Batgung - Food and drink

Palate drift

Mr Tall — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 01:00:00 +0000

I’m always on the search for new restaurants with good food. That’s why it was with a minor infusion of joy that I noticed a new restaurant opening just down the road from my church. Look, a new lunch place – and it had the air of a place that might be kind of bistro-like, yet cheap! Perfect.

But then I had a closer look. It was not a bistro. It was not a coffee shop, or a fast-food joint, at least not quite. It was a salad place.

Now, years ago, that would have been just fine with me. A good salad with lots of nice ingredients would have been just the thing for a quick lunch. But for some reason, I found myself experiencing a sense of clear disappointment as I worked my way down the posted menu.

Why?

Well, I had to acknowledge that, deep down, the thought of a salad for lunch no longer seemed quite right to me – there was just something not-completely-formed, something vaguely inadequate in the concept itself . . . .

And I realized at that moment that I’ve been through palate drift, and come out on the other side.

What’s palate drift? I’ll define it as a change in one’s tastes brought about by long exposure to an initially unfamiliar cuisine that ultimately overcomes one’s original preferences.

Hong Kong is a perfect place to experience palate drift. It’s got great food, headlined by one of the world's preeminent cuisines, so it’s no surprise that a American who’s accustomed to his home country’s food may find himself losing his taste for old favorites, and replacing them with new ones.

But just finding new favorite foods doesn’t quite do justice to the sense of palate drift I have in mind. To explore this, it’s better to get down to fundamentals.

For example, my dissatisfaction with the notion of a salad lunch is not based on the taste of any given salad. Rather, it’s a bedrock assumption about what constitutes a proper meal. And although salad lunches are common in my homeland, they’re widely derided in Chinese culture as not lunch at all: for many local people, a real meal must focus on cooked food, so salad is not going to make the grade. Obviously, I’ve been subconsciously converted to this view as my palate has drifted.

I’ve also noticed this phenomenon kick in when I’m back in the USA on long holidays. At first, eating typical American food is no problem (I’m not a food snob – although there’s lots of bad food in the USA, there’s also plenty that’s good). But after some days an impatience with menus (not to mention my saintly Mother’s cooking) nags at me; I miss certain tastes and textures that I’m accustomed to in Chinese food here in Hong Kong. My food seems bland and un-pungent. I find myself subconsciously reaching to pick up my rice bowl.

And usually upon returning to HK I find myself doing the rounds of favorite places and dishes to feel like I’m really back home again.

Another aspect of palate drift, of course, is one’s ability not just to tolerate, but to enjoy – and even crave – very different tastes. The word that came to me just now was ‘pungent’, and that’s a good example. When I first came to Hong Kong, I found things like shrimp paste, fermented bean curd, and (top of the list) stinky bean curd not just unappetizing but almost disgusting. That has changed, to say the least; I now love all three.

On the other hand, my palate hasn’t drifted all the way over to the Eastern shore. One point of evidence is sandwiches. I recall on my first visit to Hong Kong being bemused by seeing a new Chinese friend powering down a ham-and-cheese sandwich for breakfast, but then refusing to entertain the possibility of having sandwiches at any other meal. I still eat sandwiches for lunch on many days, but we’ll see if that too must pass as time goes by . . . .

Readers, do you have any examples of palate drift in your own tastes?

Mr Tall's quest for manly bread

Mr Tall — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 01:00:00 +0000

The other day I found myself staring forlornly into the rapidly enmist-ifying depths of my freezer. I was looking for a pack of bread to set out to thaw for my lunch the next day. And all I could see through the swirling fog was a clinical white plain of barren nothingness . . . there was none.

I recovered from my horror with a little trip down to Park N Shop to buy some of its floppy, over-risen, vaguely sweet bread. And although eating my sandwiches the next day was like unto a banquet of wormwood and gall, I persevered, and stand before you today to cry forth, in all seriousness: where do you buy good bread in Hong Kong?

First, let’s get straight what I mean by ‘good bread’. I’m no advocate of the currently-chic Atkins/all-protein/eat-whole-freshly-dead-creatures-like-the-Neanderthals diet. I like my carbs, and I like them in the forms that hew most closely to the ways le Bon Dieu has made them.

When it comes to bread, therefore, I like the grainiest of the grainy breads, those with body and heft and texture. I can go for a nice crusty baguette on occasion, but they don’t hold up well after baking, especially as I’ve got to think about stockpiling decent bread in the freezer, since we’re right back to that same problem: I can’t find enough regular sources of the bread I like, especially in stores near me.

At the moment, even with the proliferation of western restaurants and supermarket stock we’ve seen in Hong Kong in recent years, I’ve still got just two reliable sources:

Ali-Oli Bakery

Pluses: Both their ‘country grain’ and their ‘multigrain’ loaves are very, very good. The country grain is especially dense and grainy, and toasts magnificently. Ali-Oli also make a chocolate truffle cake that is transporting in its richness; it’s possibly the best cake I’ve ever had. And if you do go to Sai Kung to visit them, they’ve got an al fresco café set up outside the bakery where you can eat fresh baked goods and drink decent coffee. Their prices are reasonable, if not cheap.

Minuses: Ali-Oli’s in Sai Kung, and although it delivers, you’ve got to come up with an order of HKD300 or more, which means putting a whole lot of bread into the freezer. On the bright side, they do carry other products like jams, olive oils and deli stuff, so it’s not exactly a hardship putting together a substantial order.

Great

Pluses: there’s not much doubt Great runs the most varied and generally high-quality bakery in Hong Kong. Their multiseed sourdough bread (sliced off those huge pillow-style loaves) is fantastic, and I like their individual multigrain loaves as well. Great’s also in a convenient location for people who live on the island, and even for those like me who don’t, but who are on an MTR line.

Minuses: High prices and mildly snooty ambiance, plus the fact that you’re in Pacific Place, a shopping mall that’s never been my favorite.

And that’s it – that’s my list of places in Hong Kong that make bread I like enough to buy in bulk and keep on hand. None of the other sources I’ve bought bread from quite measure up:

Oliver’s (not always very fresh, and not cheap)
Taste (doesn’t carry the really good bread varieties that Great does)
360 (good, but not as good as Great, and just as expensive)
Park N Shop (see above)
CitySuper (a weird selection, and overpriced)
Maxim’s, BreadBox and other local bakeries (cheap, okay in a pinch, but invariably fluffy and sweet)

So, readers, what am I missing? Are there some great bakeries out there I’ve overlooked? Do the local bakery chains have any types of bread I’ve not deigned to try, but that are in fact good eatin’?

Fast food in Hong Kong

Mr Tall — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 01:00:00 +0000

We’ve all seen those lists: ‘You know you’re a redneck when . . .’ or ‘You know you’ve been abducted, probed and brainwashed by aliens when . . .’, and so on.

