Beautiful cookbook! The photography and graphic design are fantastic, some of the best I've seen. I also really enjoyed the glimpses into Hong Kong's culture and daily life.

The recipes are interesting, and I have mixed feelings about them. On one hand, I think it's great that they're not watered down and overly westernized, but I do think the unusual ingredients (for US readers) and equipment needed makes many of these inaccessible for most people to actually make. This is probably exacerbated by being plant-based/vegan, which can add to the complexity. I did really like the introductions to the recipes--informative and interesting, but not overly long.

I did think the introduction was a bit meandering and long-winded--if there's one area to shore up, I think that'd be it.

An absolutely gorgeous book. The recipes are mouth-watering. I loved the author's story and the recipes they included. I can't wait to make my own tofu. The artistry in the plating was incredible. Wonderful cookbook!

Years ago I was lucky enough to visit Hong Kong, and this cookbook brought back so many wonderful memories for me! The pictures are outstanding. I appreciate plant based recipes, and it’s lovely to see the depth of recipes in this book that don’t sacrifice the vibrancy or authenticity of these dishes.

I was excited by the "vibrant" cover of this book and a bit nostalgic for a trip to Hong Kong many years a go where I balanced sightseeing with eating my way through the city. I admit, little of that eating was vegetarian much less vegan, but a vegan interpretation of the dim sum, snacks, and meals that I enjoyed piqued my curiosity.
The book starts nicely with an introduction of the author's personal story, and covers tools, staples, and bases before diving into the recipes. Recipes are divided into sections for Breakfast and Dim Sum, Lunchbox Favorites, Dinners (Festival Foods to Dai Pai Dongs), and Snacks & Sweets. Each recipe is listed in English as well as Cantonese, instructions are clear and straight forward, with ingredients clearly listed and separated by the part of the dish they belong to, in the case of multipart dishes, and most dishes have a vibrant photo accompanying the recipe to see what the result should look like. The photos definitely made my mouth water. Anyone who resides in a city with a Chinatown or a well-stocked ethnic/Asian market should not have issue procuring ingredients for most or all of the dishes, but anyone living with a less diversified area may have to get creative (or go online) for some components. I appreciated reading through this book and can't wait to try out a few recipes for myself. I'd recommend this for anyone looking for a fresh variety of vegan recipes or to enrich their repertoire of Cantonese and East Asian dishes.
I received advanced access to this book thru NetGalley (for which I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher, Chronicle Books ) for an honest review. The opinion expressed here is my own.

From the cover design to the content, this is a beautiful cookbook. It fully embodies “vibrant Hong Kong”. The love that the author has for Hong Kong and its food is unmistakable through her writing, the photographs, and the recipes. She’s also clearly passionate about sustainability and plant-based cooking.

Every single recipe in here sounds like something I’d love to eat (and cook!) and I love that there’s a photograph for every recipe. The ingredients may be adapted for a vegetarian diet, but they still prioritize authenticity - personally I consider that a strength, but some may be disappointed that not all the ingredients can be easily found at a typical American grocery store. I was surprised (though not unpleasantly so) at the number of recipes for sweets; in this case, “plant-based” is not code for “healthy food only”.

I love when cookbook has beautiful mouth watering pictures.
Cookbooks and cooking is my passion . I always trying new recipes.
Love how easy the recipes are, easy to follow and delish ingredients. Cant wait to strat my weekly cooking's

I absolutely LOVED Christine Wong’s The Vibrant Hong Kong Table! This book took me back to when I was introduced to Chinese cooking by my Chinese friend Jennifer and she made sure I understood the combination of hot and cold ingredients as well as her own experience cooking.. The explanations and stories that Christine used to describe her family history and dynamics were spun well before the recipes started. The vegetarian recipes are wonderfully explained first, followed by easily explained ingredients and the pictures in the recipes were outstanding! I couldn’t stop going thru the entire book and was an in awe how she simplifies things so you’re not afraid to experiment with recipes. There are lists for home staples, kitchenware and even lists (at the end) of the significance of meals and occasions to serve them. Even though this was an ARC; it’s a book you want to add to your Cookbook Library.

