Geological gourmet unveils his answer to the Hard Rock Cafe

There's a new food display at Sha Tin's New Town Plaza being prepared but every delicacy in this show is not just hard as rocks, they are rocks.

Shanghai native Chen Xinghong began his unusual hobby 15 years ago collecting rocks and stones, and now he has amassed a quarry collection weighing over 1,000kg mainly from Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang .

Chen's interest in acquiring food-like stones began when he found a clam-like fossil and thought, 'Hey, I can make something that looks like a dish with this'.

Since then, his appetite for geological souvenirs resembling food has grown into a glutton's habit.

'When people look at these stones, they think they are just rocks and aren't worth anything but when you look more closely, arrange them in different ways with some imagination, they become something visually delightful,' Chen said. 'And they are all natural products from years of erosion without any work by human hands. It's truly nature's beauty.'

He added this is the first time his collection has been displayed in this way. There will be 153 specially arranged dishes resembling both Chinese and western food items on display.