Cantonese Wonton Noodles 廣東雲吞麵 (Cantonese: gwong dong wun tun meen) is a very iconic dish in Cantonese cuisine and a big part of Hong Kong culture.
It has another name, “yong 蓉”. People will order either “dai yong 大蓉” meaning “large bowl of wonton noodles” or “sai yong 細蓉” meaning “small bowl of wonton noodles”. In a large bowl, there are 8 wontons with 2 taels of noodles (one tael is approximately 35g in Hong Kong and 50g in mainland China). The small bowl has 4 wontons and 1 tael of noodles, perfect snack size. As a matter of fact, it was a popular midnight snack for wealthy people in Guangzhou. These aristocrats had very high standards and were quite particular about the taste and texture. After I tell you about the three parts, the noodles, the wontons and the soup, you’ll see just how hard it was to please those wealthy palettes!
We know that the noodle has been around for at least 4000 years. During the end of the Qing Dynasty, in the town of Guanxi, the bamboo rod noodle 竹昇麵(joke sing meen)was born. To make these noodles, you'll require a long bamboo pole with one end secured to a work table and you bounce your body on the other end. The middle section of the bamboo pole can then hit the dough to activate the gluten, making the noodles elastic-like.
Making a batch of noodles would take around 2 hours. But it’s an essential step for creating a texture that is chewy yet crisp at the same time. The dough is a mixture of flour, duck eggs and lye water. Today, chicken eggs replace the duck eggs or a combination of both. However, bamboo rod noodle making is extremely laborious and is becoming a dying art. Machines have taken over most of the noodle making now. You can still find some restaurants that make their own in Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macau.
The Cantonese wonton wrapper also uses the same dough as the noodles. This is so that the wrapper can be very thin but can still hold the filling intact and withstand the cooking process. The Cantonese wonton is very specific in ingredients and flavour. There’s not much room to individualize. The most distinct flavour comes from dried flounder powder. The filling consists of fresh river shrimp, duck egg, pork fat and lean pork. The lean pork is chopped by hand until it’s paste-like. The result is a fragrant seafood flavour with a soft and crisp meaty filling.
Last, but not least, is the soup. Its flavours are from dried flounder fish, pork bones, dried shrimp, shrimp skin, shrimp roe powder and beansprouts. It’s crucial that the soup is never at a boiling point but at a low simmer. This way, the soup stays clear and yet flavourful. A few pieces of raw yellow chives further enhances the aroma of the soup.
So what makes a good bowl of Cantonese Wonton Noodles 廣東雲吞麵? Although the wonton wrapper and the noodles are made from lye water, you should not be able to taste it. Red vinegar is usually served with it and it helps to mask any lye water taste. The wontons should be bite-sized, the filling is crisp but not firm and should look like a goldfish.
Furthermore, the noodles must be chewy and crisp. The noodles go into the bowl after the wontons to minimize the time the noodles are in the soup. You should also rinse the noodles in cold water after boiling to wash away the lye water and maximize elasticity. Then it goes back into the boiling water to reheat. The soup must also be clear and not cloudy. There should be a very distinct seafood taste with the dried flounder being the main feature.
In my recipe, I will show you how to make an authentic bowl of Cantonese Wonton Noodles 廣東雲吞麵 with the limited ingredients that I can find in Canada. I used store bought wonton noodles and wrappers with frozen shrimp. And I was able to find the dried flounder fish and flounder fish powder at a local Chinese herbal store. You can use my recipe for a sweet oyster sauce to make a “lo meen 撈麵” or tossed noodle with the wontons and/or noodles.
Although you can find this dish at any wonton noodle house around the world, it’s pretty awesome when you can make a decent bowl of it yourself!
For more Hong Kong classics, check out my Hong Kong café recipe collection.