“Have you eaten (rice) yet?”

These are words I grew up hearing in my own upbringing, and I resonate with this so much. This cookbook so eloquently portrayed an immigrant family’s story acclimating to life in the US as well as in Hong Kong. What I find most in a completely plant based meal is the addition of artificially flavored or processed ingredients to mimic the flavor of meat, especially with Asian cuisine. This cookbook was not that. And while I am not a vegetarian (I love vegetables and tofu AND meat), I really appreciated how precise the author’s substitutions were in order to keep the integrity of each dish’s flavor. The egg substitutions and the DIY mushroom powder in particular were phenomenal!

I loved reading about the history of vegetarianism in Ancient China, the yin and yang of different foods and how they’re prepared, and found many similarities to my own culture as well. The cultural crossover between foods in various countries has always been a fascination of mine. Hong Kong has been on my list for a while now, and after reading this cookbook (even being completely plant based) it has jumped up to the top. The Vibrant Hong Kong Table has made its way onto my favorite cookbooks shelf, pleasantly reminding me of another favorite of mine, Mooncakes & Milk Bread by Kristina Cho.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first cookbook review, so if it reads like a romance review, oops 🤣

The Vibrant Hong Kong table has a gorgeous cover and is beautifully crafted. The recipes are easy to understand and follow (which is important to me as an amateur cook) and they also offer a bit of history and cultural significance. I was drawn to this cookbook for the vibrant (they nailed that) cover, and the recipe photographs inside offer more of the same. I’m very interested in plant based cooking, and I find that often, those cookbooks and recipes can be a bit…preachy? Judgmental? I don’t know how to articulate that thought really, but I didn’t have that issue with this one at all. I’m very excited to gather the ingredients to try new cuisine.

I received an advanced digital copy for review, this is my own opinion. Thanks to Netgalley and Chronicle Books for the advance copy!

I really enjoyed the writing style of Christine Wong. After trying several recipes I look forward to trying even more. Easy to follow directions.

So many fun recipes and a beautiful layout. I made a few recipes from each section over the course of a few weeks and nothing was disappointing. Some ingredients were a little harder to source, but thanks to the internet it wasn't impossible.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Vibrant Hong Kong Table focuses on plant based Hong Kong recipes. The book discusses why plant based diets are beneficial alongside the recipes, so if you are interested in the impacts this would be a good staple cookbook.

The cookbook consists of pantry staples, breakfast and dim sum, cha chan teng and lunchbox favorites, family style dinners, & snacks, sweets and siu yeh. The pantry staples and meat alternatives were very in depth on the flavor components. The photos of the recipes look amazing. The recipes are very easy to follow although some of the recipes are covered on two pages. When making the recipes some ingredients would be harder to come across. I thoroughly enjoyed the Vibrant Hong Kong Table recipes.

This was a very interesting cookbook. However the edition I was given to read was a little bare and the recipes look so intriguing but not having the matching images to go along with it made it hard to imagine what they were. Imususally love unique cook books but they have to have many visual elements to attract readers. The fully published version could be different but I was disappointed in this version.

Beautiful, colorful cookbook I’ve ever seen! I cannot wait to try out the recipes. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy.

An exciting combination of Chinese vegetarian recipes. This book includes some complex and delectable recipes, as well as some of the most basic recipes needed for Chinese vegetarian cooking, including homemade tofu and a varieties of sauces.

In addition to the recipes, there are some great extras included. I loved the addition of the pantry staples and various cooking techniques (including the materials needed for each). And the dining etiquette section was especially interesting

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of The Vibrant Hong Kong Table.

I was more than pleasantly surprised when I saw this cookbook focused on recreating vegan versions of popular and delicious Hong Kong dishes.

If there's one thing Chinese food isn't known for, it's vegan!

I grew up eating most of the incredible and delicious foods in the cookbook and each photo and recipe brought back warm and mouth watering memories from my childhood.

The cookbook is organized by a day of eating through the city and the author pays homage to her culinary heritage, including family stories and anecdotes, old timey photos and personal photos, which I loved.

