Fish ball: Encyclopedia II - Fish ball - Hong Kong

Fish ball - Hong Kong

There are two kinds of fish ball in Hong Kong. One is smaller in size, yellow in colour, and usually made with the cheaper shark meat, and is sold in "strings" (串), each "string" containing from five to seven fish balls "stringed" on a bamboo skewer. Usually sold at food stalls, each string of this kind of fish ball costs from five to seven HKD, depending on the area where it is sold. There are many stalls which support themselves by selling exclusively this kind of fish ball, similar to the hot dog stalls in the United States. The fish ball can be either spicy (often called curry fish ball, though it is doubtful whether curry is used to make the spicy sauce) or not, with the same price. It is often eaten with the steamed rice roll (豬腸粉), another common Hong Kong food. It is one of the most popular and representative "street cooked foods" (街頭熟食) of Hong Kong.

The other is bigger in size, white in colour, and made with more costly fish meat, with a considerably different texture and taste. This kind of fish ball is usually eaten with noodles at restaurants providing Chiuchow-style noodle , and at some chaa chaan teng, which also provide beef ball (牛丸) and cuttlefish ball (墨魚丸). A bowl of noodle with this kind of fish ball costs from $10 to 20. Readily available in traditional market and supermarket, the fish ball is also a popular ingredient for hot pot.

In outdated Hong Kong slang, the term "fish ball girlies" (魚蛋妹) means young prostitutes, usually under the age of 18; and the brothel where these girls work is thus called "fish ball stall" (魚蛋檔). The etymology may be that the action of "stringing" fish balls (拮魚蛋 in Cantonese) resembles that of masturbation (in general, the "fish ball stalls" are not designed for sexual intercourse: the clients can only caress the prostitues and receive masturbation).

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Hong Kong", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki