Not long ago, I came across a Sydney-based illustrator/designer named Nicole Foo, who does a brilliant job at capturing the food and culture of south-east Asia (check out some of her work here).

Seeing her illustrations of chicken rice, char kway teow and roti canai brought back some great memories of wandering around Singapore and KL in search of food - but there was one piece that I was particularly drawn to: that of a ‘Hong Kong Breakfast’, showcasing some of the dishes you’d find at a cha chaan teng or at yum cha.

Now, having emigrated from HK before I was old enough to understand what these dishes were, I can’t gushingly claim that they ‘were the staple of my childhood’ or that they ‘brought back memories of sitting at my favourite stall in Sheung Wan’ - but nevertheless, they’re dishes my parents sought out when we were growing up in Canberra, and for me, there’s still a strong sense of identity and connection associated with them.

After a grabbing a postcard of the illustration from Nicole, and having it sit on my dining table for a few weeks, I thought to myself: “I’m enjoying looking at this so much - why don’t I enjoy it IRL?”. And there, my friends, is how the photos below came to be. As Oscar Wilde famously wrote: “life imitates art far more than art imitates life”.