I had never really tried Malaysian food before until a great restaurant opened in my old neighborhood in Columbia Heights. Makan replaced my favorite go-to beer bar but once I’d shed enough tears into my beer, I decided to check it out at the beginning of the pandemic as it was offering easy takeaway options with boozy juice pouches. Over the first year or so of the pandemic, Matt and I had takeaway from there a few times and while we tried a few things on the menu, two dishes in particular there always remained a staple order. One of those dishes was Char Kway Teow, a popular hawker stall dish. It includes shrimp, Chinese sausage (which is a bit on the sweeter side) and fish cake, along with fresh noodles.

I visited a few hawker stalls when I was in Singapore and the exciting thing about these dishes, like street food, is the speed at which it can be whipped up. With your mise en place in place (ha!), you can easily throw this dish together in 5 minute of cooking time. I did have to do a bit of hunting in the very large soy sauce section of the local Asian supermarket to find all the varieties this called for, but once I had everything in hand, this was a great weeknight meal. And one we’ll likely repeat with the extra ingredients that I threw in the freezer.

While I found a few recipes for this online, this is the one I opted to go forward with, and since I cook a fair amount, I elected to do the base version of the recipe vs. the easier one where you cook some things in advance. I’m super pleased with how it turned out. Recipe here: https://www.recipetineats.com/char-kway-teow

Overall Level of Effort: 1

Skill Level: Beginner

Would Make It Again? Yes

Additional Notes: I really liked the use of garlic chives in it as when it cooked it really brought up that funkier flavor.