Pineapple buns

Traditionally, pineapple bun contained no pineapple and earned its name because its chequered top resembles the skin of a pineapple. The top half of the bun is made from cookie-type dough, while the bottom is made from Chinese-style bread dough, which tends to be softer and sweeter than Western bread. Many vendors insert a cold pat of butter into a warm pineapple bun.  

Egg tarts

A pastry-crust filled with egg custard and baked. This popular Hong Kong snack probably originates from English custard cakes. Some are made with cookie dough while others have a flaky pastry. The latter are often referred to as Portuguese egg tarts.

Saqima

A type of caramel fritter that is extremely time consuming and deceptively difficult to make. This is a Manchurian sweet and its name means ‘delicious small eat’ in Manchu. 

Pitted preserved prunes

This dried fruit snack is sweet and sour. Many believe it has medicinal qualities.

Craig Au Yeung, food columnist, TV gourmet programme host and author of culinary books, recommends the pitted preserved prunes at Chan Yee Jai:

Faux Shark’s Fin Soup

A version of the expensive banquet soup using other types of fish for a similar effect. This is a popular traditional quick eat.

Craig Au Yeung, food columnist, TV gourmet programme host and author of culinary books, recommends the ‘3-mixed’ Fake Shark’s Fin Soup at Lui Chai Kee:

Wife Cake

A bun filled with sweet winter melon paste. Legend has it that when the winter-melon puffs made by a woman in Guangdong Province were highly praised in public, her husband proudly declared that there were his wife’s cakes. The name ‘wife cake’ stuck. In Hong Kong, back when the New Territories was a day trip away from the urban areas, it was de rigeur for visitors to Yuen Long to buy wife cakes to take home. Today, they can be easily purchased at Chinese bakery shops citywide.

Mini Egg Puffs

Sweetened egg batter grilled in a mould to make puffs. Crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside. These days it comes in a range of flavours, including chocolate, strawberry and coconut. 

White Sugar Cake

Originating in Shunde, Guangdong province, this traditional pastry is made by steaming a dough mixture of rice flour, white sugar, water and yeast. It is sweet with some sour notes and has a soft and spongy texture.

Put Chai Ko

Often translated as ‘sticky rice pudding’, put chai ko is typically made of rice flour and red beans. These ingredients are put in a small china bowl. When the pudding sets, it can be removed from the bowl on a small stick and eaten like a popsicle. Modern innovations of this traditional snack have introduced new flavours such as pumpkin and green tea.