Why you wanna settle for less…

My missus went and bought this freshly-made mee pok (flat noodles)…

…to keep in the fridge to cook and eat slowly, bit by bit.

So far, I’ve been buying the factory-made mee pok or mee kua…

…packed and sold in flimsy plastic bags and more recently, I bought these mini-rolls…

…that came in a more impressive-looking packaging.

I took some of the noodles my missus bought to cook for my breakfast one morning and much to my surprise and delight, I found it a whole lot nicer than those factory-made dried ones. That was why the other morning, I decided to cook it again and as always, I started off by frying some sliced shallots till golden brown…

…and taking them out of the oil. That is to get the fragrant shallot oil for tossing the noodles later (lard may be used, if one so desires) and for the fried shallots that will be used for garnishing. I took them out first as they might turn soft and soggy if tossed with the ingredients.

I added a teaspoon of Bovril and dark soy sauce and half a teaspoon of msg (if you watch the people at the shops, they will add one teaspoon full, scooped)…

You may add a bit of chopped spring onion and a generous sprinkling of pepper as well.

I boiled the noodles till cooked, rinsed them under running water to wash away any excess starch, added some hot water and brought it to boil before draining the noodles well and tossing them with the aforementioned ingredients in the pan. Finally, I served the noodles in a plate…

…garnished with the fried shallots and more chopped spring onions.

I guess this is suitable for vegetarians as the Bovril these days…

…is yeast-based (like Marmite), no beef in it and anyway, it may be omitted – just use dark soy sauce on its own, and any other kind of noodles may be used instead if one is not into those with eggs used in making them, hence the slightly yellowish colour.

Indeed, it is very much nicer than those factory-made dried ones, cooked this same way, and I would not be surprised if these are cheaper too – around RM3.00 for a bag of 1 kilo, I think, while those dried ones may go up to RM10.00!!! So why would anyone want to pay more and settle for less, you may ask?

One kilo is actually a lot, probably enough for 10 plates whereas if you go some place outside, ONE plate like this…

…will set you back by at least RM3.00 already but with those few thin slices of meat.

The only drawback is if I buy the uncooked fresh noodles home for more or less that kind of money, I would have to eat it most every morning to finish it all off quickly as they may not last like forever even when we keep them in the fridge and besides, I will see it every day staring at me in the face and that, for sure, will trigger off my OCD. LOL!!!