Hor Fun is a Cantonese term. The Chinese characters for Hor Fun is 河粉 (Hanyu Pinyin: He Fen). The original name for this dish was Sah Hor Fun (沙河粉). The meaning for the Chinese word Sah (沙) means sand. It is confounding to many as to what does sand has to do with this popular dish and many have renamed as Chow Hor Fun in Cantonese or Char Hor Fun in Hokkien. They replaced the original Chinese word 沙 which means sand to a word that is more comprehensible 炒, which means to fry.
The name Sah Hor Fun (沙河粉) is not a mistake because this dish originated from Shahe (沙河) in Guangdong (广东). That is why this dish has a Cantonese name instead of some other dishes that bear Hokkien names.
Sah Hor Fun is a dish of the white rice noodle, Hor Fun (河粉), traditionally fried with some seafood like cuttle fish, fish cake slices, slices of fish meat and some slices of pork and this dish is normally sold only in the Zi Char stall in coffee shops but not in food centres (hawker centres). Zi Char (煮炒) is cooking and frying in Hokkien. Usually, a coffee shop will have a Zi Char stall that begins operating in the evening where it will cook a great variety of Chinese dishes that are served along with rice. A greater number of customers who come in groups will order several different Chinese dishes to be served along with rice. The Zi Char stall is somewhat like a cheaper version of a Chinese restaurant.
As the years passed, the term Sah Hor Fun has been simplified to the term Hor Fun. One of those reasons is because the dish has become more diversified. The original Sah Hor Fun is sometimes referred to as Seafood Hor Fun since most of its ingredients are constituted of seafood such as fish slices, cuttle fish and prawns.
The other popular form of Hor Fun is Beef Hor Fun where the seafood ingredients are replaced with only beef.