Fairy King Prawn. One of Hong Kong's all time best horses. But where did his name derive from?

Long before HK became synonomous with glass and skyscrapers it was well known as a traditional fishing village. 'Little prawns' did not, however, refer to shellfish caught in the harbours; rather it was a term of endearment that local fishermen called their children.

Fairy King Prawn literally translates as "the most beautiful child”and according to my local Cantonese sources it is a very affectionate term; sounds almost like “baby king".

I then started asking the inevitable questions - what does lobster translate as? Is there such a thing as a crayfish?

Apparently there is no distinction in Cantonese between the types of shellfish - basically they are all prawns ... a lobster is simply a dragon prawn !

“We always wondered why people who speak English invented so many words!”lamented my friend (a rather ironic comment I thought given Cantonese has 9 tones [Mandarin only has 4 - bless it] so expats, if they're not careful, can easily confuse a taxi driver by telling them to go to "Sofa Chicken" instead of the intended "Flower Road", your request for dumplings could be misinterpreted as you wanting some sleep, and there was an amusing situation recently where a request for a passport was greeted with an awkward pause ... the male Chinese recipient not entirely sure how to deal with the demand for sanitary napkins!