Restaurateur Boris Fong is becoming something of a tour de force on Main Street in Newmarket.
With the grand opening of Hop Bop Noodle Shop yesterday, at 210 Main St., Fong brings his now familiar culinary skills and imaginative take on Asian street food to local diners. Fong also runs the Main Street restaurants Hungry Brew Hops and Lil’ Brew Hops, as well as catering company Hoppin’ Good Eats.
Hop Bop is the first restaurant of its kind in Newmarket to offer a menu inspired by the thriving street food culture found in cities across Asia. There, small local vendors prepare and sell a limited selection of specialities, or often, just one dish, from a street stall to busy people as they rush about their day.
“There’s Asian food in the community, where you get bits and pieces of Vietnamese, Chinese and Japanese,” Fong said. “But there’s not a mix of everything. There’s really nothing like it and I wanted to bring something different to Main Street.”
Diners will find a menu packed with street food favourites, such as ramen and udon noodle bowls containing an assortment of meat, seafood, vegetables and the quintessential poached egg, rice bowls heaped with curry and other saucy toppings, steamed buns with beef brisket, kimchi, Korean pancakes, deep-fried sticky ribs, Asian pear salad and more.
“The food we serve here is our own spin on different types of Asian foods,” Fong said. “The ramen broth takes a lot long longer to perfect than other types of noodle soup broths. It’s a two-day process to make the broth.”
Fong has worked in restaurant kitchens his entire career and was the corporate chef at Pickle Barrel and executive chef at Marlowe Restaurant and Wine Bar in Richmond Hill, among others. About seven years ago, he and his wife decided to take the plunge into restaurant ownership and they haven’t looked back since.
“I now know what to do and what not to do, but I’m still learning as I go along,” he said. “There’s different challenges that come with being an entrepreneur. But the most important part about it is the food and the experience. That’s what I want to bring together.”
Part of that experience blends in Fong’s love of craft beer as an ideal accompaniment to Asian food. Hop Bop offers seven craft beers, including Beau’s Lug-Tread, Halcyon Rotating and Nickel Brook Cause & Effect.
Since opening in July, Fong and his staff have tweaked the menu to better cater to customers, including adding items for children such as popcorn chicken, fries and plum sauce.
Hop Bop and Hungry Brew Hops general manager Nicole Goodridge said the soups are most popular with Hop Bop customers, particularly the gluten-free spicy seafood bowl, which features rice noodles, mussels, bay scallops, shrimp, pea shoots, coconut milk, scallions and lotus root chips, topped with cilantro, for $13.50.
“People are loving it,” Goodridge said. “We did a menu switchover last week, after finding out more about what people want and don’t want, and we have a lot more vegan and vegetarian options now.”
Hop Bop Noodle Shop is at 210 Main St. Hours: Tuesday to Sunday from 11:30 a.m. Diners place their order at the counter and the restaurant staff does the rest.
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