A delicious photo post by @Chemicalkinetics on soy sauce thread made some of us wonder if anybody has a good recipe and tips on chow fun / ho fun.
Personally I have tried a few times dry beef hor fun, but it was never the same as in a good restaurant. Look quite simple, but it was not easy to manipulate the flat noodles, as they broke easily.
My favorite noodle, but I’ve never cooked them at home
I enjoy Pailin (Pai) Chongchitnant’s YouTube channel “Hot Thai Kitchen.” She’s been at this for years, so has moved from emphasizing just Thai to trying all kinds of food videos.
Here is her YouTube episode on making ho fun noodles specifically. I haven’t watched it anew, but as I recall, she goes into handling and moisture management of the noodles:
You can Google up her related recipes, like Pad Kee Mao and Pad See Ew. Those noodles are near-impossible to find at retail here in Northern Indiana. The Thai restaurateur near me goes 100 miles to Chicago weekly to get them and other Thai things. But they look simple enough to make in lower quantity for personal cooking.
Same here. I don’t get the same taste when I make at home. Partly, this is due to the any home kitchen replicating the super high temperatures compared to restaurant wok set ups, but I think my stove in particular is only so-so. It’s perfectly fine for a typical stir fry dish, but I never approach anywhere the same type of char on soft foods like noodles or even rice.
Thought of this thread while walking in San Francisco Chinatown. Seen in a hardware store window. Your very own tabletop Fun Steamer!
We’ve talked of buying one on previous occasions, but ultimately decided to pass.
I’ve found the broken version at the large supermarkets in Chinatown, which I would use over the fresh which I would have to make a special trip for…
You can do it. It is just too much work.
You really have to love cheung fun and rice noodles in general to get one of those!
I’ve been cooking from this site recently and have enjoyed the recipes and articles a lot. I haven’t made Chow Fun from the site but search around and see what you think - I’m curious how other people find the recipes (there are a lot, I’ll never get to all of them).
Just want to say that I tried to make it at home yesterday… I got the beef – marinated and ready, the bean sprout all washed and pricked, the Har Fan noodle all individually, then I realized that I don’t have the dark soy sauce . 
The taste should be fine without the dark soy sauce, not as pretty.
Thanks. When I do it right next time, I will let you know.
Ok. Just did Ho Fun today, and want to share experience (I thought these are the cases, but I wanted to do it to verify them). You spoke about easily broken noodle. There are a few important goals to prevent breaking the noodle:
At the end, it really comes down to minimize movement when possible, and reduce noodle sticking to the cooking surface.
With tossing, can you mix the ingredients evenly? Assuming that you cooked with some vegetables and meat ingredients.
I believed another reason of “broken noodles” is ho fun was over cooked. I used dried rehydrate ones, not fresh ones.
If needed to mixed the ingredients in, we can do this at the end, and we can do this with a pair of chopstick to loosen up the noodle.
I see. Yes, there are some nice dried rehydrate ones, but you are correct, if they are overcooked, then they are soft, but also easy to break. Good luck
Did you cook with a wok? Is it non stick or you use a lot of oil?
I saw chefs cooking that with iron wok, very impressive.
They must wrists the size of their necks! In addition to all these problems, I definitely have problems with batching. Too many of my noodles sit in a lump the middle, but to batch these all out so that there is nice browning with all rice noodles…yikes. I might not have the patience to do it this way.
A carbon steel wok. I didn’t use a lot of oil. It actually came out a little on they drier side compared to most Ho Fun. I did rinse the wok with hot oil. I suppose you can use a nonstick cookware too. Ultimately, you just want the noodle not stick to cookware. Otherwise, you will constantly ripping the noodle off, and create many broken pieces which you worry.
Well, some people do use a frying pan for home cooking… I guess that is what you mean
