Mother-of-two Tinna Cheng Leung Sau-ha cooks for her family no more than once a week - and when her domestic helper takes the day off on Sundays, the company executive usually takes her family out to lunch for something different, like spaghetti and pizza.
'We take [steamed] rice only for dinner. For breakfast and lunch, I normally have bread or congee, something simple and convenient,' said Mrs Cheng, 40.
'My two sons, 13 and nine, have lunch at school and my husband also eats out. So I do not really know what they eat.
'But we still insist on rice once a day as it is a habit ... When I was young, I had rice for lunch and dinner every day.'
Her mother, Siu Yee-mui, 79, recalled how the family rarely dined out in her day and she single-handedly prepared three meals a day.
Mrs Siu, a mother of five, said: 'My husband was the sole bread winner. The living standard was so low back in the 1950s and 1960s that many families like us could not afford extra items like fruit, which was deemed a luxury, not to mention any snacks.