Fen Xiang Char Kway Teow @ Eunos Crescent Hawker Centre 芬香炒果条

For a month now, we are a dabao (takeaway food) nation. Someone asked, what hawker food tastes better dabao-ed as most cooked food don't travel very well.

Truth be told, I always felt that Singapore's beloved char kway teow tastes better wrapped in paper and eaten at home. Today's dabao is Fen Xiang Char Kway Teow 芬香炒果条 from Eunos Crescent Hawker Centre.

Stall name: Fen Xiang Fried Kway Teow 芬香

Address: 4A Eunos Crescent, stall #01-24, Singapore 402004 (Eunos Crescent Market & Food Centre @ Eunos MRT station)

Hours: 8:00am - 12:00 noon (Mon off)

When I flipped open the grease soaked paper wrap, I was warmly greeted by a waft of caramelised sauce aroma.

It's a familiar smell. When I was a child, my dad used to dabao char kway teow home to have supper with my mum after he came home from his night shift (around midnight). Dad was a bus driver with STC, then SBS (precursors of today's SMRT Bus.)

We don't have much money then, so dad only dabao-ed one packet. So, only one of our four siblings will have a chance to join in the supper. As the eldest, most of the time I wasn't chosen. So, I could only pretend to be fast asleep and smell the char kway teow 🥺

Anyway, our favourite char kway teow came from the chow teh gu (no licence) push cart char kway teow stall at Lorong 5 Toa Payoh. When that stall was gone, we got our char kway teow from the stall at today's Kim Keat Palm hawker centre. That was in the 1960s.

Back to Fen Xiang Char Kway Teow, uncle has been frying noodles for over thirty years. Not much in the limelight, under the media radar, but uncle has a loyal following of fans who thinks highly of his char kway teow. Uncle sells only one serving size at $3 each.

In the heap, there's lup cheong (Cantonese wax sausage), blood cockles (tiny), fish cake slices, choy sum greens, egg, and bean sprouts. The vegetables don't travel well, so they were quite limp by the time we ate the char kway teow. I like Fen Xiang's lup cheong as they tasted savoury sweet and were not the overly greasy type.

The noodles were quite soft by now but they infused the sauce's flavours well. Fen Xiang char kway teow's taste profile is leaning on sweet with a slight savoury balance. As I had chili, the spiciness was quite pronounced, so the CKT tasted sweet, spicy, savoury in that order. Many like their CKT this way, though my preference is savoury, spicy, sweet.

The noodles were fried with vegetable oil, so those who must have lard in their CKT will miss it. It wasn't overly greasy.

There was little, if any, wok hei. Truth be told, there isn't any char kway teow stall in Singapore today that is strong in the wok hei department (don't stone me, I am just speaking the truth 😱 ).

And, here's the thing. Without much wok hei, I prefer my char kway teow wrapped up and let the sauce flavour infuse deeply into the noodles. The trade off is soft noodles but each bite releases explosions of infused flavours from every strand.

What do you think? After one month of dabao, what food do you think tastes better taken away?

Do you think char kway teow tastes better dabao-ed, since there is not much wok hei anyway, right?

Wrapped in opeh leaf is the best but that's for another discussion.

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Written by Tony Boey on 18 Jun 2021 🥡 Day 34 of Singapore Phase 2 Heightened Alert to curb Covid-19 spread.