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2010-05-26
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麥奀雲吞麵 (Mak's Noodle) used to be the shop which I trusted and once blindly believed made one of the, if not overall best bowls of Won Ton & Noodles in HK! Afterall its like the Grandfather of all wonton noodle shops in Hong Kong, ever since Mr. 麥煥池 took his professional knowledge from his Canton experiences to HK many years ago. Now finally having had the chance to settle back and sampled the many wonton shops in HK again, all of them which I'd visited at least twice and sometimes up to 5-15
I like debunking urban myths - not because I want to prove to be better than you or any other person, which is a pretty evil way of thinking >.<, but I really believe in digging deeper and finding out the real truths out there. Its not only fun to me, but its also more fairer to the shops and also to others reading your reviews! I could point out dozens of errors I'd made in my previous reviews from eating around too, its not something I am proud of certainly, even though I'd tried to contain my mistakes already... Nowadays though, I still try to encourage myself to open up my mind more and kinda figured its the correct attitude towards needing to improve one's own accuracy rate! Afterall, even world class reviewers like the Michelin Team seemingly does not get it completely correct by its 1st or 2nd goes either, because everything can take time to pick up on. Making mistakes along the way of re-learning is not something I should be ashamed of I guess since even professionals do the same (自我安慰!)! There is nothing worst than pretending one knows best, when sometimes one might have been ill-informed 1 way or another. As a wannabe foodie, during this re-learning process, it also proved to be a valuable lesson for 自我增值. Why fear about your own present faults or blunders made during your eating experiences?? What I try to correct myself on to prepare for the future is what matters the more. All is related to your attitude of approach to food I guess, as I can never guarantee you that my next review will be 100% correct either - but I strived to be better anyhow. >_<
Anyway, here I was again for the Nth time, trying to work out what really makes for a consensually agreed, good bowl of Cantonese Style Won-Ton or Shrimp Roe noodles nowadays.
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麥奀雲吞 - MAK'S WONTON:
- Mak's Noodles HK is well known to be the original shop which introduced Cantonese-Guangzhou style wontons to Hong Kong, which were partially derived & improvised from Northern Chinese style wontons, albeit with a different Chinese word character - 餛飩 vs 雲吞. Back when Mak's Grandfather was still running his little 池記 stall in Guangzhou of Canton, he already had his many followers!
- 麥兆記, 麥文記, 麥奀(忠記), 何洪記, 正斗 are the only shops which received direct tutelage from Mr.Maks of 麥奀雲吞 himself.
- Traditional Cantonese style Wontons, or Wanton or Wan Tun, were made up of mostly Pork and Sea Prawns. By traditional definition, they must carry a longish gold-fish like tapering tail, since they are suppose to emulate gold fish or its 雲吞 Chinese namesake suggests. It should be symbolic of the meaning of 'swallowing the cloud'! This presumably dictates that the filling should be of a smallish size than a ping pong sized wonton, since it should be something pillowy and light....! The version here was close but not perfect enough to be correct to the terminological meaning I suppose.
- Cantonese Wontons in general, for the sake of understanding, will usually be made up of a combination of a few common ingredients: shrimps or prawns (蝦), roasted flounder floss (大地魚末), lean pork (豬肉), fatty pork (肥豬肉), sesame or sesame oil (芝麻/芝麻油), duck egg (鴨蛋), Prawn Roes (蝦籽), etc.
- Traditionally and the politically correct Canton versions should contain both Pork and Prawns at least. More prawns to pork ratio wise but.
- CONTRARY TO MOST POPULAR BELIEF, Mak's Noodle's wonton version, despite being the grandfather of it all in HK, is NOT THE MOST AUTHENTIC type. 麥奀雲吞 indeed was the 1st inventor of 100% pure prawn wontons, which deviated from its Prawn and Pork predecessor in Guangzhou. This was intentional on the part of Mr. Mak as he wanted to make a 100% seafood version. The version at Mak's Noodles therefore, despite being generally regarded as the most accurate traditional version, is infact far from being authentic. Here, its made of 100% prawns, 大地魚末, sesame oil and duck egg only, with 0% of pork in any form whatsoever. That's despite other eaters feeling they saw pork somewhere, when there isn't any indeed. I'll bet $100 against anyone who ever find traces of pork in the HK grandfather of all version of wontons here! This fact is reconfirmed again by the shop owner and managers, not to mention that its sibling 麥兆記 similarly advertises the same fact about their grandfather's non-traditional version. Isn't this unbelievable?!
湯 - SOUP:
- A Wonton's soup is usually boiled from some common ingredients. Not every wonton shop utilizes the same or adhere to strict proportions of each ingredient. These might comprise of boiling up: Prawn shells, Dried prawn roes, Pork bones, Chicken bones, Shaved Roasted Flounder or grinded Flounder Floss, 羅漢果 (Siraitia Grosvenorii), White Pepper, MSG, etc. Young carefully wiped Green Chives are usually added in the end to the soup bowl to coax out more aroma, but sometimes Spring Onions can be added as well but this is more a newish idea.
- The traditional Cantonese Wonton's soup is mostly boiled of Porks and Dried Flounder. Sometimes it is murky in appearange, whereas sometimes its prepared transparent as a higher end broth. The latter is harder to achieve in consistency, but both versions are still traditionally correct.
- Nowadays In 2010, Hong Kongers seem to mutually agree that the most desirable version of soup should be made up of mostly Flounder's taste. It should also appear as a clear broth visually, where additional Prawn Roes influence can be desirable, with pork bones taste taking a background role. This deviates from the traditional so-called wonton soup version, as it could have been more of a murky pork bones and dried flounders soup....
