K-FOOD
What better way to judge the popularity of any culture than by how
keenly its cuisine is sought out on foreign shores? While one or two
Hongkongers may have proved immune to the allure of K-culture
in all its sundry incarnations, surely none could resist its culinary
aplomb. As apt testimony to this, it’s one of the few overseas cooking
regimes to merit its own dedicated Hong Kong thoroughfare –
TST’s Kimberley Street (a.k.a. Korean Street). Home to Korean
emigres since the 1960s, every night, its huddle of authentic
restaurants and dedicated grocery stores metamorphises into
a mini-Seoul, complete with an endless selection of spicy stews
and countless kimchi dishes, as well as an equally eclectic range
of traditional drinking games. In a sure sign that Hong Kong’s
love affair with the eminently delicious dishes of its far-distant
neighbour is set to linger and linger, some 90 percent of
Kimberley Street’s nocturnal regulars are local Hongkongers.
While tucking into their bowls of bibimbap – a traditional
Korean rice dish – clad head-to-toe in K-clobber, with the
distant strains of Seoul-sourced synthpop soundtracking the
night, it’s impossible not to wonder how many of these culturally-
compromised locals pause and ask themselves whether Busan
boasts a Hong Kong Food Street. Or how many Kowloon
couture imports are sought out by the Incheon in-crowd on an
annual basis. Or whether the discos of Daegu pulse by night to
the hardcore sounds of Hong Kong hip-hop. Or maybe if they
even consider that Asia’s supposed World City could well do with
something of a top-up on its own soft-power front...
“Korean cuisine is one of the few
overseas cooking regimes to merit
its own Hong Kong thoroughfare”
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