The yummy street snacks will be back in the streets of Hong Kong for our convince. LEADER Oct 04, 2009 Email to friend | Print a copy Street food is the life and soul of cities the world over. The concept is simple enough: the vendors provide cheap and tasty snacks to people on the move, have jobs that they otherwise might not have, contribute revenue to public coffers through licence fees, and add colour and vibrancy to otherwise drab streets. Everyone wins. More is the mystery then, why Hong Kong's government takes a dim view of the idea. Food hawkers have been chased indoors. The traditional street restaurants they operate, dai pai dong, were years ago deemed by bureaucrats to be causing clutter. A ban on new licences is in effect: only the owner's spouse can take over the licence, which means the businesses cannot be sold for profit or passed on to other family members. The economic downturn prompted officials to issue new licences for ice-cream vendors in June, for the first time since 1993. Food and Environmental Hygiene Department hawker-control teams patrol the streets to enforce regulations. Circumstances are in sharp contrast to cities elsewhere. Mainland authorities have lifted a ban on street food to create jobs. Tourists flock to Taiwan, which is famous Asia-wide for its street fare. Traditional snacks can be purchased from carts or stalls from London to Cairo to Johannesburg to Sydney and beyond. Hong Kong is the loser for the government's blindness. A taste of what we are missing was on show in New York last weekend. At a charity event, awards were handed out for the best street food. More than mere hot dogs were in the running: Chinese dumplings, Indian biryani, Taiwanese chicken nuggets and Arabic falafel were among the dozens of entries. The winner was Brooklyn husband and wife team Hernando and Jolanda Martinez, whose cart specialises in tacos, quesadillas and huaraches. Hong Kong has 10,000 restaurants, but waiting for a table and food priced according to rents are not everyone's cup of tea. We could do much better if dai pai dong returned to our streets. The government should follow the example set elsewhere and reverse its unappetising ban on street food.
waaaaaaa a food show in ny but i didnt knw :( damn i missed it street foods are definitely the best, cheap & its the culture im eating. every time i watch 時尚玩家 & they list the price for the food, it's so fuckin cheap in USD really wanna fly to TW rite away (hoping next yr). cheap & good, isnt it what we are all looking for lol omg im kinda craving for stinky tofu rite now...滷肉飯..o a chian..胡椒餅..-drool-drool tho i do rmb one time when i was lito, i bought 牛雜 w/ my fds on the streets, ended up havin a stomachache (not to clean i guess, but it tasted good who cares)
We get stomacheaches at regular restaurants too. I had this problem when I went dim sum in a mid-class restaurant. Its' more to do with the moral of the business practice; whether to serve fresh food daily and toss out previous.
You guys are weak, I think what HK gov't are doing to those old school vendors are really a shame. So I'm hoping they would have a change of hearts. It's part of the culture and they should find a way to get all those vendors into areas for them to open their small vendors, it's a lot of fun walking the streets with many different types of snacks and goodies that are cheap and fast. HK gov't wants to act all high class and thinks those vendors aren't good enough and force them to open stores or shut down for good in the past. But they must have saw the good that can come with those vendors. I love it when they have fairs in the city, so many vendors offering different food...
Funny incident I saw when a hawker was chased down by inspectors, then his cart caught on fire and he sprinted into the alleyway....with the cart. -lol
Man I really missed those HK dai pai dong, when I was still in HK I always went to the one near my apartment to buy gei dang jai. :( I want gei dang jai and gaa lei yu dang now
It is really sad they banned that kind of stuff. I remember in the past when I got to go to HK I would always search for those food stalls near the streets. The food is authentic and part of the HK culture, it should actually be preserved instead of banned. Or they should provide the owners of these stalls with a place where they can sell these kind of food in better conditions. Both the stall owners and the HK citizens will benefit. If people are concerned about the hygiene of the food, then they should not buy or eat from those stalls. Otherwise, it is really sad for the people who do appreciate the food.
