https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Hofex-HKCEC-9-May-2017/i-L2mjwh9
The biannual Hofex descended on Hong Kong last week and bc went for a look see, here’s some of what we found. There’s a lot of food at Hofex but the majority of the suppliers, from across the globe, are food service orientated. That’s the provision of the food we enjoy in restaurants, cafes and hotels, from the raw ingredients to machines to technology.
In many smaller places, restaurant groups, but also even in hotel buffets, much of what you eat is outsourced and prepared in a factory or communal kitchens and reheated or finished just before you consume it.
The technology and cooking techniques in the food production area have improved massively in recent years – a simple local example would be the improved quality and options in the bread basket, where very few restaurants have the space/time to make their own – to the extent that with most dishes you shouldn’t be aware of the difference.
https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/HOFEX-HKCEC-11-May-2017/i-mFrFHHQ
Pizza is now a Hong Kong diet staple, with a plethora of different choices from low end to high end. As the big ‘specialist chains have expanded though the quality of many has noticeably dropped. You can even find frozen Tesco’s pizza in some supermarkets. At Hofex though Cypriot importer and online store www.greekdeli.com.hk was showcasing a frozen Greek pizza from Elliniki Nostimia. It’s tasty, full of flavour, loaded with cheese and available with a range of toppings and an estimated retail price of between $40-60. It should be available soon from outlets around town and also from their online store. And while you’re shopping there try out the various flavours of Greek yoghurts.
One of the big local food factories is Sims and among the many tasty things they were showcasing was a delicious chocolate dome comprising a hard chocolate outer shell, filled with soft moist chocolate sponge and then a liquid chocolate center. A difficult combination to execute successfully on a small scale let alone on a production line. Yet it was delicious. Not too sweet, the sponge moist, and so good we went back for a second later in the week.
https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Hofex-HKCEC-9-May-2017/i-DrH4nwv
Brand extensions have been all the range among marketeers for a long time with many hoping to replicate, even on a small scale the phenomenal succe$$ of Hello Kitty. You’ll soon find on your supermarket shelves Jack Daniels BBQ sauces and Guinness Beer Brats and meatballs (Park n Shop, Jusco).
From Lativa comes Nelleulla chocolate flavoured with freeze dried fruit and lovely truffles coated with gold and filled with a range of flavours. The Taiwanese know how gold can help sell, and a company created a hand made nougat with a gold topping. Also from Taiwan for coffee lovers is a range of indigenous coffee with unusual flavours including sea salt coffee.
https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Hofex-HKCEC-9-May-2017/i-69VfnDC
Melbourne cheese makers That’s Amore Cheese showcased several cheeses including Drunken Buffalo (a matured Buffalo milk cheese encased in Nebbiolo grape skins and lees and matured for six months) and Secrets of the Forest (a handcrafted Buffalo milk cheese mixed with winter truffles and matured in wild hay for six months) both are wonderful cheeses with unique flavours and we hope to see both available locally soon.
https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/HOFEX-HKCEC-11-May-2017/i-b8hfrGB
Not all of these are available now, but many should be in a retail or online store near you in the next few months.
https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Hofex-HKCEC-10-May-2017/i-cV3qt4C