Cantonese Wonton Noodles 廣東雲吞麵
Ingredients
- 300 g Shrimp
preferably fresh, small river shrimp - 100 g Pork , hand chopped
- 50 g Pork fat , finely diced
- 1 Egg
- 1 tsp Light soy sauce
- 1 ½ tbsp Flounder fish powder
- ½ tsp White pepper powder
- 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
- 1 tsp Fish sauce (optional)
- 2 tsp Sesame oil
- 2 tsp Cornstarch
- 1 pkg Wonton wrappers
- 1 pkg Wonton noodles
Ingredients for wonton soup:
- 2 Dried flounder fish
- 600 g Pork bones
- 30 g Dried shrimp
- 100 g Beansprouts
- 2 tbsp Fish sauce (optional)
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tbsp Light soy sauce
- 2.5 L Water
- 3 sprigs Chinese yellow chives
- ½ tsp Sesame oil (per bowl)
Ingredients for sweet oyster sauce:
- 1 Shallot , course chopped
- 1 stalk Green onions , chopped
- 1 tbsp Light soy sauce
- 2 tbsp Oyster sauce
- 1 tsp Sugar
- 2 tbsp Oil
- 2 tsp Sesame oil
Instructions
Instructions for making wonton soup:
- Wipe the dried flounder fish with a damp cloth to remove dust and other debris
- Put the flounder fish on a baking rack and bake at 150˚C or 300˚F for 10 minutes on each side. Set aside
- Wash 30 g of dried shrimp and set aside
- Bring a pot of water to a boil. Use approx. 4 L of water
- Put the pork bones into the boiling water for 5 minutes.
- Remove from water and submerse in cold water to loosen bone fragments. Rinse off loose parts with water and set aside
- Fill a pot with 2.5 L water
- Put the flounder, pork bones and dried shrimp into the pot and turn the heat to medium-high. Bring it to a low simmer. Do not let the soup boil.
Boiling will make the soup cloudy. A good wonton noodle soup is clear and flavourful - When you see tiny bubbles starting to form, add beansprouts, turn the heat to simmer and let it simmer for 4 hours
Instructions for making wontons:
- In a pan, turn heat to low and add 2 tsp of the flounder fish powder and toast it for a few minutes until you can smell the aroma. Turn off heat and set aside
- Wash and devein shrimp and put into a mixing bowl. The ratio of the filling should be 70% shrimp, 20% pork fat and 10% lean pork.
(I decided to use 20% lean pork and 10% pork fat as seen in the photo because I felt guilty about using that much pork fat). Fresh shrimp is best but frozen shrimp works as well. I used frozen shrimp and I used one per wonton. Cantonese wonton wrappers are small, so you may need to cut each shrimp into a few pieces. - Finely dice the pork fat and put it into the mixing bowl
- Dice the pork and then chop it until it’s pasty. Usually will take 5 minutes of chopping. Put it in the mixing bowl
- Add 1 egg, 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp toasted flounder powder, ½ tsp white pepper powder, 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine, 1 tsp light soy sauce and 1 tsp fish sauce. Mix with your hands. Add 2 tsp sesame oil and mix again
- Pick up the contents in the mixing bowl in your hand and drop it back into the mixing bowl. Do this around 20 times to give the shrimp filling some elasticity and help it to bind together. If using frozen shrimp, it will not be likely that the shrimp will bind with the pork but that’s okay.
- Let the filling marinate for around 30 minutes
Instructions for wrapping wontons:
- Take a wonton wrapper and put it in a diamond position
- Put some filling in the lower centre part of the wrapper
Bear in mind that Cantonese wontons should be bite-size, so not too big - Use the knife or spoon that you’re using to pick up the filling to rub some of the filling residual on the bottom point of the wrapper to act as glue
- Fold the bottom point over the filling and just under the top point
The top point and bottom point do not meet in order to create a “goldfish tail” - Use the knife or spoon to rub some of the wet filling on the sides of the wonton wrapper to help it stick when you gently squeeze the wrapper together
Don’t worry if the filling is not completely sealed. If you use a big pot of boiling water to cook the wontons, the filling will not fall out - It’s very important to not squeeze too tightly.
You want the filling to be loose as opposed to the filling being packed tightly - Repeat until all the filling has been used and set aside
- Wontons can be freezed at this point. Remember to dust the bottom of the plate with flour or cornstarch before you put the wontons on it to be freezed
Instructions for cooking:
- After 4 hours, your soup should be quite flavourful so you can remove all the solids from the soup with a strainer
- Add 2 tbsp fish sauce (optional), 1 tsp salt and 1 tbsp light soy sauce. Taste and make adjustments
- Bring the soup to a boil and then turn to simmer
- Wipe Chinese yellow chives and cut into 2 cm pieces. Set aside
- Bring a big pot of water, approx. 4-5 L to a boil
A big pot of water ensures that the water temperature doesn’t drop too much when you put in the wontons. If the temperature is too low, the wontons wrapper will get mushy - Prepare bowls. Add some Chinese chives and sesame oil to the bowls. A little bit of soy sauce can also be added to the bowl
- Put the wontons in the boiling water for approx. 2-3 minutes until done. Remove from water and place in bowls
- Turn the heat up on the soup. It should be around 90˚C or 194˚F when you add it to the bowl
- Prepare a large mixing bowl filled with water. It will be used to give the noodles a rinse after it is cooked for the first time
- When the water is boiling, add the wonton noodles. Cook for approx. 2 minutes or until done
- Submerse the noodles in the water in the mixing bowl, give it a quick swirl, and put it back into the boiling water to reheat. Remove and put it into the bowl with the wontons
- Use a ladle to pour the soup into the bowl of wonton noodles
- Serve with Chinese red vinegar and/or chili oil sauce
Instructions for sweet oyster sauce:
- Heat a sauce pan or small pot using medium-high heat.
