Hong Kong Stories - Tastes of Home：The Wonton Noodle Dream

Wonton noodles took root in Hong Kong after being cultivated from Guangzhou and is subsequently developed into shrimp wonton noodles, becoming a local signature dish that almost everyone in Hong Kong has tasted it. Being full of memories of different people, wonton noodles also has witnessed changes of Hong Kong society as it was first served by street hawkers, later in food stalls, then in noodle shops today.

Nowadays, wonton noodles of various noodle shops look similar but taste differently. For example, one in Yuen Long sticks with his grandfather’s recipe in 1940’s to inherit the fruit of the older generation. Meanwhile, there is someone trying to find the taste of wonton noodles served by his grandfather back then. Sparing no effort to reproduce the taste of childhood, he has not only grilled flatfish for the soup base by himself, also studied the notes left by his grandfather to make bamboo pole noodles which is disappearing and replaced by machine-made noodles.

Though traditional tastes can link people with the past, there are also people who want to enrich the food culture with a distinctive taste that shrimps are replaced by tunas which are caught in a sustainable way, to attract younger generations.

Producer: Yuen Kit-ling