Offer…

I did say in a recent post that I would not be all that keen to buy Bovril or Marmite these days as they do not come cheap and I would just have to learn to live without them. However, I came across this special offer…

…at a supermarket the other day, selling for RM26.00 but one would get a small bottle valued at RM10.50 so it would work out to only RM15.50 for the big bottle. Incidentally, I saw a similar offer for Marmite at another supermarket but I had already bought this one so I would not want to buy that even though the expiry date is not until the end of 2019.

I saw this photograph…

…at the back of the box and of course, I wasted no time in reading their recipe for the dish…

It sure looked like how I would cook my Bovril noodles or mee sua except that I would never add that bit of water for the sauce. As a matter of fact, in the preparation of kampua or kolo mee or my version of the mee sua, the noodles must be drained absolutely dry. If you go for the noodles at a stall or shop in town and there is a bit of water at bottom, it would be best that you go elsewhere next time – there should not be anything of the sort, no sauce whatsoever unlike wanton mee over in the peninsula.

I had never  tried cooking pasta of any kind this way though and I heard that they serve this…

*Photo from their Facebook page*

…at this café in town but I never dropped by there as it did not look like they had anything much that would be gluten-free. Probably I can stop by one of these days to give it a try and write a review of it – it sure looks good in the photograph.

In the meantime, I went and took some of my girl’s gluten-free spaghetti to try and cook my own. I peeled and sliced one shallot and fried it in some oil…

…till it had turned slightly brown – that would be the time to remove it from the hot oil as it would eventually turn golden brown in the residual heat. If you wait a little later, it might get burnt and not only would it look bad, it would taste bad too, and kind of bitter as well.

I poured the oil onto a plate and added a spoonful of Bovril and chopped spring onions…

…from the ones growing in abundance in my garden, saving a bit for garnishing later. You can add a pinch of msg…and pepper and pounded chili/chili sauce, if you so desire.

After boiling the spaghetti – this gluten-free one took much longer, around 15 minutes till it was al dente, I drained it well and tossed it with the aforementioned ingredients and served it with some slices of my missus’ own-made fish cake (there was still one left in the fridge at the time), garnished with the fried shallots and spring onions and I also fried an egg to go with it…

Personally, I felt it was, at best, just all right…

– nowhere near our freshly-made kampua mee or mee pok…or the dried mee kua/mee sanggul or those instant noodle-like egg noodles sold in the supermarket nor was it in any way, nicer than mee sua.

Let me go and try that one at that café one of these days and I’ll get back to all of you on this.