Dry-fried beef with hefen

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Dry-fried beef with hofun (Chinese: 乾炒牛河, Cantonese: gon1 cao2 ngau4 ho2'; Mandarin: gānchǎo níuhé), colloquially called "beef chow fun" in North America, is a staple Cantonese dish, made from stir-frying beef, hefen noodles and bean sprouts. It has became a necessary dish in Chinese yum cha restaurants in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and even overseas, as well as in cha chaan tengs.

The main ingredients of this dish is hofun noodles, which is also known as shahe fen, originating from the town of Shahe in Guangzhou. The most common method of cooking hofun are in soup or stir fried. Hofun can be dry-fried (fried without sauce) or wet-fried (fried with a sauce).

Fried dry beef ho fun is made by first stir frying beef strips until they are half-cooked. And then bean spouts and onions are fried in oil. Then the ho fun is added and stir fried very quickly, along with soy sauce and heated oil. Finally, the beef is added.

An important factor in the making of this dish is "wok hei" (鑊氣). The cooking must be done over a high flame and the stirring must be done quickly. Not only must the hofun be stirred quickly, it must not be handled too strongly or it will break into pieces. The amount of oil also needs to be controlled very well, or the extra oil or dry texture will ruin the flavor. Because of these factors, this dish is a major test for chefs in Cantonese cooking. It is possible to tell their skill simply from one sampling of this dish.