This story appears in the Hong Kong edition of the Tatler Dining Guide 2022, now available at all good bookstores and online.

They're ranked on five essential criteria: flavour, texture (more specifically, bounce), sauce, aesthetics, and value for money. It's a highly detailed scoring matrix that the founders of Hong Kong Siu Mai Concern Group (@hksiumaiconcerngroup) have come up with for their slightly tongue in-cheek reviews of the quintessential street snack, and it resonates with the food loving masses—each appraisal is a hotbed of activity with thousands of likes and a flurry of comments, from fierce debates to demands for even more detailed tasting notes.

Since launching in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, the group has amassed over 55,000 followers on Instagram and nearly triple that on the original Facebook page: the account's success has since snowballed into a published guidebook, siu mai merch (a maddening 300-piece puzzle featuring a tray of jumbled siu mai among them), and even a paid membership scheme where siu mai lovers can get discounts from top-rated partner stalls.

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The sheer dedication of the account's admins has inspired a whole legion of other such concern groups dedicated to particular foodstuffs, a phenomenon that is at once reflective of just how food obsessed the city can be, but also of the idea that great food comes in all forms, not just those served on a silver platter.

Perhaps it's also a result of a renewed sense of pride in local identity, with food traditions closely linked to our understanding of culture and what it means to be a Hongkonger; the groups themselves also act as glue for diaspora communities around the world, too, bound together by the shared appreciation of a perfectly bouncy, tender siu mai with the right amount of kick and a sweet lick of soy, or the ritual of brewing your own cha chaan teng-worthy milk tea at home.

It's also a reminder of just how diverse and resilient Hong Kong's F&B industry is, with many of the featured venues being humble, independently run businesses and street stalls that have plied their trade for generations. While some posts bemoan the decline in quality of some establishments ("the good old days!"), there is always a healthy array of wholesome appreciation posts for those rare but beautiful Proustian moments of joy.

Here, we take a look at four popular concern groups and their top picks: