GEORGE TOWN, Sept 28 – It’s perfect for breakfast. It’s perfect at tea break. It’s perfect for lunch or dinner or even supper.

It is available at many hawker centres, by the roadside and especially at vegetarian restaurants as it is also mostly vegetarian.

Yes, this is the humble char bee hoon (fried vermicelli) that is economical and simple enough to suit any palate or wallet any time of the day.

Though it is simple enough to cook, it is simpler to just buy a packet of char bee hoon from a roadside hawker for less than RM2 for a fast and easy meal.

There are several versions of this simple meal; a plain vegetarian version of just vermicelli and some greens or those with added garnishings of crunchy anchovies or a Malay-style version, with a dash of tomato sauce, chicken bits and shredded fried egg.

Whatever the version, the prerequisite ingredients for a satisfying plate of char bee hoon must include rice vermicelli and vegetables such as white cabbage,  Chinese cabbage (choy sum) or bean sprouts.

At most stalls, you get to choose to add some fried yellow noodles or koay teow (flat rice noodles) with the bee hoon to give it more texture.

Though the char bee hoon is mostly sold freshly fried up at hawker stalls, there are also some stalls selling ready-made and wrapped char bee hoon, almost like nasi lemak.

These are usually available at roadside mamak stalls as an alternative to the ubiquitous nasi lemak.

The preparation of the fried noodle dish is as simple as it looks as the hawker will first fry a wok full of vermicelli, add the required sauces to give it that brown tinge and umami taste, then add in the vegetables.

They will then fry the yellow noodles and koay teow separately but all using the same mixture of sauces and fried together with vegetables.

If it is a vegetarian stall, there would not be any garlic used nor any other ingredients except for some deep fried crunchy soy strips.

The secret behind a really good plate of char bee hoon is in the sauces used, the texture of the vermicelli and of course, its garnishings.

The vermicelli must be smooth and yet not too soft and also not too stringy so it must be soaked for an exact period of time before it is fried.

Then comes the sauces which could range from a mix of light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, even some oyster sauce or vegetarian mushroom sauce.

The sauce will determine how salty or how bland the vermicelli is and next, comes the vegetables which is supposed to add a fresh, green flavour to it, giving it another dimension of texture and tastes.

As the Nine Emperor Gods Festival starts on September 24 this year, many more vegetarian char bee hoon stalls will crop up at street corners, on the roadside and at the festival vegetarian food hawker centres.

Since the festival has devotees going on a very strict vegetarian diet for nine days, this is also the time of the year to enjoy local vegetarian hawker fare that is usually not as varied during other times of the year.

Here are some of the vegetarian and non-vegetarian char bee hoon places to try out:

Chang Yen Vegetarian Food, Burmah Road
GPS: 5.429549,100.313595
Time: 7.30am–8.30pm

Evergreen Vegetarian House, Cantonment Road
GPS: 5.432303,100.312171
Time: 7.30am–8.30pm

Ee Beng Vegetarian Food, Dickens Street
GPS: 5.419001,100.330842
Time: 7am–8.30pm

Cecil Street Market Hawker Centre, Cecil Street Ghaut
GPS: 5.407623,100.328897
Time: 11am–4pm

Market stall, Mount Erskine Market Complex
GPS: 5.448461,100.300906
Time: 7.30am--11am