Just thought I’d post pictures of the dying breed of street level wet market stalls in Hong Kong before they all got moved indoors by the government. All sort of lovely produce, seafood, and meat. They are wet, a little slippery, and totally out of fashion with the younger generation. But this is where the good food is found. Haggling is a given.
Seafood stalls:
Fish ball stall with all manner of fish balls, including some Chiu Chow style:
Dinner:
I thought they are already disappeared.
I have still seen many in my last years visits, though streets food moved to those buildings:
Hong Kong island
Wanchai (Queen’s Road), Causeway Bay (Electric Road), North Point (Cheng Yeung Street), Chai Wan
Aberdeen, Ap Lei Chau, Kennedy Town, Sai Ying Pun
I am less familiar of the wet markets of Kowloon, but I have seen for sure:
Kowloon
Mongkok, Sham Shui Po, Yau Ma Tei, To Kwa Wan…
The feeling of outdoor and indoor markets are very different. I like outdoor markets much more, in all countries, more lively.
Love the wet markets! Shame if they ever dissapear. Remember encountering live kuruma ebi in tanks and freshly made tofu at the Wanchai market a couple years ago. Everything looked wonderful.
I echo your sentiments. HK has always been special to me because of the lively wet markets - pulsating with life, full of colour. I oftentimes wished Singapore can be more like that.
This morning market is at Canton Road, Mongkok - which we had to walk through to reach the retro HK China Cafe.
This street market is in Central, which we explored after dim sum breakfast at Lin Heung nearby:
Feast from the sea from the same Mongkok street market:
All manner of shellfish- abalones, fat geoducks, clams, etc. and then shrimps with roes and crabs
All kinds of live fishes. Some pompanos at the bottom.
Who needs tanks anyway.
Bigger fishes:
These mantis shrimps were so feisty, one of them flung itself high up the air, over the edge of the tank and onto the ground. Should have brought that some with me. Or maybe they moved so much there’re loads of lactic acid?
I stayed in Mong Kok on both trips. My lodging mentions the wet market being in the area, this must be the one.
Saw a small market like that in Sai Kung (inside a building).
Looks like I don’t have to schlep to Sai Kung next time I’m in town. Now I just have to convince one of my buddies to prep these ingredients…
Are there seafood restaurants around the market in Mong Kok? Need to know because I don’t want to catch the ferry to Sai Kung and back again 
Want to eat that ridiculous looking giant clam “geoduck”.
There are in Mongkok, but Sai Kung is a better place if you are a fan of seafood, they are more specialised with many restaurants to choose from.
Wan Chai has another one near Causeway Bay on Wanchai Road/ Bowrington Road.
Love geoduck sashimi!! In Shatin:
Young lady bagging our gd in Sai Kong. Prepared 3 ways in nearby restaurant.
More from the Mongkok market. Interesting looking berries at the end. Loads of dried seafood and preserved meat.
As long as wet markets, don’t disappear, I don’t mind that they are getting moved indoors. I do appreciate the added cleanliness factor to that. Even though most wet markets aren’t directly on busy streets, they often abutt streets with heavy traffic and congestion and I always thought all that exhaustion in the air can’t be good for the food.
But I would be sad if they went away altogether; I love walking through the local neighborhood wet markets and regular produce/dried seafood stalls and finding different specialty stalls tucked in between.
Where was this place in Shatin? Thx.
This was within three city blocks of the Park Hotel in Shatin.
We just happened upon the restaurant the very first night we landed in Shatin. Sorry can’t help with the name or actual location.
I’ve only recently started collecting business cards from restaurants for future reference.
NP. I look back at some older restaurant food photos, absolutely no idea where was the meal. Luckily my recent years, I always photograph the outside of the restaurant before entering. I like to collect name cards, but not every restaurants have them, and sometimes you forget to take them.
