This way…

I bought 1 kg of noodles for RM2.50 from my regular kueh stall at the kampung here the other day. I am not sure but it may be a little cheaper or the same elsewhere but anyway, with that amount, I would be able to cook a whole lot of noodles this way…or that, depending on how I would like it.

The first morning, I fried around half of it the lakia (Dayak/native) mee (noodles) style. It seems that they all call it mee mamak these days but I do feel that those would be very different with a whole lot of chili or tomato sauce used. Usually, outside, it would just be fried noodles, dry, with lots of fresh chili added while those at my school canteen before had bits of belacan (dried prawn paste) in theirs. I may have blogged about my own versions before but when I fried it that morning, these were the ingredients that I had…

– one shallot, peeled and sliced, three cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped, some chilies, seeds removed and sliced thinly, some chopped spring onion, two eggs and some fish balls. Prawns would be nice but there weren’t any in the fridge and I would have added some taugeh (bean sprouts) but there weren’t any either. My missus had some pounded sambal belacan in the fridge so I decided that I would add a bit of that too.

This Malay version of the noodles are a little bit different from the Chinese ones here. They are thinner and firmer but no, it is not because of those not-too-desirable additives as there is none of that alkaline smell of yellow noodles that puts off a lot of people. Probably they add a bit more egg, I wouldn’t know.

I tossed the noodles with a little bit of soy sauce, mainly for the colour and a teaspoon of sugar…

In the old days, I would hear people saying that the Malays used sugar in their cooking and never added any msg but these days, it seems that they have acquired the practice as well so sometimes I would get put off by what they cook especially when they add too much – just like at those Chinese eateries.

The process of cooking was pretty much the same as how I cooked most everything else – I fried the shallot and garlic in a bit of oil till golden brown before adding the fish balls and the chilies plus a teaspoon of the sambal belacan. Then the noodles went in and I mixed everything together thoroughly, adding a little bit of water periodically along the sides to let it sizzle and cook the noodles. Once done, I added the eggs and before dishing everything out, I threw in the chopped spring onion.

There you are! The noodles…

…garnished with a bit of the sliced chili and the chopped spring onion that I had saved for the purpose.

Yes, it was very nice…

…but I would love it a bit more spicy so I must add more chili next time. Other than that, I could not detect the sambal belacan so I would need a lot more of that as well.

I fried the remaining half of the noodles with the very nice lap cheong (Chinese sausage)…

…that my friend, Annie, gave me and yes, it was very nice too.

Yes, there was enough noodles in that 1 kg for at least, 8 to 10 plates of what one would get outside so that would work out to around 50 to 60 sen a plate. At the rate the prices of those fried noodles at the stalls are shooting up – generally around RM4.00 or more, it certainly would make a lot more sense to just buy a kg and keep in the fridge and fry one’s own this way…or that.