Char Kway Teow

If you have a barbeque with a gas burner, there's nothing better on a summer night sitting out in the backyard with some beers and whipping up some kway teow with some friends. Before I left Australia I was in the process of building a Kway Teow barbeque (just an enclosure with a gas bottle and a wok ring that I could stick a big wok on), but alas, here in Japan I don't even have a backyard, let alone a barbeque. Still, a hot wok indoors works just fine. This is a fairly dry noodle dish so I don't like to overload the wok. Just making one or two servings at a time is best, and it's so quick that it doesn't really matter if you do one at a time. This is especially good if you're eating with vegetarians or people with different tastes. One person might want meat, one might want seafood and another might just want vegetables. For this I've just used prawn and squid. 1. Prep everything. Wash and slice the vegetables, chop the garlic and slice the spring onions into one inch lengths. Peel and butterfly the prawns and cut the squid into rectangles. Break up the noodles, using a little cold water if necessary. Cut the lemon into wedges. Once everthing is prepped, clean up and make sure everything is on hand. Once we start cooking it all happens pretty fast. 2. Heat the oil in the wok until smoking and add in the seafood. Toss until almost cooked and then add in the garlic and then the vegetables (not the beansprouts) and spring onion. 3. Move everything to one side of the wok and crack in an egg. Break up the egg with your wok tool and mix everything together. 4. Add in a handful of noodles and then pour in a little chicken stock, some light soy, a teaspoon or so of chilli powder (to taste), a little salt and white pepper and then the dark soy sauce. Don't add too much chicken stock, as this is supposed to be a dry dish and you really want the dry fried taste to it. It shouldn't be too wet. Fry it all together and then throw in another handful of beansprouts. They only take a few seconds to cook and when they're done, so are you. 5. Transfer it out to a bowl, add a wedge of lemon, some fresh coriander and some chilli oil or chilli sauce if using. 6. If it's just for one then sit down and enjoy it. Otherwise, take the next order and keep going until everyone is stuffed to the brim.