- Put 2 tbsp of oil and add chopped shallots and the white parts of the green onions
- Fry until aromatic. Bring heat down to low
- Add 1 tbsp light soy sauce, 2 tbsp oyster sauce, 1 tsp sugar and mix until sugar is dissolved
- Turn off heat and add 2 tsp of sesame oil
- Add the rest of the green onions
- Pour over wontons and/or noodles
Amy
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe and for all your other amazing ones! They are so authentic. I love that you are from Canada and can speak to ingredient availability too.
Auntie Emily
Hi Amy, Thank you so much for your kind comment! It's comments like yours that give me the drive to keep trying out and sharing more recipes. We're all busy and ingredients are not readily available depending on where we are. So, I try to keep things simple with common ingredients while keeping it authentic. Happy cooking!
Katie
Thank you so much for your recipe. I have been looking for an authentic recipe with ingredients I can find in the states, almost all the recipes I have come across are "quick& easy wonton soup", "15 min wonton" etc. where it's just boiled chicken stock. Very excited to try out this recipe tomorrow, I am lucky that I live in Seattle where there is a pretty robust Chinatown and can get all of the ingredients.
Auntie Emily
Hi Katie! I also found many quick and easy wonton recipes and the others I found were just missing something. The Cantonese wonton recipe is probably the one recipe that I spent the most time doing research. I made many batches and had to go back to the herbal store to get more dried flounder. At the end, I got really good texture and flavour. My mom, who grew up in Hong Kong, said that it had the same taste as the ones she's had as a kid. She said the broth was even better! But that's my mom, of course she'd say that LOL! Anyways, good luck and take pictures...I'd love to see them! Happy cooking!
Brian
Hi, thanks for sharing this recipe! I’ll try to make it, but I have a few questions:
1. You mentioned Shrimp Roe Powder earlier in the article, but it doesn’t appear in the recipe itself. Was that one substituted with dried shrimp? Is it a big difference in flavor?
2. In the description for pork fat you said 10% lean and 20% fat. But the picture shows the opposite. Which one is more accurate?
3. I can’t find dried flounder and flounder fish powder anywhere in Calgary. We have several Asian grocery stores, but even our dried-herb stores don’t stock it. I’ve found it online, but shipping is too expensive. Can you recommend any substitutes?
Auntie Emily
Hi Brian, you have brought up very good questions and I have overlooked some parts when I wrote the recipe (I blame it on my old age!)...
1. Yes, it should have shrimp roe powder but I couldn't find it here and so I didn't add it in. I forgot to write this in the notes.
2. Traditionally, it is 10% lean and 20% fat. But as I was making it, I felt guilty about the fat and I reversed it but again, I forgot to mention it 🙁
3. You could give Japanese bonito a try. It's a much milder flavour but it adds to the dry fish flavour. As a token of my appreciation for pointing out what I missed on the recipe, I'd like to send you some dried flounder from Vancouver on me. I get it locally from G&R Ginseng Trading Ltd. You can send me your shipping address to info@auntieemily.com and I will send it to you.
I apologize for not giving clearer instructions! Thank you!!
Brian
Absolutely no need to apologize, but thanks for clarifying, and thank you for the very generous offer! You have no idea how happy that makes me. I will take you up on that, because I’m so excited to make this recipe. I’ve tried to make wontons in the past and somehow it never quite matched that magical flavor I remember from Hong Kong style noodle houses of my youth. I’m pretty sure this is the missing ingredient. I’ll contact you.
john ling
is great instruction, since you live in vancouver, do you know Mr. Mak wonton in Richmond,I wish I can make wonton as them, I come up to Vancouver every year to taste the wonton of Mr mak noodle,any help.my email address
I also like TAI Hing porridge in Richmond and they closed down,cant find ant pork porridge better than them even in Hong Kong, any suggestion