Dim Sum

Breakfast in Hong Kong is all about discovering the delights of dim sum. Morning streetside eateries specialise in everything from congee rice porridge, to wonton noodle soup or claypot rice. Each will also have a tall stack of distinctive bamboo steaming baskets concealing a dim sum delicacy. Most will be serving classics, like puffy white steamed buns filled with sweet barbecued pork or plump prawns in a translucent flour wrapper. But this is just the tip of gourmet dim sum cuisine, and a visit to a proper "teahouse" is where you'll discover scores of different varieties - sweet as well as savoury. Eating dim sum is inextricably linked to the Chinese tradition of "yum cha" - drinking tea - and that is why locals call dim sum restaurants teahouses.