Congratulations to Outram Park Char Kway Teow for making the 2018 Michelin Bib Gourmand selection list!
Outram Park Char Kway Teow ranks up there amongst the top five Char Kway Teows in Singapore in most people’s books, except mine because when I last reviewed them back in 2007, I really wasn’t overly impressed. However over the last few years, the feeback on the ground has been largely favourable and their stall always seem to be mentioned when we ask around for the best Char Kway Teow. Then, at the beginning of this year, they won first place in the Hawker Street Food masters. So I thought I might try them again to see if they really deserved the award.
The uncle at the wok has been frying Kway Teow with his father for at least 30 years before taking over stall for the last 11. During lunch time, the stall feels like a Char Kway Teow factory as he churns out Char Kway Teow at around a plate a minute. Some Char Kway Teow men employ a two stage frying process where they first fry the kway teow and noodles and transfer it out of the wok and refry smaller portions where the eggs, sweet soy sauce, chilli and cockles are added. But this uncle does things a little different.
He adds the eggs into the Char Kway Teow in the first stage of the frying process and as you can see, he uses at least 15 to 20 eggs in each batch of Kway Teow. Once the eggs are mixed evenly in the Kway Teow, he adds a blend of fish sauce, soy sauce and other secret ingredients from an old plastic bottle. This is the only part of the frying process where he cannot be disturbed because he is counting the number of squirts he is adding to the Kway Teow. Astonishingly, the number of squirts to the Ulitmate Char Kway Teow is also the same number that explains the Ulitmate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything…. 42.
After stirring the Kway Teow around for a while, he finishes off each plate at the far end of the wok with the addition of cockles, chilli and dark soy sauce. He tells me that on average, each plate will get at least one and a half eggs instead of the usual one egg in most other places and that is the secret of his Char Kway Teow…. more eggs. But not only that, I notice too that the eggs are not cooked as much so that it gives the Kway Teow a creamy texture just like how you would add a raw egg to your pasta carbonara.
I have to say that this time round, I found that the Char Kway Teow was much better than the last time. The Kway Teow was sweet and lively and has that addictive flavour that makes you want to finish the whole plate. It is an excellent plate of Char Kway Teow which is worth a few of those precious calories and so I have revised my ratings to 4.5/5.
Conclusion
A very good plate of Char Kway Teow which many consider to be the best in Singapore. For me it is certainly one of the best and I think they certainly deserve their win. It might not be the number one for me, but it is certainly amongst the top five.
