Destination
Manila
The story
Beef wanton mami is Manila's Chinese-Filipino comfort soup: thin yellow egg noodles (mami noodles) in a deep, clear beef broth simmered for hours with garlic, ginger and star anise, topped with a pile of slow-braised beef shin, a handful of pork-filled wontons, and a few stalks of blanched pechay (Filipino bok choy). Served in wide deep bowls with a drizzle of sesame oil, a scatter of fresh spring onion and fried garlic chips, plus a small dish of soy-calamansi-chili sauce on the side. Sold at every Manila Chinatown restaurant (Wai Ying, Ma Mon Luk, Salazar) and at every Chinoy kopitiam counter, this is the soup Filipinos order when they're tired, hungover or heart-broken.
Method
Preheat oven to 220C. Toss the beef shanks with 2 tbsp oil and roast on a baking tray 30 minutes until deeply browned. This step is essential — it gives the broth its deep colour and umami depth.
In a dry heavy pot over high heat, char the onion (cut sides down), garlic head and ginger 5 minutes until blackened at the edges.
Add the roasted beef bones, star anise, cinnamon, peppercorns, soy sauce, fish sauce, salt and cold water to the pot. Bring to a boil, skim any foam. Reduce to a bare simmer.
Simmer partially covered 2 to 2.5 hours until the beef is falling-off-the-bone tender and the broth is deeply flavoured. Skim the surface fat once during cooking.
Lift the shanks from the broth. Cool briefly. Remove meat from bones and slice thin (or shred into pieces). Strain the broth through a fine sieve into a clean pot. Discard the aromatics. Reserve the beef.
Mix all filling ingredients in a bowl. Working one wonton at a time: place 1 heaped teaspoon of filling in the middle of a wrapper. Brush the edges with egg yolk wash. Fold in half diagonally into a triangle; press to seal. Pull the two bottom corners together and pinch to form a small pouch. Repeat until you have 30 wontons.
Bring the strained broth back to a simmer. Drop the wontons in and cook 5 minutes until they float to the surface and the wrappers turn translucent. Meanwhile, blanch the pechay in the broth for 60 seconds and lift out.
In a separate pot, boil the mami noodles 2 minutes until just tender. Drain. Divide the noodles between 4 large deep bowls. Ladle hot broth generously over the noodles. Top each bowl with sliced beef, 6 to 8 wontons, blanched pechay, fried garlic, spring onions, a drizzle of sesame oil and a few coriander leaves. Serve immediately with calamansi wedges, sliced chili and a small dish of soy-calamansi-chili sauce on the side.
Tips
- Roast the bones. Do not skip. Roasting the beef bones first gives you a deep, dark, richly-flavoured broth. Boiling raw bones gives you a pale, muddy soup.
- Skim the foam and fat. The first 15 minutes of simmering release proteins and fat that turn broth cloudy. Skim carefully for a clear finish.
- Simmer, don't boil. A hard boil emulsifies fat and clouds the broth. A bare simmer for 2 hours gives you a clear, deeply-flavoured stock.
- Fresh wontons, not frozen. Make them the day of serving. Frozen wontons work but the wrappers get slightly rubbery.
- Assemble in the bowl. All the components (noodles, broth, beef, wontons, greens) come together at the last moment. Serve within 3 minutes of assembly for the best texture.
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