Instant noodles are a popular and common item in the Chinese diet. In Hong Kong and China, they are commonly eaten as part of breakfast or lunch. Instant noodles are a great base, and can be served with different combinations of spam, green leafy vegetables, corn, beef balls, fish cakes, fried egg – to name a few of many options. The packages of noodles themselves often comes with their own soup base flavouring, including beef, veggie, oyster, and shrimp. Instant noodles are also a popular childhood snack, served loose in individual packets and flavoured with dried powder that taste like chicken, spicy flavour, or garlic.

Steamed fish is a common home cooked dish often served at larger dinner gatherings, and is also a dish commonly served during Lunar New Year. A whole fish is steamed in a wok with ginger and green onion, and later doused with a sauce of hot vegetable oil and soy sauce which makes a satisfying sizzling sound when poured over. The fish can also be steamed with other ingredients like cilantro, ground bean sauce (面豉酱), or dried mandarin orange peel (陳皮). The best steamed fish is cooked from a fish that is still live when purchased from the grocery store. In Chinese, the pronunciation for “fish” or 鱼 (yùh) sounds like “surplus” or 余 (yùh), which is why it’s commonly served during Lunar New Year. Some phrases include 年年有余 meaning “To have a surplus or abundance of food, wealth, prosperity year after year”, 无鱼不成宴 which means “No fish, no feast”, or 鱼跃龙门 literally translated as “Leaping over the dragon’s gate”, an idiom for passing a competitive task like an exam.