Cart noodle vendors used to be a common sight on the streets of Hong Kong. The fast-food dish of cart noodles, or che zia mian, reached its glory in the 1950s, and got its name from the small mobile carts pushed by vendors selling noodles with a wide selection of ingredients. Diners could customise their bowls by choosing the types of noodles and other ingredients, which were put into a container and topped up with hot broth, for an inexpensive, fast takeaway meal.
You won’t find cart noodles being sold from a cart any more due to the government crackdown on street food, but they remain popular with Hong Kong people, who now eat them in small restaurants.
Emily Wu, who runs Man Kee Cart Noodle with her husband, says cart noodles are quintessentially Hong Kong. “Hong Kong has a kaleidoscope of cuisines, but most are imported from other regions or countries. None of the dishes really belong to Hong Kong, except for che zai mian,” she says. Snacks such as fish balls come from Chiu Chow people, and wonton noodles are an export from Guangdong province. “I can’t think of any other snacks indigenous to Hong Kong except che zai mian,” says Wu.
Man Kee, which has four outlets, all on Fuk Wing Street in Sham Shui Po, offers 62 cooked ingredients to go with the noodles, including braised chicken wings, spicy squid, shiitake mushrooms, and sweet and sour gluten. “In my childhood, cart noodle vendors hawked their wares on carts, usually in the back alleys,” she says. “Everyone could find a cart under their residence building, or around the neighbourhood, and everyone would vote their [neighbourhood] cart stall as the best. My friends would rave about their nominees, while I would brag about mine. They would bring me to savour their favourites, but I didn’t like them, and vice versa.”
Some cha chaan teng serve che zai mian, but Andy Li, who, with his parents, runs Yat Sing, an 11-year-old shop in Prince Edward, says that shops that specialise in the dish offer the iconic flavour. “A specialist store invests a lot of time and effort in perfecting the cart noodle recipes, while it is unrealistic for a cha chaan teng to do that as it needs to prepare different fare every day,” Li says. Most cart noodle places use a meat broth as the soup base, but at Yat Sing, they prepare a clear radish soup.
“We want to accentuate a light and mellow taste,” says Li. “A common expectation about che zai mian is that the noodles are doused in a rich, heavy and brown stock – greasy, salty, stodgy – that makes you drink lots of water after the meal. We want to break that impression.”
Unlike at some che zai mian restaurants, the range of ingredients available with the noodles at Yat Sing are prepared and cooked in-house, instead of being bought at the market. The toppings are priced differently, and the fragrance of sesame oil shines through the noodles and other ingredients.
Li, who went to college in the UK, came back to Hong Kong in 2018 to help his parents manage the business. He embraces the freedom of being his own boss, and also appreciates the “human touch” of working in a small neighbourhood restaurant.
It’s common to see Li’s father joking with customers who have become close friends, and exchanging greetings with passers-by from the neighbourhood, even if they’re not stopping in for a meal. Many regular customers don’t even need to order, because Li and his parents already know what they want.
Dennis Lau is the third generation of his family to own Hong Kong Wing Nin, which was founded by Lau’s grandfather, a native of Zhongshan. According to Lau, his grandfather swam from Shenzhen to Hong Kong in 1962, to escape poverty. He ran errands for shops, delivering groceries on a bike. In 1982, he opened his own shop selling fruits, cigarettes, confectionery, newspapers, toys and other daily necessities. The advent of supermarkets took away much of the business from these small shops, so Lau’s grandfather started to hawk cart noodles, as a way to supplement his income.
After Lau’s grandfather retired in the 1990s, his parents took over the business and opened a cart noodle shop in Yuen Long. In 2008, Lau returned to Hong Kong from Australia, where he studied hospitality. He was determined to scale up by opening more shops, and to infuse sophistication into the family business. To satisfy increasing demand and ensure consistent quality, Lau decided to “standardise, systemise and modernise”. He refurbished the shabby store and enlarged the kitchen, opened a central factory in Tuen Mun dedicated to food preparation, then distributed the semi-finished products to branches in Yuen Long, Tsim Sha Tsui, Causeway Bay and Sha Tin.
Lau has a keen eye for details, as well as a high standard for customer service. His search for perfection even extends to how to process daikon radishes. “How deep you sink your knife, what angle the knife is tipped, how big the chunks are … all of these affect the taste,” Lau says. “Each chunk should be of similar size, otherwise, when some are just cooked, others are mushy.”
The new outlet in Sha Tin has retro decor but with contemporary twists. The cart noodles have been an update, too. The signature dishes are given names, such as “Prince Charming” (beef-focused, including tripe, tendon, brisket and meatballs) or “Dream Girl” (with beautifying ingredients such as fish maw and pig trotters).
They serve other dishes, including some grilled on iron plates, and a dessert based on Hong Kong confectionery – gai dan zai (egg waffles) made into a “cone” and filled with dragon’s beard candy, candied peanut brittle cubes, Black & White milk ice cream and an egg roll.
Man Kee Cart Noodle
121 Fuk Wing Street, Sham Shui Po, tel: 9059 5104
Yat Sing Cart Noodle
82 Lai Chi Lok Road, Prince Edward, tel: 6201 9912
Hong Kong Wing Nin
Shop 113, L1/F, New Town Plaza, 18 Sha Tin Centre Street, Sha Tin, tel: 2117 2368
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