It's said that under the Japanese occupation, beef noodle soup was on the menu of the high-class restaurant Peng Lai Ke. "It was made by a chef who had once cooked for Sun Yat-sen. Only rich folk like the Lin families of Panchiao and Wufeng or the Cheng family of Hsinchu could afford it," recounts Rita Wong, revealing her encyclopedic knowledge of the subject.
而在日據時，據傳在高級餐館「蓬萊閣」，就有牛肉麵這道菜，「而且是由曾服侍過國父的主廚掌灶，只有富貴人家如板橋、霧峰林家、新竹鄭家等才吃得起！」