Well, I’ve got an entry in the ‘You know you’ve been an expat in Hong Kong for long time when . . .’ list. That is: ‘I know I’ve been in Hong Kong for a long time when I get excited by the prospect of going to Fairwood Fast Food for a weekend breakfast.’

No, really!

Those of you who have lived here for a while have surely come across a Fairwood franchise – or one of its competitors, i.e. Café de Coral and Maxim’s – and may have thought ‘Ugh. Chinese McDonald’s, at best! Stay far, far, away . . .’.

For many years, this was exactly my stance. I was taken to a Fairwood by my students during my first stay in Hong Kong in 1988, and it was a memorable culinary experience. I am still trying very hard, in fact, to forget it. So even if the exquisitely refined and highly discriminating Mrs Tall suggested we grab a quick bite at a local fast food chain, I wouldn’t hear of it.

Things have changed. I discovered that on one Sunday morning when I needed to go to church earlier than they did, Mrs Tall and Daughter Tall, those two miserable schemers, sneaked over to our local Fairwood for breakfast.

This pattern – which soon was repeating – led to a breakthrough. By breaching the cold, stony fortifications of my culinary heart with their tearful entreaties – and also by threatening to abandon me at home alone so that I could enjoy my solitary bowl of muesli, by myself, in isolation – my wife and daughter convinced me to give local fast food one more chance.

And I was pleasantly surprised. I ordered a nice set comprising two eggs, sunny-side up; a thick slice of toast; a slightly dodgy-looking but okay-tasting chicken filet; and a cup of passable coffee with milk. The cost? Twenty-five dollars or so -- the whole set costs less than a coffee at Starbucks or Pacific Coffee.

Since that memorable morning, we Talls have become quite regular Fairwood customers, eating there once every couple of weeks or so. This is mostly a function of the frustrating lack of restaurants in my neighborhood, but it’s really no hardship. I think Fairwood's breakfasts are better than their lunch/dinner meals, but those meals still have decent options. I like their curries, and the ‘dead things on rice’ (e.g. cha siu, roasted chicken, etc.) is reliable, too. Daughter Tall has become a fan of their spaghetti bolognaise – although this one tastes to me like an weird hybrid between actual bolognaise sauce and American-style chili con carne (it even has kidney beans), she loves it. And since prices are so cheap, it’s hard to be too critical.

I also don’t mind eating at Maxim’s; if anything, they’re a bit up the scale from Fairwood. But Café de Coral still puts me off. There’s something creepy about their food’s appearance – their dishes look like competently-executed plastic models (like the ones in the windows in Japanese restaurants) that have inexplicably sprung to quivering, unwholesome life.

If you’re looking to make your own move into this exciting food and beverage arena, I’ve got some advice for you. There are a couple of challenges to eating at local fast food chains that you’ve got to be ready to meet.

First, you have to find a seat. Our local Fairwood on a Sunday morning at 10:00 looks like Pamplona as the bulls round the corner into the Plaza de Toros. Needless to say, every table is occupied, and there’s bound to be a huge line at the cash registers where you place your orders. The last thing you want is to order your food, line up again to pick it up, then stand there looking pole-axed, forlornly clutching your tray full of rapidly-cooling food as you search in vain for a table.

What’s needed, clearly, is a strategy. Here’s how the Family Tall handles this sticky problem:

First, a clear demarcation and execution of roles:

Daughter Tall, who glories in fearless search-and-seize commando ops, finds us a table. I doubt there’s a quality in a child that’s more valuable than being able to stomp up to a table occupied by a paper-perusing uncle with just a quarter-glass of lai cha in front of him, then plop down in the seat across the table and engage him in cute but quickly irritating conversation that compels him to fold up his paper and get the heck out.

Mrs Tall, our most organized and knowledgeable officer (i.e. she knows what all team members want to eat), lines up at the cash register, orders, and obtains the little receipt tickets needed for presentation at the food service counter. (Note that the wall-mounted menu has English translations, so there are no serious problems for a non-Chinese speaker who’s willing to point.)

Yours truly, who is, in his wife’s words, ‘very bulky’, immediately steps into the food service counter line, where he performs his placeholding function with stout-hearted determination.

With all members doing their jobs, we’ve usually got food on the table in 10 minutes or so.

The second big obstacle to dining comfort at Fairwood is orange. That is, in its current corporate image scheme, Fairwood features an orange logo, orange upholstery, orange walls and ceilings, and orange uniforms for all staff. And it’s a bright, mercilessly cheerful orange. I’ve made my peace with orange, but if you’re a purple person, for example, you may find Fairwood visually uncongenial. Fortunately, I have seen no evidence that Fairwood is attempting to apply its color scheme to the food itself. Café de Coral has less-antagonizing but dull color scheme based mostly on brown, and MX – well, have a look here.

If you’re still not convinced Hong Kong fast food is for you, you may want to have a look at the three main chains’ tasteful and convivial websites. They are linked as follows:

Fairwood

Café de Coral

MX (i.e. Maxim’s fast food) (note this one’s only in Chinese, which surprises me.)

Readers, any favorites/reviews/mouse-in-the-oatmeal anecdotes related to your experiences in Hong Kong fast food restaurants?

Chinese Soup

mrb — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 01:00:00 +0000

Soup doesn't get much attention in the UK. You might reheat a canned soup when you're too full for a proper meal, or mix powdered soup with boiling water when you're camping. But that's about it.

Things are different here – soup is a big deal. MrsB summed it up: “Don't drink soup? Then you'll get sick!”

The Chinese soup she's thinking is the soup that is served in homes here - nothing like the gloopy “something with sweetcorn” soup served in Chinese restaurants overseas. No cans or powders either. I think the average local mum would rather leap out of their high-rise kitchen window than be seen serving those to their family. A mother is measured by her soup, so there's more work involved than just opening a can.

First there's the choice of the type of soup, to best fit the drinker's current health. At the broadest level, that depends on the weather, eg cooling soups in summertime, and warming soups for winter. Soups are always served at a warm temperature, the 'warming' and 'cooling' refers to the chinese medicine view of hot and cold. The soup's ingredients (all fresh, of course) may also be tailored to help a specific condition – eg skin problems, a sore throat, or the infamous 'yeet hay'.

Next, and thankfully, there is also some consideration paid to what the soupee likes and dislikes. We went through a phase of having fishy-tasting soups. Sometimes there was an actual fish involved, other times there were dried seafood. Not my cup of ... soup, so we don't get those so often now. Pork, carrots and other things I wonder about always goes down well though. In fact I saw the remains of soup-making in the kitchen earlier today, so it looks as though we'll be having the pork & something soup tonight:

Best drunk on an empty stomach, the soup is often served just before dinner. That's not a must though – if you're getting home late you might find soup waiting for you. One of the common phonecalls you can overhear on the bus will be “Let me know if you're coming home tonight, and I'll cook you soup”, or with different undertones “I'm cooking your favourite soup. Are you coming home for dinner?”. MrsB let on that cooking good soup is seen as one way for a wife to prevent her husband from straying!

