Hong Kong 2022 - Local Snacks in Hong Kong (Series No. 2)

Technical Details:
Design:  Shirman LAI
Illustration:  Raymond WONG
Printer:  Cartor Security Printing, France
Process:  Lithography plus embossing
Stamp Size:  Stamp Sheet – 50 mm × 28 mm; $10 Stamp Sheetlet – 112 mm × 71 mm
Stamp Sheetlet Size:  135 mm × 85 mm
Perforation: Stamp Sheet – 14 × 14.25 (one elliptical perforation on each vertical)
Perforation $10 Stamp Sheetlet – 13.75 (one elliptical perforation on each vertical and ‘HK’ shape perforation on top horizontal side)
Paper:  Paper with security fibres

Introduction
As the Chinese saying goes, “Eating is everything”. Among the countless delicacies found in Hong Kong, local snacks of all varieties represent our food culture the best. Following the “Local Snacks in Hong Kong” special stamps issued in 2021, Hongkong Post brings more nostalgic Hong Kong snacks onto the stamps under the theme “Local Snacks in Hong Kong II” this year, where yummy snacks such as Siu Mai, egg tart, fish and lettuce soup, Hong Kong waffle, dragon’s beard candy, Sachima, sesame roll and others will appear on a set of six stamps and a stamp sheetlet.

$2 Stamp - Egg Tart and Coconut Tart
Egg tarts were served in royal banquets in the early days. It became a popular pastry in Guangzhou in the 1920s and travelled to Hong Kong in the 1940s, where it was reinvented into a Hong Kong style treat that came in short crust or flaky crust. Egg tart became a popular treat as soon as it appeared on the menu across town, and remains one of the most iconic treats in Hong Kong to this day. Coconut tart is a treat created by the Hainan people with reference to how egg tart is made. They share a similar look but coconut tart comes with shredded coconut as the filling, and the burst of sweet coconut smell after baking is incredible.

$2.60 Stamp - Faux Shark’s Fin Soup and Fish and Lettuce Soup
Faux shark’s fin soup was invented in the 1940s to 50s, when street food hawkers at the time would collect excessive shark fins from the Chinese restaurants and cook them into a stew using corn starch and other ingredients, seasoned with soy sauce, bringing the then-considered exquisite taste of eating rice with shark fin to the general public. This soup was later modified to use similarly tasted and much cheaper glass noodles to replace shark fins, hence its name. Another soup called lettuce soup is made from fish mixture cooked in broth with lettuce. These soups will warm you up all the way to your heart in cold winter days.

$3.40 Stamp - French Toast and Hong Kong Waffle
French toast is easy to prepare. Stack two slices of bread with peanut butter together, soak it in egg mixture, fry until golden, and serve with butter and syrup. It is the local’s choice for afternoon tea. Hong Kong waffle requires a waffle iron to make. Pour the batter onto it and cook thoroughly, then spread butter, peanut butter, condensed milk over the waffle and add some sugar on it before folding it in half to eat. How delicious!

$3.70 Stamp - Ding Ding Candy and Dragon’s Beard Candy
The name “Ding Ding candy” comes from the chiselling sound “ding ding” when hawkers break the crunchy candy into small pieces to sell. The candy itself is made of a mixture of sugar, maltose and corn syrup, pulled into long white bars to dry, which are then chiselled into pieces. Dragon’s beard candy is made from a maltose dough that is pulled into hair-thin strands, which are then used to wrap around fillings made with sugar, crushed peanuts, sesame seeds, coconut shreds and malts mixed together.

$4.90 Stamp - Iced Gem Biscuit and Sachima
Iced gem biscuits, a childhood memory of many, are bite-sized biscuits with drops of coloured icing “gems” on top, and they come in various colours like white, green, red or yellow. To prepare Sachima, first cut the dough into strips and fry until golden, then put them into a wok of heated syrup, stir fry until the strips are covered in syrup. Finally, let it cool and cut it into square pieces, and the sweet and crispy Sachima is ready to serve.

$5 Stamp - Banana Roll and Black Sesame Roll
Banana rolls and black sesame rolls are traditional Chinese pastry . Banana rolls are soft and white rolls made from glutinous rice flour, rice flour, sugar and other ingredients. Instead of bananas, banana oil is used in making these rolls to give a luscious banana taste. Black sesame rolls are made from grinded black sesame, adding water, water chestnuts and sugar to mix, and then steamed into thin slices. Roll up these slices after cooling and cut them into pieces to become delicious black sesame rolls, yum!

Stamp Sheetlet - Aeroplane Olive, Siu Mai and Stinky Tofu
The abbreviation “HK” for Hong Kong can be found on the perforations of the stamp sheetlet. Three classic snacks are shown on it, including the stinky tofu with the uncommon aroma, the incredibly popular Siu Mai and the aeroplane olive delivered in an amazing method. The aeroplane olive was the best-selling pickled snack in 1950s to 70s. Street vendors would circle the streets of residential areas with an olive-shape carrier, shouting their wares. As the old tenement buildings were only several storeys tall back then, customers would throw money from their balconies down to the hawkers on the streets, and the hawkers would throw the aeroplane olives all the way up to the customers, which was like throwing a paper plane, hence its name.

Official First Day Covers will be put on sale at $2.5 each at all post offices from 12 May 2022. Advance orders for servicing self-provided covers will be accepted at all philatelic offices from 12 to 18 May 2022.

Stamp products include mint stamps, stamp sheet, stamp sheetlet, mini-pane, presentation pack and serviced first day cover. Serviced first day cover is also available at the philatelic offices only.