How Ma Mon Luk Found Love,
Riches, and the Perfect Bowl of Soup
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Millbrook Press
(Lerner Publishing)
(pub. 4.2.2024)
32 pages
Ages 7 -11
Author: Jacqueline
Chio-Lauri
Illustrator: Kristin Sorra
Character: Ma Mon Luk
Overview:
" Rejected by the parents of the girl he loves for being poor, Ma Mon Luk strikes out from China and boards a steamship headed for the Philippines in 1918.
He vows to make a fortune and return for his beloved. Ma creates a chicken noddle soup he calls mami―"ma" for his name and "mi" for noodles―and peddles it as a street vendor. He eventually earns enough to open his own restaurant and wins the approval of the parents of his true love."
Tantalizing taste:
"Everyone, rich or poor, could buy Ma's noodles. He made sure of that. A few centavos bought shorter snips. More centavos bought longer snips.
As customers slurped down their mee, Ma regaled them with stories of his motherland..
When he returned home late in the evening, he kicked off his tire-soled shoes and slumped into a chair.
'Aiyo', he moaned, rubbing his aching shoulder and putting up his blistered feet."
And something more: The author, Jacqueline Chio-Lauri shared in the Author's Note: "My mother, a Filipino, and my father, a Chinese immigrant who I didn't get a chance to know, met each other in Manila's Chinatown, the place where most of this story took place. I grew up in the Phillippines. I've eaten mami. I've heard of Ma Mon Luk, the restaurant (my parents had eaten there before I was born). But I didn't get to know Ma Mon Luk's story until 2018." And the More about Ma and His Mami also explained that "Mami has become a big part of Filipino food culture. Although Ma is famous for mami, he is also remembered by many for his generosity and kindheartedness."
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