How Family-Run Noodle Business Yuen Hop Co. Has Endured for Nine Decades in Oakland’s Chinatown | Eater SF

Stepping inside under the sun-faded kelly green awnings, I found a bustling, multigenerational family market in Oakland’s Chinatown where kids scurry between shelves and neighbors call each other by name; over nine decades the Quan family has built Yuen Hop Co. from Quong Pon’s 1931 stand selling homegrown bean sprouts and fresh tofu into a full-scale Asian grocery, produce market, and noodle distributor. The shop still carries Asian produce like bitter melon and fresh lotus root alongside rice and egg noodles, wonton wrappers, and dumpling skins, but noodles became the main business after the family added a second space to accommodate production. Today they sell about 20 different types of noodles, eight of which are made in the family’s factory down the street, and they supply local chefs, retailers such as Berkeley Bowl, and home cooks across the Bay Area with chewy egg noodles made fresh daily. The proprietary egg noodles are made only with “real eggs,” flour, salt, and water — Cribbin says they don’t skimp on ingredients — and they lend themselves to favorites like garlic noodles, an enduring example of Asian fusion reportedly originating in the 1970s with Helene An; the family’s version balances fish sauce, oyster sauce, and Parmesan for an umami punch. I learned about the family’s deep history — Quong Pon immigrated from Guangzhou and started the business, David Quan engineered irrigation and noodle machinery, Sabrina Cribbin now co-manages the market and factory alongside her mother Sylvia Quan — and how that commitment to hard work and community earned Yuen Hop a 2017 Oakland legacy business distinction. Despite pandemic pressures and uncertainty about the future, the shop remains a gathering place—full of memories, family rituals (noodles at a red egg and ginger party for a new granddaughter, for example), and a dedication to quality that the Quans hope younger generations will carry on. - Laura Smith Borrman