A Taste of Hong Kong: 70 Essential Recipes from Asia's World City (Davina Chang, Ada Deschanel)

Born in Hong Kong and raised between cultures, Davina Chang spent years abroad before realizing that her connection to home was rooted in taste: the texture of congee, the smell of pineapple buns, the clink of milk tea in a café. French native co-author Ada Deschanel has spent years studying Hong Kong’s food culture as a lens to understand the city, from its markets and cha chaan teng to its haute cuisine and street snacks. Through her work as a researcher, photographer, and writer, she documents how flavors, spaces, and gestures reveal the city’s layered identity.

Structured around the rhythm of a Hong Kong day, the beautifully illustrated A Taste of Hong Kong follows a “journey through meals”—from bakery breakfasts and dim sum brunches to noodle-shop lunches, street snacks, and family-style dinners. With 70 recipes, it offers everything from silky tomato-egg stir-fry and curry fish balls to sweet red bean soup and egg tarts. The dishes reflect the rich culinary heritage of Hong Kong and its Cantonese foundations, shaped by migration, colonial influences, and a distinct culture of adaptation.

Woven between the dishes are personal essays about identity, memory, and belonging—stories that ground the food in lived experience and cultural insight. Part cookbook, part coming-home story, A Taste of Hong Kong is an invitation to cook, connect, and rediscover a city through its flavors.