GEORGE TOWN, Dec 24 — Choy Ah Tuck had just arrived in Malaya from China in the early 1920s and took the opportunity to ply the trade he knew best, selling food. He made his own noodles and sold char hor fun and wan tan mee.
Instead of selling from just one location, Choy travelled between Kedah Road and Lorong Selamat to reach out to those who lived in these lanes back then.
He continued selling his char hor fun and wan tan mee for many years before his son Weng Khooi took over the business.
He then decided to sell only wan tan mee while another relative started another stall to sell char hor fun. He continued from the push cart and like other wan tan mee push cart stalls of that time, he used bamboo sticks to make the “tok tok” sound that signalled to customers he was in the area.
It was in the 1970s that he decided to take up a spot in a coffee shop which is now known as Golden City along Burmah Road.
At that time it was near the main entertainment spot, New World Park, where dancing, concerts and even wrestling matches were held regularly. His wife Maria and son, Gary, also started helping him out at the stall.
“I decided to brand the stall and since my mother is here most of the time, I decided to use her name and Maria is an easy name to remember,” said Gary.
This was how the stall became known as Maria’s wan tan mee and sui kow. Gary said his father still goes to the stall to prepare the soup and some ingredients. “My parents live nearby so he can come to open the stall and later at night, he will come to help up close it,” he said.
Though they have stopped making the noodles at home, Gary said they now rent a space in a small factory to make the noodles there. “Everything is still made from scratch, even the sui kow,” he said.
He recounted how he and his brother had to eat over 20 different types of sui kow per day when his father was working on the recipe.
Gary said they will continue to serve up wan tan mee using the recipes inherited from his grandfather. “We won’t change a thing because it’s been used for so many years,” he said.
The stall sells the conventional dry wan tan mee, the soup wan tan mee and hor fun with the same sauce as the wan tan mee. They have wan tan soup and sui kow too.
Golden City, the coffee shop they have been operating from for the past 40 years, has not changed and still boasts heritage tiled floors, marble tables and wooden booths.
Maria’s Wan Tan Mee
Golden City Coffee Shop
Burmah Road.
Time: 5.30pm-12pm