With so much riding on the quality of the soup, a good recipe is something to be prized and be proud of. Keep this in mind if you're invited to a friend's home for a family meal. When you are served soup, you won't go far wrong by asking for a second bowl. Show a bit of interest in the ingredients and their beneficial effects, and the mother will be in seventh heaven. (Just be careful not to go too far, or you'll start receiving thermos flasks of the stuff on a daily basis!)

If you marry a local person, you'll discover that the arrival of a new baby is a signal to ramp up the soup production, and also to zero in on ingredients that help new mums. Expect plenty of fish soup (lucky I'll never be a mum), and probably papaya soup too if there is breast-feeding underway. You'll also be served up a dose of the pig knuckle, ginger, eggs, and vinegar concoction that is meant to fortify the new mum. You'll smell that before you taste it though, as it hubbles and bubbles away for a long time before it is ready to be served.

MrsB also drank bird's nest soup for a while after each time she gave birth. Now, like me you're probably wondering how you get soup from this [1]:

Especially when you try a mouthful of birds nest soup and find it's what you imagine drinking from a spittoon must feel like. If you turn to the web to solve the mystery, you find your instincts were almost spot on: “A few species of swift, the cave swifts, are renowned for building the saliva nests used to produce the unique texture of this soup.” [2] (A second reason to be grateful I'm a man).

Given the importance of soup, there's little surprise that restaurants here serve plenty of the stuff too. In an interesting cultural twist, a set lunch at a local restaurant that serves nominally “western” food will almost always include soup as a starter. You get a choice of red or white, and as Mr Tall explains, “ALWAYS choose the red soup”.

The most common soup you'll get with a set lunch at a local Chinese restaurant will be similar to the watery homestyle soups described above. If you're heading to a fancier Chinese restaurant, though, and especially if you're eating from the wedding/annual company dinner/fleece-the-tourist banquet menu, then expect to be served a bowl of shark's fin soup. Should you eat it or not? I think not, but at the table I'll just say I don't like it, and ask if anyone else would like my bowl. I can't see the attraction anyway, it just seems like eating noodles to me.

If you're here in winter, you might also try a bowl of snake soup [3]. If you're just visiting, don't worry that you'll order a bowlful by mistake. Snake soup is generally served in a small shop that specifically sells snake products – there are usually several cages of live snakes on display just to dispel any doubts. It is supposed to be a good 'warming' food for the wintry weather. Something interesting to try, but yes, it tastes like chicken...

MrB

References:
[1] - Photo of bird's nest from the Walk Camarthenshire website
[2] - Birds nest soup
[3] - Snake soup

More on the cost of living in Hong Kong

Mr Tall — Thu, 17 May 2007 01:00:00 +0000

A few weeks ago I introduced a new component in our set of articles on the cost of living in Hong Kong. In that first installment, I compared the prices of fresh produce and meats in Hong Kong's markets, ordinary supermarkets, and high-end 'expat-oriented' food halls.

In this installment, I concentrate on some 'non-fresh' food items, and some day-to-day toiletries and things. Since quite a few of these items aren't available in Hong Kong's wet markets, I've cut out the first column in my table. We'll just compare prices in typical neighborhood supermarkets, and the expat shopping meccas. I've again consciously avoided selecting either the very cheapest products from the supermarket (I've chosen instead brands I think I or other expats might be happy with) or the most expensive options from the expat places (if you try this, the prices just go through the roof -- for example, I could have included the straight-from-the-aging-cask Italian olive oil I sampled at Great; it only sets you back HKD720/USD92.30 per litre).

In general, you will see that for food and household supplies, the big price differentials between Hong Kong's ordinary supermarkets and its 'expat' supermarkets still hold true. The difference for the basket of household goods is really eye-catching; the 'expat' items are over five times as costly as the ordinary supermarket stuff, plus you get one less toilet roll -- and you never know when you're going to wish you had that!

The happy exception to this general rule seems to be alcoholic drinks. As you can see from the numbers in the table below, there's little significant difference, especially for wine and hard liquor. It seemed to me that the expat stores mark up beers just a bit more than the supermarkets, but it's not that significant. Buying booze therefore is much more about availability (i.e., where can I find my very own special brands?) and looking for sales, which can indeed be cause for rejoicing, and much stocking up. I don't buy alcohol all that often, so I wonder if any readers know (from hard-earned experience, of course) whether the supermarkets are more likely to put wine/beer/liquor on sale than the expat stores? The bad news about booze is that the likely reason its prices are so uniform across Hong Kong is that it's so heavily taxed, and therefore so costly already.

Three other notes before you get started: First, for several items, I've quoted prices from a brand called 'Select'. This is local supermarket chain ParkNShop's current 'house' brand; it's from the UK, and most of the 'Select' items I've bought have been just fine in terms of quality. Wellcome has a similar house brand, called 'First Choice', from Australia. It also seems to be perfectly good. Second, note that I've again pro-rated items to a standard measure, e.g. 1 kg of frozen chicken. You likely won't actually be able to buy an exactly-1 kg frozen chicken from either source, of course! Third, prices are listed first in Hong Kong dollars, then in US dollars for comparative convenience.

