Here in Hong Kong, as you and I know, dining is a part-time hobby for some and a full-time obsession for others. Flushed with 13,000 options to dine at daily and nightly, we have plentiful restaurant choices, as well as a variety of stereotypical Hong Kong foodies and diners popping up everywhere.
From the chronically online, to the neurotically healthy, to the always-seen-to-be-seen foodie, you will meet many stereotypes in the city’s dining scene. For your sake when it comes to either befriending or avoiding them, we sum up the seven types of Hong Kong foodies you might meet when out and about at restaurants in town.
Seven types of Hong Kong foodies you will meet in the wild
The irritating Instagrammer
Manned with an iPhone or DSLR camera, lights, and friends sitting silently at the dining table, the irritating Instagrammer likes to test their friends’ patience by taking dozens of shots of their plates of food. These foodies are amongst the new and growing generation of diners who are getting eyes in Hong Kong, but they can elicit eye-rolls when seen climbing over a table like a monkey to frame the perfect shot of food.
The fine-dining elitist
Yes, we get it, you’re filthy rich. The fine-dining elitist can be seen marking their Michelin star count on their Instagram profile or espousing to friends their omniscient knowledge of skilful cooking techniques. They are the types of foodies who equate a four-figure dinner with premium quality and baulk at the chance to try something neighbourhoodly. Oh, that restaurant hasn’t even gotten an award yet? I can’t be seen there!
The cha chaan teng snob
The traditionalist of the Hong Kong food scene comes in the form of your fellow cha chaan teng snob, the type to make it their life mission to defend and laud Hong Kong’s cha chaan teng and café-style food culture. They’ll be seen crouching over and slurping noodles at a dingy café. They’ll bemoan the loss of traditional Hong Kong cuisine. But what they won’t do is be caught dead at a fusion Chinese restaurant – that’s destructive!
The viral spot chaser
Cycling between the same six restaurants in their own neighbourhood, the viral spot chaser awaits the release of dining guides shared at the end of each month to prey on new concepts opening up in Hong Kong. A quick dinner with drinks and they’re on to the next spot to share on Instagram, finding themselves prepared for debates on new restaurants coming to Hong Kong and why they’re better than the old haunts. Recency bias much?
The boozy diner
To the fellow boozy diner, this type of foodie can’t go a day (apart from a Sunday-to-Monday refresher period) where a meal at night or weekend brunch can’t be enjoyed without a side of bubbly alcohol. Granted, Hong Kong is an alcohol-friendly city and we love our drinks, yet this foodie goes too hard on the boozy brunches and happy-hour tipples before all their food starts to taste the same.
The extreme daredevil eater
Hong Kong does not harbour the most strange of edible things, yet there are some extreme daredevil eaters here who like to stretch the limit of what many might class as weird to snack on. Balut? Yes, please. Slippery snake soup? Of course. Crispy mealworms? Duh. Bull penis? Eaten and done that. These types of foodies will not stop at anything.
The organic vegan chaser
Unfortunately, this city has never been a prime example for healthy eating, flush with vegan dining choices, yet the organic vegan chaser will assume the brave undertaking to find every single restaurant and café for gorging on leaves and healthy veggies. They’ll spend three times more on products slapped with an organic sign, but they feel that they’re better than those who eat gross meat and animal products!
