One of the ways…

I shared a photo of the noodles I had for breakfast that morning…

…and in the caption, I asked, “So what’s this that I had for breakfast?” Somebody commented, “Nice kolo mee!” and though it did not look like Kuching kolo mee as we know it these days, it did look a bit like some of those that I had a long time ago and enjoyed to the max.

These days, if you go to eat kolo mee in Kuching, at best, you will get some char siew and some minced meat on top – they do not even give you those light-blanched green vegetables (sawi) anymore, it seems. That is exactly what you will get when you go and eat kampua mee at some places in Sibu, even though long long ago, in  my growing up years, they never gave minced meat, just a few of those very very thin slices of boiled pork, coloured pinkish orange…

…on top.

My friend/ex-student, Louis, went and tapaoed this packet of kolo mee…

…from somewhere in Kuching and I thought it looked really good, just like those I enjoyed before in the early and mid-70’s. You would get a couple of pieces of char siew and boiled meat and a bit of minced meat with your noodles, a prawn (shell removed, leaving just the tail) and a fish ball or two and a few thin fish cake slices…and at times, you might even get an inch-long pork intestine and a thin slice of liver.

I do not remember exactly where I had something like this, probably at the stall at Lao Ya Keng in Kuching – further inside, near the stage – definitely not the one there today! Or maybe I had that at one of the coffee shops along Carpenter Street. I don’t know where one can get to eat kolo mee like that these days, maybe at Kim Joo…or Noodle Descendants but no, the last time I was at these places, I did not think they were quite the same.

Anyway, going back to the noodles that I cooked for breakfast, I cannot remember where or when exactly but the last time I featured our made-in-Sibu Mee Daddy, somebody said that she always had it dry, like kampua mee, never in soup. Oh? I know they suggest three ways…

…soup, dry or as a snack but all this time, I always had it in soup and it reminds me of our chin th’ng mee or kampua mee served in clear soup…

…so I decided to give it a try to see if it would be any good that way.

I emptied the contents of the sachets into a plate – the oil and half of the seasoning powder only, cooked the noodles, drained it well and tossed everything well together.

I boiled some prawns, fishballs and thinly-sliced fish cake and grilled some slices of smoked bacon for the toppings and added an egg as well and I garnished it generously with chopped spring onion from my garden and served…

Hmmm…it was nice but I think I should have mixed the seasoning powder well with the oil till it dissolved in it and maybe it could do with a little bit more oil – a teaspoon of the shallot oil that my sister gave me that day would be nice.

Having said that, no, it did not taste anything like kampua mee – it was quite nice, that much I would say but if you are craving for kampua mee, I honestly do not think this would help. At the end of the day, I still prefer this in soup. Period!