International Milk Tea Dumpling Day

This is hot salty tea with milk and dumplings. Have you tried it?

Dai pai dongs are Hong Kong’s most archetypal eateries and a one-of-a-kind cultural experience. Dai pai dong translates to ‘stall with big license plate’, which refers to the non-renewable licenses handed out by the government to embattled families after World War II, giving them permission to run hawkerstyle food stalls in order to make a living.

Once there were hundreds of these stalls occupying almost every street corner across the city. Today, there are only around 30 left, making them a disappearing culinary institution. Serving staples such as milk tea, dumpling soup and fried rice, these open-air kitchens are still typically found on the side of the road or down laneways. Offering some of the best and cheapest eats in the city, these vendors cook from generations-old recipes, but just as often, whip up western dishes using local ingredients and/or techniques to create something that is familiar yet very different.

The main diet in rural Mongolia is beef and lamb or sheep. They are all wild, grass fed and organic. Occasionally locals will eat horse meat however, most people prefer to eat it in the winter because they believe the horse meat makes you hotter in the summer. The some of the traditional dishes are variety of dumpling dishes steamed dumplings or buuz in Mongolian served with cabbage and carrot salads, large flat fried dumplings or khuushuur in Mongolian also served with cabbage and carrot salad, boiled milk tea dumpling soup and steamed homemade noodles with stir fried meat and vegetables called tsuivan. Most dumplings are stuffed with seasoned meat but sometimes families make vegetarian dumplings that are stuffed with cabbage, carrots and onions.