Thursday, June 17, 2010
Food In Singapore 5: Chee Cheong Fun
Hi! I haven't blogged in a really long time, because I was really busy in the past 3 weeks (Yes, even though it is the holidays) Anyway, today I will be talking about "Rice Noodle Roll". From the name itself many people may not know what I am talking about. "Rice Noodle Roll is actually "Chee Cheong Fun".
What's Chee Cheong Fun?
Chee Cheong Fun. Does it sound funny to you? That's because it's in Cantonese. And the reason the name of the dish is in Cantonese is because the dish originated from Hong Kong, which "default" dialect is Cantonese.
Chee Cheong Fun is a popular dish in Singapore and it is oftenly eaten in with a variety of other dim sum dishes, and they are usually eaten as breakfast.
There are many variations to this dish, just alone for Cantonese Variations there are 8 different types, and not mentioning the Guangzhou version, the Vietnamese version. For this post, I will mainly be talking about the Singapore-Malaysia variation.
What Makes up Chee Cheong Fun?
Chee Cheong Fun is a thin roll of "Shahe fen" (a type of chinese noodles) that is filled with ingredients inside. Common ingredients include shrimps and pork. Some hawkers also like to add sesame seeds on top of the dish so that it looks better.
It is usually served together with soy sauce poured over it to heighten it's taste. Many hawkers may also provide chilli sauce as some locals like to mix the chilli sauce with the soy sauce to eat it.
Penang version of this dish use a different type of sauce to accompany this dish, either a kind of sweet black sauce or shrimp paste.
Personal Opinion
Although a popular dish in Singapore, I don't really see alot of hawkers selling this dish. All of the hawkers that I see selling this dish are dim sum stalls. This is probably due to the fact that although there are very little steps to preparing this dish and the ingredients used are minimal, it is difficult to make a delicious Chee Cheong Fun - the bottom is easy to get burnt and steaming it might make it feel raw on the top. The "Shahe Fen" must also be of the correct thickness, not too thick or too thin.
I personally think that for Chee Cheong Fun, the sauce is the most important factor in deciding it's taste. The sauce must be somewhat compatible with the Chee Cheong Fun itself, and so when combined they will taste nice. (Just like how matching clothes look well together). Personally I prefer Chee Cheong Fun with soy sauce. I have never eaten it with shrimp paste before, but I used to eat it with sweet sauce in my primary school, and I feel that the sweet sauce ruins the taste of the Chee Cheong Fun. I also do not like to mix the soy sauce with chilli sauce as I think that the chilli sauce will cover/overpower the taste of the soy sauce.
Food For Thought
Chee Cheong Fun, in Cantonese, literarily translate to "Pig Intestine Noodles". We can reason that it is called noodles because of "Shahe Fen" being a kind of noodle, but can you guess why the dish is called pig intestine?
Credits:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chee_cheong_fun
http://www.grampianspyreneespcp.org.au/Image/Agency%20Logos/Food%20For%20Thought%20Logo%20Reversed.jpg
http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc64/gykchin/kampar_chee_cheong_fun_served.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/GD_Rice_Product_1.JPG
3:21 AM.
