88 Hong Kong dishes and snacks made vegan in new cookbook, from dim sum to ‘egg’ tarts
Christine Wong talks about making vegan versions of traditional dishes and snacks in her new cookbook The Vibrant Hong Kong Table
There is no denying that Hongkongers love their meat. The city has the fourth highest meat consumption per capita in the world, at 123kg per year, according to the latest statistics from the World Population Review, including one of the highest per capita figures for pork consumption, at 53kg per year.
To many, it is simply not a meal without some variety of animal flesh on the table. Vegetarians can consider themselves lucky to find anything more than a small handful of suitable options on a restaurant menu, vegans even more so.
Enter Christine Wong Mei-yue and her audaciously ambitious new title The Vibrant Hong Kong Table – a heartfelt homage to Hong Kong masquerading as a cookbook, which reimagines 88 local specialities using strictly vegan ingredients.
“There are a lot of Chinese vegetarian cookbooks out there, but none that try to recreate the dishes exactly like I have,” the 56-year-old foodie says.
Best known to her 100,000 Instagram followers as the plant-based chef and sustainability advocate behind @conscious_cooking, New York-based Wong is currently in Hong Kong for a series of promotional events between October 13 and 17.
