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Food and Drinks
LifestyleFood & Drink

How a Hong Kong fish ball maker from Kowloon Walled City became a thriving family business

Roger Ha’s parents took Ha Ming Kee from a crude Kowloon Walled City venture to a successful fish ball chain. Now he has taken on the mantle

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Ha Fan-ming, one of the founders of Hong Kong fish ball noodle restaurant chain Ha Ming Kee, makes fish balls by hand at the brand’s first branch in Mong Kok. Now his son, Roger Ha, has taken the reins. Photo: courtesy of Roger Ha
Lisa Cam

Kowloon Walled City, with its triad gangs and lawless reputation, remains a symbol of Hong Kong’s underbelly more than three decades after it was demolished in 1994.

What many forget, however, is that it was also home to tens of thousands of ordinary residents who lived ordinary lives trying to make ends meet.

Ha Ming Kee, a Chiu Chow-style fish ball noodle restaurant and manufacturer, was founded decades ago by Roger Ha’s parents, Ha Fan-ming and Chan So-hing, in the narrow alleyways of Kowloon Walled City.
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“I have memories of my mother cleaning the fish by the pump on the street,” Roger Ha says. “There was no running water in the buildings, and the pump was our only water supply.”

Pedestrians walk on a street outside the Kowloon Walled City before its demolition in 1994. Photo: courtesy of Roger Ha
Pedestrians walk on a street outside the Kowloon Walled City before its demolition in 1994. Photo: courtesy of Roger Ha
Chiu Chow fish balls date back to the tail end of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) in Chaozhou – or Chiu Chow, as it is called in Cantonese – in the east of China’s Guangdong province. They were later introduced to southern Guangdong, and in the 1950s and 60s, innovative Hong Kong chefs began deep-frying them and serving them in curry sauce in what was to become the quintessential Hong Kong snack we know today.
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According to Ha, the flavour of fish balls that many Hongkongers know can be traced back to his parents’ business. “At its height, Ha Ming Kee was the supplier of 70 per cent of the restaurants in the Yau Tsim Mong district,” he says.

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