Koay Teow Th'ng

This is a tasty soupy dish that you will enjoy. Preparation is a little bothersome in terms of getting the soup (chicken stock) right, but the other ingredients are fairly easy to get. Start by preparing the soup base- this is simply a standard chinese chicken stock, but it probably helps to throw in some pork bones (not Halal!) as well.

Stock
2-3 spring onions, small bunch coriander, 1 teaspoon crushed black pepper. Heat about 3.5-4 litres of water to boiling. Turn down to a low heat and add one whole chicken. A medium-sized chicken should be more than sufficient to serve about four adults (2 large bowls each = eight servings). Leave the chicken in for about 20-30 minutes. There should be enough water to have the chicken fully immersed. Take it out to cool off for 20-30 minutes and then tear the flesh from the bone to make shredded chicken meat.

Remove the greenery from the stock and start flavouring the soup. The 'cheats' are legendary. Suffice to say, if you make really good stock you probably won't need to do what I do. In that case, why are you reading this, aaah? Anyway, here's my penny's worth. Crush two Maggi stock cubes into the soup. Add one chunk of rock sugar or 1-2 teaspoons of caster sugar. Stir and add additional salt, sugar and soy sauce to taste. Don't make the soup too salty or too sweet.

Now prepare the koay teow (rice stick). Bit of a problem if you can't get the real thing. I have tried the Hong Kong 'hor fun', but this is too wide and a little thick (maybe a reflection of Hongkies?) for an authentic koay teow soup. The only alternative is to get the dried variety (available from most good oriental food stores). They tend to be mainly Thai products but serve our purposes well enough.

These come in various widths- get the 3mm wide variety. Place the dried rice stick in a deep bowl. Pour freshly boiled water (CARE!) to fully immerse the rice stick. It will start to wilt after a couple of minutes, so gently stir it and leave for 30 minutes or so. Drain off the hot water and replace with cold tap water to quench the soft noodles. Doing so arrests the softening process- if you are not careful and boil the rice stick from the outset, you will be left with mush and it will not be koay teow th'ng, unless you are serving it to a group of toothless guests. You may have to tease some of the noodles apart. Drain the koay teow noodles. Add 1-2 tablespoons of cooking oil to the noodles to keep them moist and separated. Keep in fridge until required. This is also a stage from which you can make "Char koay teow" (fried koay teow), but we'll leave this culinary delight for later.

When ready to eat, cut the fish cake into thin (2mm) slices (picture, right). Gently heat the fish balls (picture, left) in the chicken stock. Dole out the koay teow (approximately one generous handful per helping) into a deep serving/pasta bowl. Layer the fish cake and the shredded chicken on top of the noodles, followed later by the fish balls. [Tip- The fish balls rise to the surface of the hot soup when they are cooked].

Carefully add the hot soup (yes sir/madam, you must keep it gently heated on the hob, lah!). This will soften and warm up the noodles, but may not be hot enough to serve. You can either 'wash' the noodles repeatedly with the hot soup or the easy way is to microwave the serving bowl (with soup inside) for about a minute on "high". Add a sprinkling of freshly cut coriander, cut small chillies, fried garlic and fried pork fat. Serve with soy sauce in small dish.

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