Muwor Part 1: Mee Bandung

I have a confession to make.

As much as I would like to go on a serious diet (because I obviously need to lose at least 20 lbs to fit into La Perla without holding my breath and/or turning off the lights), I have a problem with compulsive overeating.

Okaylah, let's just put it this way, I am passionate about food, what to do? Or is that an understatement? As you may have noticed, my attempts to lose weight is fraudulent. My love affair with food is so out of control, any talk of going on a diet is a merely a guilt trip that follows a bingeing episode. If I fast, I'd start seeing floating desserts and the only books I would read are recipe books. But there are days like today, I'd just keep to a liquid diet, to detox the junk.

So happens that last Friday I was fasting, and in between chats and emails about jeng jeng jeng and Enigma De'grip (Atiza, check this out!!!), Anedra mentioned that she'd be in Muar for a family function.

You see, it's a bit like the Pavlovian classical conditioning, I am operationalized to react like those salivating dogs, not to bells or metronomes but to names of places and the food they are famous for. Muar reminds me of Mee Bandung Abu Bakar, the same way La Cappuccina, San Gimignano reminds me of wild mushroom and basil risotto. Kangar reminds me of Laksa Belut and the list goes on and on.

So since CA was on leave for Chu Sok, Korean Harvest Festival, I'd rather not let him tinker with the fishtank on my time. My negotiation skills won me a trip to Muar, on the quest for my mee bandung. Woo Hoo! We had Song Pyon , a Korean traditional dish normally served with other Chu Sok delicacies during Thanksgiving, but we ate them like kueh koci for breakfast. Sacrilege to a 3000 years old Korean tradition. Heh.

Rice cakes with lotus seed, mung beans and peanut paste centre

These babies are made in preparation for Chu Sok in autumn

and can be kept through winter.

I enjoyed the drive up through small kampungs, with views of lush foliage and farm animals as we took the jalan lama. Jalan Abdullah was easy to track as I remember my trips there with Pakwe when he was making his rounds collecting rents back when I was a wee one. Right there, next to Klinik Ho, is Wah San kopitiam. The place is exactly how I remembered it, lively with cheeky banter. You come in, and somebody would yell,

" Haaaa, dia dah datang!!!", as if they were really expecting you.

I find that the shop is more spacious now. The ambience is not pretentious, once you step in, you'd feel like you've just entered a place where everyone knows your name (play the tune of "Cheers" in your head please). We ordered 2 bowls of mee bandung, a mild mee mamak and 10 sticks of chicken satay. Unfortunately they ran out of beef and mutton. It was a little before noon and they ran out? I find that utterly strange. So we slurped the lip-smackingly delicious concoction of mee kuning, fresh shrimp, bits and pieces of beef and lungs, fried tau kwa,sprouts, greens, and egg in an amber colored gravy.

The stove is definitely not for the fainthearted, all that caked

reminders of mee bandung from the past cooked together

with your fresh bowl. Maybe that's the trade secret

Pakcik Mee Rebus who took the trouble to clean up his joint

before I was allowed to capture him at work

The masterpiece

But I could not get over the fact that they had not enough satay for me. Hairan bin takjub. Until a shiny, black kereta kebal double parked right in front of the shop and out came a broody character I found very charming in a rogue-ish kinda way, he then picked up packets after packets of cooked satay. That explains the shortage problem. However, he looked especially familiar. I could not place where I have seen his face, but when I peered over to scan the face of that J to the LO-esque lady in the passenger seat, my heart played an African beat. I just knew it was her. So I waved frantically like a mad woman hoping that she would recognize me. She was a bit hesitant to wind down her glass screen and before you know it, she was right there in front of me, J-Lo in kebaya moden, fragrant and bejewelled. The next thing I knew we were locked in a bear hug and she rattled on like a bullet train, telling me how late she was for that kenduri, while I stood there gawking at how beautiful she is, mersmerized and almost speechless. You can bet how spooked our husbands were at the display of such familiarity and intimacy, considering Anedra and I have never met before. Incidently, Kakteh sms-ed moments before that passing me Andera's number, I had left it at home by accident. How strangely the universe works. The Grand Design brought all of us kindred spirits reunited in the strangest of circumstances. Isn't this symptomatic of a Yaya sisterhood?

By the stroke of sheer chance, I am not sore at all about the satay. That brief encounter with the person I have learnt to love through blogs and especially at Ely's Kedai Kopi, is priceless.

P.S: Anedra, I'd be so mad if you are still going on a diet, YOU DON'T NEED TO!

Gendang gendut tali kecapi

P.S : Rotidua, bukan saja percik kat tudung, lipstick pun sengaja kita padam supaya tak bercampur perisa mee bandung.