Char Kway Teow – “Fried Flat Noodles”, a popular dish in not only Singapore but also Malaysia. It is what most Singaporeans would love and enjoy, most who will say it is one of the top “must-try” dishes that foreigners should have when they visit the hawker food centers here. In fact, many surveys have been conducted and in most of the survey results, Char Kway Teow is most definitely in the Top 10 Most Popular Hawker Food in Singapore.
Char Kway Teow is stir fried over very high heat with light and dark soy sauce, chilli, prawns, cockles, egg, bean sprouts and Chinese chives. Others may include serving the dish with slices of Chinese sausage and fish cake. It is sometimes fried in pork fat, with crisp croutons of pork lard, giving it a distinctive taste. However, not every Char Kway Teow stall would fry in pork fat, all because of the fact that some Singaporeans are more particular about having a healthier version of food. Thus, with all the awareness of healthy food, some stalls are making sure their food is of the “healthier choice” by cooking in vegetable oil, less salt, and more vegetables.
Some may say that this is one unhealthy dish due to its high saturated fat content. But according to Wikipedia, 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. Still, it is very much loved by many Singaporeans or others who have tried this tasty dish. It is also known that some Asian celebrities would most certainly visit hawker centers to have a taste of Char Kway Teow whenever they are in Singapore. You can always tell by looking at the photos that stall owners would proudly placed at their stalls taken with the celebrities.
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