DAI PAI DONG

The "dai pai dong", also known as "dai pai dong" or "tea stall", is a type of restaurant that originated from the hawker licensing system established in Hong Kong in the mid-nineteenth century and was common in the streets of the old districts of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. These open-air cooked food stalls were popular with the grassroots because of their wide variety of food, low prices and high efficiency in serving food, and the fact that diners could eat in no time after ordering during breakfast, lunch, dinner and late-night hours. In the old days, most "dai pai dongs" were made of tin and wooden panels, with a canvas roof, forming a semi-open kitchen and shop, with a number of foldable tables around the shop, some of which were even left out in the open and occupied the road. Although the food culture of Hong Kong has been declining as a result of economic development, in recent years, the community has begun to pay more attention to the preservation of such food culture.