You can't get much more local than this. 'Cart noodles' or 車仔麵 developed in Hong Kong in the 1950s in the aftermath of the second World War and with the influx of mainlanders from China.
On their low income, these immigrants could often only afford to buy cheap food from street hawkers who sold noodles out of their carts. The wooden carts contained metal basins where the street hawkers would blanch the noodles and, in a separate compartment, cook a variety of assorted toppings for the noodles. The customer could then pick and choose their toppings as they pleased.
These days the old wooden carts are gone for hygiene reasons, but 車仔麵 remain popular amongst locals. It hasn't really caught on amongst foreigners, probably because traditionally the toppings included things like curdled pig's blood, pig's skin and pig's intestines.
Wing Kee in Causeway Bay (they have two stores in Causeway Bay) is run by Mrs Cheng and her family. Mrs Cheng has been selling 車仔麵 with her husband (and now her son) since 1972. Her noodle shops are famous for their radish and soya chicken wing tips, as well as their beef brisket broth, which is simmered for a minimum of 6 hours.
I went to the shop on Jardine's Bazaar (which is apparently better than the one on Sugar St) and had the noodles with chicken wing tips, radish, pig's skin and cuttlefish heads. The broth was absolutely amazing. Chicken wing tips, which are so often overlooked, were actually surprisingly delicious cooked this way.
It just goes to show that you don't need expensive or fancy ingredients to make a decent tasty feed. If you are game enough to eat it.
Wing Kee Noodle, G/F 43 Jardine's Bazaar, Causeway Bay.
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