Vegetables & Sides

How Many Calories in Kailan Ikan Masin?

Chinese kailan stir-fried with salted fish and garlic. A simple hawker side dish where the wok oil does most of the calorie heavy lifting.

200kcal / 1 plate / hawker scoop
Kailan ikan masin comes in at around 200 calories per hawker plate (roughly 150g). That sounds low for a stir-fry, but the kailan itself is basically free calories. The problem is the oil absorbed during wok frying adds about 110 calories on its own, and the salted fish throws in another 40. So yeah, 200 is a reasonable ballpark for a normal hawker scoop.

Nutrition facts

Per 1 plate / hawker scoop (150g)AmountPer 100g
Calories200 kcal133 kcal
Protein9 g6 g
Carbs8 g5 g
Fat15 g10 g

Where the calories come from

Kailan (stir-fried, ~200g raw)120g
40 kcal
Ikan masin (salted fish)20g
40 kcal
Cooking oil (wok fry, ~15ml absorbed)14g
110 kcal
Garlic, oyster sauce, seasoning15g
15 kcal

The real talk

Honestly, 200 calories is pretty decent for a stir-fried veg dish. The kailan itself costs you almost nothing, around 40 calories for 120g of cooked greens. Where it sneaks up on you is the oil. A wok fry absorbs roughly 14-15g of oil, and that alone is 110 calories. The salted fish adds another 40. So you're basically paying 150 calories just for the cooking method and flavour. Fair trade if you ask me. The ikan masin is genuinely tasty and you get 9g of protein from a veg dish, which is not bad at all. These numbers are ballpark estimates by the way, because there's not a lot of hard lab data on kailan ikan masin specifically. Different hawkers use different amounts of oil, and the ikan masin portion varies a lot. Treat this as a reasonable guide, not a precise count.

What actually changes the maths here is the oil, full stop. A hawker who woks hard and generous can easily push this past 250 calories. A lighter hand stays closer to 160. The size of your scoop matters too. A heaped plate versus a small side scoop can be a 50 to 70 calorie difference. Some places also add a bit of sugar or extra oyster sauce, which adds maybe 15 calories but a tonne of sodium on top of the already-salty ikan masin. If you're watching your calories, this is still one of the safer dishes to order at a mixed rice stall compared to masak lemak or rendang. Grab a big scoop of this instead of an oily gravy veg and you're already doing better lah.

How to eat it lighter

Common questions

How many calories in Kailan Ikan Masin?
About 200 calories per hawker plate (150g). The kailan itself is very low calorie, but the wok oil and salted fish push the total up.
Is kailan ikan masin good for weight loss?
It can be, yes. Kailan is one of the better veg dishes you can order because the base ingredient is so low in calories. The issue is oil. If you eat a smaller portion or ask the uncle to go easy on the oil, you can get a decent plate of greens under 180 calories with a solid 8-9g of protein from the ikan masin.
Why is a vegetable dish 200 calories?
Because it's a wok stir-fry. The kailan itself is only about 40 calories. It's the absorbed cooking oil that adds 110 calories all by itself. This is true of almost every Chinese stir-fried veg at a hawker. The veg is not the problem. The wok and the oil are.

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Calorie and macro figures are estimates for a typical hawker or kopitiam serving. Actual numbers vary by stall, recipe and portion size. Use them as a guide, not gospel.

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