Off-the-shelf food items
	Mid-budget (HKD/USD)	High-budget (HKD/USD)
White rice, 1 kg	7.60/0.97 Kam Heung (Thai) (This is Chez Tall's standard!)	49.00/6.28 Organic (USA)
Spaghetti, 500g	10.80/1.38 Vetta (Italy)	68.50/8.78 Italian organic
Flour, white 1 kg	18.20/2.33 Betty Crocker (USA)	23.50/3.01 Marriage's organic (UK
Cheese, imported 250g	34.50/4.42 Mainland (NZ) cheddar	70.00/8.97 Farmhouse cheddar (UK)
Yoghurt, natural 150g tub	7.50/0.96 Danone (France)	19.50/2.50 Yeo Valley (UK)
Milk, fresh 1l	17.90/2.29 Kowloon Dairy	26.90/3.45 Pura (Aus)
Olive oil 1l	89.00/11.41 Select extra virgin	233.00/29.87 Olitalia Cultivar
Corn oil 940ml	19.90/2.55 Mazola (USA)	26.50/3.40 Mazola (USA)
Tomaotes, canned 400g can	11.50/1.47 Waitrose (UK)	19.50/2.50 Muir Glen (USA)
Chicken, frozen 1 kg	28.40/3.64 (Brazil)	100.00/12.80 (France)
Ground coffee 250g	43.60/5.59 Robert Timms (Aus)	50.00/6.40 Cafe Direct Fairtrade
Tea bags, packet of 80	42.90/5.50 Tetley's Drawstring (UK)	49.50/6.34 Taylor's Yorkshire
Mineral water 1.5l	7.60/0.97 Select (from Scotland)	11.90/1.53 Volvic
Orange juice 1l	10.90/1.40 Select	38.00/4.87 Vita Verde Organic (Germany)
Totals	HKD350.30/USD44.91	HKD785.80/USD100.74
Alcoholic drinks
	Mid-budget (HKD/USD)	High-budget (HKD/USD)
Wine, common table 750ml (Australian Cabernet Sauvignon)	95.00/12.17 Wolf Blass Yellow label	145.00/18.59 Brokenwood Cricket Pitch
Wine, superior quality 750ml (Australian Cabernet Sauvignon)	255.00/32.69 Penfold's Bin 407 (on sale; 328.00/42.05 regular)	328.00/42.05 Penfold's Bin 407
Beer, local brand, 330ml bottle	4.40/0.56 Tsing Dao draft	8.00/1.03 Tsing Dao export
Beer, top quality, 500ml	15.90/2.04 Boddington's draft ale	30.00/3.85 Abbot Ale
Gin, Gordon's 700 ml	119.00/15.26 (on sale; 145.00/18.59 regular)	130.00/16.67
Cognac, Hennessy VSOP 700ml	308.00/39.49	318.00/40.77
Scotch whiskey 700ml	298.00/38.21 Chivas 12-year-old	298.00/38.21 Chivas 12-year-old (note also: 565.00/72.44 for Glenfiddich 15-year-old)
Totals	HKD1095.30/USD140.42	HKD1257.00/USD161.15
Household supplies
	Mid-budget (HKD/USD)	High-budget (HKD/USD)
Laundry detergent 1.5l bottle	26.90/3.45 Fab	149.00/19.10 Ecover (Belgium)
Toilet paper, economy pack	21.00/2.69 Select premium (10 rolls)	119.00/15.26 Waitrose recycled (9 rolls)
Dishwashing liquid, 1l bottle	12.90/1.65 Axion	75.00/9.62 Ecover (Belgium)
Bath soap, 1 bar	3.30/0.42 Kao (3-pack@9.90)	25.00/3.21 Body Shop
Shampoo, 400ml bottle	29.90/3.83 Rejoice	129.00/16.53 Body Shop
Totals	HKD94.40/USD12.05	HKD497.00/USD63.71

Before I close, I'd like to spend just a few moments in reflective self-introspective meditation on my feelings about going through this pricing exercise (a practice much encouraged in the world of education in which I toil). I've unpacked my emotional baggage to its rumpled depths -- only to discover that I've really enjoyed myself. I am definitely a see lai (i.e. a housewifely type with clear penny-pinching overtones) at heart!

The next installment in this series includes price information for housing, transportation and schools.

How much does food cost in Hong Kong?

Mr Tall — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 01:00:00 +0000

We Batgung are asked the same question by many commenters and emailers: ‘How much does it cost to live in Hong Kong?’

The easy answer is ‘quite a lot, but maybe not so much as you might think, so long as you know where to look for things’.

What’s much harder is demonstrating by anecdote or isolated example how much difference it makes in Hong Kong if you buy your goods and services from expat-centric providers, as opposed to local ones.

So this article is a beginning attempt to nail down some comparative prices for people living different lifestyles here in the same city. It focuses on a common range of products we all consume: fresh food. It will be followed by additional comparisons and information on other types of products and services, so stay tuned.

To pick up on a theme I mentioned elsewhere on the site, you will see that I’ve divided our fresh food survey into three ‘lifestyle price ranges’:

Low A low-budget special, based on shopping in wet markets in completely ‘local’ areas of Hong Kong, especially those dominated by public housing.
Mid-range A middle-class Hong Kong approach, typified by shopping at big local chains such as Park N Shop and Wellcome, etc. Most of the fresh food sold at Hong Kong’s big supermarkets is still locally grown, but I’ve thrown in a few imported products an expat might be inclined to buy.
High A full-on, everything-we-had-back-home expat approach, shopping mostly in expat-friendly supermarkets such as Great and CitySuper. Note that when I checked out prices in this category, I expressly did not choose the highest-priced options. I picked what I thought was a ‘typical’ or mid-range-price product from what I saw available. You can certainly spend more on just about every item in this category if you are so led. I did express a preference for ‘ecologiclly correct’ option, however. This may have raised the overall bill just a bit, but these stores stock very few fresh products that are not ‘organic’ or ‘free-range’ or whatever.

You’ll see that the actual items in each ‘basket’ don’t exactly equal each other. That’s unavoidable, unfortunately, as cuts of meat, types of fish, etc. that are typical of Chinese and western cuisines don’t match up very well. Nevertheless, the total cost of each ‘basket’ of food should be roughly comparable, as each item has an appropriate representative in each budget category.

All prices are stated in Hong Kong dollars first, then in US dollars for easier reference for those outside Hong Kong. Most measures are per kilogram, with exceptions noted. For Americans, remember that 1kg=2.2 pounds, so we’re talking about quite a large quantity of each item measured in this way. I’ve included additional explanatory notes, particularly as to the origin of the food, wherever I think they’ll be helpful. If there’s no indication of where an item originated, this means it’s either local/from nearby in mainland China, or I couldn’t find out.

Food item	Low budget (HKD/USD)	Mid-budget (HKD/USD)	High-budget (HKD/USD)
White bread	5.00/0.64 7 slices	7.90/1.01 6 slices ‘Old English’	14.50/1.86 7 slices toast
Potatoes 1 kg	6.70/0.86	5.50/0.71	66.00/8.46 Organic red (USA)
Onions 1 kg	6.70/0.86	7.00/0.90	65.00/8.33 Organic red (UK)
Tomatoes 1 kg	6.70/0.86	13.20/1.69	100.00/12.82 Australian plum
Carrots 1 kg	6.70/0.86	6.60/0.85	66.00/8.46 Organic (Australia)
Oranges (large navel, 6)	19.80/2.53 USA	17.4/2.23 USA	120.00/15.38 Organic (USA)
Apples (large Fuji, 6)	19.80/2.53	13.20/1.69	178.80/22.92 Japanese
Lettuce 1 head	6.00/0.77 Iceberg	6.50/0.83 Iceberg	29.50/3.78 Hydroponic Cobb
Fresh spinach 1kg	8.30/1.06	13.20/1.69	180.00/23.08 Australian
Broccoli 2 heads	14.00/1.79	5.20/0.67	42.00/5.38 Organic (Australia)
Eggs (large, 12)	12.00/1.56	23.80/3.05 USA white	76.00/9.74 Free-range (NZ)
Beef: minced 1 kg	30.00/3.85	83.40/10.69 Australian	250.00/32.05 US or Australian
Pork (lean, boneless) 1 kg	43.30/5.55	37.40/4.79	200.00/25.64 US boneless loin
Chicken: fresh	55.00/7.05 Live	41.90/5.37 Chilled, whole (PRC)	340.00/43.59 Organic (France, 1.7kg)
Fresh fish (4 servings)**	32.00/4.10 Large ‘gold thread’	19.90/2.55 Chilled catfish filets	160.00/20.51 Chilean sea bass (400g)
Totals	HKD272.00/USD34.87	HKD302.01/USD38.73	HKD1887.80/USD242.02

