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Real Hong Kong street food: how cart noodles have survived into the 21st century

  • The Hong Kong street food classic, cart noodles, can no longer be found on the streets of the city
  • Thankfully, there are still dedicated restaurants in Hong Kong, serving up big bowls of fast-food nostalgia

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Wing Nin signature big bowl cart noodles at Wing Nin in Sha Tin. Photo: Jonathan Wong

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.

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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.”

Yat Sing Cart noodle in Prince Edward. Photo: K.Y. Cheng
Yat Sing Cart noodle in Prince Edward. Photo: K.Y. Cheng
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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.
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