It is amazing that Cha Chaan Teng, a relatively young invention of food place, can grow into a symbol of local food culture in the past 50 years.The reason might be attributed to the characteristics of Cha Chaan Teng. Its unique way of operation and food options are perfect portrayals of Hong Kong culture and identity: hybridity/middle place/in-betweenness.

The food served in Cha Chaan Teng demonstrates how East and West encounters, interacts and mixes in the city of Hong Kong. "East meets West" is demonstrated on two levels. Firstly, there is the coexistence of Western style dish, like pork chop with rice or egg tart, and traditional Chinese food, such as fish-ball noodles. Local people and tourists are free to choose the different cuisines in a single restaurants and the juxtaposition is perfectly in harmony with the cosmopolitan city, where people from different cultural backgrounds can find a home. Secondly, there is the hybrid of western and Chinese food. Hong Kong style milk tea is a great example.Although tea is a traditional Chinese drink, Hong Kong style milk tea is an adaption of English milk tea. Yet the flavor caters to the Hong Kong natives and the red tea leaves in it are imported from Sri Lanka,so the milk tea takes on its hybrid local identity.

Different from the way traditional Chinese restaurant serve the food, Cha Chaan Teng does not provide a round table for people to share the dishes. Instead, it lets every customer to order his or her own dish (客饭) the way Westerners do. That fits the city's fast pace and the busy life of the grassroot Hong Kongers. Along with that is the practice of combo and paying at the front desk.That way customers can order quickly and make room for the next customer. However, Cha Chaan Teng is still a place that requires people to sit down and take the time to eat.The efficiency lies in the process food is served and bill is payed, but there is no hurry for the actual consumption of the food.It almost seems that everything else speeds up to give more time to enjoy the food.It is the grassroot luxury of the working class: a warm bowl of fishball noodles with milk tea during the lunch break, a time that satisfies the stomach and relaxs the mind between work. Hong Kong people are practical, busy, but they also know how to live a life.Some people call Cha Chaan Teng "Denny's with a Chinese cook".Cha Chaan Teng occupies a place lower than a nice restaurant, but higher than fast-food place and Da Pai Dong. It is all about finding a place "in between".

While the food directly demonstrates the multicultural Hong Kong, the operation system shows the invisible Hong Kongness: pragmaticism with the love for life.Cha Chaan Teng is arguably the representation of Hong Kong culture.