The name Sham Shui Po usually evokes cheap electronics. But the abundance of street hawkers and old, peeling low-rises suggest that its history goes a little further back than mobile phone parts. The area has been an industrial, commercial, and residential hub since the 1950s, and several food businesses from that era remain today.
Lau Sum Kee is one of them. "My grandfather started the business [in Guangdong] in the 1940s," says Lau Fat-cheong, the owner. There are now branches at 48 Kweilin Street (tel: 2386 3533) and 80 Fuk Wing Street (tel: 2386 3583).
Selling wonton noodles as a street vendor in Guangdong, his grandfather carried his wares "in two buckets balanced on a pole on his shoulder", says Lau. He brought his business with him when he came to Hong Kong in 1954, and set up a noodle cart in Sham Shui Po. Lau's father later took over the business, opening a dai pai dong. The first, smaller, shop on Kweilin Street opened in 1993. The second followed in 2007.
The noodles are still made by traditional method where the dough is kneaded with a bamboo pole, which the noodle-maker sits on. Tender, but not lacking bite, the noodles are made daily in a workshop, just a few streets away.
One of the best methods for making shiny noodles is to toss them with shrimp roe. The noodles are served with soup on the side, and sprinkled with a generous helping of dried shrimp roe, providing a burst of umami in each mouthful. Another favourite is wonton noodles. Every morning, staff sit around the shop filling these dumplings with a mixture of lean and fatty pork and shrimp.
In the '60s and '70s, Hong Kong people discovered a taste for Western foods, such as steak. As with most foreign cuisines, they began adapting it to their tastes.