Ma Mon Luk

From WikiPilipinas: The Hip 'n Free Philippine Encyclopedia

Ma Mon Luk (1896-1961) is a Filipino-Chinese restaurateur who established the famous Ma Mon Luk restaurant in the Philippines.

He died on September 1, 1961 of throat cancer.

1 Background
2 Entrepreneur
3 Restaurateur
4 Ma Mon Luk Restaurant
5 References
6 Citation

[edit] Background

Ma Mon Luk was born and raised in Guangdong, China. He worked as a grade school teacher before migrating to the Philippines. After arriving penniless in Manila, he decided to peddle chicken noodle soup. He later became a familiar sight in Manila as he walked the streets with a long bamboo pole slung on his shoulders with two metal containers at each end of the pole.

[edit] Entrepreneur

Ma Mon Luk would serve noodles with chicken meat and soup in the streets of Manila. Among his frequent customers were students from the various universities found in the city. He called his product “gupit”, after the Tagalog word for “cut.” However, Filipinos took to calling the dish “mami”, which came from the Tagalog words for chicken (“manok”) and egg noodles (“mami”).

[edit] Restaurateur

He opened his first restaurant in Binondo, where he introduced his now equally famous siopao and steamed pork dumplings. He continued peddling his wares on the streets, seeing it as an opportunity to advertise his restaurant. Ma Mon Luk and his mami became known throughout the nation in 1950.

[edit] Ma Mon Luk Restaurant

Ma Mon Luk Restaurant is considered to be an iconic panciteria of old Manila. It was established in Binondo in the 1950s. In the mid-1990s, there were at least five branches of Ma Mon Luk in Metro Manila, but as of 2006, only two remain open – the ones in Quiapo and on Quezon Avenue.

Ma Mon Luk's descendants decided to open another Chinese restaurant, Ma Suki, which has two branches located in Binondo and San Juan.