About

Mínyólǐ (meen yo lee), named after the Chef/Owner’s childhood juàncūn neighborhood in Taipei, is a noodle restaurant that strives to represent the kind of mom n’ pop noodle shops that originated in Taiwan’s villages for military dependents known as “juàn cun” (眷村) (jyuwen tswin).

Hundreds of juàn cun were created across Taiwan in 1949 to house the more than one million KMT military personnel and their families who fled to Taiwan after the Chinese Civil War. These juàncūn were originally meant to be provisional housing for the war refugees, but as history would have it, they became permanent settlements and accounted for the majority of Taiwan’s poorest urban slums by the 90’s.

Though lacking in material resources, the juàn cun were rich with different regional cultures from all over China, resulting in a unique style of fusion Chinese cooking known as “Juàn cun Cuisine'' (眷村菜). Hearty noodles and effervescent pickling from frigid northern China. Vibrant spice and robust flavors of the lush Sichuan basin region. Focus on freshness, elegant presentation, and the homey red braised cooking method of the Shanghai river delta area come together in this uniquely delicious food tradition.

In recent years, as the walls of these old juàncūn began to come down to make way for urban renewal, thousands of small juàncūn-style eateries have been quickly disappearing. Minyoli (民有里) wants to pay homage to juàncūn culture and share the flavors and memories of Taiwan with Chicago.

Traditional Taiwanese cooking techniques are largely based on Fujian Cuisine, a regional cuisine of China’s coastal south. However, because of immigration and the colonial history of the past century, contemporary Taiwanese food is influenced by cuisines from all over China, as well as those of Japan and Southeast Asia. Deep economic ties with the US since the end of the Korean War also introduced to Taiwan unprecedented access to affordable wheat, making wheat noodles (which had been historically outpaced by rice) an indispensable staple on Taiwan’s dining tables today.

Born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan, Chef Rich Wang moved to Chicago with his family as a teenager. He received his culinary training from Chicago’s Kendall College and has since gone on to work for renowned restaurants in Chicago, including Michelin-starred Boka and James Beard awarded Fat Rice. In 2019, he went to Lanzhou, China, to study the art of handmade noodle and became a certified noodle craftsman in China. He then traveled to Macau to work with Chef Tam Kwok Fung at his Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant, Wing Lei Palace. Three years later, he returned to Chicago to open Minyoli, where he combines techniques of Western and Chinese cooking to recreate flavors of his childhood from Taiwan.

Raised in a truly diverse suburb of metro LA with a strong Taiwanese American community, X Wang grew up eating and loving all the foods of their Taiwanese and Chinese roots as well as all the variety such an international mix like Southern California can offer. X has had many lives; some in education, metal fabrication, and of course, the food world. They have worked closely with farmers as a Santa Cruz Farmers Market manager, sold bread for Manresa, and slung coffee and cooked for Cafe Delmarette. Now they are turning back toward their childhood and home cuisine to share the history, customs, and innovations that make up the food of Taiwan.