Dish

Lort Cha

លតឆា

Cambodian Chinese street-food stir-fry of short silver needle noodles topped with a fried egg.

Lort cha (លតឆា, lort cha) is a Cambodian Chinese street-food stir-fry of short rice pin noodles, topped with a fried egg.[1] In Khmer, lort (លត) is the short rice noodle and cha means to stir-fry.[1][2]

Cultural context

The noodles are stir-fried with garlic, bean sprouts, scallions or chives, Chinese greens or cabbage, and beef, chicken or pork. They are seasoned with palm sugar, fish sauce and dark soy sauce and served with a fried egg.[1] Lort cha is a popular Cambodian street food, often eaten with a light, sweet chili fish sauce.[3] Cambodgemag counts it the most popular of Cambodia's many stir-fried noodle dishes.[4]

It is sold at local markets and at eateries that make only lort cha.[5] Small carts also sell it as they travel through towns and streets.[6] The writer Nick Ray called it a popular, cheap lunch in Phnom Penh, and noted that the carts selling it play their own tunes, like ice cream vans.[7] In Phnom Penh it is also late-night food.[8] Its market setting goes with quick, made-to-order cooking and cheap everyday food.[9]

In 2022 lort cha was named one of the 50 best street foods in Asia. Wikipedia credits the list to the BBC, while Cambodgemag credits a CNN Travel survey by Kate Springer.[1][4]

The dish has also become part of Cambodian food in the diaspora, at Cambodian restaurants in Minnesota and in Cambodia Town in Long Beach, California.[10] In Cambodia Town, Phnom Penh Noodle Shack on Cherry Avenue serves it as loat cha, along with Phnom Penh noodles, cha quai and nom sa-kieu.[11]

Ingredients and preparation

The noodles go by several English names, including rice pin noodles, silver pin noodles, silver needle noodles and rat's tail noodles. "Rat's tail" refers to their short, stubby shape, and "silver pin" to their shiny white look.[5] They are plump and tapered at both ends, made by pressing rice-flour dough through a mold with holes.[9] Rice flour is the main ingredient, and Cambodian noodles may also contain tapioca starch. Some recipes add wheat starch: Cambodian noodles usually have little, while Hong Kong versions use about as much wheat starch as rice flour.[5]

In one method, chopped garlic is fried in a wok, then the noodles and a mix of sauce and sugar are stir-fried for a few minutes. Blanched bean sprouts and scallions or chives go in for a few minutes more. The dish is served with a fried egg, sliced chilies, and chili sauce, soy sauce and fish sauce on the side.[1] In another method, the ingredients are partly stir-fried in three batches: garlic, ginger and marinated pork; then the noodles; then garlic shoots and gai lan, or Chinese broccoli. The batches are combined for a final stir-fry and served with a fried egg, bean sprouts, lime halves and chili oil.[1]

Lort cha is traditionally cooked in small portions over very high heat, so the noodles fry instead of steaming soft. Some edges catch on the wok and turn crisp.[9] Dark soy sauce gives the noodles their near-black color and a faint sweet gloss. The yolk of the fried egg becomes a sauce when it is broken into the noodles.[9] The egg is usually cooked in the same pan or on the same grill as the noodles.[5] Bean sprouts are blanched first, whether they are served hot or cold.[5]

Cambodian cooks may serve lort cha with a sweet and sour fish sauce made from fish sauce, vinegar, sugar, garlic and water.[2] Street cooks often add a squirt of orange-red Cambodian chili sauce.[5]

History and origins

Lort cha is a Cambodian Chinese dish linked with Cambodia's Sino-Khmer communities, and Grantourismo Travels traces it to Cantonese roots.[5] Cambodian Cookbook links its wok, dark soy sauce and sprouts to Chinese wok cooking that came up the Mekong over generations. It places the dish in the markets of Phnom Penh during the recovery years of 1979 to 1993.[9] Lort cha belongs to a wider Southeast Asian family of stir-fried noodles that grew as Chinese cooking moved through the region.[5] Vietnamese bánh bột lọc noodles and the stir-fried mee tai mak of Singapore and Malaysia use the same kind of rice pin noodles.[10]

The same noodles are used in Cambodian sweets called nom lort or nom lot. These are often green from pandan and served in coconut milk.[5]

Regional and household variations

At Cambodian markets, lort cha is usually vegetarian apart from the fish sauce. Restaurants and hotels may serve it with chicken, pork, beef or tofu.[5] Market cooks in Siem Reap and elsewhere cook it to order on a large flat grill plate, while in Cambodian homes it is made in a wok. It is generally cooked in large batches in the late afternoon or early evening.[5] A market serving may come with one or two chive cakes, with chili sauce added at the table.[5] Some cooks add Chinese broccoli, and chicken, pork, beef or shrimp are sometimes added. Duck eggs may be used to make the dish creamier.[12]

Outside Cambodia, cooks use refrigerated or homemade noodles, warming or blanching them briefly to separate pieces that have firmed up or stuck together.[10] They use pork, beef, chicken, leftover shredded chicken, or eggs alone for a meatless version. The greens may be cabbage, mung bean sprouts, yu choy, Chinese broccoli, broccolini or bok choy, with store-bought or homemade rice pin noodles.[10] One Cambodian recipe tops the noodles with pan-fried slices of steamed pork roll.[2] Another adds toasted crushed peanuts, fried garlic and green onions, with chrouk metae chili sauce.[11]

Preparations and recipes

  • What To Cook Today
    Short rice pin noodles stir-fried with marinated pork, cabbage and bean sprouts in a soy and oyster sauce.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Wikipedia, Lort cha
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Flavourfully Good, Stir-fry Rice Pin Noodles: Lort Cha (June 21, 2022)
  3. ↑ SreyDa, Lort Cha: Cambodian Rice Pin Noodles (December 29, 2023)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Cambodgemag, Le Lort cha désigné parmi les meilleurs plats de la cuisine de rue en Asie (August 28, 2022)
  5. ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 Grantourismo Travels, Cambodian Lort Cha Recipe for Stir Fried Rice Pin Noodles (December 7, 2020)
  6. ↑ Phnom Penh Post, From a single cart to an empire (February 18, 2025)
  7. ↑ Khmer Times, A culinary guide to Cambodia, from ancient recipes to street food
  8. ↑ Cooking With Anadi, Crispy Cambodian Lort Cha Noodles (July 27, 2024)
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 Cambodian Cookbook, Lort Cha (July 6, 2026)
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 What To Cook Today, How To Make Cambodian Lort Cha (Stir-fried Rice Pin Noodles) (December 15, 2020)
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Tara's Multicultural Table, Lort Cha (Cambodian Stir-Fried Rice Pin Noodles) (August 24, 2024)
  12. ↑ Cambodgemag, Recette du Cambodge: Lort Cha ou nouilles de riz frites (August 28, 2022)
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This page was last edited on 2 October 2026, at 01:35.