White and red…

This is the 2nd pack that my girl has bought…

…to enjoy. My missus was telling me that she prefers the regular instant kampua mee with dark soy sauce from the Kitchen Food people but our girl feels otherwise. That is why I would see them buying two packs at a time, one the instant kampua mee for the mum and the other, this instant Kuching kolo mee for the daughter, both with dark soy sauce – to each her own!

Black kolo mee? Correct me if I am wrong but I only know of the white version…

…and there is the red version too…

…but I am pretty sure there is no black kolo mee, just kampua mee, white…

…or black or with dark soy sauce, that is…

…or red…

…especially the ones from Kanowit that I love so much!

There are four packets…

…in a pack of these instant ones and I would say that at least, they got the noodles…

…right. They are VERY thin and very curly, the result of the noodles being machine-made. These days, you may find that the kampua mee around here isn’t very different but the purists or the die-hards – those true blue kampua mee aficionados like my friend, Annie in KL, will insist on the traditionally handmade ones that are straight and thicker too.

Somebody mentioned in his comment the other day that in the process of cooking, they do not dip the kampua mee in cold water to remove the excess starch so the noodles will not be so sticky/gooey and will not stick together in a clump. I first noticed people doing that at St Michael’s Canteen in Kuching in the 70’s where the guy had a pail of water by his side so he would cook the noodles in boiling water in the cauldron and then he would drain them and dip them into the cold water in the pail for a while – he did this at least twice everytime.

Well, they do that with kampua mee too these days – you can see that at many of the stalls all over Sibu and that was what I did too that morning. I boiled the noodles in hot water till soft and drained them well before rinsing them under cold running water, straight from the tap…

…and after that, I added boiling water to heat up the noodles all over again before tossing them well with the shallot oil/lard and the dark soy sauce in the two sachets provided and sprinkling some chopped spring onions on top…

I did not have any char siew or minced meat or whatever to serve the noodles with so I just added a few slices of tomato for the colour…

…and one half-boiled egg…

…by the side.

Of course it did not taste anything like kolo mee – I would have to get ready some fried garlic oil and a bit of golden-brown fried garlic for tossing with everything else in the oil and for garnishing and I sure wouldn’t mind the typical kolo mee dip – the pickled sliced green and/or red chili in vinegar…

…to mix it altogether for a hint of that in the noodles. As it is, I would say that at this point in time, the only thing kolo mee about it is the size of the noodles and how curly they are.

THE KITCHEN FOOD shop (2.304994, 111.847404)…

…home of the original, the one & only Sibu instant kampua, is located in the Sibu Bus Terminal area at Lorong 7A, Jalan Pahlawan, right next to the UOB Bank there.