GEORGE TOWN, Nov 26 — It all started at a coffee shop called Sin Hwa on Burma Road here.
Chong Ah Liak wanted to introduce a fast and easy meal at his coffee shop so he experimented with char koay teow.
He tried a few different ways of cooking the flat rice noodles with prawns and cockles before he got the flavours right and that was the start of the char koay teow by the Chong family in Pulau Tikus back in the late 1960s.
Several years after introducing his version of the char koay teow at his coffee shop, Chong passed his recipe to his wife, sons and daughter so everyone in the family could fry up a plate of char koay teow easily.
Soon, his wife Neoh Suan Kee took over the char koay teow stall while their eldest son helped to manage the coffee shop.
His second son, Yee Chye, then started a stall at a popular hawker site along Gottlieb Road back in 1978.
Till today, Yee Chye continues to fry up his char koay teow but at a different location now, at the open-air hawker centre at Pulau Tikus Market at night.
All hawker stalls along Gottlieb Road were relocated by the authorities to various locations back in the 1990s and Yee Chye’s stall was relocated to the Pulau Tikus Market.
“Everyone in our family can fry char koay teow, it’s a family recipe and an inheritance from my father,” Yee Chye said.
“The flavours and taste remain the same from my father’s time because I didn’t change anything, it is his recipe and his style of char koay teow that we maintained,” he said.
The Sin Hwa Coffee Shop, which is just behind the Pulau Tikus Market, is still family owned with his mother managing it.
“The char koay teow stall in the coffee shop is still open, my older brother took over from my mother but now he has retired so my nephew took over the stall,” he said.
Ah Liak died more than 30 years ago, leaving the coffee shop to his wife and children to manage.
“Even my sister still sells char koay teow at her own stall in a coffee shop in Farlim,” Yee Chye said.
Though the char koay teow stalls are manned by the same family using the same recipes, the flavours are slightly different. Yee Chye’s char koay teow has a distinct smoky flavour to it.
Char Koay Teow Stall
Pulau Tikus Market, Jalan Pasar.
Time: 6pm-10.30pm
Closed on Thursdays
Kedai Kopi Sin Hwa
Burma Road
Time: 7am-5pm
