Mak's Noodle

Mak's Noodle (麥奀雲吞麵世家)
View of the shop from footbridge
Restaurant information
Current owner(s)	Mak Chi-ming
Food type	Cantonese: wonton noodles
Street address	Wellington Street, Central
City	Hong Kong
Country	Hong Kong

Mak's Noodle (Chinese: 麥奀雲吞麵世家) is a traditional Cantonese restaurant in Central, Hong Kong, specialising in wonton noodles.

History

It is a third-generation family business dating back to the 1960s, and is now run by Mak Chi-ming, whose grandfather Mak Woon-chi (Chinese: 麥煥池) served the dish to Chiang Kai-shek.^[1] It is claimed that the recipe has remained unchanged since Mak's grandfather's time.

The noodles restaurant has its roots in a Guangzhou eaterie established pre-war by Mak Woon-chi. One of his sons, Mak King-hung (Chinese: 麥鏡鴻), nicknamed Mak Ngan (Chinese: 麥奀) because he was extremely skinny as a child, started an open air food stall in Central in 1968 in which his younger brother was the chef. The founder retired in 1983, and renounced his food stall license in lieu of HK$36,000 in compensation from the Hong Kong government.^[2]

The founder's eldest son, Mak Chi-chung (麥志忠), opened his own restaurant Chung Kee Noodles (Chinese: 忠記麵家), in 1986, while Mak senior partnered his son-in-law in 1989 to reincarnate his original business in Wellington Street. He ran the restaurant himself and retired again in 1996. The business was succeeded by his second son Mak Chi-ming, the current proprietor.^[2]

In recent years, Mak's Noodle has established outlets at Olympian City, China Hong Kong City and Causeway Bay, and one restaurant in Macau.

Food

Wonton noodles

The soup base is made of powdered dried flounder, dried shrimp roe and pork bones.^[3] The small serving bowls keep the noodles from going soggy^[1].

Hong Kong wonton noodles are usually equated with wonton and noodles served together in piping hot broth. However, the restaurant also serves noodles together with other choices in addition to the traditional wonton. These may either be served in broth or with dry noodles (撈麵) and the broth in a separate bowl, as in some other Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore and Malaysia.

Beef Brisket noodles

This dish was recommended in a "Q&A" column of the New York Times. Mak's was said to be "a spot so well known it has its own Wikipedia page" ^[4]

Price

As of September 2010, a bowl of wonton noodles at Mak's costs HK$30.

Gallery

• 

  Front entrance

• 

  The chef at work

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Jessica Lam, Food, South China Morning Post, 7 June 2007
2. ^ ^{a b} (Chinese) Mak's Noodles' 100-year history, Apple Daily
3. ^ Alex Renton, The man who made dim sum a fashion plate, The Observer, 5 December 2004
4. ^ David G. Allan (22 November 2009). "Q&A". The New York Times. http://intransit.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/qa-hong-kong-highlights-for-two-21-year-olds/?scp=1&sq=mak's&st=cse.