**Note: I found fish to be the hardest item to compare, given the cultural/cuisine differences I mentioned above. I therefore chose what I thought might make for 'four servings' in each category. The 'gold thread' is a locally-caught fish with a nice firm flesh that's delicious fried up whole. The 'chilled catfish filets' I found at the local supermarket (and very cheap, I might add -- a full pound for just 19.90), were from the species Pangasius Hypothalmus (no, really, it was the only identifying information on the label). I discovered that this noble fish hails from the catfish family -- and geographically from Vietnam -- by googling the species name, then finding it lavishly referenced at the clearly indispensible Planet Catfish site. The sea bass servings I've assumed are actually quite small, i.e. just 100 grams, so the price for this number could go waaay up easily.

So, my first reaction to the total prices: Wow. When I decided to research and write up this topic, I expected a big gap between the ‘local’ and ‘expat’ buying approaches, but nothing on quite this scale. But then on several occasions I’ve observed someone ahead of me in the check-out line at Great or CitySuper presenting a modest-looking basket of groceries, and being rung up to the tune of 2,000-3,000 Hong Kong dollars.

I’m also a bit surprised by how close the totals for the ‘low’ and ‘mid’ budget approaches are. I knew that the wet markets are actually more expensive than the supermarket chains for certain items, especially since the latter have added their own ‘fresh market’ sections, but I still expected more of an overall difference. In fact, if you bought locally-raised beef and eggs in the supermarket instead of the Australian (I went for the imported on the grounds that these are products some expats might be more suspicious of buying locally), you’d come out cheaper than in the wet market overall.

One last point to note: if you consider that you’re getting a full kilogram of most of the vegetables on the list, it’s clear that fresh food in Hong Kong is pretty cheap – assuming you avoid the ‘expat’ approach, that is!

As I mentioned above, I’ll be adding to this article in the future with more categories of food, drinks (I know some of you can’t wait to see the booze section), entertainment expenses, housing costs, and so on.

Reader reports of price-gouging, shopping strategies and bargain sightings are very welcome.

[Note: the next installment, and the next, of this series are also now up.]

Food in Hong Kong: what's environmentally sound?

Mr Tall — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 01:00:00 +0000

I recently read an interesting book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma. The author, Michael Pollan, traced the sources of all the food in four very different meals: a McDonald’s fast food lunch; a couple of organic dinners, one from ‘industrial’ organic sources, i.e. raised for the mass market, and one from a single eco-friendly farm; and an elaborate dinner he concocts from foods he’s either hunted (a wild pig) or gathered (mushrooms, etc.) himself.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma is well-written and frequently provocative, and Pollan is ideologically quite restrained; the book’s far less polemical than similar tomes in recent years such as Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation and Greg Critser’s Fat Land.

Pollan does descend into prolonged introspection at points, especially when trying to decide if he’s capable of shooting the pig (I found myself thinking ‘Just pull the damn trigger, already) for about 30 pages. Overall, I’d certainly recommend the book.

And of course reading this book, as well as a couple of other books on food, has gotten me thinking about how the food in Hong Kong really gets on our tables. I have just begun trying to find some answers to this deceptively simple question, so bear with me. I promise I won’t go on at book length like Pollan does!

So, what do we know about the food we eat in Hong Kong?

The most obvious and salient factors are that the vast majority of Hong Kong’s food is imported, and that a high proportion of this imported food comes from mainland China. The rest of Hong Kong’s food comes from sources scattered all over the world. On a stroll down the aisles of any local supermarket you’ll see products from a number of Asian countries (e.g. Japanese snacks and Thai rice). You’ll also see lots of luxury foods from European sources; that’s to be expected – it’s going to be worth the costs of shipping to send over bars of high-quality chocolate or tins of pâté de foie gras.

But what’s surprising is how many non-luxury but seriously-shipped foods are on Hong Kong’s shelves. For example, China produces lots and lots of chickens, but the frozen ones in my local Park N Shop are from Brazil or the USA, and they’re actually far cheaper than the fresh ones trucked in from the mainland. Large proportions of the dairy products on sale are from Australia and New Zealand. Even bulky products such as paper towels and toilet paper are often shipped across the Pacific so they can be applied to Hong Kong’s spills and, um, let’s just move on.

According to Pollan, of course, all of this is a Very Bad Thing. Buying cheap imports not only exacerbates the environmental problems associated with long-range shipping, it encourages the factory-farming and intensive-processing practices that likely lie behind these products’ cheap prices.

It seems obvious, then, that if we environmentally-conscious types (which surely describes lots of expats in Hong Kong) want to do our best for the world we live in, we should buy fresh, and buy local. And since that, in practice, means ‘buy Chinese’, we have lots of choices: the local wet markets are cornucopias of shining produce, freshly-slaughtered meats, live seafood, and interesting dried, salted, and otherwise-preserved foodstuffs. And it’s likely most of this food comes from not that far away, as Guangdong province has a climate favorable for growing a wide range of food plants nearly year-round, and still lots of farmland and cheap labor.

But if this sounds so ideal, why are expats’ shopping carts at Great or CitySuper or even the nicer Park N Shops frequently so loaded down with imported fruit, meat, and just about everything else? (One note: I’m not looking to get judgmental here; I buy loads of imported stuff myself!)

Well, there’s of course the comfort factor, i.e. many of us would prefer to eat products we’re familiar with. And some expats may be uncomfortable with going to local markets, which can seem quite dirty and chaotic at first glance.

But I think many of us are also concerned about just the issues I’ve been outlining in this article, and that Pollan expands upon in his book: we’re looking for safe, organic produce and milk, and humanely-raised and slaughtered meat. We’ve no doubt heard the news reports about contaminated eggs and fish from the mainland, about all sorts of weird substances being used to stretch soy sauces, and so on. We’ve seen pictures of bear bile farms, and wonder, if bears are treated like that, how about chickens and pigs?

So what’s the best option? Is it better to ‘buy local’, thereby getting fresher, less-processed food that’s been travelled a minimal distance from farm to table. Or is it better to stick to products from overseas that are certified ‘organic’ or ‘humane’, but which must have preserved via freezing, refrigeration or other means, and then have travelled many thousands of petroleum-fueled miles just to get here?

I’ll make an admission here I don’t often make: I just don’t know.

I would be most interested in hearing what the rest of you know or think about this issue.

