Kway Teow (Rice Ribbon Noodles)

Kway teow are broad rice noodles made by grinding rice into a slurry, steaming it into thin sheets and cutting them into wide ribbons — pale, supple, and part of Chaoshan's wider culture of rice 'kway'.

When the Chaoshan ancestors moved south from the Central Plains, ritual offerings called for wheat foods that the wheatless south could not grow, so rice was substituted, spawning a whole family of 'kway'. Kway teow is the everyday member of that family, rooted in Chaoshan's rice cuisine.

The common form is kway teow soup — ladled with a clear pork-bone or beef broth and topped with meatballs, sliced meat and greens; it is also stir-fried over high heat for a smoky 'wok breath'.

It turns on the rice-slurry ratio and the thinness of the steamed sheet: good kway teow is silky without going mushy, soaking up broth in soup and carrying wok-char when fried — a homely taste fit for any meal of the day.