Here In My Home - Malaysian Artistes For Unity

Sunday 4 May 2008

Noodles Station Under A Tree

Continuing my series on my favourite food stalls in Sungei Besi, today I want to write about my favourite food stall there that is located under a big tree beside the main road. Many have posted on how good the food that can be found in such establishments, and this stall is no different. Actually there are three food stations, the first serving noodles with gravy out of big pots and fried noodles, a sizzling plate section and finally a drinks station, smack in the middle of the best ice refreshments stall in Sungei Besi that I will write about later and another one serving sugarcane and young coconut water. Lately upgraded with second hand food court styled tables set amidst some open space under the tree and beside an old container box I suspect is being used as a store, the ambiance is nothing to shout about but that is not what the people come here for. They come here with their families for breakfast after doing their morning marketing, as the stall only opens till early afternoon or about three o'clock in the afternoon for the light lunch crowd. This is because they know they will get good northern style noodles at a reasonable price As you can see from the price list, despite the recent price increase in the price of noodles, there has been no increase in their food prices.

This time I will only concentrate on their mee rebus, laksa and noodle soups despite their sizzling plate section offering claypot and sizzling noodles and rice as my family only like to order their sizzling noodles and this we did not have today. First to arrive is the vermicelli noodles in soup for my elder daughter where the noodles has been soaked in turmeric first, northern style, so you get yellow vermicelli with shredded chicken, pieces of fish cake and bean sprouts as garnishing. Best eaten with their fiery sambal concoction made with pounded birds chilli in thick soy sauce, it is tasty enough as it is which is the way it is usually eaten by my daughters as they cannot take their heat. You can also have regular egg noodles or kuey tiow with the soup. Another favourite noodle dish is their mee rebus cooked northern malay style, quite similar to the gravy of the mee udang Sungei Dua Penang I have posted about before, but here they are using seasoned beef bits as the garnishings. This does not take away anything from its flavour, as you can taste that the beef was actually used as the gravy stock base before being removed to be cut up as garnishing. Other garnishings provided are half a boiled egg, fried towfoo cubes and accompanying vegetables. A bit on the sweetish side but with enough heat in it to make you sweat, I have yet to find another stall offering this version in the Klang Valley. An ace mee rebus if there ever was one.

Lastly let's take a look at their laksa. This is the typical Malay style assam laksa served up with ikan kembong gravy and the normal condiments, though theirs do not come with pineapple strips which I personally favour. The taste is heavenly and this can be attested by these photos of my younger daughter enjoying the laksa I ordered that she has hijacked as she actually ordered the egg noodle in soup in kiddies portion shown in the photo in the above paragraph. This is despite the laksa actually packing a little bit of heat as you can see she needs to chase each mouthful with a sip of water. This stall is also generous with their petis udang a you can find a tin at the table if you wish to add more and my daughter will usually pour this in to cut the heat. But the proof of the gravy really has to be in the amount of fish meat in it, and this last photo of the thickness of the fish meat in the remaining gravy should prove my contention that their laksa is also another ace dish. So now I want to ask you, how can you grade such under the tree establishments with michelin like stars even though their food is excellent? Quite an impossible task right!

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