**Home made Authentic, Traditional Hong Kong style Wonton noodles......90% from scratch.**

Cooking Discussions
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Home made Authentic, Traditional Hong Kong style Wonton noodles…90% from scratch.

For decades, my favorite comfort food has been a well made bowl of hearty, authentic Hong Kong style wonton noodles with the right taste and textural profile and using the correct condiments to create the desirable final end results.

Sadly, here in the GTA, not a single outfit offers such a product…most adopting a lazy, cut corner approach. So far, the BEST rendition has been ’ Very Good Congee & Noodles ’ on 16th Ave., & Woodbine. However, their products still does not hit the mark.

As such, in order to cure my Wonton noodle fix. For the past few days, I have been going through a laborious method of making my own version at home…from scratch!! ( Well 90% may be, since I used store bought lyle-water egg noodles and wonton wrappers ).

To make the ‘heart & soul’ - The Broth. I used the following:
Pork bone, Chicken

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, Chinese Ham, flame broiled dried Flounder, dry roasted shrimp shell, dry roasted shrimp roe, white peppercorn, aged Tangerine peels and Buddha Fruit ( dried Mangosteen ). Slow cooked for over 3 hours then filtered.

For the Wonton morsels. I adopted Hong Kong’s Mak’s 100% all prawns approach using Tiger shrimp for the crunchiness and dried Flounder powder for seasoning and to enhance the umami component.

For the condiments…NO SPRING ONION!! The more correct and appropriate Yellow chives are used. Finished off with a sprinkle of toasted shrimp roe!

To ensure ’ al dante ’ of the noodles, contrary to most, the noodles are placed ’ on-top ’ of the wonton before boiling hot brothis poured!

SIGH!! Though uber-delicious, I still only managed to achieve about 90% of the desired result…with one key taste component missing! The Reason?? I forgot to use LARD to dress the noodles before placing them into the bowl!!😝😢

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Wait, how are the noodles any percentage from scratch if you bought them?

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Depends on whether you think the broth (and additions) are the main driver, or the noodles.

I think there’s no saving good noodles in bad broth.

Great broth and so-so noodles would be less of a disaster.

But yes, maybe 90% is a bit of an oversell :joy:

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Yes! Absolutely agree! It all depends on one’s perspective and also how nitpicking one would like to criticize as well?

Nowadays, fine, acceptable restaurant quality prepackaged Wonton egg noodles can be had at almost all Oriental supermarkets…though the degree of fineness of the strands can still have room to improve.

However, good, delicious and authentic tasting ’ dried flounder ’ based broth is hard or almost impossible to obtain…hence, to achieve the desired result, home made from scratch is almost a must.

Likewise, commercial ‘Wonton’ morsels are usually of more inferior quality with a high ratio of fatty pork being used for the filling in lieu of the more expensive prawns. The use of MSG over natural dried flounder powder or shrimp roe is almost a given! Again, home made effort is required for the desired result.

Guess for comparison purposes, the same can be said of Sushi?! For Sushi quality, most ’ Sushi aficionados ’ place at least 60 -70 % importance on the construction, quality of rice, seasoning and temperature of the Shari ( rice ) with surprisingly lesser emphasis on the toppings ( Neta ). However, there are many ’ un-initiated ’ self proclaimed sushi lovers/experts who only place attention to the variety and freshness of the toppings!
In addition, freshly made wasabi from roots vs powder can make hell of a difference as well so are the use of special ’ home-brewed ’ Soy sauce!!..which together contributes to the overall quality and enjoyment factor!

As such, in my " Wonton Noodle case ", for considering the ’ Whole Package ', I indeed placed way more emphasis on the broth, wonton morsels and even the condiments over the fairly mundane and easily obtainable noodles!

My 2 cents!

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I’m amazed by and grateful for the range of fresh noodles available at Asian supermarkets near me. There used to be one brand, but these days I can find 3-4 brands for a single type of noodle.

I have had less success using wonton wrappers, probably because I don’t use them right away, and the edges dry out. So, user error and not a product issue.

We have a couple of wonton soup restaurants here that sell frozen wontons that are excellent, loaded with shrimp, well-balanced, and nicely flavored.

Actually we talked about you the last time we ate at the one I’m thinking about (Maxi’s) — @vinouspleasure mentioned you had said the other place (Sifu Chio) was very good, but it was closed that day so we couldn’t so a same-day taste-off :joy:

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I totally agree with you regarding ’ fine quality and crafted Cantonese Wonton ’ can be had in frozen form from certain restaurants and/or dim sum specialists…etc. However, driving around to get them and then trying them out at home can be so time consuming!!..considering nowadays, gasoline prices here in Toronto cost an arm and a leg!!

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Charles, that looks incredible! Generally, given my experience with pizza and bread dough, I’ve found homemade noodles fairly easy to prepare, though it’s mostly been hand-pulled biang biang or knife cut. And wonton wrappers are easy but I’m terrible at wrapping.

Do you think the noodles for wanton soup would be difficult?

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The original recipe from the creator of the noodle in Guangzhou ( Canton ), China called for ‘ultra-fine’ strands of noodles cooked under ’ al-dante '. Lacking knife skill of the master, to achieve this, a special noodle making machine is required!..hence I opted for store bought ‘thicker’ version, instead of home made from scratch…using dough made from flour, water, duck egg and lyle ( alkaline ) water.

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Hi Charles,

I watched this video from Lucas Sin. He does HK wonton soup two ways. I love watching this chef.

I used to just go to Wonton Hut for my wonton soup fix. I also tried Very Good Congee & Noodles but I found the broth to be lacking.

Take care,

DP

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For a while, ’ Very Good Congee & Noodle ’ used to offer deep flavourful broth. However, due to increased cost of the major ingredient - Sun Dried Flounder, guess the owner has to cut back in quantity used?!

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Thank you for posting the video, it’s terrific!

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That’s the ongoing theme for the restaurant industry nowadays. Might as well make stuff at home and make them to your desired taste.

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Here is another YT channel that I follow. They have a video explaining how to make Cantonese style wonton soup from scratch.

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AUTHENTIC Cantonese ( Hong Kong Style ) Wonton noodle:

  • DOES NOT USE MSG!!! The ingredients involved should provide enough umami
  • They do not use bean sprouts because they impart some grassy/fishy components to the broth!
  • Key ingredients missing are Chinese Ham, Buddha Fruit ( dried Mangoosteen ), Tangerine peel and whole white peppercorn
  • To dress the noodles before going into the bowl, mix with a bit of ’ LARD '!
    IMO.this recipe fell short of the truly great authentic ones found in places like Hong Kong!
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Thanx Charles for those tips.

Btw, I don’t care for bean sprouts or the use of MSG either. When you state ‘LARD’ which protein does that ‘LARD’ come from?

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Charles, perhaps in the spirit of the Ramen lord, you should do a wonton soup popup! I’d travel to Toronto for it!

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Rendered ’ pork fat '!

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Way too much work, my chow-friend!! :rofl:

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