When I was growing up, my family and I would visit our grandparents in Hong Kong over the extended Christmas break and if there’s one thing I would remember during our month-long trips, it was this really peculiar dining schedule. I’m not kidding when I say that Monday - Sunday there was an actual schedule of places we would eat lunch, and it was the same place every single week. Did I also mention that it was mandatory for us to attend every lunch if we were in town. It was our way of spending time with the family while my grandparents were in Central during the day, before they retired to their home in Kowloon Peak (Fei Ngo Shan) in the evening.

Now, this daily schedule is now but a memory - with some of the old underground haunts long gone and my grandparents have reached their late 90s and early 100s (!). The restaurant scene has generally changed over the course of the last twenty years, but my siblings and I have somewhat concocted our own food rituals with every visit.

For me, I always have to have the usual meals even though more recently, some of our local haunts have evolved - a pitstop to throw back at least five bowls of wonton soup at Mak’s Noodle, Hot Pot in Tsim Sha Tsui, mouthwatering Char Siu at Ting Lun Heen and DimSum at Summer Palace.

Once I check off my usual meals, my sister and I go on our little food adventures around the city now that she lives there. She shows me around to new spots and we try so many new places. I swear it feels like I have at lest five meals a day when I’m there - no intermittent fasting happens, ever.