“Homely flavor made with thoughtfulness and dedication.” - Mama Yang
Hualien Markets - Exclusive Interview with Mama Yang Rice Noodle Soup
#DatongMarket
#KindAttituteandFriendlySmile
#HomelyFlavor
May 24th, 2020
Text/ Ke Xin-Yu
Editor/ LI Shan, HSIN Pei-Chin
Translation/LIU Yi-Chun
Photography/ LEE Te-Mao
There is a 30-year-old gourmet food stall in Datong Market in Hualien City. Its signature rice noodle soup is an unforgettable taste for many people from Hualien. The stall is small but busy, the owner Mama Yang keeps serving rice noodle soup and vegetarian porridge to customers. Mama Yang’s delicious homely dishes give the teachers, students and office workers who lives nearby energy to start the day.
She started her own business after her kids grew up
Mama Yang moved to Hualien from Yilan after she married her husband in 1975. One time her husband’s colleagues came to visit, and she prepared her signature dish, the rice noodle soup for dinner. They told her it was so delicious and encouraged her to start her own business selling it. After receiving a lot of good feedbacks from people who tasted her soup, she gained confidence and were considering to give it a try. When her kids went to school in 1987, Mama Yang and her friends started to sell rice noodle soup and traditional Taiwanese sticky rice. Their stall was located across the Datong Market. In less than half a year, her friends quit and she had to run the business on her own. She would prepare the food in the early morning and carry everything to and from the stall and her house. Later, she decided to rent a stall at the Datong Market.
Mama Yang mentioned in the beginning there wasn’t many customers so she kept testing and adjusting the recipe to develop the homely flavor that seemed simple but actually requiring a lot of work. Now, her son and grandson works with her, and she rents a small kitchen next to the stall to facilitate the process of cooking and preparation, saving the time of moving things to and from the stall and her house. As she gets older, she no longer serves traditional sticky rice every day because the preparation is too complicated and labor-intensive. The favorite traditional sticky rice now becomes a dish on special day only. The customers are always whining and asking her when she will serve the traditional sticky rice, because they miss it so much!
Every little detail is the key to the simple and unforgettable taste
Mama Yang always makes sure to wash all the ingredients thoroughly which is a habit also a training from her grandmother. Probably it was because that she is a detail-oriented person that makes her dishes homely and warm-hearted. The customers can feel it while tasting it. When asking about the secret of her rice noodle soup, she said that she tried different recipe and ingredients, and in the end she chose wet rice noodles made in the factory every day because it tastes smoother than the dry rice noodles. The wet rice noodles will deliver to the stall every morning. Mama Yang also shared her recipe of vegetarian porridge. There are five ingredients: fungus, tofu skins, mushrooms, carrots, and fresh bamboo shoots. The fresh bamboo shoots are especially important for the good taste, which can’t be replaced with cooked bamboo shoots.
Perseverance, patience and hard work are her way of doing business
Mama Yang said her way of doing business for so many years is never give up halfway and always treats customers nicely. She shared her story about working at her sister’s cloth shop when she was little. She worked so hard every day from 7 to 10 so she received an outstanding staff award from the Mayor. She believed that we must be serious about whatever we are doing. Every job requires patience and constant exploration. Many customers praised Mama Yang for her friendliness and elegance. She always served the rice noodle soup and porridge elegantly with a smile on her face. And she will chat with the customers, making them feel happy in the morning. The good feedbacks give her energy to continue her work.
She witnessed the changes of the Datong Market and hopes the market could return to 30 years ago
Around thirty to forty years ago, Datong Market was a famous and busy market with lots of stalls. Some stalls even had to set on the street nearby. The stalls were selling a variety of food, including cooked chicken, tofu, braised tofu, pork floss and other groceries. However, many stalls’ owners retired in recent years and their stalls were not taken over by the younger generation. Now there are fewer and fewer stalls in Datong Market, resulting in fewer and fewer customers. Additionally, people’s eating habit has changed drastically. For example, Chinese breakfast is no longer the main choice for modern people, and more and more people rather to eat out or take away than cook their own meals at home. As a result, not so many people visit the traditional markets now. Mama Yang sighed and said that even though Datong Market is in the city center, it couldn’t compete with the nearby Chongqing Market which was reconstructed recently and the supermarkets that open 24/7. She hopes that more stalls and customers can come back to the Datong Market, so it can return to the way it was 30 years ago, and become prosperous once again.