Some initial web searching did turn up some interesting facts about Hong Kong’s food supply. I’ll just list a few highlights for now.

Hong Kong’s Agriculture and Fisheries Department website is not big on information. It does tell us, for example, that each day Hong Kong people consume 5,600 pigs, and 420 tons of fish – but only 130 cattle.

From a paper prepared for the Legco Secretariat, I found out that in 2000, about 1.8 million live pigs were imported into Hong Kong, and about 450,000 were raised here for slaughter. (I wonder: where would you fit 450,000 pigs in Hong Kong?)

A 2004 report from the US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service provided a view of the Hong Kong market from the perspective of someone trying to break into it with imports. This report yielded some interesting facts:

In 2003, local production accounted for 5% of fresh vegetables, 31% of live poultry, and 23% of live pigs. Everything else is imported. (I’m frankly amazed the local production numbers are this high!)
This report characterizes the HK food market as exhibiting ‘severe competiton’ for prospective importers.
Frozen foods and organic foods are steadily growing in popularity. In 2001 there were just 200 organic products for sale in HK; in 2004 it was 2000. I’ll bet it’s far higher than that just two years later.
Hong Kong people are the most impulsive food buyers in Asia.
The single most popular snack food in Hong Kong: ice cream. (I’d never have guessed this.)
Hong Kong consumers are not brand-loyal when cost differences are involved.
Supermarket sales first exceeded wet market sales in 1998, and continue to grow.
Here are some figures for the amounts of some selected products that were imported into Hong Kong, and consumed here, in 2003: oranges – 211,000 metric tons; apples – 134,000 metric tons; eggs – 1.548 million; fresh vegetables – 577,000 metric tons; wine – 10.2 million liters; beer – 116 million liters (much attributable to batgung consumption, of course); ice cream – 6,000 metric tons.
The top ten food products in Hong Kong: Amoy dim sum, Coca-Cola, Doll dim sum, Dreyer’s ice cream, Lee Kum Kee oyster sauce, Mr Juicy orange juice [aaiiieee! –ed.], Nestle Dairy Farm fresh milk, Nissin instant noodles, Vitasoy soya milk and Yakult lactic drink.

Finding a good Chinese restaurant when you're in Hong Kong

Mr Tall — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 06:00:00 +0000

If you’re planning to visit Hong Kong, you’ll no doubt run into someone who’s lived here, or you’ll read a guidebook or website, and they’ll all tell you the same thing: you’re going to love all that great Chinese food in HK! It’s the world’s best!!

And that’s likely true. There may be other cities that feature more authentic and consistently delicious versions of their local food, but in Hong Kong you’ll find many excellent restaurants representing all the major Chinese cuisines, and some you likely haven’t even heard of.

And yet – if you return to your guidebooks and websites for actual Hong Kong restaurant recommendations, you’ll see the same few restaurants named again and again. Some of these places deserve their plaudits; many don’t.

Since you’re a smart traveler, you know this. So when you arrive in Hong Kong, you decide you’ll just hit the streets and you’ll be bound to find great places at any point because, hey, just look around! There are restaurants everywhere! And again, yes, there are. But when you start trying to pick one, it can get pretty confusing, and for some of us, maybe a bit intimidating. Will the place on the corner have an English menu? It’s already 7:00 pm, and it’s only half full – does that mean it’s a lousy place? And so on.

So the Batgung are here to help you again, with some recommendations for finding good Chinese food in Hong Kong. We’ll give you some general tips, and then a few specific restaurant recommendations. We’ll be adding to the latter list as time goes by, and hope you will, too.

Finding a decent Chinese restaurant: general tips

Look up! If you restrict your search for restaurants in Hong Kong to street level, you will certainly find things to eat, but you will suffer significant culinary deprivation. That’s because many – maybe most – of Hong Kong’s good Chinese restaurants are not at street level. They’re on higher floors in commercial buildings and shopping malls. And, speaking of malls . . .

Mall food is good food If you’re an American like me, you may blanch instinctively if someone recommends you try a restaurant in a shopping mall. You expect over-decorated ‘atmosphere’ with lowest-common-denominator food. But this rule of thumb has no relevance in Hong Kong. Yes, there are mediocre restaurants in shopping malls here, but there are also lots of good ones.

Hotel food is not cheap food The big-name hotels in Hong Kong all have Chinese restaurants on-site. Most serve high-quality food, but they are expensive.

Show up early – or later As MrB has noted, you can show up anytime from early in the day to lunchtime at Chinese restaurants that serve dimsum. These restaurants typically close in the mid-afternoon, and don’t reopen for dinner till around 6:30 pm. Many – even the good ones – will remain quite empty until 7:00 or 7:30, when the dinner crowd really starts coming in. If you come across a Chinese restaurant here that’s already busy before 7:00 pm, it’s a pretty sure bet.

Don’t worry too much about finding English menus Nearly all Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong’s tourist areas have English menus. What they usually don’t provide in English, however, is a list of their current specials. This is a shame, since that list is often so lengthy and varied it comprises a small menu in itself, and usually features seasonal foods at their peak. You can of course order a perfectly satisfactory meal off the regular menu, but you might want to have a look around you, and see if you can identify any dishes that look particularly yummy that don’t seem to be available on the regular menu. A simple point-and-nod will then be enough to convince your waiter you’d like to try that, too!

Some specific recommendations

Here are some Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong’s tourist areas that we Batgung particularly like, with the region or type of Chinese cuisine they specialize in noted. We'll start with broad introductions to the restaurants, but if you're already too hungry to wait you can skip ahead to the list of addresses.

Maxim Group’s ‘XXXX Garden’ restaurants
Maxim’s group offers very good restaurants covering a whole range of Chinese regional cuisines. They are not especially cheap, but given their generally authentic, high-quality food, you may find it worth spending a bit more for one or two really good Chinese meals.
Lei Garden group Cantonese
Some of the same strengths – very good, reliable food – and weaknesses – quite spendy – as the Maxim’s group. Lei Gardens are often very busy, so booking is recommended.
Kung Tak Lam Shanghainese vegetarian
Kung Tak Lam is a very moderately-priced and pleasant chain with a couple of convenient locations. I like the Peking Road one better, as it's got an excellent view and is generally more roomy and relaxed.
The Peking Restaurant Beijing/northern
This long-standing temple to the glories of northern Chinese food features the requisite cranky waiters in white shirts and black ties. Pretty good food, and loads of old-fashioned atmosphere.
The Peking Restaurant is on Nathan Road, near the Jordan MTR station. It’s a bit hard to find. Walk along Nathan Road on the west side of the street, between Austin Road and Jordan Road, look for the sign, then it’s up a red-carpeted stairway.
The Spring Deer Beijing/northern
What I said about the Peking Restaurant, but with more tourists.
Crystal Jade Shanghainese
This chain of not-quite-fast-food-but-not-really-full-scale-traditional restaurants has been a huge, and much-deserved, hit in Hong Kong. Excellent food at reasonable prices. The only drawback is the long lines that are almost ubiquitous outside these places!
Hak-ka Hut Hakka (a Chinese ethnic subgroup)
Hak-ka Hut combines an interesting and lesser-known Chinese cuisine at quite low prices, and again this chain has been a massive hit.

