Char Kway Teow

This stall at Pasir Panjang Food Center is full of surprises.

First of all, it is open half the week. Secondly, the heap of vegetables on top of the Char Kway Teow is humongous. And they use very tender and sweet Cai Xin.

Then unlike other stalls, for $8, you get lots of cockles (I counted 16). Plump ones too, cooked just right.

The time taken to cook my plate was very short. After a minute or two, my plate of CKT was ready. And yet there is wok heat in there.

But there is no bean sprout, no fish cakes and no Chinese sausage.

Sumptuous and healthy, if there is such a thing for CKT.

With today’s inflation, at $2.50 per serving, one cannot really complain about the taste or size of the serving. It’s not the best around and certainly could improve on the taste but it was fast and cheap. Got some wok heat and gave me two shrimps plus a few pieces of sliced fish cakes.

Arrived at 11.57am and placed my order for one plate of black char kway teow (you can order white as well) at $5.00. The stall supposed to start at 11.45am but today they started preparing late so didn’t start cooking until 12.09am. Already I was #10 in the queue.

Finally got my plate at 12.33pm. By then the queue was 30 plus orders with many still in the queue, yet to place an order.

The plate of char kway teow was not too dry, got some wok heat but a bit sweet. You can ask to add lard bits but no prawns for the small serving. I am guessing only from $8.00 onwards. There’s a few decent sized cockles inside, along with Chinese sausages, bits of fish cake, bean sprouts and a few stalks of Chye Sim vegetables.

Overall a good plate of char kway teow worthy of their Bib Gourmand award. But you must be prepared to queue during peak hours. Maybe 40 minutes or more!

For the record, I prefer wetter versions of Char Kway Teow. Fong Sheng did deliver on this aspect. But failed on the other critical requirements.

There was no wok heat to speak of and it was very evident because we did side by side tasting against the other CKT stall in Bukit Merah Food Center. It was also too sweet for my liking and although we did request for chilli, it was almost not detectable at all.

Saving grace was the portion was rather generous for $4.50 and they did give quite a bit of Chinese sausage, fish cakes and cockles. Service was friendly too.

For those who prefer the wetter version Char Kway Teow, there is Lai Heng at Shun Fu Food Center. The queues can be very long during peak hours but they have a very effective system of order taking and like clockwork, the queue moves quickly.

Ample wok heat there in the CKT when it is served although it dissipates rather quickly as well. This version has chye sim besides the usual bean sprouts and I noticed their cockles are more normal in size compared with some of the pathetic miniscule ones used at other stalls. For $5, you get a pretty decent portion of CKT.

Go ahead and add an Otah which is quite unique for CKT in Singapore.

Traditional style CKT fried in batches and then finished off individually. The $4 portion is enough if you are not particularly hungry.

The fried kway teow has some wok heat when served. It is the wetter version and comes with sliced Chinese sausages and fish cakes. They also add bean sprouts and Chye Sim but what also liked about it is the large cockles that this stall uses, unlike the small peanut sized cockles that seems to be the norm these days with even the big CKT names. Nice.

A plate of Penang Char Kway Teow with lots of wok heat. It came with a few slices of fish cakes, Chinese sausages, two shrimps and egg.

At first whiff, the wok heat was unmistakable. Some charred bits of noodles and fish cakes could also be found. But I find the overall dish to be rather bland and could do with a little more seasoning. Also it was not fried with lard oil so maybe another reason for blandness.

Por tip- Don’t order with extra cockles. Theirs tend to be so tiny, such that an additional order of cockle only means more small cockles that tend to be over cooked.

Read somewhere this is a father and son outfit where the father delivers a wetter version and the son fries a dryer version with wok heat. Curiosity piqued, I went to try for myself.

Upon arrival at 12 noon, there was an aunty and a gentleman in front of me in the queue. Son was helming the wok today (damn I prefer wetter version) Ordered $5 portion. And that’s when I found out not only you do not get to choose the dryer or wetter version, you also cannot choose to add cockles or fish cake or sausage. No customisation. Only chilli or without.

Got my plate within 7 minutes. Sure enough, it was the dry version and plenty of wok heat. In fact a couple of charred bits of noodles could also be found. The portion was decent enough for $5 but the number of cockles give was pathetic. They really should remover the word cockles from their signboard. Noodles were not too sweet, which I liked .

Pro tip: grab one of the spoons before you start eating. Towards the middle, the spoon is handier than chopsticks cause the noodles were all pretty chopped up from the frying. Spooning mouthfuls was more satisfying than trying to grasp at bits with a pair of chopsticks.

Definitely one of the better Char Kway Teow in Singapore. This one is the drier type. The owner can give you fresh cockles on top of your CKT if you ask for it. The lard bits added more flavour to the dish. You also get a couple of pieces of Chinese sausage and fish cakes

Strongly recommend if you happen to be in the northern parts of Singapore.

Ordered a $4 plate of Char Kway Teow and added $2 extra cockles. Their CKT is the sweet, wet and slurpy type that I like. It did not have a lot of wok heat but the portion was decent.

I’ll come try the carrot cake next time.

Arrived just past 6pm and ordered the $5 portion. There was only one order in front of me.

Contrary to what’s mentioned in other reviews, Uncle fries his char kway teow in large batches and then finishes off each plate with addition of egg and cockles. He does not cook them from scratch, plate by plate.

The char kway teow is the dryer version. Has very little wok heat and you cannot order extra cockles. Not too sweet and not too oily.

Overall a normal plate of char kway teow.

Read a lot about this CKT stall in Smith Street Chinatown Food Center so I finally had to came and try it. Arriving at 2pm, the queue in front of me was about 10 patrons. Took about 30 mins to get to me as uncle fries each order separately and in between, he pre-fries a batch of noodles and kway teow with soya sauce.

Ordered the $4 portion. Not allowed to add anything like eggs or cockles. Sad.

The CKT is something in between wet and dry types. A little bit of wok heat and the taste is more savoury than sweet. You get about 6 cockles, 1 tail-on shrimp, a few pieces of Chinese sausage. No chives or fish cakes.

All in, it’s just an above average plate of CKT.