Since March 2021, salon owner Dat Tran has been serving low-sodium, build-your-own noodle soups out of a shipping container and an Asian food cart-inspired bicycle. Now, his "simply healthy" spot Tong Mein is finally getting ready for the grand opening of its first brick-and-mortar location on McCaul St.
Tong Mein has been making headlines since it started operating from a shipping container behind Tran's salon with an emphasis on flavourful noodle soups that don't sacrifice health. Its variety of Asian-inspired bone-based, pescatarian and vegan noodle soups cater to a broad audience looking for healthier alternatives to high-sodium broths.
When his salon Album Hair shut down at the start of COVID, Tran had no idea he would end up running an entirely different show from his business’s 40-foot driveway on Queen East.
In the beginning, he went about life as we all did during lockdown: doing what we could to make ourselves cozy at home. Coming from a Vietnamese-Chinese background, this meant cooking his ultimate comfort food daily: noodle soups with hearty broths.
While it’s easy to pick up noodle soups from restaurants or get them delivered, Tran had been a vegetarian for 20 years and only transitioned into a pescatarian diet four years ago, which made many bone-based broths incompatible with his diet.
At home, however, he could create his own broths using carefully chosen and concentrated ingredients without adding bones or condiments that are high in sodium or contain MSG.
While MSG is safe to consume, there’s a small percentage of people who can feel short-term effects known as MSG symptom complex, including weakness and sweating. Additionally, the amount of salt in some soup noodle broths can cause your body to retain water, leaving you feeling bloated and tired.
As Album Hair remained closed, Tran realized that his at-home noodle soup habit could become an essential business and help him make ends meet with the right branding and mindset. Conveniently, there was already a stylish shipping container waiting in the driveway of his salon.
Tran had placed the shipping container there to support the Queen East community, allowing local businesses to host pop-ups behind his salon whenever they wanted. Now, he could use it to start a business of his own.
Repurposing the healthy recipes he had started at home, Tran began working with a chef to perfect all kinds of bone-based, vegetarian and pescatarian broths. Together, they aimed to create the same richness of flavour without the tiredness that comes from ingesting MSG and high amounts of sodium.
“MSG was only created in the 19th century,” says Tran. “So what did we eat before that? And how can we now substitute certain ingredients to produce the same umami flavour?”
Driven by these questions at a time when health was a priority, Tran began to see the potential for his noodle soups to become something that could help not only those looking for comfort foods at home, but also the frontline workers who needed the energy and strength to go about their daily demanding tasks.
“Frontline workers need to stay alert, and when you get too full or bloated from sodium or gluten, you can’t be productive,” says Tran.
Using rice noodles to avoid gluten in their bowls, Tong Mein aims to provide food that’s easier on the intestines, giving frontline workers much-needed energy without making their bodies work too hard to process the food.
Tran chose this new location on McCaul for its proximity to downtown hospitals and their workers. The team hosted their first pop-up here back in December 2021 and, after a 3-month wait to finalize the deal with their landlord, the City of Toronto, Tong Mein is now open for business at their first brick-and-mortar location.
At the new Tong Mein, customers can expect the same flavourful noodle soups made with the most nutritious and natural ingredients that Tran and his brother, the brand’s Head of Operations, can source.
A standout customer favourite here is the Shrimp Noodle Soup, made with Tong Mein’s signature Lobster Broth. Reflecting Tran’s expertise from his own pescatarian diet, this broth is made with lobster heads from the East Coast, which are roasted and simmered for 2 to 4 hours to maximize the umami-ness of this naturally anti-depressive ingredient.
Complementing the rich lobster flavours are a big handful of aromatics, including fennel, celery, leek, pineapple, tomatoes, white onions and more.
For their Chicken and Beef Noodle Soups, Tong Mein uses only antibiotic- and hormone-free bones as their broth base. After extracting their juices with a roast, the bones are simmered for 6 to 8 hours with pungent herbs and vegetables such as lemongrass, star anise, coriander seeds, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, leek and daikon.
Perhaps the most challenging broth to master, Tong Mein’s Vegan Soup Broth exceeds expectations with a richer-than-most mushroom base simmered with the same herbs and vegetables that make their other broths so satisfying.
Tossing rice noodles into a broth of your choice, each noodle soup bowl can then be customized with fresh toppings like kale, broccoli, squash, spinach and carrots. For an extra kick, you can also add Satay and Laksa sauces on the side.
While Tong Mein means “noodle soup” in Cantonese, their soup-less Chilled Noodle Bowls are also not to be missed.
Served with rice vermicelli, shiitake mushrooms and a bunch of veggies, their Chilled Noodle Bowls come with a tangy Ginger Tamari Sauce made with dates, rice vinegar and agave. Choose from proteins like Jerk Beef, Marinaded Chicken, Grilled Shrimp and Firm Tofu, and you’ve got yourself a perfect summertime noodle bowl.
Tong Mein also offers take-home meal kits, which include conveniently packaged broths that can be frozen for up to a month and reheated on your stovetop directly in its reusable, food-grade plastic container.
Looking to improve the take-home broth experience, Tran created this “sous-vide” design with families in mind.
“When you’re trying to cook for a whole family, everybody has specific tastes and needs,” says Tran.
With Tong Mein’s packaging, you can place different broth bags directly in boiling water and then serve it in bowls through its easy-pour spout.
Besides being a powerful base for noodle soups, Tran also encourages customers to create their own menu with the broths. He especially likes to use the Seafood Broth to make paella and bún riêu.
Although they’ve just opened their first permanent location, the team already has two more locations scheduled to open later this year. Their packaged broths can already be found in several small-town grocery stores across Southern Ontario through Annex Distribution.
Alongside a hardworking team, including a brother with 10 years’ kitchen experience, Tran is confident their food will only get better.
“It’s an ongoing process for us. We’ll still focus on using the same quality ingredients, but it’s a question of ‘how do you tweak it so that it only gets better?’—That’s our process.”
Tong Mein’s new location is on 207 McCaul Street, but you can still find them at their original shipping container on 639 Queen Street East. You can order pickup and delivery from both locations on their website from Tuesdays to Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