Here are the above restaurants' branches that are easiest to get to. You can click on a column heading (eg 'Type') to sort the list. Also a couple of abbreviations: 'TST'=Tsim Sha Tsui, and 'CWB'=Causeway Bay.

District	Type	Restaurant	Address	Phone
Admiralty	Beijing	Peking Garden	Pacific Place shopping mall
Admiralty	Shanghai	Shanghai Garden	Hutchison House
Admiralty	Sichuan	Sichuan Garden	Pacific Place shopping mall
Central	Cantonese	Lei Garden	Shop No. 3007-3011, 3/F., International Finance Centre
Central	Cantonese	Tai Woo	92 & 100 Caine Road, Central
Central	Chiu Chow Garden	Chiu Chow Garden	Jardine House
Central	Hunan	Hunan Garden	The Forum tower, Exchange Square
CWB	Beijing	Peking Garden	Lee Theatre Plaza
CWB	Cantonese	Jade Garden	1 Hysan Avenue
CWB	Hakka	Hakka Hut	21/F Lee Theatre Plaza, 99 Percival St
CWB	Shanghai	Crystal Jade	Shop B224 (basement), Times Square	2506-0080
CWB	Shanghai vegetarian	Kung Tak Lam	31 Yee Wo Street
Mongkok	Cantonese	Lei Garden	121 Sai Yee Street	2392-5184
TST	Cantonese	Jade Garden	Star House
TST	Beijing	Peking Garden	Star House
TST	Beijing	The Spring Deer	36-44 Mody Road, 1st Floor	2723-3673
TST	Hakka	Hak-ka Hut	6/F, Miramar Shopping Centre, 132 Nathan Road
TST	Northern / Hot-pot	Tai Fung Lau	1/F Windsor Mansion, 29 Chatham Road South	2366-2494
TST	Shanghai	Crystal Jade	3328 Harbour City, Canton Road	2622-2699
TST	Shanghai vegetarian	Kung Tak Lam	7th floor, 1 Peking Road
TST East	Cantonese	Lei Garden	B-2, Houston Centre	2722-1636
Wanchai	Cantonese	Lei Garden	1/F., CNT Tower, 338 Hennessy Road	2892-0333
Wanchai	Cantonese	Tack Hsin	84-86 Morrison Hill Road, Tsung Tsin Mansion
Yau Ma Tei	Beijing	The Peking Restaurant	1/F, 227, Nathan Road

We’ll be adding more to this list, and as always, readers, we welcome your recommendations!

Here’s a set of recommendations from Spike over at Hongkietown.

I'd add:
Tai Woo, East Ocean. Tack Hsin and Hoi Tin -- four chains all over HK, very competent and reasonably priced Cantonese seafood palaces and decent dim sum.
Little Sheep -- China-based chain famous for northern style hotpot.
Under Bridge Spicy Crab -- as the name says.
Xiao Nan Guo -- Shanghai-based chain
and reading the Cha Xio Bao blog for lots of great, off-the-beaten path tips.

Mr Tall adds:

I’ve done a bit of googling about for some specifics. I certainly haven’t tried all of these places, and if you know of one that’s moved/closed/terrible, please let us know.

You can find Tai Woo restaurant branches as follows:
Causeway Bay Branch:
27 Percival Street.
Tel: 2893 0822; 2893 9882
Shau Kei Wan Branch:
192 - 198, Shau Kei Wan Road, Sai Wan Ho
Central Branch:
92 & 100 Caine Road, Central
Tsim Sha Tsui Branch:
14 – 16 Hillwood Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
There are East Ocean branches as follows:
5/FL., Miramar Shopping Ctr.,
132 Nathan Road, Tsimshatsui, Kowloon.
Phone: 2317 8889
Level 3-302, New World Centre,
Tsimshatsui, Kowloon.
Phone: 2367 1133
Shop 3202, Harbour City,
Tsimshatsui, Kowloon, H.K.
Phone: 2956 2882
B1 East Ocean Ctr., 98 Granville Road,
Tsimshatsui East, Kowloon.
Phone: 2723 8128
2/FL., Sun Hung Kai Centre,
30 Harbour Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong.
Phone: 2827 9938
3/FL., Harbour Centre, 25 Harbour Road,
Wanchai, Hong Kong.
Phone: 2827 8887
5/FL., CITIC Tower, 1 Tim Mei Avenue,
Central, Hong Kong.
Phone: 2877 2211
Shop G201 The Repulse Bay,
109 Repulse Bay Road, Hong Kong.
Phone: 2803 1882
Now how about some Tack Hsin outlets:
1-13 Sugar Street
Causeway Bay HK
2894 8899
84-86 Morrison Hill Road, Tsung Tsin Mansion
Wanchai, HK
2572 0898
Shop 5, G/F, Pearl Court
2-12 Holland Street, HK
2872 6168
2/F Peninsula Centre, 67 Mody Road
TST East, Kowloon,HK
2721 8102
4/F Chong Hing Square
601 Nathan Road, Kowloon, HK
2780 0182
3 Tak Hing Street
Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, HK
2723 2646
There’s a Hoi Tin restaurant on:
Elizabeth Bld, Causeway Bay
Tel: 2891 3886.
There are Little Sheep hotpot restaurants as follows:
Wanchai Hot Pot
Causeway Bay Plaza, Wan Chai
Tel: 2893 8318
Mongkok Hot Pot
16 Kar Lo street, ground floor/1st floor
Tel: 2396 8816
Tsim Sha Tsui Hot Pot
26 Kimberley Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel: 2722 7633
Tsuen Wan Hot Pot
City Landmark, Tsuen Wan
Tel: 2940 7678
Now, for the marvelously-named ’Bridge under spicy crab’ restaurant:
Shop C, G/F., Wah Fat Mansion, 405-419 Lockhart Road,
Wan Chai, Hong Kong
and/or
Shop 6-9, G/F., 429 Lockhart Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Tel: 2893 1289 or 2573 7698
And finally, a Xiao Nan Guo outlet:
12th floor, Shell Tower, Causeway Bay (i.e. near Times Square)
Tel: 2894 8899
I think there may be one in Man Yee building in Central as well, but would appreciate confirmation!

What about food in Hong Kong?

batgung — Wed, 01 Sep 2004 09:58:15 +0000

Question: What about food in Hong Kong? Will I be able to find any decent western food when I get homesick? Is food really expensive?

