Somethin’ else…

My girl says she has had enough of instant noodles and despite the convenience, she is not keen on stocking up on those to cook and eat in her school…and she is not into fried rice either so cooking that for her to take all the way there to heat up and eat is also out of the question. I guess all those years at the teacher-training institute and the last two years at her school, away from home, have taken its toll on her so she would very much prefer somethin’ else.

She does not mind bihun as much so should I happen to fry any, she may want to tapao some and eat that at a later date at her teachers’ quarters. Unfortunately, as far as those instant ones go, they are mostly noodles, not bihun – even the Kuching-produced Sarawak laksa has noodles in each packet even though at the shops, it is always bihun. I wonder why they do that.

Well, it so happened that the other day, I saw these…

…at the shop round the corner from my house, with two different flavours – chicken and tom yam, selling at RM4.90 for a pack of 5 so that would work out to less than a ringgit per packet.

I tried the chicken first but no, I did not like it. It was extremely peppery and rather strong on the taste of msg – something like the Tung-i brand that was very popular at one time but I don’t seem to see it anywhere in town anymore. I don’t think I would buy that for my girl to bring to her school but when I tried the tom yam…

…I thought it tasted very good.

There are two sachets in every packet…

– one, the seasoning and the other, the oil and tom yam paste. Maybe the fact that I used prawn stock (from boiling the heads and shell of some prawns that I bought a while ago) did help in a bit towards enhancing the taste, and other than the sliced omelette, I also added a bit of fried shallots and chopped spring onions.

It tasted like tom yam, a milder version of the usual and just slightly sourish but I did think it was good enough except that it was not spicy at all, not even a little bit! That was why when I cooked that again, I added some of my own cili padi…

…and only then was it, in my opinion, just right.

This means that now we have a choice between this one and the one that I have tried previously, also from the same company in their “Gold Recipe” series, their “bihun kari seribu rasa“ that I also liked a lot. I think that one is only slightly more expensive, RM5 something for a pack of 5 so it is anytime better than buying any of the imported brands which are really not affordable at all at this point in time…and anyway, I don’t think they have bihun or at least, I have not seen any at the shops and supermarkets.