Ramen restaurant operator Dominic Tang insists on going to a wet market in Hong Kong to buy seafood to prepare shrimp soup every day, resisting the temptation to use a low-cost pre-made option.
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Tang, 39, made a decision to forgo potential savings of 30 per cent on labour and ingredients after visiting an upmarket restaurant and spending HK$700 on dim sum, only to find that some buns had imprints from packaging paper.
He did not complain but vowed never to return to the restaurant again.
“It is very tempting for restaurant owners to turn to pre-made dishes, given the expensive rent and salary base in the city,” Tang said.
More Hong Kong restaurants are turning to pre-cooked food to save costs, especially at a time when the industry is reeling from shutdowns. However, diners are wary about the origins and safety of such products.
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Concern has ballooned to such an extent that Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan weighed in on the issue on Thursday, ruling out the possibility of requiring labelling for pre-cooked meals at restaurants in the absence of uniform standards and varying interpretations of products.