How Mami Came To The Philippines

The popular 'mami' that we know today was said to be introduced by Ma Mon Luk, a well known Chinese chef from Guangzhou,China who emigrated to the Philippines specifically in Manila to find his fortune here. According to popular belief, Ma Mon Luk started by peddling chicken noodle soup in the streets of Manila. Among his frequent customers were students from various universities in Manila. A popular theory of the origin of the word "mami" is that "Ma" came from his name and "Mi" came from the Chinese word for "recipe"; thus "mami" stands for "the recipe of Mr. Ma. Soon however, Filipinos took the name as an amalgam of Tagalog words for chicken ("manok") and egg noodles ("miki").

Ma Mon Luk was able to establish his own restaurant, named after him, with siopao,siomai and mami noodles as their main attraction. In the 1950's, Ma Mon Luk and his mami became famous nationwide.

Ma Mon Luk's story is very inspiring, starting broke in the streets of Manila, he was able to turn his life around and become a famous chef and restaurant owner and made his mami business popular paving way for other entrepreneurs to follow his footsteps.

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma_Mon_Luk)