Amin's Kuey Teow Evolution

Char Kuey Teow has been my favorite dish since I can ever remember.

When I was little (about 7yrs old) in Malaysia, Ayah used to take me along to his usual meetup with his buddies on some evenings. In Malaysia, one of the culture (pre-COVID) is #mengeteh, or hanging out with friends at an outdoor restaurant/food place after Maghrib until about 9:30 - 10:00 pm. You would eat something along with some sort of tea.

For Ayah and his friends, it was always at this Char Kuey Teow parlor in Perlis. The place only opens after Maghrib until probably well after midnight. We typically order Char Kuey Teow Kerang with Teh Halia Tarik.

When we moved to the US, neither of these dishes can be found easily. I always have to rely on Mak to make some on rare occasion that we find fresh kucai (Asian chives) and taugeh (bean sprouts) at Pittsburgh. Even so, it never tasted the same.

After my first trip back to Malaysia with Wasil in 2004, I remembered that one of my goals was to figure out how Kuey Teow was made. After watching this one street vendor, I was able to figure it out.

Kuey Teow, like many other street food, are designed to be made FAST. To make it FAST, it then has to be SIMPLE. FAST + SIMPLE = EASY. So that makes me feel better.

Since that trip in 2004, I was able to land on a rather good recipe for making Kuey Teow. I brought it along to Kansas City and was able to share the recipe with others. Below is a picture of me making Kuey Teow at an outdoor event, live in 2009.

Since then, however, I started to be more interested in other aspects of cooking, such as BBQ, Smoking Meat, Kimchi, Ginger Beer, etc. Kak Cah (my wife, Aishah) found several different good Kuey Teow paste/sauce from Malaysia that she started to experiment with. So for the past 5 years or so, Kah Cah took over the Kuey Teow cooking duty.

Recently, in 2020, I've been craving Kuey Teow. We've been out of the Kuey Teow sauce for some time... so I tried ordering Kuey Teow-like dish from different restaurants, such as Pad See Ew (Thai) and Shrimp Chow Fun (Chinese). They're close, but not the same. The closest store-bought Kuey Teow that I've had was at Penang restaurant in Boston 20 years ago, and latest find was at a Malaysian-Chinese restaurant in Dallas called Secret Recipe.

With working from home, I figured that I have a bit more time in the evenings to dive back into researching on how to evolve the Kuey Teow recipe to the next level.

Kak Maiza is a good friend of ours that used to live in Kansas City but moved to Chicago a few years ago. She cooks primarily Malaysian dishes and caters them from time to time. In the winter, she sells frozen karipap - so if you're interested, please support her and order some: Medan Selera KC. She shared several videos on her FaceBook timeline over the years on Kuey Teow and I've been saving them... knowing that I would need it later.

The video I like the most:

One thing about cooking Char Kuey Teow that most don't really think about is that it's usually made for 1-2 person at a time. Once you start making it for a group of people at once, it requires different set of skills and cooking prowess. So in order to be the most successful at making Char Kuey Teow is to make it for no more than two person at a time.

Why? The more ingredients you have, it will require a lot more heat, and a lot bigger wok/pan, and more powerful stove/burner. We don't usually have access to such luxury at home, so doing so will end up taking longer, and the end-result will be less satisfying. It needs a lot of HEAT, and it needs to be done cooking in less than 10 minutes.

Ingredients (below measurement is for two): 

- Kuey Teow (we use dried rice sticks, Medium or Large width, 3 ladies brand), soaked in water for 3 hours 

- Protein - can choose either of these, just have to have at least 1 

-- 6 prawns (large) or handful of shrimps 

-- 1/8 cup fresh cockles (kerang) 

-- 1/4 cup of ground beef 

-- 1/4 cup of thinly sliced chicken breast 

-- 1/4 cup fish cake, sliced 

- 4 tbsp minced garlic 

- 4 tbsp of chopped red onion (or shallot) 

- 1/2 cup of chives, cut into 1 inch 

- 2 cups of bean sprouts 

- 2 eggs (beat lightly with a dash of salt and white pepper) 

- 3 tbsp of cooking oil 

- 2 tsp salt 

Sauce: 

- 5 tbsp soy sauce (light soy sauce) 

- 1 tbsp sweet sauce (Kicap Manis, usually thick 

- 1.5 tbsp dark soy sauce 

- 1 tsp sugar 

- 1 tsp oyster sauce

- 1/2 tsp fish sauce 

- 1/2 tsp vinegar 

- 1/2 tsp lemon juice 

- 1/2 tbsp sugar

- 1/2 tsp salt 

- 1 tbsp white pepper powder 

- 1 tbsp sambal chili paste. Sambal Oelek works. Can add more for more spice. 

Method: 

1. Get ready all the ingredients. 

2. Heat up wok or large frying pan until very hot. Heat level should be med to high. 

3. Add cooking oil. 

4. Add all protein. Add chopped red onion (or shallot). 

5. Add garlic. 

6. Add 1 tbsp of the sauce mixture. 

7. Mix well until the meat is cooked. 

Note: If shrimp or prawns are used, carefully pick them out individually and leave outside for now. 

8. Add all kuey teow. 

9. Add all but leave 2 tbsp of the sauce mixture. 

10. Mix well until kuey teow is covered with sauce. 

Note: If the Kuey Teow still appears hard, add 2 tbsp of water and cover wok/pan until the noodle is soft. Keep mixing every minute. 

11. Once noodle is soft, make space in the middle of the noodles. Add eggs. 

12. Flip the noodle to cover the egg and wait for 10-15 seconds before stir it again. 

Note: You can add the prawns/shrimp that was left out back into the wok/pan.

13. Add bean sprouts. 

14. Add the rest of the sauce into the wok and stir to mix well. 

15. Add chives and make a quick stir (1 minute). Transfer to a plate.

16. Serve immediately.