Ho Yong Kee Wanton Noodle in Guangzhou 何永记粉面店(纸行路店)

Visiting Guangzhou, got to catch some wanton noodle before leaving. The humble wanton noodle is an icon of Cantonese cuisine.

One of the old local favourites is Ho Yong Kee 何永记 in Yuexiu District.

Ho Yong Kee is a decades old, dingy little shop. No decor, wall shelf / counter kind of table, stools, and capacity for at most a dozen people.

Ho Yong Kee still makes their egg noodles in house, upstairs. If you come here for breakfast, you can hear them making noodles right above your head 😁

The egg noodles are made with a mix of duck and chicken eggs (probably), and wheat flour.

There are many ways to enjoy the noodles such as with stewed beef brisket, pork trotter, pork intestine, pork ribs, with abalone sauce, oyster sauce, lard, etc.

This is with pork zha jiang sauce 炸醬麵.

The noodles are tender crunchy to the bite. Alkaline taste from lye water is minimal.

Wanton noodle, of course, won't be complete without wanton (pork dumplings).

The wanton is described as goldfish, big round body with a tiny fan tail.

Wantons come in a cloudy soup which is savoury umami and sweet, flavours that come from a blend of ti poh (dried sole fish), pork, etc.

The wanton is filled with chopped fatty and lean pork, seasoned with white pepper.

Ho Yong Kee is a traditional mom and pop type shop. They face the same situation I saw in Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, etc. Everywhere it is difficult to find successors because the independent stall model is unable to sustain today's costs.

When such shops fade away due to lack of successors, they will be replaced by chain businesses which can capitalise on economies of scale which means the food will be prepared in a central kitchen (factory) and the shop is merely a distribution point with orders assembled by short term employees. No longer are orders prepared by artisan owners (such as at Ho Yong Kee). The centuries old traditional craft and heritage will be lost in this process.

Do support traditional hawkers whenever possible.