng in Yau Ma Tei, announced the news in an ambiguous note posted outside its premises. Many shared their grief on social media at the loss of a ‘Hong Kong icon’.

Food and Drinks

The origins of Hong Kong’s cha chaan teng and where to find a good one

Born as a way to provide affordable Western food, cha chaan teng in Hong Kong have become a vital part of the city’s culture.

With many locations, long opening hours and good food, Tsui Wah is a favourite of Hongkongers. Photo: Xiaomei Chen
Hong Kong culture

Steeped in history: how Hong Kong-style milk tea became a staple

Super strong, drawn through a silk stocking four times, served with a splash of evaporated milk, the traditional drink with colonial roots has been energising Hongkongers of all types since the second world war

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Hong Kong-style milk tea is served with evaporated milk. Photo: Dickson Lee
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