I can’t believe the last I wrote was when I was about to hop on a plane to one of my favorite cities in the world. Yes, for work, but, as is the case with Barcelona, there will always be a bit (lot) of fun on the side. You can hop over to my Instagram if you’d like to take a peek at all my gastronomic overindulgence (my jeans are still complaining!). It was a fantastic trip – the weather was perfect (sunny but very cool), the work was inspiring (a growth summit in which one of the speakers as a former hostage negotiator!), and the food was amazing (this, this, THIS…and so much more!)!
Despite the incredible food, it never fails, when I am winging my way back home, the insatiable craving for Asian food sets in. You can take the girl out of Asia, but you can never take Asia out of the girl, at least as far as the tummy is concerned. As soon as we landed at our stopover in Singapore I was out of the plane and into the food court, debating furiously about what I should eat. The chicken rice? The mee goreng? The laksa? The nasi goreng? The char kway teow? Delicious dilemmas…
I settled on a big plate of char kway teow which I wolfed down greedily. And on the plane ride home I knew I wanted to recreate it in my own kitchen…
Fried Kway Teow / Char Kway Teow
(from The Asian Kitchen by Kong Foong Ling)
- 4 tablespoons oil
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 100 grams red snapper fillet (I used lapu-lapu fillet), sliced
- 250 grams medium fresh shrimp, shelled and deveined
- 200 grams squid, cleaned and sliced
- 1-2 tablespoons chili paste
- 2 sweet dried Chinese sausages (lap cheong), blanched and thinly sliced (I steamed mine)
- 500 grams fresh flat rice noodles (kway teow) or 250 grams dried rice sticks, blanched in hot water and drained (or prepared as per package instructions)
- 1 cup (100 grams) choy sum (I used bok choy), cut into lengths
- 1 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1-2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar (optional)
- 3 eggs, lightly beaten
- 3/4 cup (40 grams) bean sprouts
- 1 red finger-length chili, thinly sliced
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
– Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a wok over high heat and stir-fry the garlic until light brown, about 1 minute. Add the seafood, chili paste, and Chinese sausages and stir-fry for another 2 minutes.
– Add the noodles and choy sum to the wok and stir. Then season with the soy sauces and sugar and stir to mix well (what I do is mix the soy sauces and sugar together before stirring into the noodles as I feel this lets it mix in more evenly).
– Push the noodles to the side of the wok, reduce the heat to medium, then add the rest of the oil and the beaten eggs into the space you made in the wok for them. Scramble the eggs and when just about setting, stir into the rest of the ingredients. Stir-fry for about 1 minute.
– Add the bean sprouts and chili and stir-fry for another 1-2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, and serve immediately.
The recipe above came from one of my more recent cookbook acquisitions with the most auspicious name of The Asian Kitchen: Fabulous Recipesfrom Every Corner of Asia…a gift from a friend at Periplus publishing. What I like about it is, of course, that it has almost all my favorite Asian dishes, including (no biases here!) a section on Philippine cuisine. It also has a good introduction to each cuisine (and it covers everything from China to Sri Lanka) and a useful guide to ingredients. And, let’s not forget to mention, I can now whip up a yummy char kway teow any time I want!
The best thing about it though is that the generous folks at Periplus have agreed to give away a copy of this cookbook to one of my lucky readers! Yes, you! Plus, along with the cookbook, we will be throwing in a lovely stainless steel spice rack as well…I’m already enjoying mine!
So if you are interested in Asian cuisine, or just want to get your feet wet, this is a great place to start. Just leave a comment below, or shoot me an email (button at the top of the sidebar)…that’s it! No liking of pages or complicated procedures 🙂 We will choose a winner randomly by putting your names in a hat. Yes, I am extremely old school that way.
Wishing you a lovely weekend!
A lovely sounding cookbook and a mouthwatering dish!
Cheers,
Rosa
I would love to use this cookbook to learn Asian cuisine
Joey,
You chose well 🙂 I'm glad you got your CKT fix, and thanks for dropping by our little island for a bit 🙂
This just made me miss Singapore that much more. I think it's one of the few places where foodcourts really offer gadtronomic treats!
I living in Singapore for three years and seeing this REALLY makes me miss the food! I've never made kway teow at home, but now it looks like I need to head to the Asian store…
YUM!!! I love to learn more about Asian cooking!
Your sample recipe looks easy enough that I, a non cook would be able to recreate this!
i want to learn some of Asian cooking..i want to learn how to cook dishes in general:
If I wrote more comments, do I get more chances of winning this cookbook? 🙂 How are you?!!!!! Your blog still rocks. Mine's gathering cobwebs.
Can't wait to try this dish and other Asian dishes in the cookbook 🙂
Lovely spice rack!!!
Oh I have not found a great SEAsian resto (that's anything other than Vietnamese) here in my corner of Texas. Hope to stumble upon a great Malay / Thai / Indo / Sing resto soon.
Or will try to cook at home 🙂
Oh, me, me, me! Truth be told, ii'm squarely in my comfort zone making Western cuisine, but that char kway trow of yours is a an inspiration!
I attempted to cook this before..but there was something missing still!i think this cookbook can teach me a whole lotta things
Brand new to your blog… brand new to instagram and your the first I am following!
I love char kway teow. This is among the 8-10 dishes we wolf down within 24 hours of landing in Singapore 🙂 Your Barcelona food adventures in Instagram are amazing!!! I'd be happy to win this 🙂
From the time that you left the country, I wondered on how long will it take for you to write another article on this blog.. I checked every now and then, but then I guess you were busy (and really having fun) on your trip in Barcelona ( oh…those yummy posts on Instagram!). Welcome back! 🙂
Now this is something I've been craving for, something I haven't had in ages! Thanks for sharing the char kway teow recipe, Joey; it's a dish that brings back lovely memories of summers in KL. 😀
I'd love to win the Periplus cookbook!!
Love, Didi
From Jane
Please throw my name into the pot for the prize cookbook. Would love to try out many of the reipes. Thanks.
Thank you everyone for your comments and entries! Also to those who have emailed in! 🙂 I'm super excited for the cookbook to reach one of you (I'm already planning what I am going to make next!) as well as the spice rack (which I love and makes me happy just seeing the spices and herbs peeking out every time I'm in the kitchen)! 🙂 I'll be announcing the winner next week so there is still time to enter!
Ling — I would have loved to stay longer…so much food!
Deepa — not as hard as I thought…I'm doing mee goreng next! 🙂
Aw Socky! Thanks for your kind words! It's still my simple food journal…as it has always been! 🙂 I am fine…and you? 🙂
Mon — cook for your chef! 😉
Didi — good luck finding a nice SEA place there…I'm sure there should be some?
Jo! I love Asian food, both cooking and eating 🙂 The flavors rock!!
Mirtha — thanks for stopping by!
Everyone — thanks as always for your comments…draw is next week!
I wantses! I wantses!
I wanna win! 🙂
This is great article
Thank you for the recipe
I will try to cook