Top 10 Cheap Snacks for Students in Hong Kong

For healthier cheap snack options, Hong Kong’s lush fresh produce markets, such as the Ladies Market or the night markets on Temple Street, offer sweet and inexpensive fruit native to Hong Kong, including pomegranate, passion fruit and star fruit.  

Native to Hong Kong, egg waffle is a fluffy protein-packed cake with a honeycomb-like structure available in a vast array of flavors, including chocolate, strawberry and black sesame. This Hong Kong favorite has distinctive crispy edges and curiously satisfying ‘bubbles’, which can be broken off to snack on. Sidewalk vendors prepare the iconic dish by pouring batter typically made with flour, milk and eggs into a waffle puff pan.  

Don’t let the name of our sixth cheap snack mislead you. Hugely popular in Hong Kong and other parts of Asia, pineapple buns don’t actually contain any pineapple. These sweet buns are made with sugar, eggs, flour and lard, and the name refers to their golden-brown checkered tops.

While not native to Hong Kong, egg tarts are so hugely popular in Hong Kong that they definitely belong to this list. Mostly egg custard in puff pastry with melted butter, the dessert was introduced to the city as a dim sum in the 1940s and quickly took over other Asian cities.

Unlike pineapple buns, this dish’s name is definitely not misleading. Sold at night markets and roadside stands, stinky tofu owes its unpleasant smell to the fermentation brine utilized in the recipe! Cooked in a myriad of different ways, stinky tofu is often deep-fried and served with Hoisin and chili sauce. 

Curry fish balls are a common sight in the streets of Hong Kong. Another tasty cheap snack, curry fish balls are fried, simmered in curry and evaporated milk, and served on a stick.

A dim sum filled with shrimp or pork, served on a stick and slathered in chili oil or curry sauce, siu mai are a classic of Chinese cuisine – a great finale to our tour of cheap snacks in Hong Kong!