Flashback…

A long long time ago, around the late 80’s and early 90’s, I would go out on Friday nights to destress at a local karaoke pub here, mingling with friends, drinking and singing.

My girl was just a baby then and most of the time, I had to take care of her singlehandedly especially since my missus was often on afternoon shifts (2.00-9.00 p.m) or night (9.00 p.m. – 7.00 a.m.), not including the time taken to go to work and come back. If both of us were working, we would leave her in the care of my mother-in-law. We did manage pretty well somehow just that I felt I could use a break just once a week.

My usual routine whenever I went out would be to stop at a coffee shop close by where my friend’s sister had a stall at night. She would boil some water in a claypot, add the instant noodles (Maggi) and the flavouring (curry) and then she would add one big freshwater big-headed prawn/udang galah and some khiew chai (curly vegetables), put the lid on and let it simmer a bit before serving. That was RM5.00 only – can’t get that price anymore these days if there is a prawn – and of course it was so so good.  You simply can’t go wrong with those crustaceans but somehow or other, I never got round to trying it myself at home.

Well, the other day, my KL friend, one of the seven who came to Sibu that day, had a post on Facebook about some MAMA Thai noodles somewhere in Kepong that had been going viral on social media and she made her way there to try. MAMA? That name sure rang the bell so I went to check in the pantry and true enough, there was this…

My girl bought a pack not too long ago and had been eating it. There were only two packets left so I quickly took one to cook.

I boiled the noodles, drained it and put it aside in a bowl with some leaves of lettuce by the side. I boiled an egg and sliced it and arranged the slices in the bowl. To cook the soup, I boiled some (seawater) prawns in some water for the stock and added the seasoning and the oil provided in the two sachets that came with the noodles in the packet. Once done, I poured the soup into the bowl and arranged the prawns in it…

…and garnished it with some daun sup (Chinese celery) from my garden.

I did ask my girl earlier and she did not sound too enthusiastic when she said it was all right, not really creamy and indeed, it wasn’t but I was all right with that – I don’t think I would have liked it creamy, so creamy that one would feel jelak (cloy) after eating a bit…and it wasn’t really sour either, just a bit and that suited me fine. I would say that it was a cross between red and white tom yum seeing how it wasn’t spicy and not that reddish in colour…nor was it white.

On the whole, I quite enjoyed it…

…and I am pretty sure my girl would have loved it more if she had taken the trouble to add all those extra ingredients to her bowl of noodles.

I have a Tupperware container of the udang galah in the freezer, frozen in ice to keep for some fine day but that would take a very long time for the ice to melt and the prawns to defrost. That was why I decided not to use those, the way my friend’s sister did way back then (and it was even in the photo, the serving suggestion, on the wrapper). Perhaps I shall do that one of these days…