Not every day is a highlight, and the eating days in between are their own kind of pleasure. This was one of them. We’d walked eight or nine miles the day before in the heat, so we woke late and let the day go where it wanted: bubble tea to start (and to keep going), congee for a slow lunch, an hour of aimless buying in the Mong Kok mall, and a well-timed evening thunderstorm to make the point that we weren’t achieving much.
It ended, as these days should, with something simple and cheap: a plate of chicken rice at Tian Tian — the Singaporean Hainanese chicken-rice brand you now find across Asia — in the Sha Tin plaza. “Captain Chicken,” as it had become in our house. Not a great meal, and not trying to be. But between the wontons and the dim sum, it’s the congee, the bubble tea and the everyday chicken rice that actually fill a month in Hong Kong — the ordinary food you’d miss more than you expect once you’ve left.
The everyday dishes, not just the famous ones: What to Eat in Hong Kong