Ma Mon Luk

Ma Mon Luk ( ),, was a Chinese immigrant best known in the Philippines for his eponymous restaurant, and for being the popularizer and alleged creator of mami (a noodle soup) and popularizer of siopao (a steamed bun based on the cha siu bao).

Ma was born in 1896 in Heungsan, Canton (now Zhongshan, Guangdong) in Qing China. Because of poverty, he was only able to finish junior high school. He self studied in the Chinese classics to improve himself. He later became a schoolteacher in Canton but earned a lowly salary.

Arriving penniless in Binondo, Manila, Ma decided to peddle his own version of chicken noodle soup. He soon became a familiar sight on the streets of Manila, plodding from Puente de España (now Jones Bridge) to as far as Intramuros and Santa Cruz with a long bamboo pole (pingga) slung on his shoulders and two metal containers on each end of the pole, similar to the equipment of taho vendors then and now. One vat contained his especially concocted noodles and strips of chicken meat, while the other vat stored the chicken broth heated underneath by live coals. With a pair of scissors, he would cut the noodles and meat to serve to his customers. He called his concoction "gupit", after the Tagalog word for “cut”. He would finally name the dish “mami". Later, he would add siopao and siomai to his menu. By the 1950s, Ma and his food were nationally known. He would establish his family home and main restaurant at 408 Quezon Avenue in Quezon City, which still exists to date, during the 1950s.

Ma died on September 1, 1961, due to throat cancer and is buried at the Chinese Cemetery in Manila. In 2020, the Quiapo branch closed down and the Quezon City branch became the sole restaurant. The restaurant operates under the family owned Ma Mon Luk International Corporation.

Ma Mon Luk billed himself as the "Mami King" and maintained that mami was named after himself, i. e. “Ma mi” , literally meaning "Ma’s noodles", so that he was its "inventor".