So William brought me to this mamak near Taman Bahagia LRT station, where he reckoned that they’d serve food to fix my craving.
Yes, I am a boring mamak person (in terms of food, not conversation, I think…); I go to mamaks and order the same thing. Back then it was nasi lemak (until the allergy to peanuts returned). Then I tried cheese naan and blogged many blog posts about it. Then there was Uncle Lim’s roti bakar.
However, I have found a new food item to benchmark mamaks by:
Indomee.
Indomee, Indomee.
A celebration of mee.
In this day and age where mee goreng is saturated with oil and parsley and onions and prawns and cucumbers and garlic and carrots and other weird things, Indomee is a return to the basics.
Indomee is not about the brand. When you order Indomee at a mamak, you’re not paying for the brand of IndoMie Mi Goreng; you’re paying for them to keep all that junk out. Indomee isn’t the brand; Indomee is the preparation. Indomee is to Maggi Mee as Chinese Fried Rice is to Kampung Fried Rice.
What makes an Indomee?
1) mee
2) the brown sauce, somewhat salty and savoury but does not leave an icky coating on your tongue like Hokkien Mee, and
3) the half-boiled egg “sunny-side-up” egg, or telur mata kerbau (thanks to the well-eatery-travelled KY for the correction.)
Anything else is junk.
You take the jiggling yellow egg yolk, you poke a hole on its surface, and you dribble it all over the mee. The egg yolk mixes with the brown sauce, unleashing the hidden flavor.
You then twirl some strands of mee, slice a bit of floppy egg white and stab it with your fork. Place food in mouth and enjoy!
William wondered what it would be like, with chicken.
I say no!
The essence of Indomee is the principle. Simple, with just three items. No chicken. Chicken distracts. It’s supposed to be a celebration of mee; not mee complementing the chicken. (Similiarly, I believe that Chinese Fried Rice should not have any item bigger than a prawn, like an awkward vegetable stalk.)
The other essence of Indomee is its ease to eat. No parsley, no carrot, no peas, no onions, nothing for any fussy eater. The sauce is not soupy, so there’s no dribble.
The last essence? The softness/floppiness. The mee is soft and springy. So is the egg white. Adding chicken, bacon, sausages, onions makes the meal not as soft and fast to digest.
Options
The waiter will often ask if you want single or double packet, as a single packet is never filling. However, be wise! Having double packet will mean twice the mee, but with only one egg; the ratio of egg yolk to brown sauce will not be optimal.
Hence, you should instead order two Indomee plates, so you get enough egg to go around.
I’m gonna pick up my guitar and write a song.
(P.S. Picture not included because I don’t want to crave Indomee each time I visit my own blog.)
you asked me for my ingredients just so you could insult the way of the bacon????
you asshole, i hope your tongue shrivels up and your taste buds wither and you’re denied of the pleasure that is taste for the rest of your life.
BACON AND ONION FOR THE WIN!
Whoa, chill penguin.
Perhaps I should try your Arcticmee to see how wonderful it is. Then I would swallow my words.
I heard people said the best Indomee were at SS2.
hmm the one at paramount (near the kfc.. if i’m not mistaken).. is not bad… add it with the crispy remains of the fried chicken.. yummm…
and there’s always alot of people there…
and yea, the SS2 one.. all osso selling indomee… how you know which is the best?? or do they all taste the same.. i realise that some of them boil the mee too long and its just soggy!
hmmm.. making me hungry now…
oohhhh… i don reli like mata kerbau but i like the colours definately! 😛
Yeah man, Indomee is like the staple backup food here when you got nothing to eat especially at 3 in the morning. But my selection is the Indomee Mee Goreng here. Toss it in. Put all the seasonging on the plate. Mix it in when it’s all done. Add fried sausages and a sunny side up and there you have it. A great supper in 10 minutes.
IMO, Indomee Mee Goreng made for Indonesia tastes much better than the Indomee Mee Goreng made for Malaysia.
Malaysian produced Indomee Mee Goreng tastes sweeter.
Gimme a call if you went to SS2 for Indomee…chances that i would be at the nearby cybercafe.
Err, that’s not half boiled egg. I believe you’re talking about telur mata kerbau, in English that’s actually "sunny side up" egg.
Which mamak did you go to? I stayed a stone’s throw away from Taman Bahagia, there are 4 mamaks at night over there.
Syefri: I’ll ask William to bring me on the tour; perhaps we’ll go mamak-hopping, trying one Indomee after the other!
Edrei: Nay to fried sausages, it goes against the principles. Unless you call it "Indomee with sausages". Mee with sausages. Sounds kinda obscene. 😀
Ah Non Ni Mus: Thank you for the comment. Believe it or not, I think you’re my first ever anonymous commenter, so leave your name and number and I’ll buy you Indomee. Serious.
KY: Thanks for the correction! Yeah it’s Saji, the really clean mamak. Cross the road from Taman Bahagia to the cybercafe that’s been there forever, and Saji’s at the bottom of the hill.
ahahaha funny post.
ok i shall go try indomee whenever i go mamak..
We haven’t figure out how they soften the mee…
indomie mata kerbau satu!! love it!
First tandoori chickne, and now indo mee? maybe we share the same taste in food, good food too. Try the indo mee in an al rafi store, especially the SS15 branch, they got wonderful indo mee.
have u tried the one in ss2?
oh wait haha someone posted already 😛
Indomie…ah, one of my favourite food. Maybe the best that Indonesia can give us, if you think Peterpan is a boyband. =P
But alas, I prefer some other brand… a famous one, perhaps from Switzerland but mistaken as Malaysian by some, and an obscure Thai brand of duck soup noodles.