Flat rice noodles fried hard in lard over fierce heat with prawns, cockles, Chinese sausage, egg, bean sprouts and chives.
What makes it char kway teow
Flat rice noodles, charred at the edges — wok hei is everything.
Lard, and crisp bits of pork fat.
Prawns, cockles and slices of Chinese sausage.
Egg, bean sprouts, chives, soy and chilli paste.
Where it comes from
The name is Hokkien or Teochew for 'stir-fried flat noodles', and the dish came with Chinese migrants from southern China. It's often said to have been a cheap, fatty meal for labourers — fishermen, farmers, dock workers — before it became the hawker dish Malaysians queue for.
Penang's is the benchmark: smoky, not too wet, cooked a plate at a time, sometimes over charcoal, sometimes with a duck egg.
How it varies
Penang char kway teow
Small plates, prawns and cockles, sometimes duck egg — lighter on soy.