Char Kuey Teow for dinner!

Char Kuey Teow is a highly popular Malaysian rice noodle dish - particularly Penang Char Kuey Teow from the northern region. The rice noodles are fried over high heat with aromatic and savoury ingredients, resulting in an irresistable-smelling dish with a mild kick of chili spice in the background.

After my husband came back from London and sighed about the char kuey teow that his friend ordered at the Hare and Tortoise which he didn't dare try because he doesn't like taking food off other peoples' plates, I decided to cook char kuey teow for dinner (which meant that I had to provide something else for my 5 year old, the recipe for which is in the next post here). The char kuey teow recipe I followed (and have always followed, with great success) is this one: http://rasamalaysia.com/char-kuey-teow/2/ , but with some very neccessary changes to the recipe:

1. Don't bother soaking your prawns in sugar. It may just be me, I don't like the idea of soaking prawns in sugar, but I don't think it adds anything to the sweetness of the prawn anyway. Besides, I would want my prawns to be as dry as possible otherwise the wok will just be wet and the temperature would be reduced. 
2. The list of sauce ingredients calls for 1 TBSP of sugar. I highly disagree and have reduced this to about 1 TSP or less (what is with the author and sugar?!)
3. The same list of ingredients ALSO calls for "Scant 1/2 teaspoon salt". No idea what they meant, but from my experience anything more than a pinch or a light shake of salt will make the dish too salty.
4. (this one is just a personal preference) - The best char kuey teow I have EVER tasted hails not from Penang, but from Pahang, where the kuey teow is nice and dark. As such, I usually increase the amount of dark soy sauce in the sauce to 2 tbsp.

The final result? Husband said "I'm glad I didn't bother ordering this in Hare and Tortoise - this is very good". AWWWWWW.


PS - If you followed their recipe to the T, you would probably end up with a fair bit of leftover sambal. I used my leftovers to prepare Sambal Sotong, and the recipe can be viewed here.