Every country has its own brand of casual restaurants. US generated the fast food concept. in Japan you have ramen shops. In Hong Kong you have cha chaan teng.
The official website of Hong Kong tourism office described cha chaan teng as follows:
Today cha chann teng far from being outmoded by modern quick-serving restaurants remain a fixture in the city of Hong Kong and answer multiple needs: they are the place where many Hong Kong dwellers have breakfast; they are busy at lunch hours with seniors and office workers as well; many of them attract people from the neighborhood as a place where to socialize till late at night.
This article describes some of the traditional food that you can find in these establishments.
Macaroni and ham soup
This is really a Hong Kong classic. A soup with macaroni instead of common noodles and some Westerner ingredients such as ham or even spam. Variations on the menu included having eggs, pork chop, beef, sausage and son on.
They suggest to add some chili paste:
I had the one pictured for breakfast at China Cafe in Mong Kok and I really enjoyed it. Eating macaroni instead of swirling noodles is much more practical.
I also had a drink made of Horlicks, a British drink based on milk powder that in Hong Kong is drunk as it was coffee. In this case it was served cold and sweetened.
The total check was 36 HKD (4,60 USD) to be paid at the cashier. I should mention that this particular diner was featured in one of Anthony Bourdain’s shows about Hong Kong. This was my silly trigger to visit it and you can clearly see other tourists there on pilgrimage.
Deep fried pork, ramen noodles and french toast
My next stop was in a non descript diner in Quarry Bay (located on 981 King’s Road next to my next entry).
I had one deep fried pork chop and some ramen noodles with egg. The deep fried pork is not a cutlet, it lacks the batter. I was not particularly impressed by this one, the frying made it too stiff.
Also the ramen noodles were not great… but I feel a bit bad as the staff there was super nice.
In this diner finally I had a sweet treat: a Hong Kong style French Toast. This was not really like a regular French toast and had a nutty backtaste.
Total check for 68 HKD (8.70 USD) including a coke.
Roast Meat
The reason I went to Quarry Bay was to try this roast meat shop mentioned by Mark Wiens in one of his trips: Yau Wun Roast Meat. The shop is indicated with this English name on Google Maps. It is clearly a very successful shop as even in the middle of the afternoon there was a solid line. The shop is also a licensed restaurant and while they did not have an English menu and did not really speak any English in the end they were able to accommodate me in one of the tables inside the small shop.
For 38 HKD (4.86 USD) I got this substantial serving of roast pork meat. I need to say that I was disappointed, I tasted better ones. But I guess that my limited ability to interact with the staff may have prevented me from ordering something more interesting.
Roast meat is a different game and the shops serving this kind of food may not have on the menu anything from the previous entries.