Looking for something…

We dropped by this new coffee shop round the corner from my house once and I did drop by again early one morning to look for something else I could try when I had to drive out to the shop next door to buy some eggs as it so happened that we had run out that day.

After the very long wait for our orders from the chu char (cook & fry) place at the back, I was not all that keen on going through all that again. That was why I settled for what they had at the stall in front…

– their kampua noodles (RM3.00)…

…which I thought was just so-so, nice but not anything to get excited about plus I think there are some cheaper ones elsewhere.

A friend of mine said that he was here once too and he had to wait a long time. I thought he ordered some fried stuff from the stall at the back but he said no, he just had the kampua noodles and he added that it was not even very crowded when he was there – in his opinion, they were just plain slow.

Luckily, I did not face any such problem that morning. They had the mug of hot boiling water and the chopsticks and spoon in it on my table in no time at all…

…and my noodles came soon after.

I also asked for a small bowl of pian sip soup (RM2.20)…

…to go with my noodles and that too didn’t take long and yes, I thought the pian sip was quite nice. I don’t know how much a regular bowl would cost though, probably RM3.00 too.

Then, on another morning, also very early – at the break of dawn, in fact, I had to go to the shop again so I hopped over for breakfast. No, like the previous time, I wanted to look for something else and did not want to go for the same things again. This time, I decided to order the Foochow fried noodles that my missus had that first time we were here except that it had completely slipped my mind – I did not remember her having that then.

Well, since it was so early, I did not want my usual kopi-o-peng (iced black coffee) and asked for it hot (RM1.20)…

…instead. I was surprised that it was so cheap – the one with ice is usually RM1.60 or RM1.80 a glass. My! My! Those few cubes of ice sure are expensive…and actually, when the glass is filled with all the ice cubes, aren’t we getting a little less coffee?

This time around, the noodles came a lot sooner, piping hot (RM4.00)…

…from the wok and yes, it was very very nice, I must say.

There was this guy in Kanowit when I was teaching there, 1978-1982, Ah Lek, I think his name was. He would push his cart out in the evening and park it right outside a coffee shop to set up his stall. I loved his fried noodles, cooked differently from all the rest. If I am not wrong, I think he would fry the mee first for the much-coveted wok hei fragrance and then add water and simmer for the gravy to thicken and dry up. He has passed away already, of course, and his daughters (my students at the time) have taken over and I hear their fried noodles are just as nice but their lor mee pales in comparison to their late dad’s.

This plate of Foochow fried noodles…

…that I had here reminded me of Ah Lek’s which I enjoyed so much a long time ago. I sure would not mind going back there again for more of this.

AH KAU CAFE (2.316346, 111.839861) is located along Jalan Ruby, off Jalan Lim Han Swee, in the same block as Kim Tak Mini Supermarket, to the extreme left.