Last Call for Bamboo Noodles

Shrimp dumpling noodles in soup were delicious at Wing Wah Noodle

Yesterday I passed by Wing Wah Noodle in Wan Chai on the bus and noticed the sign was not covered with white paper saying it was closing so I wondered if it was bought out.

I was right. Today I found out -- a month late -- that Wing Wah Noodle was indeed bought out by a restaurant group called LHGroup, though the shop will be closing in its current location tomorrow.

If you like spicy, the chilli pork noodle is your favourite

LHGroup is run by Simon Wong Kit-lung, whose father started the company 40 years ago with various restaurants including Lucky House seafood restaurant, and other ones whose names I don't recognize.

Nevertheless, while it's nice to know the name Wing Wah Noodle with 68 years of history will live on, will its noodles kneaded with a bamboo pole taste the same? Wong cannot promise the old school way of doing things will continue, only saying the operations will be "modernized"; and some of the menu items will be kept, but not all.

So I figured I should go back one last time. I made my way over there around 8.45pm tonight and walked straight in. It wasn't too busy, but maybe the staff was tired as the food came out slowly.

I tried a bowl of the chilli pork noodle (HK$48) that was quite spicy! The bits of pork were on the tough side, but when mix up with the sauce and the noodles it was quite good.

Walnut soup with glutinous rice balls filled with black sesame

Next I ordered the dumplings (sui gao) with soup noodles (HK$46) and it took a while for them to arrive. By this point there was no more pork knuckle and char siu, so many people resorted to eating wonton noodles. I like their noodles, but not the wontons -- Mak's Noodle's wontons are far superior.

Here the sui gao were fantastic -- most of the dumplings were filled with whole shrimp, wood ear fungus and a bit of minced pork to hold it together in a thin wrapper. There were three precious dumplings in one serving.

Finally I ordered the walnut soup with glutinous rice balls with black sesame filling (HK$56). I had seen a middle-aged woman sitting across from me having a bowl -- she knew the owner -- and I asked her how good it was. She reported it wasn't runny like other ones, not mixed with other things in it, so I decided to give it a go.

It took a very long time to arrive, but when it did, the bowl was piping hot. The walnut soup wasn't freshly ground, but as the woman said, it wasn't runny either, a decent consistency that was a bit more sweet than nutty-flavoured.

The glutinous rice balls filled with black sesame paste were delicious and together with the walnut soup made a nice hearty combination, a comforting dessert.

When regular customers were leaving the restaurant, many told the staff they would come back tomorrow, the last day. The owner, Cheung Tse-sau looks happy to finally pass on the shop to someone else for a pretty penny. Does she care what happens to the name from now on?

She claimed the new owner Wong was "young and sincere"... we'll have to see what he does with Wing Wah Noodle. People will very easily vote with their feet...

Traditional HK Desserts

Clockwise from top left: Almond cream, steamed egg, black sesame, walnut

Tonight my relatives and I had dinner in Sai Ying Pun and then we walked over to Centre Street for some Chinese desserts at Yuen Kee Dessert.

It's a small shop, about the size of typical noodle establishments, and at 9.30pm was still busy with customers.

We managed to get a table for the four of us and had to quickly peruse the menu, as the waiter was already hovering over us with his pen and pad at the ready.

Finally we decided, made our orders and within minutes our desserts arrived.

Our absolute favourite has to be the signature steamed egg. It had the consistency of tofu, silky smooth, and a light custard flavour that wasn't sweet at all, nor savoury.

Second is the almond cream, full of flavour and even better with lotus seeds that have been simmering for a while so they were soft and added more texture and taste to the dessert.

We also liked the ground walnut soup, with its slightly roasted smell, and the walnuts weren't ground too finely, so it had a nice grainy texture.

The black sesame soup is supposed to be quite well known here, but we only thought it was so-so, very thick thanks to lots of corn starch, which meant it didn't have as much of the nutty black sesame flavour.

Another dessert we tried was the green bean soup which was thinned out, while the signature steamed sponge cake was nothing spectacular -- in fact it was rather bland and not that fluffy. Maybe it would have been better straight out of the steamer.

The total bill came to HK$158. It was a nice sampling of desserts, but we know for sure what to order next time!

Yuen Kee Dessert

G/F, 32 Centre Street

Sai Ying Pun
2548 8687