South China Morning Post - Food & Drink

When it comes to losing weight, it turns out the simple maths of counting calories does not always add up. Fad diets come and go, but the underlying message almost always follows a simple equation: if you consume fewer calories than you burn, the weight will melt away. In principle, it is true. And counting calories can be a useful tool for managing weight. But it only works if ...

For most Americans, breakfast looks like cereal, bagels, oatmeal, yogurt and fruit smoothies or the classic spread with eggs, bacon and pancakes. For Cindy Lam, a Chicago-born first-generation Cantonese-American entrepreneur, these options felt, in her words, “70-80 per cent” complete – a sentiment captured by the Cantonese phrase “chat chat baat baat” (literally “seven seven, e...

Anyone dialled into the Fifa World Cup 2026 tournament has likely seen on social media the viral advertisements featuring Norway striker Erling Haaland promoting a popular Chinese herbal drink. The advert translates the traditional idea of yit hei (also written as yeet hay), or internal heatiness, into a visual joke, with Haaland breathing fire before cooling down with a sip of ...

Hunched over sizzling grills and shrouded in smoke, trainees at the Yueyang Barbecue Academy in south-central China’s Hunan province roast skewer after skewer of succulent beef tendon, perfecting the skills that could land them a restaurant job. Zhang Tengfei, a former factory worker who spent a decade in the car industry, joined China’s first dedicated barbecue school, hoping t...

A downpour on the morning of July 6 was no match for Hong Kong’s World Cup fever. By around 10am that Monday, a thick crowd had already formed outside Central’s Takshing House, where pedestrians stood several rows deep along Dot Cod’s long glass frontage, peering inside at England’s knockout-stage clash with tournament co-hosts Mexico. Fans in England shirts packed the restauran...