There is one…

Lifesavers, they call it, every college or university student’s staple – fast to cook, good to eat! Yes, I’m talking about instant noodles but unfortunately, it has been getting a lot of bad press lately about it being coated with wax or how it is somewhat indigestible…bla…bla…bla! Well, for one thing, my girl would have to stay away from it from now on – it is not gluten-free.

She can go for kway teow (flat rice noodles) or bihun (rice vermicelli) though – those are made from rice flour, not wheat. However, instant ones are few and far between. I do not know of any instant kway teow but there was instant bihun, made in Taiwan, I think – very very peppery and lots of msg, not anything that we would want to buy and cook to eat.

Then, this brand…

…appeared on the shelves at our local supermarkets, made in Thailand…

Oh? The address looks familiar. I think I know somebody staying in that area.

My girl did not want this chicken flavour, not after that one from Taiwan as she did not like the strong taste of pepper. She did buy the tom yam flavour though but when I asked her, she said it was not so nice. Then the mum went and bought this one – she did not know that my girl had bought something from this same brand and was not thrilled by it. Ah well, since we had that in the house, I thought I would just cook a packet and try and I actually liked it!

Inside a packet, there is the bihun and a dual-sachet of the seasoning and the onion oil and there is the pepper in a separate much smaller sachet…

I did not use too much water when I cooked it as I would not want it to be too soupy and diluted, just enough the cover the bihun and I would use just half of the seasoning which, I guess, has a lot of msg so it would be best to cut down a bit on that…and no, I did not add the pepper.

For one thing, it seemed that the bihun would soak up the soup very fast and it turned out a lot drier than I had intended it to be…

Perhaps it would be better to cook the bihun separately first, the same way as I would cook instant noodles these days.

I had it with one poached egg and a sprinkling of chopped spring onions…

…from my garden and yes, I thought it was good.

Right now, I am waiting for the made-in-Kuching Sarawak laksa with bihun to hit the shops. An ex-student/friend spotted it in Singapore and shared the photograph on Facebook and my cousin in Kuching managed to buy it at a supermarket there but so far, it is nowhere to be seen here in Sibu.

When they first came out with the product a long long time ago, it was bihun but later, for reasons unknown, they switched to instant noodles instead…and it is a known and established fact that Sarawak/Kuching laksa is served with bihun, not noodles. Flavour-wise, it is very good, as good as many in the shops and I do know of people cooking it with their own bihun, saving the noodles to cook and eat in some other ways. Hopefully, we will get to see it around here soon…