SOMEWHERE in Binondo, in an upstairs room, mami noodles are still made fresh the old way every day. Dough is made from flour, water and egg, and kneaded with the use of a long rolling pin–so long in fact that you can ride on one end literally, which is what the workers at that restaurant, Masuki, do every day. Willen Ma, who oversees this family business started by her father in the sixties, says they call the rolling pin kabayo, the Filipino word for horse, since workers have to ride that long rolling pin to knead the dough.
Why have they not upgraded to a more modern way of doing things? Willen says this old-style method is what gives their mami noodles the makunat texture. “If we do it by machine, they will come out with a fine texture. Customers can tell the difference. Lagot kami.”
Some 200 kilos of mami noodles are made here every day at Masuki, and these are sliced by machine after the kneading with the kabayo. The noodles are served at Masuki restaurants in Binondo and Greenhills, and are also supplied to institutional customers.
It has been more than 40 years and Masuki is still around. Willen, named one of the inspiring women entrepreneurs by GoNegosyo, says their secrets just boil down to the quality of food and service. The menu is still the same, and they make sure the mami, asado chicken, tai pao, siomai, and siopao remain consistent in quality.
And they plan to uphold the same consistent quality of food throughout the coming years. So if that means still doing the kneading kabayo-style, then kabayo-style it is. Some things you don’t just change.
5 Feedbacks on "Some things you don’t just change"
MANGREY
200 kilos of noodles for mami and they have been in business for 40 years, well and good.
I think the owner is lacking the initiative to search a new method of processing the noodles that will result to same quality of noodles. Searching and developing new ways are essentials to avoid being stagnant.
40 years and 200 kilos, when satisfied you stop, then take all excuses kung bakit hanggang doon lang sa 200 kilos……………
chris
@mangrey…..
i think that’s not a fair assumption, but really, the taste and quality of their noodles have not change thru the years…. for me, it’s 35years of eating since my lolo and parent 1st took me there…. just went there last week…. don’t know if i’m gonna go there with all the traffic if they change
but i understand your point
FanofTradition
I do not agree with Mangrey. The secret to their longevity is rooted in the fine tradition of their noodle making. If they want to up production, just add more “kabayo’s” and workers. By tinkering with an age old recipe for success, you’ll be surprised to learn that it is not always the most favorable route.
At the end of the day, they are preserving a fine tradition of noodle making that has made them famous and recognized. I appreciate noodles and can distinguish machine versus hand made. So I am biased towards tradition and not as much as technology infused methods when it comes to something like this.
I hope they have an apprenticeship program at their restaurant to continue their tradition and not lose it to modern day, high volume, mass produced initiatives.
If this agrument isn’t enough. Take a look at Coca-Cola and the debacle they encountered when they decided to “change” the recipe. There are several more cases such as this that take a fine old tradition, then alter it to suit modern tastes, without testing the market and seeing how their end consumer reacts.
Sometimes, the old is just as good as the new.
MANGREY
oh dont get me wrong. am not sugesting that they change their recipe or change their way of processing their noodles. nor do isuggest that they abandone a tested tradition. that will be a blunder.
what am saying is that a search for a new method of processing the noodles that will result to same quality of noodles. searching and developing new ways are essentials for continous growth.
coca cola is a great cola drink that survive the changing world. the manner they process their cola drinks has undergone so many ways of producing
and success is theirs. production keep on rising spanning the whole world. More enployment was created. the owners never stop to find ways and means to improve their product but not the taste for this is a blunder
we have plenty of stagnant labor in our country and they are looking for enployment. the business sector must continously search means for expansion to provide labor the enployment they are looking for.
now if the owners are satisfied with the 200 hundred kilos well and good for them.
sorry nalang sa mga walang trabaho…….
ADRIAN
i think they’re mami is good…
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