From Mr Tall: A couple of points on the cost of going out to eat here. First, the range of options -- and the range of costs -- is vast. We Talls are pretty cheap, so we favor 'down-home' style Chinese and other Asian places, and don't go out all that often to trendy western places. The upshot is that you can eat far better restaurant food here at the 'low end' of the market than you could in most western countries. High-quality western food tends to be pricey, but there are more and more 'bistro' style places opening all the time. It's likely you'll eat out here more often than you did at home. Before the arrival of Baby Tall, Mrs Tall and I sometimes used to keep track of how many days we would go without eating a single meal (except for breakfast) at home. I think our record was 13.

As for groceries, well, your choices and costs largely depend on where you're willing to shop, which sounds like a truism -- and it is -- but there really are clearly delineated levels of food shopping in HK. Shopping at one of the supermarkets that caters to expatriates -- e.g. Oliver's Delicatessen, Great, City Super, and maybe Marks and Spencer -- means high prices on largely imported items, but generally high quality as well. In the middle, the two major supermarket chains in Hong Kong, Wellcome and Park N Shop, are generally more reasonably priced, but are very hit-and-miss on 'western' foods, especially if you shop in one outside the expat ghettos. And local fresh food markets, called 'wet markets' in the vernacular, are generally quite cheap, and have all manner of fruit, Chinese vegetables and greens, fish, meat, and household items. Many now even feature vegetables such as red peppers and red onions which were previously relegated to 'foreigner-friendly' supermarkets. I should also note that these days the bigger Wellcomes and Park N Shops also have extensive fresh food sections with reasonable prices, too. I have done quite extensive side-by-side comparisons of these food and other day-to-day costs here and here.

Mrs Tall and I do some shopping at each of these three levels. We buy only a few things at Level 1, e.g. specialty breads and cheeses, nice mustards, etc. We get our other 'western' items from the supermarket chains, along with general cooking staples such as rice, soy sauce, flour, sugar, etc. But our day-to-day fresh vegetables, fish and meat come from the wet markets. My guess is that we spend, on average, about HKD600-700 a week on groceries, i.e. somewhat under USD100, to feed three adults (Mrs Tall, our helper, and me -- although Mrs Tall usually eats lunch out, while I pack one) and one toddler. I don't know what people spend in the US/UK these days, but I suspect it's not going to be much less than that.

What's the cost of living in Hong Kong like?

batgung — Wed, 01 Sep 2004 09:48:27 +0000

Question: How about some basic info on things like rent prices, typical wages, cost of living, etc?

Mr B replies: For wages, a rough translation is that an HKD monthly salary is about the same value as an equivalent GBP annual salary (e.g. getting HKD30K a month is like getting GBP30K a year). Accommodation may be more expensive (though it's dropped a lot in the last six years), but you'll pay a lot less tax. I felt better off here on the same salary.

I used to be able to shock friends overseas with the costs of buying/renting property here, but HK property prices went on a downward slide for six years, bottomed out at last, and just lately have started going back up, while UK and US prices have mostly continued to increase over that time.

If you try to live exactly like you do at home and demand the exact same brands, then living overseas anywhere will be expensive. If you are willing to use more local brands, costs will even out. [See our articles on the cost of food, other common household items and accommodation, schools and transport for many direct comparisons of 'local' and 'expat' costs.]

I've just come back from a business trip in the US, and didn't buy anything there. If I do go there with a shopping list, it is probably for a specialty item from a store like REI, where maybe the selection here is more limited. Even that is less of an issue now, with online ordering of many things.

The only thing I can think of that would make a big impact is your size. I'm skinny, and not especially tall, so can find clothes and shoes here ok. Mr Tall will have a better idea on this, but I guess that if you are on the large size you may want to stock up on clothes and shoes before you leave home. [See also our articles on shopping in Hong Kong.]

A reader adds: I lived in Hong Kong for two decades before moving to London, Kuala Lumpur and then Kaohsiung (Taiwan). The cost of living nowadays is lower than pre-1997 days.

Question: If I'm offered a job by a Hong Kong company, what should I look out for in the package they offer me?

Mr B says: It's important that you find out what the total package would add up to. For example, if the employer is hiring you from abroad, in the knowledge you'll want a similar lifestyle to the one you'd have at home, then you'd look at whether your employment package includes rent for a larger than average (by local standards) apartment, school fees for children, paid flights home each year, etc.

Mr T adds: One other thing to remember is that your tax burden will be lighter here in Hong Kong than it would be in any western country. You'll be taxed here in Hong Kong at a flat 16%. US citizens are liable for US taxes as well, but at a far higher exemption level. (See also our FAQ on taxes in Hong Kong.)

Mr B is right - you really have to look carefully at the perks included in any job offer, especially the possibility of housing being provided or subsidized. If your potential new employer is offering you an upscale place to live in Hong Kong, this can be worth a great deal.

Also, pay attention to what's being offered in terms of a retirement fund contribution. The law here now requires that all workers in HK put away 5% of their salary each month into some kind of long-term savings/investment scheme. Some people have to pay this themselves out of their own salaries, but others get this covered by their employers, and some get significantly more than 5%. At the end of your tenure here, you get that investment handed to you as a lump sum. You need to find out how much you'll be getting in this area.

Also (this is becoming a trend) many companies in HK pay out highly variable bonuses; again, in banking and finance and some other fields these are often massive, but you're of course taking a risk in that some years you may get little or none.

Some companies also offer more 'colonial'-style perks such as flight allowances, subsidized school fees for children, and club memberships to their expatriate employees. Again, if you are offered any or all of these, they can add up to significant values, although they're obviously not fungible.

Finally, you have to be willing to forgo making exact comparisons in some areas. In particular, housing - keep in mind that most people here simply live in less space than most people in western countries. It's very possible you'll need to make concessions in this area (i.e. being willing to live in what might seem to you a small-to-mid-sized apartment instead of a house).

Fiona adds: Compensation is moving along the lines of 'all cash' in Hong Kong, i.e. pay is determined for the job and there's no real delineation for cash allowances within the total cash approach, though there is still often a packaging breakdown that allows the individual to reduce taxation by offering a housing allowance.

The days of housing/education and so on relating to family size are beginning to be a way of the past....the approach being that a job commands a certain level of compensation and how you spend that is up to you. And in line with this personal family decisions no longer have such an impact on an employee's cost to company -- the basic concept being the job is worth 100k a month and that's what we will pay, in total, leaving the individual to make spending choices. Great for the single guy/gal, not so great for the employee with a family.

It's hard to quantify medical insurance as a benefit, a lot of the group rates are pretty attractive when offered by a company, with pretty good benefits -- impossible to do a cost on cost comparison, especially with somewhere like the States. As for retirement, it sounds like they are offering basic MPF which is not that common but for someone on perhaps a contract basis it makes more sense than investing in a more generous retirement plan.