Cha Chaan Teng

Chef, writer, culinary educator, and Food & Wine Best New Chef, 2021, Lucas Sin writes his debut cookbook on Hong Kong-style comfort food.

The cha chaan teng—Hong Kong’s iconic neighborhood diner—is where the city has always fed itself. Born from the collision of Chinese cooking, Western influence, and a century of migration and colonial exchange, the restaurants serve everyone from day laborers to schoolchildren, and the food is some of the most beloved in the world: Baked Pork Chop Rice and Beef Chow Fun, Pineapple Buns and Coconut Tarts, Milk Tea, Red Bean Ice, and more.

Lucas Sin has spent years documenting the food of Hong Kong’s cha chaan teng with the rigor of an anthropologist and the instincts of a cook, learning these recipes from the chefs who’ve spent careers refining them. The result is 128 recipes of comfort food made with the same eye for detail as anything in a fine-dining kitchen. These are some of the most satisfying dishes you’ll ever make: crisp, custardy egg tarts, three variations of Hong Kong-style French toast, and stir-fries with real wok hei. This is the ultimate collection of Hong Kong’s favorite food—affordable, generous, and unfettered in its deliciousness.