Black is black…

I was watching this Singapore food programme on the Asian Food Channel and the show featured all the best places in the island republic where you can find all kinds of nourishing herbal soup and I thought I could do with some.

Classes have resumed and I will be doing one whole stretch this year, Mondays to Thursdays, so it can be a bit taxing on this poor old man. Last year, I had lessons on Mondays and Wednesdays and then on Saturdays and Sundays which was a bit more relaxing as I had off days in between but I did not like the idea of having to work on weekends when everybody was enjoying themselves and when I had visitors dropping by, I would not be free to spend the whole time with them.

I do not know of any place here that sells herbal soup, so as an alternative, I went to this stall at the coffee shop located at the back portion of the Sibu Medical Centre…

You can see the kompia in the middle, the pieces heaped up high, and the bottles of Foochow red wine to the right. The wine is for the lady’s own use but she said that if I wanted some, she could spare me a bottle or two at RM4.50 each. Well, I still have my own stock, so I just settled for this bowl of the Foochow black chicken mee sua (thread/string noodles)…

Black chicken is believed to be extra nutritious and rejuvenating. I had never touched the meat before as I was put off by the colour but having tried it, I found that it was no different from ordinary chicken, after all – just the colour. It’s just like humankind – whatever the colour, we’re all the same, aren’t we?

I did not quite like it though, but it had nothing to do with the chicken. I just thought that there was way too much ginger (No wonder Gundot loved it so much!) and personally, I would rather go to Kin Coffee Hut at Pusat Tanahwang (opposite Sacred Heart School) for the much nicer mee sua there, minus the black chicken…