Hong Kong Cafe Meals: Ham, Egg, Instant Noodles with Milk Tea
24 November, 2009One of the ubiquitous eating places in Hong Kong is the Cha Chaan Teng – 茶餐厅 (Hong Kong Tea Restaurant). It is known for its affordable menus offering a wide variety of dishes e.g. Hong Kong cuisine and Hong Kong-style Western cuisine (Canto-Western Cuisine). It is something like Singapore’s kopi-tiam except that it specialises in the above-mentioned meals and the staple drink here is tea – hot, cold, with or without milk; there is a wide variety available.
Located just a few minutes from our Stanford Hong Kong hotel lies a number of such eateries. We decided to have our breakfast here because it had the very traditional Cha Chaan Teng feel i.e. a 4-6 seater wooden booth with drawers filled with all the utensils and serviettes you need for your meal.
I ordered Yi Ding Mien (Instant Noodles) sets which come with luncheon meat and toast. Introduced in Cha Chaan Teng in the 1980s, instant noodles usually come with canned food like luncheon meat or pork cubes, or with other kinds of meat. It can be served dry or with soup.
Being a typical value-conscious Singaporean, my first instinct would be to think “Yao mo gao chor ah” (Cantonese for ‘You must be mistaken’) – coming all the way to Hong Kong and paying the equivalent of about S$4 for Maggi Mee?!?!
Oh well, you know what they say about “When in Rome, do as Romans do”. Yi Ding Mien sets with toast and milk tea is also part of the authentic Hong Kong Tea Cafe experience. 🙂
The set meal was of good value because of the variety of ham, egg, toast + the instant noodles with pork chop. I was kept quite busy trying to multi-task between each item. 🙂
Comments (7)
Gabriel
24 November, 2009 at 1:03 pmwow…seems so nice and really economical! hope can visit HK one day! thanks for sharing. 😀
.-= Gabriel´s last blog ..By the lake =-.
kelvin
24 November, 2009 at 3:39 pmMy mum regret straight after tasting the maggie mee…its tasteless…Yuan Yang is a good drink there^^
.-= kelvin´s last blog ..The 1st ever Macdonald in India? =-.
Zhiqiang
28 November, 2009 at 8:02 am@kelvin, actually the maggi mee tasted exactly what I had expected – not tasteless but full of MSG 🙂 nonetheless the entire set was still yummy (with egg and toasts and the pork chop)
J2Kfm
25 November, 2009 at 10:31 amNothing beats a leisurely breakfast or tea break at any one of those Char Chan teng of Hong Kong’s.
Cool blog, jumped from Kelvin’s site.
travelerfolio
27 November, 2009 at 11:31 amWA!! I miss HK food! I love their dim sum and roast meats! 😀
Cecil
11 December, 2009 at 8:39 amAlways fun to be able to try what local eats on your travel. I don’t understand why Hong Kong people loves Chu Qian Yi Ding instant noodles. It’s a must in all Cha Chan Teng…. 🙁 Thanks for sharing.
.-= Cecil´s last blog ..Travel Snapshot – Nanjing Street of Shanghai =-.
Kieno
15 March, 2012 at 10:49 amBeen years since the last post, but I thought I’d share my love of Chu Qian Yi Ding noodles. I don’t know how they do it, but their noodles have a texture that is unforgettable. I think it tastes best when it’s still a little crunchy, but even when soaked completely tastes fabulous. Sure newer Ramen noodles have fancy vegetables and toppings, but simplicity is genius. I haven’t had Chu Qian Yi Ding in years, but I still remember it fondly.