Hong Kong Restaurants: Bargains

Hong Kong's food culture is just as vibrant as its cinema, business and nightlife. In previous instalments we looked at the haute-cuisine and the fast food. Now we turn out attention to the best bargain food to be bought on the streets and in the eateries of HK.

Lin Heung (160 Wellington Street, Central) For any Westerners looking for a culture shock, Lin Heung at lunch time is a good place to be. A permanently packed eatery, specialising in Dim Sum, this place does not take reservation and neither will you be shown to a table. Instead waiting patrons stand behind seated patrons while they gobble down their lunch, ready to grab the chairs as soon as they stand up. Those raised with British table manners may need to get over their hang-ups to get a seat but the food is well worth it: some of the best Dim Sum you will eat anywhere on the planet and each serving costs just HK$15.

The Street Vendors at Monk Kok (Central) Mong Kok is one of the main shopping areas in Hong Kong but, even better than that for foodies is the abundance of brilliant stalls on the streets catering to hungry shoppers. Everything is on offer, from fried calamari to fish balls, tofu to octopus. Prices vary from spot to spot but expect to pay around HK$10 per portion of anything you buy.

Po Lin Yuen (69 Jervois Street, Central) China is a vegetarian's dream. Thanks to the influence of Buddhism, high quality grub for herbivores is all over the place and, often, much cheaper than the meaty fare. At this simple, unpretentious little gem, veggies can dine on a hearty plate of radish pudding, crisp golden mushroom dumpling and bean curd tripe (actually delicious, despite what you might think). The whole meal will come in at less than HK$50.

Ho Hung Kee Congee and Noodle Wonton Shop (2 Sharp Street East, Causeway Bay) One of China's greatest comfort foods is Congee, a porridge made from rice that is flavoured with fish, crab, eggs, pork and just about anything else you might name. It can be eaten at morning, noon or night but the best place to get it is this tiny little restaurant in the centre of Causeway Bay. A bowl will set you back about HK$25.

Hong Kong celebrities: Twins

Two of Hong Kong's most famous young celebrities are Gillian Chung Yan Tung and Charlene Choi Cheuk-Yin, the two members of all conquering Cantopop duo Twins. For the last 12 years they have dominated the landscape of Asian pop music, scoring hits across the globe.

Both Chung and Choi were working as part time models and looking for a big break when the audition for a new girl band came along in 2001. Emperor Entertainment Group was looking for a hot young duo to aim at the teen market and decided these two young ladies were the perfect fit. That decision proved correct. The Twins self titled debut EP went platinum in its first week of release, and their following three albums all had similar success. Awards came too, over 72 of them in fact, between 2001 and 2003.

It wasn't all plain sailing, however. The band also attracted many critics in the media who, in particular, cited the duo's singing talents as being below par. They continued to promote themselves globally with tours of the USA and Canada, but rumours of a split constantly swam around their hype. That split came in 2008, triggered by Chung's involvement in the tawdry Edison Chen photo scandal and a general desire from both girls to get out of the public glare that had enveloped their lives for seven years.

Choi busied herself with a career as an actress and theatre star. She also released her debut solo album. Chung withdrew from the public almost completely, her image tarnished by her involvement with Chen. This was a tough time for Chung, who has since admitted she contemplated suicide many times during her year away from the spotlight. She returned as a spokesperson for TOUGH Jeamsmith and a Botox treatment centre. More notably, she also starred in a silent, expressionist video by artist Jiang Zhi that was shown at the Harbin Ice Snow World Carnival in 2009.

The reunification of Twins came in 2010 when they played at the Hong Kong Coliseum. At present the two members of Twins are ranked first (Choi) and fourth (Chung) on the list of young, rich Hong Kong celebrities compiled by Jaded News, an Asian entertainment site.

Hong Kong celebrities: Maggie Cheung

Maggie Cheung is one of the most recognised Hong Kong actresses of all time. Though known by some for her action roles, Cheung is actually a brilliantly versatile performer, with a host of romantic, comedy, art-house and drama roles to her name. Though born in Hong Kong in 1964, Cheung's family moved to the UK in 1971. She spent much of her teens there before returning to Hong Kong at 18, where she became a model and beauty queen. In the latter field she was incredibly successful, winning Miss Photogenic and reaching the semi-finals of Miss World in 1983.

During this time Cheung appeared in many Hong Kong films, though here roles were rarely serious. For example, she starred as Jackie Chan's girlfriend in the first three Police Story movies. Though massively successful, these films gave Cheung little to do besides look pretty beside Chan. In 1988, however, critics took note of her role in maverick director Wong Kar-wai's As Tears Go By. As well as proving her acting chops, her next major roles would also show off Cheung's other major talent: languages.

Having been raised in both Hong Kong and the UK, and spent significant time in Paris, Cheung is a fluent speaker of Mandarin, English and French. In the films Centre Stage and Clean she would use all these languages, proving her credentials as a star that could play all over the planet.

Her global appeal is attested to by the adoration Cheung receives at film festivals the world over. She has been a jury member at the Berlin, Venice, Hawaii, Cannes and Marrakech film festivals. She won the best actress award at Cannes in 2004 for her performance in Clean. Two years later, she became the first ever actress to appear, in photograph, on the official Cannes poster.

Since then Cheung has stepped back from the limelight, retiring from acting and pursuing a new vocation as a film composer, while also devoting time to philanthropy and editing. In 2010 she was made UNICEF's Ambassador for Children. Few film stars, in the history of the medium, have ever mixed the daring with the popular, the hip with the Avant-garde, quite like Maggie Cheung.

Great writing about Hong Kong

Out in the harbour, at the end of summer, fishermen feed the hungry ghosts. They float paper boats shaped like junks and steamships. One is double-prowed like the cross-harbour Star Ferry which plies its way back and forth between Hong Kong [island] and Kowloon, never having to turn around. The fishermen load each tiny paper boat with some tea leaves, a drop of cooking oil, a spoonful of rice, a splash of petrol, before setting it afloat. Boats for the lost at sea, for the drowned. They hire musicians to clang cymbals. Children throw burning spirit money into the waves.

Extract from White Ghost Girls by Alice Greenway If you've ever stared at the vast, twinkling skyline of Hong Kong at night, or watched the sun rise over Lantau peak, it will come as little surprise to hear that HK has inspired some of the world's greatest writers to pen some of the world's most famous literature. Here are some of the best books ever written about Hong Kong.

The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee (2009) This beautiful novel, set in the years both during and after the Second World War, tracks the life and loves of a married English woman, new to Hong Kong. After being hired as a piano teacher by a rich Chinese family, she falls for the family's driver, a man with a tragic past.

The Honourable Schoolboy by John Le Carre (1977) The second novel, and for many people the best, novel in Le Carre's celebrated Karla Trilogy, this book follows the perceptive yet tight lipped super spy George Smiley and his attempts to construct a reliable intelligence network. This involves sending one of his agents to the strange, paranoid streets of colonial Hong Kong.

The Honourable Schoolboy by John Le Carre (1977) The second novel, and for many people the best, novel in Le Carre's celebrated Karla Trilogy, this book follows the perceptive yet tight lipped super spy George Smiley and his attempts to construct a reliable intelligence network. This involves sending one of his agents to the strange, paranoid streets of colonial Hong Kong.