Desserts are a staple in Hong Kong, and in Cantonese cuisine, a rich meal of roasted meat or a satisfying dim sum is usually finished with a sweet treat, often less so than their western counterparts. The city is full of shops dedicated exclusively to these blends that not only enjoy dinner, but often treat themselves as a treat at any time of the day.
Like tropical cities, the summer of Hong Kong can be brutally hot and humid, but fortunately, these local desserts will satisfy your sweet tooth while also keeping you cool. In Chinese medicine, a balance between heat and cold is especially important and these desserts are made with ingredients that are believed to have a cooling effect, whether they are served hot or cold.
Mung Bean Soup or Mung Bean Porridge
Mung bean soup is made from dried mung beans, soaked in water until soft, and then boiled until the mixture is velvety consistency. In Chinese medicine, mung beans are considered a cooling ingredient and when prepared with kelp pieces and dried mandarin pearls, the effects are intensified, helping with heat exhaustion, digestion and other diseases associated with the tropical climate.
This popular summer dessert can be enjoyed both cold and hot, without blocking the effect, as the cooling properties are said to be absorbed by the ingredients themselves, rather than hot in the process of making this dessert. The taste is grassy and nutty, with the added sugar of the rock sweet.
Grass Jelly
Also called 'cold noodles' or 'grass noodles', this delicious dish is made with a combination of herbs set in a sweet, mysterious, dark jelly. Grass jelly in its simplest form is served with steamed milk or ice cream but is also often served with fresh fruit or sago pearls. Jelly remedies give the grass a taste but also the smoky and irritating effects of tea, and are designed to cool the body.
Tofu Pudding
If you like tofu, you should try dau fu fa or tofu pudding. This dessert is actually a light, soft tofu with silken served cold or hot, which is considered a cool summer by any means. Tofu has a nutty, soy-flavored but sugary flavor and is often added with palm sugar or gingery sugar syrup.
Sago Pudding
Although Hong-Kongers loves sago, this dessert is actually from Southeast Asia and is popular all over the world. Sago beads are boiled until soft and chewed, and fried such as coconut milk, shiny rice balls and fresh fruit can be added - it is much better. If you haven’t noticed now, Hong Kong desserts are all about texture.
Imango Pomelo Sago 楊枝 甘露
One particular type of sago that deserves to be mentioned is the mango pomelo sago, or 'willow tree manna', named after the healing tree used by the Guanyin goddess in Chinese mythology.
This dessert consists of fresh mango, pomelo beads and sago sitting in a bowl of coconut milk stuffed with mango. The combination was created by Lei Garden Chinese restaurant in 1984 and proved to be so popular that the recipe was distributed throughout the city. It is now available in many local grocery stores.
Mango…. Everything
The Lei Garden pomelo sago mango was just the beginning of Hong Kong's love for fresh mango desserts. In the 1990s, the tea shop, Hui Lau Shan, successfully re-branded itself as a fashion hotspot by introducing a mango dessert menu and drinks. From the above-mentioned mangoes to mango mochi, delicious rice cakes filled with cubed mangoes, to mango boba, bubble tea with mango scents, shops are always full of fresh mango fragrances and are full every night with crowds after dinner.
Ice Pops and Ice Cream Bars
Another basic food, essential for the summer of Hong Kong and for beach entertainment, is the ice-old school pops. What makes this classic summer so special to Hong Kong is the spices we all know and love from childhood: taro, red beans, vanilla ice cream bar covered with chocolate and fung sin ice cream bar (mango ice in the center, and vanilla ice cream, all covered with banana chocolate). These flavors are so iconic that the creator, Nestle, recently brought back all the flavors, in vintage pockets with a limited edition.
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