Out and about…

I had not been out and about for such a very long time so of course, I did not stop by any place here for a bite to eat.

However, that morning, I had to go to the bank and normally, it would open at 8.45 a.m. When I got there, the main door was still locked and the security guards just ignored me. Luckily, one sweet young thing saw me and quickly came to tell me that they do not open till 10.00 a.m. these days owing to the pandemic.

Left to my own devices, I decided I would drop by a coffee shop for a bite to eat. There are a few, three, to be exact, in the middle of nowhere, so to speak, in the neighbourhood where I live. One is VERY popular and can be rather crowded and everything will be sold out by 10.00 a.m. The other one in the next lane round the corner from my house is all right but there is one where I hardly see anybody there and of course, that was the one that I picked.

I had the kampua mee that one time when I stopped by there and I thought it was all right, nothing overwhelmingly good but it was o.k. I did say that I would go back there again and try the fried stuff and that was what I had…

…that morning, their Foochow fried noodles, wet (with sauce).

Yes, there was no one around, just the few coffee shop people sitting there and chatting away. One young guy was frying something though I wondered why he was doing that since there were no customers around to eat what he dished out. I placed my order and went to take my seat. I must say I was impressed by how clean the coffee shop was – yes, they had a lot of things but at least, they were all nicely arranged, not all over the place like in some coffee shops.

They had everything all ready for you to check your temperature and record the details in a book and they even had this…

…stuck onto the table as a gentle reminder and everyone had their masks on the whole time! Ever so often, I would drop by some place and see somebody with his mask pulled down, the nose exposed or worse, the mask dangling from one ear. I really get so pissed off by the attitude of the likes of these.

The instant the plate of noodles (RM4.00)…

…was served, I was swept away by the very strong and most delightful wok hei fragrance. Gee, this is going to be good, I thought! Unfortunately, my excitement was short-lived. This was cooked by frying the noodles in the intense heat of the wok and after that, the sauce/gravy was cooked and poured all over the noodles. Personally, I prefer the moon (braised) method and when they cook the mee this way, I like the sauce dark, not pale like this. Other than that, the mee was a bit on the firm/hard side, not soft enough for me.

I liked how generous the guy was with the meat and the vegetables even though I am not crazy about those frozen meat balls. It probably would look nicer without those, replaced with a couple of very thin slices of char siew – one thing’s for sure, that would add a bit of colour to the dish.

Yes, I wouldn’t mind coming back again – who knows I may stumble on something worth coming back for. I saw packets of Maggi chicken and curry in the display cabinet – maybe they fry those as well.

NGA CHUONG CAFE (2.312134, 111.837763) is located along Jalan Au Yong Selatan past Lorong Au Yong 4 on your left as you turn in from Jalan Pahlawan.