To understand the Mak's Noodle story is
to understand the complicated web of a family dynasty that goes back
three generations. Mak Woon-chi brought wonton noodles to Hong Kong,
where the dish become a popular street food. Mak's Noodle in Central
became the original Mak's, and was handed to the second son. Here is
where it gets complicated so I'll spare you the details. Suffice it
to say that the first son opened his own shop - as did a
granddaughter, a protege and an uncle, and the original Mak's opened many other branches. Today there are a whole range
of wonton noodle shops that can trace their origin to Mak's Noodles,
and after our trip to Disneyland we decided to head to the uncle's
store – Mak Man Kee in Jordan.
Confusingly, Mak Man Kee has no English
signage at all on the outside. I can understand not bothering with
catering to English speaking westerners – Tim Ho Wan do well with
just the Cantonese signage – however, in the case of Mak Man Kee
the fact that a branch of Mak's Noodles is two stores down means I'm
sure a lot of confused people go there instead. Thankfully I knew
there was difference, and the busier Mak Man Kee definitely seemed to
be the more popular of the two.