Her distinctive writing style and warm tone permeated throughout the cookbook, conjuring a friendly and cozy vibe, like a friend explaining how a particular dish is made right in her kitchen.

I know I can't give up meat and I'm not sure I'd try the vegan versions of my favorite foods like 'egg' tarts, but I do try to limit my intake of meat.

I love knowing there are vegan versions of my favorite dishes and the recipes will inspire me to eat better, if I get around to making them.

Some recipe are labor extensive but overall, the instructions seem easy to follow.

The photos are clear and straightforward, not fancy, though I was expecting more.

The point is, you can see what the dishes are supposed to look like and they do look delicious.

There are so many dishes and recipes to choose from so there's no shortage of finding a favorite and/or discovering new favorites.

This is a fantastic cookbook, and would be a welcome addition in anyone's personal collection, if you're a chef or not.

If you love to eat (and I do), this book is for you (and me!)

This book offers readers an immersive cultural experience that celebrates the delicious cuisine and rich diversity of Hong Kong. Time-honored, traditional recipes have been adapted using vegan, environmentally-conscious ingredients and are presented with beautifully styled food and vivid photography.

I love the recipes and photos! As someone who grew up eating Chinese food, it was very nostalgic to see the recipes on here but with a vegetable-based twist. I also love that there are the Chinese names/words for the ingredients if I want to look at them in the supermarket. I can't wait to try the recipes.

This is a really great cookbook! I am not vegan, but I think this book was a really great look at how to make a lot of classic Chinese recipes in a vegan way, and I could see this being really helpful if I’m trying to accommodate any friend or family member’s dietary needs when I’m cooking because I so often use animal products in my own cooking of Chinese food. It’s really nice to see that plant-based Chinese food can be made in a way that is still delicious. The pictures and descriptions in this book were very well done, and I really appreciated the author’s insertion of her own anecdotes as well.

Thank you to NetGalley for the e-ARC of the book!

Despite the fact that half my family is from Hong Kong, I (very sadly) barely know how to make any Chinese/Cantonese-style dishes. It's something I'm hoping to change, so this book was right up my alley!

The author described this book as her "love letter to the city's culinary heritage" while also adapting recipes for a more plant-based approach. I'm learning more about lifestyle medicine at the moment, and there are many, many studies out there detailing how many health benefits there are to adopting a plant-based diet. While I can't bring myself to completely cut out meat altogether, I do try to limit my intake of it when I can, so the fact that this book exists makes me even happier!

The first set of recipes covers breakfast and dim sum. I don't eat pork/seafood other than fish, so I've never been able to eat a whole lot of the dim sum options out there. The fact that this has recipes to make alternatives + also lots of old favorites (e.g. mushroom cha siu buns, crystal dumplings, mango pudding, lava custard buns, sampan congee) makes me extra happy!

The next chapter covers foods/drinks you'll often see in "Cha Chaan Tengs" ("tea reasturants") which are known for their affordability, vast menus, and east/west fusion dishes. Some recipes include HK milk tea, borscht, red bean soup, Singapore noodles, and tomato "egg" rice.

The next set of recipes covers dishes you'd often see in family-style dinners, street food, and food you'd see in different festivals. Lunar New Year is coming up soon, and it even includes a page on a bunch of foods that are considered to be lucky (+ their symbolism/meaning). Some of the recipes in this chapter include Lunar New Year dumplings, Dragon Boat Festival "rice parcels," Yin Yang fried rice, Buddha's Delight, and wintermelon soup.

The last chapter includes snacks, sweets, and "siu yeh" (aka late night/early morning meal, which I am especially well acquainted with since I'm a night owl)! Curry "Fishballs," stinky tofu, curry puffs, pineapple buns, wife cakes, mango pomelo "sago"...there's something for everyone here! :]

Each of the recipes contains a short intro, the ingredient list, serving size, and instructions, as well as the Chinese name/characters. There are 88 different recipes total in here. I love the variety + so many of them are foods I've grown up eating + always try to seek out whenever I'm visiting in Hong Kong. Definitely going to be getting a physical copy of this!