Food: Kim Toa Kai Si Mee

Kai Si Mee isn't exactly my favourite noodle growing up. I've always favored noodles with spicy broth like Northern Hokkien Mee or otherwise known as Prawn Mee or Tom Yam Noodle compared to noodles with clear looking broth like Kuey Tiau Soup or Kai Si Mee. My uncle didn't call me chili queen for nuts. I literally can't live without chili. Whatever I eat, I usually make sure that there's chili to go along it. But today, I'm not going to talk about my love affair with chillies. I'm gonna talk about how leaving home for college/uni makes me appreciate all the idiot proof food there is in Alor Setar. One of it being, Alor Setar's Kai Si Mee. Kai Si Mee is basically noodle, with chicken strips and some chicken stock soup added to the noodle for flavor. That's how idiot proof the noodle sold is. Nevertheless, when I left home for uni, only did I realize that Kai Si Mee is something that is only sold in Northern states. I'm not sure about Perak and Penang, but I've never seen or ordered this anywhere else aside from Alor Setar. So that's when I start to appreciate this noodle and would order a plate every time I'm back home. Overtime I learn to like it and find the noodle, although very simple but it is very flavorful and of course with a slight touch of chili padi added to it for some oomph when you bite into those killer bird's eye chili. The original look of this noodle is clear without dark soy sauce added to it. When I was younger, I dislike eating plain looking noodles thus my mom would request to add black soy sauce to give it some color. Color matters that much to me. And after that, it got stuck till today, every time I order, he never fails to add black soy sauce although I wouldn't mind a plate without black soy sauce. There are several Kai Si Mee seller here in Alor Setar, but since coming back home, the first place I always visit would be mom's kopitiam, Kim Toa and he's the only person selling food, so Kai Si Mee it is for breakfast. He used to open 7 days a week with Friday being half day, but now that he's older, I think he has finally decided he needs a break once a week so he now closes on Monday. I guess the biggest point to him in deciding to close for a day is because all his kids are now grown up, so he can relax a little and can afford to have a rest day. I'm happy coz that means my mom get to rest too. Imagine operating a kopitiam for the past 16 years everyday. Early morning to midnight? How's that for extremely hard working? Basically all the veterans famous noodle sellers or hawker food seller are taking a day off in a week since a lot of them are now older, it gets really tiring to have to run a business with no rest day.