A little bit better…

The Dragon Boat Festival (端午节[duān wǔ jié]) aka the Chang or Dumpling Festival came and went and I sure was thankful that I got the lovely homemade ones from some friends of mine…

*Archive photo*

…and the awesome out-of-this-world nyonya chang from my good friend and ex-colleague, Richard…

…and also an assortment of those from my sister-in-law – she got them from her friends and had more than enough to go round. That reminded me of the time when I was teaching in Kanowit (1978-1982) when without fail, every year, the students would bring some from home for me and at the end of the day, I had so many, enough to set up a stall at the pasar malam (night market), in fact. The joy of teaching in a sub-urban school!

Anyway, the other day, while we were having our lunch here, I saw a lady at another table eating one and she seemed to be enjoying it. I knew for sure that they did not have those there so after we had had our fill, I strutted over to this place at the other end of the block. They do sell some Chinese kuehs there and yes, we did try some of those before and there were some that we did quite like.

There were only two left…

…and yes, the lady running the kampua mee stall there said that she made them herself so I grabbed both to take home and try.

I must say they were a little bit better than some…

…and had chunks of meat inside…

…and even some bits of fat…

I like that as those will make the chang a bit more oily and somewhat nicer, or to me, at least.

As far as the taste went, I must say that these were quite good though I had had nicer ones but sadly, most of the time, the meat was not visible to the naked eye and I am rather wary of those that they tie using nylon string instead of the traditional dried straw…

No, unfortunately, there was no sign of any hay bee (udang kering/dried mushrooms) nor shitake mushroom, no chestnuts, no salted egg yolk in them – I wouldn’t mind paying a lot more for the whole works, actually. After all, this is just once a year, not all the time. As it was, for RM3.50 each, perhaps I would enjoy a plate of kampua mee more and still have change…

FRIENDS’ KOPITIAN (2.296353, 111.840831) is located at Pusat Tanahwang, opposite Sacred Heart Secondary School, Oya Road, to the right of the SHELL petrol station along that road.