Chow Fun

Chow Fun is a noodle dish most commonly seen in North American Chinese restaurants. The name is similar to the Mandarin words chao fen, and a Mandarin dish, which is a mix of wide noodles, stir-fried with meats and vegetables. We often associate with the thin round noodles as served in chow mein, or the very thin crispy rice noodles served in a few examples of Chinese American cuisine. Many are less familiar with the wide noodles that are common in China, and other Asian countries, similar in shape and size to fettuccine.

Such noodles in China are called Shahe fen, a Cantonese term. They are a bit chewier than the thinner chow mein noodles, but they have considerable popularity in China and Viet Nam, where they are called bahn pho. You also see variants of these noodles in a variety of dishes from Thailand, including the very popular and well known pad Thai, which includes stir-fried wide noodles, fish sauce, meats, spices and peanuts.

Chow fun resembles pad Thai, but tends to skip the peanuts and the traditional Thai spices. Instead it is almost identical to chow mein. It tends to use the same flavorings, meats, and additions like bamboo shoots and green onion. A curious Italian Chinese mix offered in cities like San Francisco is tomato beef chow fun or chow mein, which could be best described as stir-fried fettuccine with Asian spices.

It’s a little harder to eat chow fun than chow mein, because the noodles are slightly more slippery and flat. If you’re not used to using chopsticks when you have Chinese American food, you may find these slippery but tasty noodles quite elusive. Try a fork instead so you can fully appreciate the wide noodles, and the various additions.

You will find so many varieties of chow fun, but they seem to be limited. Some restaurants routinely prepare chow fun as an alternative to chow mein. It could be said chow mein is much better known, but many truly become converts of chow fun if they can find a restaurant that offers it.

If you have experience with Chinese cooking at home, you can find wide rice noodles in many Asian grocery stores. You might impress your friends with a delicious dish of chow fun for your next dinner party. Let your imagination be your guide in considering meats and/ or vegetables to add. Some prefer to use a mix of meats and fish, while others prefer vegetarian versions, chock full of lightly fried and tasty vegetables.