Me without you…

We had to leave the house at the break of dawn that day on 1st January to drive to my girl’s school in the jungle so there was no time for our mee sua (longevity noodles) in the traditional Foochow red wine and ginger chicken soup…

*My 65th birthday mee sua at PAYUNG CAFÉ*

– we would always have that first thing in the morning on New Year’s Day every year but not this year.

I fried some bihun for our lunch at the school, with corned beef and potatoes and sliced Bombay onion and chili…and I spotted some leftover edamame in the fridge so I took the beans and threw them in as well…

Yes, it was very nice and everybody enjoyed it but it just wasn’t the same. Somehow it just felt different, like something was missing, without the mee sua.

That was why the next morning, I went to this coffee shop…

…and had a bowl (RM6.00)…

I remember I quite enjoyed what I had there sometime ago but this time around, the red wine was very sour, so sour that it would have been great had it been a bowl of zhao chai hung ngang. I suspected they did not manage to get hold of a good batch of the wine – sometimes it can be sour – but a friend commented on Facebook that she would go there quite regularly and everytime she had the mee sua, it was sour. If I had known that, I would have gone some place else, not there. I remember it was RM6.50 the last time I had it but it is only RM6.00 now, I wonder why.

They were selling some durians there…

…some special hybrids…

…and they had a segment of one of them and the flesh did look yellow but no, it was not as yellow as the D101 that I got from my friend, Justin, that day. The lady boss said that they had opened some and packed them in plastic containers so it would be more convenient for any intending customer but no, we did not buy any.

My missus had their kampua noodles (RM2.80) but the photograph came out blur. She said it was nice but I did try a bit and thought it was not really great. The noodles were undercooked and not soft enough for my liking.

And talking about kampua noodles, I had that a few days earlier when we dropped by here again on New Year’s Eve after the early Sunday morning service at the church close by for the thosai.

My girl had the thosai bawang again and I ordered the paper-thin one…

…plus a plate of their halal kampua noodles with beef (RM4.00)…

I liked the one here when I had it before and as always, it came with this complimentary bowl of very nice sup tulang (beef bone soup)…

…but that morning, I asked for the “white” version and it came looking like this…

– “dark” and tossed with chili sauce. I told the boy and he insisted on taking it back to change but no, I simply refused to let him do that so I just had it the way it was and I really enjoyed it. In my opinion, it was very much nicer than the aforementioned one that my missus had a couple of days later. Maybe should I feel like having kampua mee here again next time, I would ask for it to be done like that.

My missus had their nasi campur, if I remember correctly, and I ordered one nasi bryani with chicken curry and potatoes and a pack of mee goreng for my mum and my sis.

I saw the total on the bill, RM34.50 for everything including our drinks and the handsome and friendly Indian guy there asked for only RM20.00. What??? I insisted that he took another RM10.00, RM30.00 would not be too bad – a discount of RM4.50 but no, he would not take my money. Guna, the equally friendly and generous boss came over and said it was a Sunday and the New Year too, so RM20.00 would suffice.

Oh me oh my!!! May God bless these wonderful people abundantly and may they enjoy bustling business each passing day in the year ahead.

JOYSTAR GARDEN 花悅坊 (2.328329, 111.837701) is located at No. 2A & 2B, Jalan Igan, to the left of the Sungai Merah traffic lights, across the lane from SMK Tiong Hin and a church there and SRI PELITA CAFE (2.293579, 111.820700) is located along Lorong Kampung Datu 11, off Jalan Kampung Datu, the first shop in the block to the right of Paramount Hotel.