Hong Kong: Orient excess

Eating out in Hong Kong will leave you happy, satisfied and very, very full. Photo / Getty Images

Jesse Mulligan lists his five must-try dishes in Hong Kong - with breakfast tripe for the more adventurous.

Unlike most cities, Hong Kong is a place where you can't really eat badly - given that dining out is a local obsession, the locals simply wouldn't put up with it. With living space in short supply, everyone from millionaires to the working class entertains in restaurants rather than at home.

Sure, the wealthy are more likely to take their friends to a Michelin-starred hotel restaurant than a noodle shop (Hong Kong and Macau are the only Asian destinations outside of Japan with their own Michelin guide) but having done both, I couldn't guarantee that the fancy place will be more fun. I can, however, guarantee that both will leave you happy, satisfied and very, very full.

Unlike nearby Macau, whose cuisine has been strongly influenced by colonial tastes, Hong Kong never did really get the hang of fish and chips. You can still find them if you seek out, say, Gordon Ramsay's Bread Street Kitchen, but it's unlikely to be what you came for. The best stuff is unapologetically Cantonese, where fat, texture and sweetness are the only celebrities that count.

Here are five things to try when you're in Hong Kong:

Wonton noodle soup

As if slurping noodles wasn't enough fun, you also get to try and pick up wontons with chopsticks. Then you bite one and discover it's the temperature of lava but strangely the whole experience is quite enjoyable, particularly the nourishing properties of that slightly fishy stock. Fish ball soup is also an excellent option; look for a kitchen where they're less uniformly white and globular.

Barbecue pork buns

Soft dough on the outside, sweet fatty barbecued pig on the inside, this is a Chinese classic. Look out for the latest take: dusted with sugar and baked instead of steamed. Holy moly.

One of the chefs at Tim Ho Wan. Photo / Shandelle Battersby

Dumplings

As with the pork buns, it's hard to go past dim sum at "the world's cheapest Michelin-starred restaurant", Tim Ho Wan, at multiple locations around the city. Go outside of meal times to avoid the crowds, and while you're there order either the standard or Chiu Chow style dumplings, the latter with added veges and a thicker shell (legendarily to sustain the hard working people in the Chiu Chow province).

Barbecued goose

Get it from one of the specialty barbecue restaurants - the ones with the charred animals hanging in the front window. Locals pay more for goose because it's one of the fattiest meats (remember that in Asia unlike, say, Ponsonby, that's considered a good thing). And I know what you're thinking: Jesse, how can I be sure the proprietor isn't serving up a duck and telling me it's goose? Look for a bump on its head, thicker thighs and a slightly longer neck.

Know your goose from your duck. Photo / 123RF

Egg tart

Introduced from Portugal via nearby Macau, the local Hong Kong egg tarts use a crumbly short crust pastry and a firmer, British-style custard. They're pretty incredible, particularly if you can find a Chinese bakery that serves them warm out of the oven. Try stopping at just one.

Still hungry? There are lots more edible curiosities that are worth seeking out.

Preserved fruit is a uniquely Hong Kong treat - not just the classic apricots but dried ginger and salted plums - they're legendarily good for "opening your stomach" ahead of another big meal.

Sugar cane juice is said to help you with all sorts of maladies (though presumably not diabetes); yes, it tastes just like sugar but it's not quite as sweet as you might expect, and watching them feed thousands of cane stalks through a machine in front of you is almost hypnotic.

Offal is highly prized in Chinese cuisine for its texture, and you shouldn't really do a visit to Hong Kong without a little breakfast tripe, or at the very least some tubular organs in your noodle broth. If you arrive at the right time of year, seek out some winter melon soup, cooked inside the hollowed out gourd (confusingly, the right time for winter melon is actually summer).

FOOD LOVERS

• The 2015 Hong Kong Wine and Dine Festival is on from late October until the end of November.

• If you're short of time, Hong Kong Foodie Tours offer interesting and accessible walking tours for tourists keen on an overview of local eating.

• For hardcore food lovers wanting a more boutique experience, try Little Adventures in Hong Kong.

• Juliana Loh is a blogger and food journalist who knows everything about everything, and her blog is a great start for planning an eating holiday in HK.

CHECKLIST

Getting there: Cathay Pacific flies daily from Auckland to Hong Kong (twice daily over summer)

The writer travelled to Hong Kong courtesy of the Hong Kong Tourism Board.