Have you ever wondered about that wacky-looking fruit staring back at you in the local wet market? Or did you want to know how to cook a particular Chinese vegetable, but don't have the language skills? This Handbook gives you the answers! This pocket-sized guidebook, designed to be taken out shopping with you, identifies fresh produce commonly found at Hong Kong's food markets. Each item is identified by a photo, its English name, its romanised Cantonese name with tones, and its name in full-form Chinese characters. The guide explains traditional signage in Chinese characters, including weights and measures, and indicates whether a food is locally produced. Finally, it describes ten lively Hong Kong wet markets especially worth visiting and provides directions on how to find them. Whether you are a Hong Kong resident who wants to shop at food markets but lacks the linguistic and culinary know-how, or a tourist who wants to explore the local culinary sights, this handy guide will help you navigate your way around one of the liveliest and most colourful parts of Hong Kong's food scene.
After receiving formal training at Pru Leith's in London, Pam Shookman worked in a number of London restaurants and ran the test kitchen for Eric Treuille at Books for Cooks in Notting Hill. She spent many years living and eating across east Asia, including periods in Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, China and Hong Kong. She was Food Editor for Time Out Beijing, contributed to Slow Food and The Insider's Guide to Beijing and ran cooking classes. As her book was going to press Pam Shookman was diagnosed with cancer from which she subsequently died in London. She was passionate about helping people to cook and to use fresh local ingredients. She enjoyed high-end dining but it was street food, in all its quirky local manifestations, that really excited her. This book is a reflection of that commitment to the fresh and the local. She intended that it should be of practical use, carried into markets, becoming stained and dog-eared in the process.
The publication of this book following her death is due in no small measure to the enthusiastic support of Tony Tan, author of Tony Tan's Hong Kong, and her husband, Peter Wood.
