Char kway teow

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Char kway teow

Char kway teow, literally "fried flat noodles", is a popular noodle dish in Malaysia and Singapore. It is made from flat rice noodles (called Shāhé fěn or hé fěn in Chinese) fried over very high heat with light and dark soy sauce, chilli, prawns, cockles, egg, bean sprouts and Chinese chives. Sometimes slices of Chinese sausage and fish cake are added. It is fried in pork fat, with crisp croutons of pork lard, which give it its characteristic taste.

Char kway teow has a reputation of being unhealthy due to its fat content. However, 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 sellers in the evening to supplement their income.

1 Etymology
2 Variations
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Etymology

The term "Char kway teow" is a transliteration of the Chinese characters "炒粿條", based on the Min Nan spoken variation of the Chinese language. More precisely, "炒粿條" is pronounced as chha²-koe²-tiau⁵_? in Min Nan, and cháo guǒtiáo^? in Mandarin.

However, as Char kway teow was brought from Min Nan-speaking regions to Cantonese-speaking regions, the Chinese name was corrupted as "炒貴刁". This is pronounced as caau2 gwai3 diu1^? in Cantonese and cháo guìdiāo ^? in Mandarin. "貴刁" has no literal meaning, but its pronunciation in Mandarin is similar to "粿條" in Min Nan.

Moreover, "Char koay teow" is often known as "Singaporean Char koay teow" (星州炒貴刁) or "Malaysian Char koay teow" (馬來炒貴刁) in Hong Kong, in order to emphasize the origin of the dish.

[edit] Variations

Penang Char Koay Teow.

A variation is the gourmet version of char koay teow. This is commonly found in the island state of Penang, Malaysia. The version of char kuay teow found there is sometimes added with duck's eggs (for richer taste) and crab meat (for sweetness).

Another evolution of this dish is fried without pork fat or lard. This evolution has come about due to char kway teow's growing popularity amongst the Muslim community in Malaysia.

This dish is also popular in take away establishments in Australia and New Zealand.