They are everywhere. Drive or bus around with a peckish mood for the all time favourite cze cha dishes like har cheong kai (prawn paste chicken), steamed song yue (big head carp), bitter gourd with pork ribs, sambal sweet potato leaves, fish head beehoon and the, by now, very likeable sum-lo hor fun (three toss rice noodles), and the ubiquitous Hong Kong Street cze cha eateries will beckon. I suspect there are about two dozen stalls with such a name popping up island wide and all pretty much tout the same signatures.

All the signature dishes of Hong Kong Street Chun Kee especially the Sum Lor Hor Fun invented by the late customer, Mr "Doremi".

So, will the real Hong Kong Street cze cha master please stand up, and while at it, pray tell us how this sum-lo hor fun dish came about (it is truly unique to Singapore- don’t even think about finding it in Hong Kong).

Hongkong Street was once, way back in the 60s, a bustling makan street infested with, albeit licensed, street food push cart hawkers. Mdm Leung Sow On ran a rather popular street kitchen stall there and her Cantonese dishes, like the above mentioned ones (safe for the sum lo hor fun), was what brought the customers in then. “ I was 13 years old then and after school, I had to help my mother tend the stall.”, and Mr Loh Mun Hon (Ah Hon) also recalls forty years later, today, that cooking was part of the deal. He is the owner of the first Hong Kong Street Chun Kee eatery, set up after his mother retired in the 80s. (she’s still alive playing mahjong all day today). He began with a hawker outlet in Amoy Street food centre and then set up a charming coffeeshop stall at Commonwealth area – the outlet that gave it its prominence and reputation.

Then, one day, a regular customer nicknamed “Doremi”, wanted them to do a hor fun dish the way he liked it – lightly flavoured, intensely well seared (but not burnt) hor fun, with plain Sang Yue (snake head fish) slices and lots of towgay. “Doremi” asked that it be named “Sum Lo Hor Fun”. The rest, or so I thought, was history. “Nobody liked it then,” and Ah Hon explained, “the dish looked so white and pale, like food for the sick.” . Not, until a local Chinese food television show featured them and he boldly touted it as a signature. “After that, Sum Lo Hor Fun became my number one dish, overtaking fish head beehoon”. At one stage, he sold almost 200 kg of hor fun per day. He could not cope. In the 90s, some of his cooks sought permission from Ah Hon to set up their own stalls offering the same old stuff, with one catch, that they be able to use the Hongkong Street name. “ I was ok with it, because so as long they can open up and provide jobs for at least ten folks, which meant a provision of living for their families too, I am happy. I did not charge and they just gave me whatever angpow they want.”, this devout Buddhist (no creatures are killed live in his shop which is why he shuns selling crabs) reveals that he was, just last year, diagnosed with lung cancer “but I’m fine and it’s under control”.

The real master of Hong Kong Street Cze Cha - Mr. Loh Mum Hon (Ah Hon) of Hong Kong Street Chun Kee who is really ok with people using his "Hong Kong Street" name.

Today, there are many such Hongkong Street eateries around but not all has links to Ah Hon, let alone Hongkong Street, although they all look very similar, from menus right down to the way they plate the prawn paste chicken with lime on a white plate with blue motifs. “They don’t even ask me but it’s not illegal so as long as the Chun Kee name (Chun is his sister’s name) is not used. Some use Hongkong Street Katong, Fook Kee, Thomson etc…but there’s no connection to us.”, and Ah Hon calmly contends with his as-long-as-jobs-are-provided stand, he is fine with it. He only has two outlets today.

He is also one of the most frank chef owners I have come across. He reveals that the unique milkiness in his fish head beehoon is actually done with soy, not cow’s milk. It’s not so cloying and that “a lot of minced ginger but no fish bones, but fried fish slices, are used for the stock.”. His prawn paste chicken, is crispy, light and a special chilli sauce laced with hae kor (rojak prawn paste) was created just for it. His Sum Lo Hor Fun, is one of the tastiest plain looking noodle dishes I’ve ever had, as the noodles are wok seared and flavoured before being fried with towgay and fish slices, effused with Chinese wine.

So, in honour of the late Mr “Doremi”, Doremi hor fun anyone?