Mong Kok, Hong Kong｜Law Kwan Fat Noodles Factory

Mong Kok, before dawn, looks like a sleeping city. At five o'clock in the morning, in the gloomy blue, a small shop turned on the lights and started the "rumbling" machine. A man was busy, kneading flour, kneading ingredients and slicing noodles with dexterous hands. Suddenly I looked around and saw that it was a noodle factory. Luo Kun Noodle Factory is hidden in the city, hidden in a corner of Mong Kok Market. It makes and sells noodles and has passed down the name for seventy years. Passed on to the third generation, the success has not continued, and the noodles that were made with all the effort in the past are no longer rewarded. You can't make a lot of money by making noodles, you just want to get a good reputation and have a clear conscience. The Luo family is originally from Chaozhou, and his grandfather started making noodles in mainland China. Raw noodles, powder, silver needle powder, etc., there are so many kinds of them, and they have been busy for most of my life. In 1958, his father, Luo Kunhua, came to Hong Kong with his parents and inherited his noodle-making skills. He first set up a noodle factory in Tai Hang Tung and named it "Luo Kunfa". Because Chaozhou people like "Fa" and "Long" when doing business, they added the word "Fa" to "Long". His surname and generation with the character "Kun" carry a lot of weight, showing how much he attaches great importance to it. In 1973, a fire broke out in the Tai Hang Tung factory. They then moved the noodle factory to Fa Yuen Street, and later opened a cooked noodle stall, with the front shop and the back factory growing bigger and bigger. "The most exaggerated thing is that there are so many people queuing up to make 4,000 kilograms of shrimp noodles in one day." Luo Weiming, the third-generation chef, grew up in such a wealthy environment. He started helping deliver goods in the store when he was eight years old, and started learning to make noodles from his grandparents when he was fifteen years old. To this day, when I see him, his face is always stained with white powder. He is not afraid of getting dirty or tired. He is very devoted. He is destined to be associated with noodles for the rest of his life. . Over time, they also moved the factory back to Argyle Street, Mong Kok and took root in Mong Kok. It doesn't do wholesale, it only does retail. The people who come to buy are all regular customers from the neighborhood, and occasionally they even meet celebrities. However, business has gone bad in recent years. In 2012, due to rising rents, they were forced to close their noodle stall and only keep the factory building. I even tried selling shirts on Huayuan Street. But after going around and around, I still couldn't let go of the dough in my hand. However, time waits for no one. In the past two years, my parents have grown old and decided to retire, and it is inconvenient to leave the bunk to help. In the old days, it was easy to get things done when there were many people, but today Luo Weiming is left alone in the factory making noodles, which is very embarrassing. The industry is difficult to work in, so my wife has to take care of the store and sell noodles to make money. The factory also couldn’t hire a master, so he had to do everything on his own. We work all year round, seven days a week. We go out at five in the morning and finish work at least seven in the evening, under the stars and the moon. Difficult, but not tired. "The world is different, and the human touch is not that strong. In the past, you could make money no matter what, but here, you may not get even two cents in return for your hard work." In the noodle making world, Luo Wei clearly plans his future. "I am 46 years old this year. I have a son and a daughter to support, and I have to keep an old name." After saying this, I can hear the responsibility of a big man from Chaozhou. Therefore, every time he makes a noodle, he pays attention to freshness and quality, so as to be worthy of himself and retain his customers. Take shrimp roe noodles as an example. They follow the tradition and always use duck eggs. No matter how expensive it is, no expense is spared. Because duck eggs are sticky enough, the noodles are elastic and tough. After meeting four times, we must not cut corners. Don't be sloppy in the alkaline process, otherwise the noodles will have the smell of alkaline water, which will be a sign of success or failure. Even making noodles, which others didn't pay much attention to, he did it himself. With a pair of dexterous hands, he slowly combed the noodles like hair: "Buying noodles is a sign of buying and selling. People buy noodles, not shredded noodles. How can we be careless?" ?" No wonder, in this small noodle factory, the goods are rotating like a wheel, and the customers are coming like clouds. Finally, all the hard work is in vain. Talking about noodles, Luo Weiming was intoxicated. But he also shared a short story about how he almost became a cartoonist before doing it. In the 1980s, he learned to draw cartoons from Qiu Fulong, and also tried to submit articles to magazines. The portrait of Zhou Huimin he painted that year was well received. However, his family opposed his entry into the industry and believed that there was no future in cartoon drawing. They wanted him to continue his career. Little did he know that thirty years later, he ended up in the same place by different paths? That year's ambition has long since faded away, but it's a pity and there's nothing we can do about it. He said with a smile that after getting married, everything was just for the sake of a family, and he had already put aside his painting brush. Now he just wants to concentrate on working for the noodle factory. Hopefully, all his efforts will be rewarded. luokun noodle factory Address: G/F, 3 Argyle Street, Mongkok, Kowloon Tel: 29519712

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