By Request

BETTY SHIMABUKURO

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Chow fun is easy,
flexible, ono and
hard to mess up

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Nothing fancy with today's special request. Jef Kos of Park Ridge, Ill., enjoyed a plateful of chow fun at an Aloha Festivals event on Lanai two years ago.

"Could there be a local style?" Kos writes. "There is no chow fun in the Chicago area like the chow fun that we had in Hawaii."

Chow fun, like fried rice, is an eternally elastic recipe, expandable to accommodate all tastes and the miscellaneous meats and veggies in the fridge -- or contractible if your meager pantry contains only, say, a can of Spam.

It is one of the easiest meals to get to the table and has a high comfort factor.

My personal recipe: Buy noodles, stir-fry with oyster sauce and any other ingredients on hand, sliced thin.

The most important step is the first one, buying the noodles. Chow fun can be found pre-cooked and packaged at Asian markets and in the Asian section of many supermarkets.

It may also be found freshly made at noodle shops in Chinatown (sometimes with the char siu cooked right in). Chinatown chow fun may come in a roll, which you slice into noodles one-half to 1 inch wide.

This recipe is adapted from "Favorite Island Cookery Book II," part of the Honpa Hongwanji Hawaii Betsuin collection, published in 1975.

To prove its versatility, I tried it successfully with roast pork and lup cheong (Chinese sausage) instead of the suggested meats and with bell pepper instead of the carrots and celery. Also, the most common brands of chow fun come in 20-ounce packages, not 12. What the heck, throw it all in.

Chow Fun

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 pound char siu or roast pork, thinly sliced
1/2 pound luncheon meat or ham, thinly sliced
1 almond-sized piece ginger, minced
1/2 cup EACH thinly sliced carrots and celery
1 small onion, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons water
2 cups bean sprouts
1 to 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 12-ounce package chow fun noodles, cooked
2 stalks green onion, in 1-inch lengths

Heat oil in a skillet or wok. Stir-fry meat with ginger until lightly browned. Add carrots, celery, onion and water; cook until half-done. Add bean sprouts and oyster sauce; stir lightly. Add chow fun; cook 1 minute. Taste and add more oyster sauce or soy sauce if desired. Garnish with green onion just before serving. Serves 6.

Approximate nutritional analysis, per serving (using ham and 1 tablespoon oyster sauce): 315 calories, 16 g total fat, 5 g saturated fat, 60 mg cholesterol, 600 mg sodium, 21 g carbohydrate, 21 g protein.*

Can you help?

Darcy Ing is looking for a recipe for Chinese rice cakes -- not the sticky ones, but the puffed-rice version called Toong Mai. If you have a reliable recipe that you've made yourself, and especially if you can offer cooking tips and advice on the ingredients, please get in touch by one of the means listed below.

Food Stuffs: Morsels

Send queries along with name and phone number to:
"By Request," Honolulu Star-Bulletin,
500 Ala Moana, No. 7-210, Honolulu 96813.
Or send e-mail to bshimabukuro@starbulletin.com

Asterisk (*) after nutritional analyses in the Body & Soul section indicates calculations by Joannie Dobbs of Exploring New Concepts, a nutritional consulting firm.