Best places to eat Taiwanese beef noodle soup in Hong Kong
Humble, inexpensive but a belly-warming delight, Taiwanese beef noodle soup is a popular comfort food in Hong Kong – but needs to be done right. We look at three restaurants recreating the beloved dish’s authentic taste and texture
When you’re eating a good bowl of Taiwanese beef noodle soup, slurping the noodles, chewing on the beef meat and gulping down the broth gives you not only a warm body, but a warm heart.
At least that is the hope of Marco Hon Mo-yuen, the owner of Iron Cow, which specialises in the dish. Since it opened four years ago, the original shop in Tsim Sha Tsui has expanded to three others across Hong Kong and garnered a large following in the city.
Taiwanese beef noodle soup has its origins in Sichuan. In the late 1940s, when China was in the midst of a civil war, about two million Chinese people moved to Taiwan as the Nationalist Party of China retreated from the mainland. Sichuan province was the last stronghold of the Nationalists’ military. Nostalgic for the food they had left behind, Sichuan immigrants in Taiwan made the best of ingredients they could find in their new home and cooked beef noodle soup with their beloved spicy bean paste.
But although it had its start in Sichuan, the Taiwanese have tweaked the original dish and created their own. Fresh noodles served in a rich and slightly spicy beef broth come with thick slices of various beef cuts, with chopped spring onions and fresh coriander sprinkled on top, and pickled mustard greens on the side. Humble and inexpensive, it is a belly-warming delight.
Hon was born in Hong Kong but moved to Taiwan with his family at the age of 22 to help relatives who ran food businesses there. He spent 10 years there before returning to Hong Kong five years ago, and he still feels attached to his former home. “I like the homely and leisurely culture. People there are kind and simple. It is a place full of human touch and affection, and makes you comfortable and relaxed.”
