Tsim Chai Noodle

CANTONESE COMFORT SOUP

Ramen, pho, matzo ball, borscht – every culinary tradition has a favourite comfort soup that warms the belly and nourishes the soul. In Cantonese cuisine, it’s wonton noodle soup. Tsim Chai is widely known for serving one of the best versions in Richmond. And its owners are related to the famous Hong Kong chain with the same name.

WONTONS TWO-WAYS

There are two types of dumplings in wonton noodle soup. The wontons at Tsim Chai are as big as golf balls. They’re tightly stuffed with shrimp and pork in a yellow wrapper made with eggs. Shui kau (sui gow) is a different type of wonton. It’s generally and longer or oblong-shaped, and filled with shrimp, pork, bamboo shoots and wood ear (black fungus) mushrooms. You usually have to choose one or the other, but you can try them both in Tsim Chai’s Noodle Soup #1.

BAMBOO POLE NOODLES

The noodles in wonton noodle soup are a long, thin, vermicelli-like noodles made with duck egg. Duck egg is an extremely dense protein that is difficult to incorporate into flour. Before the invention of food processors and electric stand mixers, the dough for these jook sing main noodles were made with bamboo poles. The cook would attach one end of the pole to a work bench, straddle the other end and bounce up and down – as if riding a see-saw. This heavy bouncing action would press the ingredients together and give the noodles a springy texture. Bamboo noodle-making is a dying art. Today, there are only a handful of restaurants in Hong Kong that use this traditional technique.