The four-storey Central Market used to be Hong Kong's largest public food market, its blend of noise, colour and stench creating an overwhelming assault on the senses. 

These days some of its upper sections have been smartened up, though the ground floor is still home to a variety of alluring food stalls, not to mention scenes of slaughter and butchery on hapless live animals and carcasses that will turn all but the strongest stomachs. 

The stalls sell foods you will probably never have seen before, or at least never considered eating. Among them are salamanders, chicken's feet, sea cucumbers; lotus root -which looks like a hole-filled Swiss cheese - the foul-smelling durian fruit, and the tongues, ears, scrotums and intestines of various animals. Arrive before mid-morning if you want to sample this melange: things begin to wind down around noon.