Chai tao kway is a common dish or dim sum of Teochew cuisine in Chaoshan (China), Singapore and Malaysia, consisting of stir-fried cubes of radish cake.
It is also known as "fried carrot cake" or simply "carrot cake" in Southeast Asian countries, as the word for daikon (POJ: chhài-thâu), one of its main ingredients, can also refer to a carrot (POJ: âng-chhài-thâu, literally "red radish"). There is no connection between this dish and the sweet Western carrot cake eaten as a dessert. This misnomer gave the title to a popular guidebook on Singapore's street food, There's No Carrot in Carrot Cake, which was published by Epigram Books in 2010.
[edit] Ingredients
It is made with radish cake (steamed rice flour, water, and shredded white daikon), which has then been stir-fried with eggs, preserved radish, and other seasonings. The radish cake is often served in large rectangular slabs which are steamed and then later fried whole.
Alternatives to chai tow kway include those made of taro or solely of rice flour.
[edit] Variations
The versions served by hawkers in Johor and Singapore, where Teochews live, are typically prepared by frying the daikon cake with chopped preserved radish, diced garlic, eggs, and Chinese fish sauce in place of soya sauce. Chopped spring onion is added just before serving. Chili sauce is added for those who prefer a spicier dish. As you go northwards (e.g. in Kuala Lumpur), the same dish is darker due to the use of dark soya sauce, and bean sprouts are added. The "black version" mentioned below is not "chai tow kway", but "char kway" and uses rice cake fried with garlic (usually no preserved daikon), bean sprouts, eggs and thick sweet dark sauce.
In Singapore, however, it is more commonly cut into pieces and stir fried with eggs, garlic, spring onion and occasionally dried shrimp. There are two variants: the "white" version does not use sweet soy sauce, and the carrot cake is fried on top of a beaten egg to form a crust; the "black" version uses sweet soy sauce, and the egg is simply mixed in with the carrot cake.
[edit] See also
