When I was young…

We did not have much to choose from when I was young. If we wanted to eat at the coffee shops, it was either kampua noodles or pian sip (something like kiaw or wantan) or we can have loti-kiap – two pieces of charcoal-toasted bread with margarine and kaya (coconut jam) sandwiched together – and half-boiled eggs.

Sometimes, there might be some bak paos (meat buns) available but those would be very different the char siew paos (barbecued meat steamed buns) that we get these days at the dim sum outlets. The texture of the very thick skin would be different and inside, there would be a bit of meat pre-cooked in soy sauce with half or a quarter of a hard-boiled egg. At other times, there might be a saucer of muffin-like cake wrapped in oily red paper or pulut panggang (glutinous rice wrapped in banana leaves and cooked over an open fire).

I do not think many people had their meals outside, so economical fast food and chicken rice were unheard of. You can be sure that we did not get to see stalls like this one…

Kampua noodles were going for 30 cents a plate without meat and 50 cents if you want those few pieces of boiled meat coloured red on the edges. Kpenyu claims that if you switched on the fan at full speed, those slices of meat would be blown away…but then, everybody knows that we need to take whatever he says with a pinch of salt.

Today, we have a lot more choices to cater to our more discerning taste buds but some may be quite expensive and prices may go up to RM5.00 or beyond. It is still much cheaper to go for our good ol’ kampua or pian sip (pian nik, if you want to say it in Foochow) at only RM2.20 a plate/bowl…

It is usually served as a soup dish but some may prefer the dry version. My daughter loves this one in particular from the kampua stall at Soon Hock Cafe, so you can bet that we’ll be heading there for this when she comes home for the holidays in a few weeks’ time. Incidentally, if you may recall, there were complaints about the kampua lady’s long hair and some people were worried about getting it in their noodles. Well, the good news is the lady has cut it short! (Good grief! Has she been reading my blog or what? Hahahahaha!!!)

Pian sip is similar to kiaw as it is called in Kuching or wantan elsewhere but they are not exactly the same. I think the difference is in the skin – the pian sip ones are thinner and whiter whereas wantan skin tends to be a bit “tougher” and is yellowish in colour. For one thing, there isn’t very much of the minced meat in pian sip, so what you get in the end is mostly skin…

But if anyone of you prefers something different for a change and feels that the char siew-roast duck noodles I had on Sunday was way too expensive or you do not like the Hokkien noodles used and prefer kampua instead, you can try this…

This is the char siew kampua at the shop along Ramin Way, across the lane from Meckey Store and it costs only RM3.00. I would say it is very nice but parking in that vicinity can be quite a hassle! Some may feel that it is not exactly the same as those authentic kampua noodles…

…but then, neither are the ones at Rasa Sayang Cafe, and you all know that I love their kampua too…at RM2.20 some more! They say the beef noodles at this particular shop is nice too, but I’ve yet to go there and try. Another time perhaps…

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