CHAR KWAY TEOW
Char Kway Teow (炒粿條 in Chinese , pronounced chhá-kóe-tiâu ) also commonly known in Singapore as Fried Kway Teow (in popular transliterations there is no fixed way of spelling , other spellings Cha Kuay Teow , Cha Kueh Tiao or Chao Kua Tiao ) is actually fried flat rice noodle (kway teow) with yellow thick noodle (mee) and usually with dark soy sauce, cockles , prawns, egg, bean sprouts, chinese sausage-Lap Cheong and sliced fish cake. Like Fried Carrot Cake the frying skill of the hawker is very important. Although the Fried Kway Teow is fried together with sweet dark soy sauce, you do not want your Char Kway Teow to be burnt. And no matter whether you can take spicy food or not, you must try it with chili.
The traditional way is to serve Char Kway Teow with fried pork lard to make it tastier. A good Kway Teow is one where the serving is not too dry or too soggy.
Of Teochew origins , this extremely popular dish of flat rice noodles has a vibrant history.Char Kway Teow has a reputation of being unhealthy due to its high saturated fat content. When the dish was first invented, it was mainly served to labourers , the high fat content and low cost of the dish made it attractive to these people as it was a cheap source of energy and nutrients. In its early days, Char Kway Teow was mostly sold by fishermen and farmers who doubled up as food peddlers at night to supplement their income; they used to use leftovers from meals to whip up this dish, hence its multiple ingredient mix.
Char Kway Teow, loosely translated as “stir-fried rice cake strips”, is made by stir-frying flat rice noodles with light and dark soy sauce, a dash of belachan (shrimp paste), tamarind juice, bean sprouts, Chinese chives, lap cheong (Chinese sausages) and cockles. In its original recipe, the rice noodles are also stir-fried in pork fat using crisp bits of pork lard, resulting in a distinctively rich taste. In recent years, the dish as evolved into a healthier version with hawkers serving up more greens and adding less oil. This not only makes the dish healthy but the greens and bean sprouts give it a freshness and crunchy texture, adding to the overall star quality of this old-time favourite. The clanging wok and sweet-smelling hot air wafting from it gives it a heady, sensuous dimension of sight, smell and sound; and that’s even before you’ve taken a bite!
One should know that there are versions of this popular dish all over Southeast Asia and some are very different from the one in Singapore .
thanks to all the sources : Wikipedia ; SingaporeLifestyle ; YourSingapore ; MakanTime ; and all the other sites and blogs
The traditional way is to serve Char Kway Teow with fried pork lard to make it tastier. A good Kway Teow is one where the serving is not too dry or too soggy.
Of Teochew origins , this extremely popular dish of flat rice noodles has a vibrant history.Char Kway Teow has a reputation of being unhealthy due to its high saturated fat content. When the dish was first invented, it was mainly served to labourers , the high fat content and low cost of the dish made it attractive to these people as it was a cheap source of energy and nutrients. In its early days, Char Kway Teow was mostly sold by fishermen and farmers who doubled up as food peddlers at night to supplement their income; they used to use leftovers from meals to whip up this dish, hence its multiple ingredient mix.
Char Kway Teow, loosely translated as “stir-fried rice cake strips”, is made by stir-frying flat rice noodles with light and dark soy sauce, a dash of belachan (shrimp paste), tamarind juice, bean sprouts, Chinese chives, lap cheong (Chinese sausages) and cockles. In its original recipe, the rice noodles are also stir-fried in pork fat using crisp bits of pork lard, resulting in a distinctively rich taste. In recent years, the dish as evolved into a healthier version with hawkers serving up more greens and adding less oil. This not only makes the dish healthy but the greens and bean sprouts give it a freshness and crunchy texture, adding to the overall star quality of this old-time favourite. The clanging wok and sweet-smelling hot air wafting from it gives it a heady, sensuous dimension of sight, smell and sound; and that’s even before you’ve taken a bite!
One should know that there are versions of this popular dish all over Southeast Asia and some are very different from the one in Singapore .
thanks to all the sources : Wikipedia ; SingaporeLifestyle ; YourSingapore ; MakanTime ; and all the other sites and blogs