Wok Hei · Charcoal-Fried Noodles

Char Kway Teow

Photo: Orderinchaos / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

In old Chinatown, char kway teow was hawked at night by fishermen and cockle-gatherers who fried the noodles in pork lard between their day jobs, turning a cheap plate of rice noodles into a rich, filling supper.

Flat rice noodles are stir-fried hard and fast over a charcoal or gas flame with prawns, cockles, egg, bean sprouts, and Chinese sausage, all bound in dark soy and chili paste. Stalls in Chinatown's food centres still fry it to order in a well-seasoned iron wok, chasing the smoky 'wok hei' that defines a good plate.

Why it's made this way: The dish's roots trace to Chaozhou in China's Guangdong province and is most closely tied to the Teochew community, who carried it into Singapore's hawker trade, where Chinatown's stalls became some of the noodle's most enduring homes.