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Char Kway Teow |
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Char kway teow, literally "stir-fried ricecake
strips", is a popular noodle dish in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. In
Indonesia, the dish is served in Chinese restaurants and traveling street
hawker, and locally known as Kwetiau Goreng (Indonesian: fried Kwetiau). |
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Left: Char Kway Teow. |
It is made from flat rice noodles of
approximately 1 cm or (in the north of Malaysia) about half a centimetre
narrower in width, stir-fried over very high heat with light and dark soy sauce,
chilli, a small quantity of belachan, tamarind juice, whole prawns, deshelled
cockles, bean sprouts and liberally chopped up Chinese chives.
Variants may
include serving the dish with slices of Chinese sausage and fishcake, stir-fried
with eggs, preferably duck's egg, or stir-fried with chopped up cuttle fish or
cooked crab meat in addition to or in substitution of fresh whole prawns. It is
stir-fried in pork fat, with crisp croutons of pork lard, giving it a
characteristically rich taste. Most people prefer char kway teow to be served on
fragrant piece of banana leaf (suitably washed).
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. When the dish was
first served, it was often sold by fishermen, farmers and cockle-gatherers who
doubled up as char kway teow pedlars in the evening to supplement their income.
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The Indonesian char kway teow is less oily, it uses no lard,
and normally uses beef or chicken to cater the majority of Muslim population.
But some Chinese restaurants in Indonesia do serve the pork and lard variety. |
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Left: Char Kway Teow. |
