In The Know with Mina Park

I’m a lawyer by day and a cook by night. I’ve been organising Korean food pop-ups around town through my side business Sook for about a year. I was born in the US to Korean parents and moved a lot throughout my life. Recent homes have been in southern France and London, and I’ve been settling into Hong Kong since 2010.

In Hong Kong, noodles are my go-to comfort food and there are so many amazing bargains for noodles around. If I’m around Sheung Wan, I will queue at the old favourite Kau Kee for their beef brisket noodles. I also like On Lee in Shau Kei Wan for their wonton noodles with fish balls when I’ve had a late night the night before.

But the best bowl of noodles is in Jordan at Yau Yuen Siu Tsui, a Shaanxi restaurant, that specialises in biang biang mian topped with an aromatic scalding chili oil and your choice of dumplings, chicken wings or spare ribs. I usually go for the pork and dill dumplings and always the spicy cucumber to start.

For a special night out, I try to avoid stuffy, overly formal restaurants. I may be somewhat biased since I work with them regularly, but I do love Serge et le phoque in Wanchai and have loved them since they opened. They have a fresh and lowkey approach to French fine dining that you can’t find anywhere else in the city. I also love Mott 32, a high-end Cantonese restaurant in a former bank vault under the Standard Chartered Building. The décor is stunning and you have to order their iberico char siu.

Most of my evenings out end at Salon No. 10 or Ping Pong 129 in Sai Ying Pun. Salon No. 10 is an intimate bar with a lively, mostly European crowd and excellent DJs on Friday nights especially. Ping Pong 129 is a gintoneria, specializing in Spanish gin but in an old-school Hong Kong setting. Their space used to house a local ping pong association and has huge ceilings, gorgeous elements of old-school local design and artwork from up and coming Hong Kong artists like Nadim Abbas.

One of the most unique aspects of Hong Kong living is that green mountains and beaches are so accessible. When the sun is out, you can usually find me hiking to a beach. If I’m being lazy, I’ll do a short hike to Shek O back beach. In Shek O, I often have lunch at Black Sheep, Cococabana which is actually on the main beach, or Happy Garden Thai restaurant. When I am feeling ambitious, I’ll go to Sai Kung and do a hike to Long Ke Wan or Tai Long Wan, two of the most beautiful beaches in Hong Kong. You feel like you’re in Thailand with the turquoise waters and clean sands. There’s not much around the beaches, which is why they’re so pristine, so I always pack a picnic.

I like to browse vintage design and furniture stores like Casa Capriz in Wong Chuk Hang and Deem in Sheung Wan. An afternoon browsing around Sheung Wan’s Tai Ping Shan and Po Hing Fong streets is always relaxing and there always seems to be something new popping up. Everyday’s Good is a super charming small boutique with gorgeous design objects. And then Kapok is hardly a secret in Hong Kong but I go there to find special gifts from mostly French and local designers.

Alongside food, contemporary art is a major obsession of mine. There are now many thoughtfully curated spaces in Hong Kong. At the top of my list are Spring Workshop in Wong Chuk Hang, Edouard Malingue Gallery in Central, Para Site Art Space in North Point (one of the few nonprofit art spaces in Hong Kong of which I’m on the advisory council for full disclosure) and a soon-to-be opened nonprofit art space in Kowloon run by the artist Lee Kit and curator Chantal Wong. Asia Art Archive, another nonprofit arts organization here, often has shows and holds regular talks with artists and curators.

I would go to Shanghai Street in Yau Mai Tei and find this knife shop called Chan Chi Kee. They sell classic Chinese cleavers that are handmade in Hong Kong. There are many different styles in different weights, and I have at least three in my kitchen drawers that I use all the time.

One of the best ways to feel like a local is to wander one of the wet markets. Wanchai Market is a favourite of mine and I love spending an afternoon browsing the stalls of dried Chinese sausage, fresh tropical fruit and century eggs. It’s noisy and people are bumping into you as they shout to a market vendor, but it’s classically Hong Kong. I especially love the clusters of iconic red butcher’s lamps lighting up the meat and seafood stalls. They look like hordes of hovering UFOs.

Discover the songs that make Mina tick with her playlist on our Tribute Hotels Spotify Channel.