Egg waffle, an ordinary dessert of Hong Kong, China, has suddenly become popular in London. As Londoners are showing an increasing interest in local street snacks of China, these snack bars have been introduced from market stalls to restaurants in some most fashionable blocks in London.

Egg waffle is made from a sweet, egg-rich batter that is cooked on a hot griddle, a special frying pan with small round cells. The snack which is crispy outside and soft inside has been sought-after in Hong Kong for more than half a century.

The team of “Pao Pao Juan” food store folds the traditional egg waffle into a funnel shape, adding ice cream, sauce, fruits, chocolate chips or biscuits into it.

Opened in 2017, the “Pao Pao Juan” food store became popular for its egg waffle. At beginning, the police had to keep the order of customers queuing up with barricades. With a video about the snack going viral online, the dessert with a tempting appearance became an internet celebrity.

Li Bin, a 30-year-old man from Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, is another young entrepreneur running business of Chinese snacks in high-end blocks of London. For introducing snacks of his hometown to the UK, he opened Han’s Xi’an Liangpi and Rougamo, the first Xi’an cuisine restaurant in London near Euston and King’s Cross railway station. There are a lot of Chinese students in the area where the restaurant is located, and a stable flow of tourists in the daytime.

The Chinese hamburger (Rougamo) sold by the restaurant is the best-known, whose meat stuffing is streaky pork cooked with about 20 kinds of spice, or simmered tender beef.

Aiming at preserving the original flavor of the foods of his hometown, Li Bin will not make any adjustment to the recipe. He said, “I will not add lettuce into my Rougamo.”

(Executive Editor: Liu LIU)