Bentoism

Dry-fried beef chow fun, or 乾炒牛河 makes up Friday's bento. There are many ways of enjoying the wide rice noodles, and I like them best seared in a hot wok for the rich smokey flavor. For the recipe, I tried Gourmet Traveller's Cantonese Stir-Fried Beef Rice Noodle and it worked great.
Many believe that this dish is a good test of a Chinese chef's skills, and justifiably so. A perfect execution of the dry-fried beef chow fun in my book consists of rice noodles cooked through enough to deliver a smooth yielding bite, but not soggy nor so sticky that it forms a unmanageable lump upon cooling. Oil prevents the noodles from sticking but too much oil makes the dish greasy. The timing the beef, onions and sprouts are added makes the difference between overcooked dry beef chews or tender juicy bites, cooked sprouts with enough crisp left still in them instead of soggy limpid strands of unidentified vegetable matter, and of course, we want that smokey flavor and not burnt taste in the rice noodles.
Time is of essence when delivering this dish; it involves high heat, lots of action in a short time, like an action flick. The thing the travel books don't tell you about street fare in Asia is that you get to see your meal prepared in front of you. Waiting for a dry-fried beef chow fun take-out at a hawker stall is always entertaining for me. It begins with the roaring fire as the chef flips on the gas, joined by the occasional sizzle and swish as any contents from the previous dish are scrubbed off and dumped. Following, you get to listen to the rhythmic clanging of hoak against wok, interrupted only when the chef reaches out the hoak to the dishes, bowls and baskets all around him. One by one, rice noodles, beef, onions, sprouts and condiments join the performance, constantly dancing in his wok and giving off the aroma of smokey goodness. In a few short minutes, my dry-fried beef chow fun will be done. The cook at that point will deftly scoop the wok's contents in his hoak and dropped them into a to-go box for an assistant to wrap up. See why I called this an action flick now?
Alas, that is the stuff Hollywood and hawker stalls back home are made of. Me? I didn't soak my rice noodles long enough and had to add water to steam my noodles longer than necessary. Yes, that gave me limpid unidentified vegetable matter, and oh yes, I will be making this again. Need to practice.

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