Warm Start to Winter Hits Snake Soup Trade
HK01 · 1 SOURCESabout 2 hours ago5 MIN
Summary
Hong Kong’s unusually warm early November has cut into the traditional Start of Winter rush for snake soup shops, with customer traffic described as thin at a Sham Shui Po store on the eve of the seasonal marker. The second-generation operator of Snake King Hip said the business has also been hurt by changing eating habits among younger people, prompting both a small price rise and a menu revamp aimed at tourists from mainland China.
Key Points
- The Hong Kong Observatory’s Tsim Sha Tsui headquarters recorded 31.1 degrees Celsius on Monday, November 2, the second-highest November temperature on record, as the city had still not entered autumn.
- At Snake King Hip in Sham Shui Po, second-generation operator Chow Ka-ling (周嘉玲), who has helped at the shop since 1971, said Start of Winter once brought queues outside.
- The shop introduced four new dishes this year — pickled mustard snake meat, dry-pot snake meat, pork trotter casserole and ginger-oil baked snake pieces — to suit hotter weather and current tastes.
- Chow said the sour-and-spicy dishes have helped draw mainland visitors, including younger travellers from Shenzhen who later returned with older family members to eat there.
- After freezing prices for five years, the shop raised large snake soup to HK$90 and small snake soup to HK$58 from October 1, citing inflation and monthly electricity bills totalling HK$23,944 for the shop and warehouse.
Why It Matters
The report shows how warmer weather and shifting consumer habits are squeezing a traditional Hong Kong winter food trade that once relied on seasonal demand. It also points to how surviving heritage eateries are adapting through modest price increases, tourist-focused menu changes and cultural storytelling to stay viable.