Food and Drink
Crispy Mong Kok
by Johnny Lee
Mong Kok is famous for shopping and
street snacks. To capture and turn the
flavour of Mong Kok into crisps is tricky
but gimmicky.
Local potato chip manufacturer Jack'n Jill has featured the district's taste in one of the products to take on its rivals in the competitive crisp market.
Stanley Poon Man-ho, assistant general manager of Jack'n Jill and developer of the "Mong Kok-style" potato chips, said his company's products had to emphasise the local identity in order to stand out in the market, in view of its major competitors Calbee and Lay's whose products were of the Japanese style and Western style respectively.
New flavours of different brands of
potato chips such as gyoza, or Japanese
fried dumplings, Korean cuttlefish and
cucumber have appeared on supermarket
shelves recently, while customers find
some of the products do not taste
distinctly exotic.
"The idea of ‘Mong Kok style' adds colour to the innovation this time. Or else, this would be nothing more than a new flavour in the chip market. The Mong Kok style is a gimmick and can get customers' attention," Poon said.
The idea of the Mong Kok-style chips, which are, in fact, with roast sausage flavour, came from how Hong Kong people refer to Mong Kok as "MK". Poon said people could remember and were familiar with "MK". "They may not call it the sausage flavour, but the MK flavour," he said.
"Some places can be represented or symbolised by the unique food there," he said.
He cited Calbee's Hokkaido butterflavoured potato crisps as an example. "The butter is so famous that it can represent Hokkaido. Similarly, Hong Kong-style snacks are so famous that they can represent Mong Kok," the assistant general manager said.
Although Mong Kok has many other
popular snacks besides roast sausages,
Poon has chosen roast sausages as the
flavour because their taste matches
potato chips best.
"We have come up with several flavours including offal and stinky tofu, but they do not mix with the chips so well," he said.
The popular roast sausage flavour is based on the taste of Taiwanese sausages that are sold in Mong Kok. And Taiwanese sausages are sweet in taste, which is more suitable for the Hong Kong people, Poon said.
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