CHAR KUEY TEOW

The literal translation for this is “stir-fried flat rice noodles”. It’s a dish that ranks right up there in the canon of Malaysian, Singaporean and Southern Chinese hawker fare. For me it will always remind me of student days in Wellington, trotting down to Cuba St for a bit of edible procrastination. Pork lard is traditionally used as it imparts a rich smoky flavour to hot wok cooking. Do try and use a wok for this, if you can; they are well worth the minuscule investment. As usual, there are myriad of definitive versions; many Malay will substitute pork for beef or chicken, to keep it halal. As the Cantonese often do, I like to use char siu, Chinese barbecue pork, instead of lap cheong, which is Chinese sausage. This is my own take on stir-fried flat rice noodles – make the dish your own, as hawkers across South East Asia continue to do. Just make sure to have all of your ingredients prepped first, laid out and ready to go. Wok cooking is fast cooking, and you won’t have time to finely slice or get things out of the fridge. Make some cong you bing to serve alongside.

PREP TIME: 0 MINUTES COOK TIME: 10-15 MINUTES SERVES: 3-4

Sauce

• 4 tbsp soy sauce

• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce

• 1 tbsp fish sauce

• 2 tbsp oyster sauce

• Squeeze of lime or lemon juice

Stir-fry

• Vegetable oil, or 1 tbsp pork lard if you’re cool

• 2 cloves of garlic, finely grated

• 250g Chinese barbecue pork or several lap cheong, thinly sliced

• 200g raw prawns

• Chinese chilli paste

• 400g fresh flat rice noodles

• 2 eggs

• 3 spring onions, finely sliced on the diagonal

• Large handful of bean sprouts

1. Combine all sauce ingredients and set aside.

2. et a wok or a large pan going over a high heat. Add a tbsp of oil, or lard, and allow it to heat up and go all shimmery. Drop in the garlic, pork or sausage, and prawns and quickly stir fry, moving about the pan, until the prawns are just cooked through.

3. Add a tsp or 2 of chilli paste, the noodles and a bit of the sauce and toss together. radually add more of the sauce while tossing everything about. It should be all si ling nicely. Try not to break the noodles up too much.

4. Drop in the eggs and muddle them up, folding into the mix and continuing to stir-fry until curds start to form.

5. Throw in the spring onion and bean sprouts and give everything a final toss through. Taste and season with a little more soy or chilli.

6. Serve immediately while still lovely and hot.