My brother left home to pursue his further studies when he was around 20, so that means he has been away for about 40 years now. He does not come home very often but each time he came home, he would want to eat one thing – the celebrated Sibu Foochow kampua noodles! Nothing’s gonna change his love for that, I guess.
When I went to Auckland to visit him some four years ago, he took me to an eatery to eat the kampua noodles there. It was quite nice…but definitely a far cry from the real thing as I would know it and the price was astronomical – NZ$8.00. We had what they called laksa at another place and that too was a whole lot different from what we have here. The last time he came home – I think that would be last year, he said that the prices of those things had gone up to NZ$10-12.00…and in my post the other day, Pierre said that a bowl of beef noodles would cost NZ14.00 in Wellington. Gosh! Probably it had gone up again – talk about escalating prices! It has almost doubled in just these few years, imagine that!
Count our blessings!!! The kampua noodles at my favourite shops – Rasa Sayang Cafe and Soon Hock..are still RM2.20 a bowl or RM1.80 without meat for those who do not fancy paying the extra 40 sen for a few paper-thin pieces of the red-coloured boiled meat.
As a matter of fact, just two days ago, an ex-student of mine, now running his own pharmacy business somewhere in KL, posted this on Facebook: “Why am I so hungry? I had chee cheong fun for breakfast.”
I replied: “I had laksa…and then I had kampua…! Hahahaha!!! Life is so good!”
He responded: “Wah! Wah! Don’t tempt me! I’ll fly back to Sibu now if I can!” And then a few other ex-students joined in the chat, all expressing the fervent love for the noodles.
And they’re not alone! If you’re Sibu born and bred (and in the other towns around), chances are you will be a die-hard lover of kampua noodles as well and nothing’s ever gonna change that.
So, who’s back in town for the weekend? Come, let’s go for kampua! LOL!!!
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 