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.

Thoughts: Out of Sight, Out of Mind

I've not met anyone that has prove me that the above does not apply to them. The fact is, it's true to the majority or at least to a good number of people out there. As 'sad' as it is, it is what it is. That is the norm. But can you blame them? People often get too occupied in life with work, family, church, exercise or living a healthy life that sometimes people just look past keeping in touch with friends and families. It is definitely much easier to stay connected to people that are physically closer as one takes the effort more to have companionship be it for an agenda or merely to have that people touch in life, nobody likes to be lonely. Even then, with a distance such as a phone call away, still if out of sight, it definitely will be out of mind for a lot of people. I'm guilty as charged as well but having two kids means I'm now a social pariah. Wait, maybe having kids is just my excuse. Matter of factly, all along I've been a social pariah that my number of friends once again is countable with just one hand. I'm definitely not a good acquaintance as a social retard like myself likes to avoid the awkward moments when I run out of topic, not even topic, small talks to talk about if I find myself not comfortable enough or not being able to 'click'. I've been told countless of times I keep diamonds in my mouth. While I may not be good at making new friends, the few friends I have are the friends I consider friends for life as these are the friends I made in my younger years. In my eyes, it's much easier to make friends during childhood times as oppose to adulthood. Children are innocent that way while as adults we over analyze everything. We have to, given the sorta creative judgement or crime people keep coming up with. Going back to topic, I myself have had my fair shares of keeping out of touch with people who are out of my sight. My grandmother is one of them. I always tell myself I ought to visit her more often because I know how lonely she gets everyday. Every time I get a phone call from her, I'm always overridden with guilt, feeling so bad for not visiting her. So that's my guilty as charge case. But in my defense, I've also put in some effort to those who are dear to me. The thing with me is that when I put in some effort to be in touch with old pals or families but I don't receive the same kinda effort, my esteem suffers a pretty big blow thinking I'm probably not as important to them as they are to me, thus I slowly seep into the withdrawal state whereby I stop trying. That doesn't make me stop thinking of the people that matters to me. I think about them all the time, I just stop my efforts because I feel a tiny wee bit unappreciated and I feel really small in their world. What's worse is that some people only call when they need a favor from me! That irks me but I usually turn a blind eye to it, giving people the benefit of the doubt. It does make me sad for not receiving the kinda same efforts but reiterating, I understand that as time pass, people get really occupied with families, work, activities and agenda of their own life. Just like me, with two kids around, it seems like there's barely time for anything. While I try to be understanding about everyone being busy living their own life, on the contrary, not having time is also an excuse. There's always time for something or someone when I or you takes the effort to make the time. 😊

Food: Char Siew Fan @ Barbecued Pork Rice

Have you come across the feeling of not knowing what to eat week after week when you have to eat out? Now that my passion for cooking and baking has gone into hibernation mode because A) I'll be moving real soon despite 'soon' being in a few months time, B) My kitchen is in a mess and C) I hate cooking in a shitty kitchen, so we've been eating our for most of the weekends. Although when I google up recipes every now and then, I get the itch to wanna cook or bake, but here am I refraining from doing so, containing my excitement till the day I get to officialize my 'new' kitchen by cooking one heck of a scrumptious meal for my hubby as a celebration for owning our very first property. Moving on. So, week after week we have an additional chore to think real hard of WHAT to eat and WHERE to eat. And in Sri Muda, there just aren't that many good food around. All the nice food you can get in this tiny puny Sri Muda, you can count with like 1 hand. So usually for breakfast we go for either Robert's Corner roti canai or we buy some kampung chicken eggs to make soft boiled eggs with bread for the adults while chocolate cream bread or cereals for the kid or Malaysia's national food, Nasi Lemak. If we didn't have it this week, we would have it the following week. And then comes lunch, where we would play a game of asking one another "What to eat?", "I dunno. What to eat ah?". We go on for a bit and we usually settle for the sucky chicken rice or Pasembor/Indian Rojak or char siew fan or noodles. When it comes to dinner we usually escape the headache by joining Kevin's family for dinner so the tough decision making would befall on whoever it is and we have the luxury of just going along and sometimes complaining. The hardest part is us having to consider Ezra. He's basically the ultimate key to which our decision making on what to eat falls on. We have to get something that he will eat and mind you, to feed a picky 3 year old toddler is not easy. When they're that small and young but already have the ability to think and be selective, it makes me want to claw my own eyes out when I pick the wrong menu for a meal because I would need to think of a different food to feed him if he refuses to eat what I buy. I do know he won't starve himself but I do not enjoy seeing such a sour puss look he has on his face when he's being force to eat something he doesn't enjoy.  He hasn't been a big fan of rice when we first introduce solid, but nevertheless we decided to introduce this Char Siew Fan from Restoran Spring Golden because we both like it. Keeping our fingers crossed when he took his first mouth full of RICE and char siew, he chewed and swallowed and then he kept going at it mouth after mouth, we were delighted! Probably because it has a sweet sauce to complement it. Which kid doesn't like sweet? Ever since then, this Char Siew Fan has become our Sunday lunch choice by default. Like almost every Sunday that I'm starting to get very sick of it. Anyways, this char siew by far is the best I've tasted. Unlike the normal char siew which is usually just lean meat coated with hoisin sauce or whatever sauce, these char siew has two layers which consist of fat and tenderized meat which is accompanied by their secret recipe sauce which makes the char siew sweet and the meat ohhhh so tender that it sorta melts in your mouth. The shop is usually crowded by lunch hours and you've got to be there early for their char siew. Aside from char siew, they have siu yuk or roasted pork, roasted chicken and roasted duck. And they do serve noodles and vegetables as well. Mind you these char siew aren't exactly the cheapest. For a packet of Char Siew Fan, it cost RM 7 ish. The Char Siew Fan in the picture has extra rice and char siew since a packet is way too much for little Ezra. And since we have two kids to handle, we usually have it tapao-ed just so we can take our time to eat and feed at the comfort of our home.

Restoran Spring Golden Char Siew Fan