Published: 3:15pm, 2 Oct 2025Updated: 3:58pm, 2 Oct 2025
We have selected seven Lifestyle stories from the past seven days that resonated with our readers. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing.
1. How Hong Kong’s ‘Fat Mama’ Maria Cordero went from Cantopop to controversy
To generations of Hongkongers, she is Fei Ma, or “Fat Mama” – a beloved singer, actress and television chef whose booming voice and hearty recipes feel like a warm embrace. But in the past decade or so, Maria Cordero has adopted a new, more polarising role through her political expressions, which have complicated her legacy.
2. ‘We’ve been through a lot’: Metropol boss on closing after 35 years
For Mamoru Hayashi, the closure of Metropol – the Cantonese restaurant his family has run for the past 35 years in Hong Kong’s Admiralty area – on September 27 is not something he views with sadness. Unlike many recent restaurant closures – often lacking notice or completely unannounced – the sunsetting of Metropol was sealed months prior, in July, with news of the venue being acquired by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) for HK$354.4 million (US$45 million).
3. Where does the word ‘typhoon’ come from? It’s not what you might think