麵 - Noodles:
- Traditional noodles in a bowl of soup, or the drier version on a plate, should be consensually the agreed thin silvery noodles, Made of 高筋麵粉 (High Gluten Strength Wheat Flour of 12.5%~13.5% Protein). Variations exists however: as most Guangzhou or Macanese versions of noodles are slightly more rounder and thicker, they're bouncier noodles than HK equivalents. HK versions nowadays seem to be thinner strands, slightly more elasticky and curly even compared to its next of kins in China or Macau. HK noodles are usually made of only Glutinous Flour, Duck Eggs and Alkaline solution. Some rare shops also use a combination of Duck and Chicken eggs however, as Duck Eggs gives it the more bounciful al-dente texture and depth of flavour, whereas Chicken Eggs gives it more instant overall eggy taste and eggy aroma, at the expense of a more chewable texture!
- Note that the noodles in general can be eaten with a Red Chinese vinegar, which is suppose to cancel out the Alkalinity in the noodles. Sometimes, acidic pickled radish are offered to do the same job of cancelling out the low pH, alkanility levels.
- Noodles are usually boiled, then cold water cooled to cancel residual heating to retain a nice texture, before heated up again right before serving. Its then tossed together with a slight mixture of either vegetable based oil or rendered pork oil, the latter is desired usually due to its additional aroma and umami taste profile. Factory based manufactured lard oil however may not give the same satisfaction as the original versions though.
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水餃 - MAK'S SUI GAU:
Sui Gau's are different to Wontons in that they are usually slightly wider, and traditionally the Cantonese versions should be made up of a combination of Pork, Prawns, Chinese Fungus, Bamboo Shoots and Chinese Mushrooms. The base soup is generally the same as wontons. This is infact also derived and improvised from more Northern Chinese versions from Shangdong and Beijing, etc. The end result becomes quite different!
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蝦籽撈麵 - Dried Prawn Roes with Dry Noodles, with Additional Soup on Side :
Fresh Water based Prawn Roes are the norm in this dish. They're slightly toasted or fried, sometimes mixed with prawns paste or additional salt crystals in the process. It shall carry a lot of umami taste. Every shop's prawn roe differs in its performance. The Mak's Noodle's version is pretty good in general, carrying a bit of sweetness, umami and fishiness, but it isn't the best available version compared to certain other shops. The noodles meanwhile in Mak's seems a little bland in general, not carrying a lot of wheaty or eggy taste, even though the texture seems spot on anyhow. There are slightly better noodles out there, although other shops might not make as good as wonton or soup. Its all a big tradeoff!
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SUMMARY:
Lately, I find that Mak's Noodles, despite being the basic measuring yard for a wonton noodles or dried noodles shop, can be slightly inconsistent in its soup base. Sometimes, it becomes so salty and even bitter, whereas sometimes it seems too sugary sweet depending on day of visit and which store you patron! It needs to be monitored more frequently for consistencies. Whilst I believe the Central Store has better overall potential, its the Causeway Bay store which proves just a tad more consistency since it receives a lot more turnover, which automatically means its soup base remains more consistent as its used up quicker. (I have never been to TST store to compare.) I like the Central Wellington store more on potential, but one wished it was more consistent in terms of non-bitter soup performance.
Anyway, after all my recent experiences, I think I can come to some preliminary conclusions as to what I like the most:
- 正斗 in Happy Valley is on average, the most consistent performer in terms of everything. The soup is always great, better than here. The noodles are not perfect but slightly better than here as it tastes of a smidgeon more wheaty and eggy flavours. The wontons there also carry the best ratio of pork vs prawns, but doesn't carry a good gold-fish tail though.... ]
- 銅鑼灣池記 to me, serves one of the best balanced wonton noodles. The noodles tastes of good egginess, wheatiness and texture, the wontons have a good goldfish tail end with a balanced ratio of prawn vs pork. The soup is not be as good as 正斗 or 麥奀, but it is fairly consistent with a lot of Flounders and Prawn Roes taste... The Mongkok 池記 store however seems a bit more inconsistent, as twice I went there, the soup was spoiled with the sweetness of too much 羅漢果.
- 何洪記 is also pretty good nowadays, they seem to have improved from my visit a year ago, compared to a recent 2010 visit. The soup is not-bad - not as good or carried enough depth as its sibling 跑馬地正斗, but then again the latter is expensive and is situated in a richer neighbourhood. The wontons at both are basically the same, and what I like about 何洪記 or 正斗 is that both shops don't carry too much Sesame oil which spoils the balance, covering the main characters . The noodles at both also taste similar. The soup differed in both siblings though.
- 麥兆記 in my opinion, makes the most politically correct, traditional Cantonese wonton noodles at least in terms of appearance. Unfortunately, somehow, they managed to stuff up with inconsistencies here and there, also in terms of overall taste relative to their aim of making the most traditional version!
A POINT OR TWO IS DEDUCTED FROM MAK'S HERE , BECAUSE SOMETIMES THE BROTH IS WAY TOO SALTY AND BITTER ON MORE THAN ONCE OCCASION I ATE HERE. ON THE RARE OCCASIONS HOWEVER, IT IS DEFINITELY WORTH A '4' TO EVEN A MID '5, EVEN CONSIDERING ITS 100% PRAWN BASED WONTON WITHOUT PORK.
張貼
