A Centre of kitchenware – Shanghai Street, Hong Kong

I just finished a relaxed and joyful vacation in Hong Kong during the Christmas holidays.  Since I love eating and enjoy cooking very much, I always spent time on walking around wet markets and shops which sell cutlery, tableware and cooking utensils in the trip. 

I like wandering along Shanghai Street in Yau Ma Tei.  It is like a centre of kitchenware.  I took MTR to Yau Ma Tei Station and started walking towards Shanghai Street from Exit C. I walked along Man Ming Lane and reached Shanghai Street.  There are over thirty traditional Chinese kitchenware shops which are selling everything from professional kitchenware for food and beverage industry to daily use kitchen utensils like Chinese knifes and chopping boards, bamboo steamers, chopsticks, woks, bowls, plates, cake tins, moulds, baking trays, etc.  The locals like going there to buy kitchenware. 

I love this place very much. I like chatting with the sales assistants about how to use the different types of kitchenware.  Most of them are friendly and helpful.  I am very interested in knowing how to choose a Chinese chopping board and its materials used. There are three main types of Chinese chopping boards which are made of wood, bamboo and plastic. I like the traditional round wooden chopping board. My grandma liked using it very much.  It is very heavy but it is more durable with reasonable price. The staff at “Man Kee Chopping Board" (萬記砧板) gave me professional advice on the choices of right chopping board and tools as well.  I wanted to buy a chopping board but it is quite heavy.  It is at least 3-4 kg depending on the size you like but I only got 23 kg baggage allowance for flying back to UK. The shop assistant suggested me mailing it back to UK.  That’s really a good idea. At last, I bought a pair of wooden chopsticks and a pack of Japanese chopsticks there.

Then I kept on finding some moulds for making Chinese New Year Puddings. When I was looking for a moon cake mould at a store called ‘I Love Cake”, I met a young man who is a shop assistant there.  He is very patient; he introduced different types of moulds and explained how to use them.  Also he shared his own recipe on making custard moon cake. I was very happy that he told me some useful tips on baking tasty mooncakes.  He is very nice.  

Besides, there are a wide variety of cake moulds, tins and trays in the shop, especially the moulds, they are very cute.  You must find some you like.  I bought a set of mooncake moulds, a pack of orange yellow coloring, some Japanese dessert spoons and two moulds for making Chinese puddings.  I felt tired after spending a half day in Shanghai Street but I enjoyed a lot!  If I have time, I will go there again!