Malaysia Food Review: Penang Char Koey Teow

Seriously. Is there anything better than an authentic Penang char koey teow? No. I don’t think so. I was fortunate enough to be in Penang for a weekend in March and believe you me, I ate enough char koey teow to last me for the year.

Char keoy teow is basically a rice noodle dish that has been stir fried in a very very hot wok with delicious special chilli and soy sauces. A Penang char keow teow always has prawns, beansprouts, blood cockle, lard chips and Chinese sausage slivers. Egg is optional (but I always have it) and you can choose whether you want chicken egg or duck egg. It gets fried in a wok so hot that the noodles have beautiful smoky flavour.

There is no such thing as a good char keoy teow in Australia. There. I said it. And non-Penang char koey teow just does not measure up.