Cups…

I used to fly between Sibu (SBW) and Kuala Lumpur (KUL) very frequently when I was still working as I was involved in a lot of things with the ministry and the other sections like exams, for instance.

Going was never a problem as the flight, I remember, was at 11.50 a.m. – ample time to do a lot of things before leaving for the airport to catch my flight. Coming home was a problem though because the one and only flight in a day was at 7.50 a.m. so I had to be at KLIA by 6.50 a.m. (one hour before the flight) which meant that I had to leave the hotel very early as KLIA isn’t exactly a stone’s throw away from KL city. There was a 50% surcharge if we took a taxi between 12 midnight and 6.00 a.m. so of course, I had to pay extra every time.

Another problem was breakfast since it would be way too early to go for the hotel’s complimentary (buffet) breakfast! At times, I would wait till I got to KLIA before going for the miserable breakfast options at McD or KFC, miserable but affordable unlike at the other eateries, for instance, the RM23.80 nasi lemak at the Asian Cafe! Sometimes, I would buy some drinks and Gardenia buns from 7-11 and at other times, I would buy some cup noodles to cook and eat before vacating the hotel room.

Cup noodles? Gosh!!! That was so long ago that I cannot even remember what brand I used to buy and what flavours I liked. Anyway, the other day, I had these made-in-Korea ones…

My missus went and bought some…

…and she said they were nice so of course, I wanted to give them a try!

Inside the cup, there were the noodles…

…with some dried ingredients and a sachet of seasoning…

I emptied the sachet into the cup with the noodles…

…and poured in some boiling water a little past the line indicated inside the cup. My missus said I should add a bit more as it was a little salty.

I waited for 4 minutes, as instructed…

…before tossing the noodles and loosening the strands and leaving it to stand a while longer.

So, what did it taste like? Was it nice? My missus said it was over RM4.00 each!!! For that kind of money, I would much sooner run to the nearby shop and grab a packet of kampua mee for RM3.50. I certainly would enjoy it a lot more and I would still have some change leftover.

I can’t remember what lobsters taste like – in fact, I can’t remember if I have ever eaten a lobster before and anyway, this tasted like…instant noodles, that usual umami (msg) taste, nothing more and nothing less. I don’t know if I imagined it or what but I thought I could detect a bit of udang kering (dried prawn) taste, just a bit, so slight that it could have easily gone unnoticed.

I must say, however, that I liked the texture and taste of the noodles. They were firm and QQ and did not have any taste – most of our local brands have their own taste and some come across like plain biscuits, not quite like noodles.

I cooked two half-boiled/cooked Omega-3 eggs to go with the noodles…

…and yes, I did enjoy them.

I must say that at the end of the day, I would much sooner go for our Malaysian own Maggi kari – for RM4 something, I can buy a pack of 5 and enjoy myself a whole lot more.