Silky Ipoh flat rice noodles in a clear, deeply flavoured chicken-and-prawn-shell broth, topped with shredded chicken and prawns. Ipoh's signature noodle soup, exploiting local limestone-water-fed rice noodles famed for smoothness.
Kai see hor fun is a Cantonese hawker noodle soup born in Ipoh, the signature dish of the city. Silky Ipoh flat rice noodles, fed by local limestone-rich water and famed for their smoothness, sit in a clear, deeply flavoured broth built on chicken and fried prawn shells (the key to its sweetness), topped with shredded poached chicken and fresh prawns. The prawn-shell-frying technique and the Ipoh water are what make the dish unreplicable elsewhere.
A crystal-clear, intensely savoury, faintly sweet broth with a clean prawn note, the slippery smooth hor fun sliding through, the shredded chicken and prawn on top adding texture. Eaten with a splash of white pepper, it is delicate, clean and restorative.
The broth is the heart: chicken bones are simmered long for body, then fried prawn shells (a Cantonese technique) are steeped in to extract their sweetness and prawn flavour into the clear stock. The hor fun is blanched separately and refreshed so the broth stays clear, then assembled in a bowl with shredded poached chicken and quickly blanched prawns on top. The clarity of the broth is a point of pride; any clouding is a failure.
Variations
A prawn-ball version tops with fish-prawn balls. Some stalls add bean sprouts.
On the Palate
Where Kai See Hor Fun sits in the Malaysian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4How it's made
6 steps · 40 min
- 16 min
Fry 150g prawn shells in 2 tbsp oil until deep orange and fragrant; set aside.
- 230 min
Simmer 1 chicken carcass and 300g chicken bones in 2 litres water for 90 minutes, skimming; add the fried shells and simmer 30 minutes more; strain, keeping the broth clear.
Watch outSkim as it simmers and never let it boil hard — a rolling boil clouds the broth, and a cloudy bowl is the one failure here.
- 38 min
Poach 300g chicken breast in the broth 15 minutes; cool and shred.
- 45 min
Blanch 400g fresh prawns in the broth 2 minutes; halve and set aside.
- 55 min
Blanch 400g Ipoh hor fun in boiling water 30 seconds; refresh, then divide into 4 bowls.
Watch outBlanch the hor fun just 30 seconds and refresh it — cook it in the soup and its starch clouds the clear broth.
- 64 min
Ladle hot broth over each, top with shredded chicken and prawns, and serve with white pepper and chopped scallion.
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