Having made a sweeping statement about the dietary inclinations of HK people, I must hasten to add that they do have a life-saving magic formula up their sleeves: Cantonese soup.

Some of their soup recipes are more medicinal than alimentary and can be off-putting, taste-wise, not to mention their interesting ingredients.

However, these recipes do work. Traditionally, the housewife/mother would throw the right combination of ingredients (depending on the season and weather conditions) into a tall, pot-bellied earthenware pot in the morning. It will then sit on a low flame simmering for practically the whole day. When husband and kids come home in the late afternoon/early evening, they are on autopilot and make a beeline for that pot.

If it's well made, the first sip would calm you down. Then you feel the energy settle into your lower abdomen and the antsy sensations, in your head and in your body, caused by the stress of the day simply fall off like autumn leaves.

Not surprising, because if you analyse the ingredients, you'll find that most of them are stuff that tonifies the yin energy, which is often in deficit among modern city dwellers.