Up the junction…

I grew up in a wooden house a stone’s throw away from Simpang Tiga, literally translated as “three junction” as that was where three roads converged – in fact, I lived there till my late 20’s but today, although the name remains the same, it is now a roundabout and there are four roads instead of just the three previously.

There are many stalls lining the side of the road these days – I know there is one selling fruits and another selling fresh fish from Mukah and also some food stalls that probably only open at night. There is, of course, the popular Feri Kebab stall and the one on the opposite side of the junction that sells my favourite chicken wings in town operated by a guy who resembles M. Nasir and calls himself, Raja Simpang Tiga.

I heard that the pulut panggang at the latter was very nice so that day, I dropped by to grab a few to try. They cost 50 sen each…

…but unfortunately, I did not think they were all that great and I certainly would not want to buy any of those ever again. For one thing, they were not lemak (rich, with the santan/coconut milk added) and for another, while some were all right, a few were overcooked and rather hard, nowhere near Kate’s though I am not too sure whether those really awesome ones are still available these days or not.

I remember that at one time, I bought some very plain-looking fried mihun from this particular stall and despite the lack of ingredients, it tasted really very good and for RM1.00, there was enough to feed the whole family. This time around, the mihun cost RM2.00 and it did not look like the one I had before. There was enough, however, for two plates like these…

…and I could not resist adding my own egg and cili padi.

I also bought the char kway teow (fried flat rice noodles)…

– also RM2.00 and equally void of any extra ingredients and I took the liberty of adding my own prawns, thinly-sliced omelette, taugeh (bean sprouts), sliced and pounded chili…

…and needless to say, both of them tasted really good though I wonder what they actually taste like without all the extras. LOL!!! For one thing, I would say those noodles were very cheap, that I just can’t deny – if you go and eat the Foochow-style fried ones at the shop, you will have to fork out RM3.00 for a plate and there would not be a lot of ingredients either – probably bits of meat and veg that are hardly visible to the naked eye. Tsk! Tsk!

Now, these are definitely NOT cheap – our buah dabai, currently selling at RM30.00 a kilo…

I wouldn’t have bought them, not at that price, but my mum mentioned in passing that the fruit had not appeared yet this year so I told her that I would go to the market the next day to check. There was one solitary stall with a little boy selling them and he said that they were good – and he wasn’t lying. They were indeed really very nice, so very lemak and we all enjoyed them tremendously – our first taste of dabai this year!

Incidentally, my girl was home last weekend and a few days before that, together with her colleague at their jungle/rural school, she had managed to bake some bread successfully…so she could not wait to bake some for us to try…

Oooo…it was truly good – soft on the inside…

…with a very nice and fragrant outer crust. Everyone loved it and I do hope she would be making some again some time.

From what I saw, it did not look too difficult to bake, not at all, I would say. Well, at least one could be sure that there were no preservatives nor whatever chemicals and stuff added and besides, at RM2.80 for a sandwich loaf, the plain white ones, these days, it certainly makes more sense to bake one’s own.